lice in the billionaires' purchase of our nation. >> and you think it doesn't affect you?

think again. >> 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 >> bill: it is 25 minutes after the hour now. mitt romney digging his heels in said uh-huh, i don't care what the republican governors say. i don't care what republican strategists say.

i'm not going to release my tax returns. all right mitt. if that's the position you want to take. you can expect the issue to continue to dominate this campaign. maybe -- we ought to be talking about jobs and obama's record. i'm willing to defend obama's record. instead, we're talking about mitt romney's big question, what's he trying to hide in his tax returns. why doesn't he release them. ray is calling from up in buffalo, new york. what do you say? >> caller: hi, good morning. what do we know about mitt romney? we know he doesn't want to be responsible for anything. he don't want to be responsible for his swiss bank account his cayman island bank accounts, for moving his money offshore. we know that he doesn't want to be responsible for throwing thousands of people in the street when he was ceo at bain capital. >> bill: especially, ray during those last three years at bain capital which he's trying

to deny. >> that's right. he doesn't want to be responsible for being ceo on paper for those three years. and he doesn't want to be responsible for lying on his disclosure form for the president of the united states that he had nothing to do with bain capital. he was clearly attending board meetings and signing off -- >> bill: flying back and forth from salt lake. >> caller: he doesn't want to be responsible. is this a joke, bill? >> bill: yeah, no. >> caller: is this man a joke? >> bill: i would think there would be some buyer's remorse among the republicans that they ended up with him as a candidate. when you see leading republicans, this is worse than what cory booker said about barack obama. this is a whole herd of leading republicans telling romney what are you? what are you dummy. release the damn returns. thanks, ray. jon out in chicago. what do you say? >> caller: good morning, bill. my opinion is he's not going to release them because as soon as

he does, he's running for the white house -- his run for the white house is pretty much done. if there was nothing in there they would already be out already. you know what i'm saying? he denies it until november, as long as it will go and to come out with it now because it is over with. rich or poor, you have a responsibility for yourself and other people and evidently he doesn't have it. >> bill: well, yeah. he keeps -- jon i agree with you. he keeps digging the hole deeper and deeper, right? because he can't talk about what he wants to talk about. he wants to attack president obama for lack of transparency in his administration. and yet here he is, the most basic thing we expect of politicians today. again, i don't know how we got here but we did is that they release their tax returns and now they all do it automatically until mittens comes along and says no, i'm going to release one year. guess what, mitt. that one year is going to make

you lose. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." say -- maybe it was starve the beast. i'll look it up during the break. a phrase there. but he said -- exactly what ed is talking about is pile up more and more debt. pile up more and more debt and get to the point where the whole system collapses and then they will have achieved their end of basically shutting down the government. they're anti-government which means i think we're anti-the american people. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." i.q. will go way up.

>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: can't believe it. can't believe it. go away for a couple of days, come back. we're still talking about mitt romney's tax returns. i was sure this issue would go away because i was sure mitt romney would end up releasing more of his tax returns. easy enough thing to do. that's what a lot of republicans are asking him to do. leading republicans suggesting he has to do. he's dug in his heels. we'll continue to take your calls on that, 1-866-55-press.

first, a little time-out to go out on the campaign trail with jon ward from "huffington post," senior political reporter who's been out on the road a lot with mitt romney lately joining us on our news line this morning. hey, jon, good to talk to you. >> hey bill, i can tell you're so disappointed it is still in the conversation. >> bill: i am. i wanted to move on. here's a big question, jon. looking at this romney team and you've seen them up close. i haven't. are they ready for prime time? it doesn't look like it lately. >> yeah, i think -- well i know that they're making changes actually and some of that has been reported to their communications shop in particular. you know, people like ed gillespie are playing a bigger role. and they're bringing in folks like danny diaz who used to be at the rnc.

>> bill: right. >> for rapid response. and kevin sheridan who i don't know as well as somebody like danny. but they're adding to that shop. >> bill: they feel they have to step it up a little bit? >> i think they do. i think they do. i think they also feel like they were bound to go through a rough patch after you know, a good two months of pretty favorable sliding. this is a rough patch and they'll have to weather it. i don't know that we'll see more tax returns to be honest. >> bill: so what is the deal on the -- how do you read their decision on the tax returns? despite a growing course of voice on the republican side, george will, haley barbour bentley, crystal go on and on and on, mitt looks like he's not going to budge on this, right? and why? >> i think so. i think there are a couple of factors at play. one substantively, he feels like

he's going to do as much as mccain did and that's a -- that's a somewhat solid back step -- >> bill: but at this point he's only released one year not two. >> but he's going to release his 2011 returns in october or so. he got a six-month extension. as of that -- maybe they can speed up that, i don't know but i don't think they're going to do more than that. i also feel like they probably -- nobody's told me this but i feel like they probably think that this is a kind of thing that they take flak for in the media but that if it gets overhyped over talked about it will bother some voters to the point where it turns off some people. i think that's kind of been their calculus about a lot of things. whether they're right, i don't know. >> bill: let me ask you this. when you find out -- just looking at this from a political strategist point of view. the romney campaign has been

talking about this rather than obama's record or jobs but for the last two weeks you know, that's not necessarily getting him anywhere, right? >> no, right i agree. >> bill: and how about the issue of -- on bain capital. i don't know that it's such a big deal. the extra three years. ben labolt is going to be on a little bit later. but what surprises me is mitt romney has known that this issue was going to come out. again, it just surprised me the campaign wasn't ready with a better response, right? to just put this issue to rest. meaning the issue of when he left bain capital in 1999 or 2001 or 2002. >> i think you're making a good point.

they should have been better prepared. maybe it is a matter of they didn't see it coming and that happens sometimes in campaigns because in these conversations in boston, you know, somebody brings up hey, all of these storms have him as the sole shareholder and ceo and president, blah, blah, blah. and somebody in the room just says well, that doesn't mean anything. it just means that he was the blah blah, blah. people go okay and then move on. then it becomes a story. because the globe story last week that kind of set all this off was -- there may have been one or two things that were doing it but for the most part, it was a rehash of s.e.c. forms that had been out there and been talked about by the obama campaign and their ability to litigate that in this article has been pretty amazing from a communications point of view. >> bill: i know. that stuff had been reported by i think by slate or salon and

huff po and tpm, mother jones. so it wasn't really new to anybody. >> stephanie cutter had listed all of those forms in a long six-page letter to factcheck.org when she pushed back against their dismissal of this thing. i think they should have had a better -- boston should have a better response for the fact that hey in plain language, this looks like he's pretty involved. it has taken them forever to kind of -- i still don't feel like they've done a great job of explaining and they haven't really explained what does that mean? >> bill: it is either -- it is either you are or you're not. i love the ed gillespie he retired retroactively. that's a new phrase. we hadn't heard. jon ward is our guest by phone here, senior political reporter doing a great job covering the

2012 rat race for "the huffington post." so jon what do you hear about mitt romney says we'll change the subject pretty dramatically. i'm going to announce my v.p. candidate this week. >> you'll notice that yesterday they kind of -- they talked on the record for the first time about it. that's the biggest signal they want to change the subject. "the new york times" had a mention that they had decided and then i think there was probably all strategic. they leaked that on saturday or sunday hoping it would get into the paper and stir some discussion. and knocked it down. it is hard to know because even people who are on the campaign claim to not really have a clue -- not a certain knowledge. i believe that. i think the way beth meyers and romney have run this thing they

have a close hold on it. my sense is they haven't decided. my best guess is he announces it early august after getting back from the olympics. >> bill: it seems to me that for the timing, for them to announce it this week and then he takes off for the olympics and next week that we kind of -- that would kind of -- it would be a way of burying the story. they would have his best shot when he comes back in august for a brand new start. coming back from the trip which will give him good publicity of course and then announce the vice presidential on top of that might be a way of getting back into high gear. >> i think the thing to watch over the next ten days or so is just -- i think the romney campaign feels like they're within striking distance in most polls. within about two or three points and i think as long as those numbers stay steady over the next ten days and then we get to the olympics, they'll be happy with that. because then they can come back

with the v.p. in early august, get a bounce out of that. go to the convention, get a bounce out of that and whatever bounce obama gets out of his convention and fall into the debates are a big factor. >> bill: it is hard to believe that these summer months -- what used to be nothing happening are determinative or can be determinative in defining a candidate and in shaping a campaign and in bringing forth the issues that people talk about. just amazing to watch. jon, hey great to see you. missed you at the white house. glad you're out there on the road. keeping all of the rest of us informed and we invite everybody to follow jon's work at huffingtonpost.com. you can follow him on twitter at jonward 11. i don't know what the 11 means. jonward 11. talk to you again soon. >> thanks, bill, have a good one. >> bill: there we go.

his report from the campaign trail. and jon said he doesn't think you're going to hear mitt romney make any change in position. i think it is the dumbest thing he's done so far. joey out in chicago. what's he got to hide, joey? >> good morning, bill. good morning comrades out there. you know, this guy -- mitt romney, if you're running for the supreme leader of north korea, you can dictate to the public what you're going to release and what you're not going to release. when you're running for democracy, president of the united states, you don't get to do that. you're not operating in the corporate boardroom anymore with impunity. this is not a dictatorship. do you what the rest of the nominees have done! you don't get to do this! and if you do and if he doesn't continue to stall on the taxes he's going to lose big bill! i love this. i love this stuff. >> bill: you gotta take your stand somewhere but for him to take his stand on this issue i think is nuts! all right.

comrade, joey out in chicago. thanks for the call. more calls coming up. romney digging in his heels. i don't care what my fellow republicans say. i've got too much to hide. i'm not going to release my tax returns. 1-866-55-press. what do you think? tothe beat continues here on the "full court press," this tuesday, july 17th. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press"

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do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. >> i'm not prone to understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv.

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: here we go. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. happy tuesday july 17. the "full court press." we'll get back to your calls about mitt romney's tax returns and also cover some of the other news of the day. but first how about this. yeah, you know, you've heard about those uh-oh moments. i've had it myself. i'm talking about you learn your debit card has been declined. it gets worse when you check with your bank and they cancelled it because your personal information has been compromised. frustration turns to panic when you realize your identity including your bank accounts could be in the hands of some identity thief and possibly being sold on the black market. your bank will gladly mail. >> new card. what you really need is identity theft protection. that's what i've got. encourage you to do what i've done. order the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. i'm talking about life lock

ultimate. the only identity theft protection available that monitors bank accounts for fraud. call now and mention press 60 for 60 risk-free days of identity theft protection. if you're not happy, you can call life lock and cancel within 60 days of enrollment and they'll send. >> full refund. check out life lock. 1-800-356-8957. back to your calls. nancy on mitt romney's tax returns calling from springhill, florida. hi nancy. >> hi, how are you guys today? >> bill: doing great. thank you for joining in. what do you think? >> caller: i love current tv and i love your show. >> bill: all right! back at you. thank you. >> caller: back in 2002 when mitt romney was running for governor in the state of

massachusetts, he was running against a democratic brown. and at that time from what i understand, this whole issue about bain was at its forefront in the debate for the election. >> bill: right. >> he still won massachusetts. with all of the troubles he was having at bain. >> bill: back then, there was also the question of when did he leave bain and when did he not leave bain. i know, you know, he filed papers saying at that time i think the question was how can he run for governor when he's been in salt lake city and his response was well, no, i'm still part of bain which is located in boston and economy back there for -- and i come back there for meetings. >> crazy. >> bill: he's arguing the opposite. no, i left bain in 1999. so you know, he's argued both

sides. you can't have it both ways. >> caller: how do you see it going now? he's now running for -- he ran for the vice president he released about 23 taxes for -- >> bill: for three years. >> caller: now he's running for president. how does he think he's going to get away from this? >> bill: you know what, nancy? i think somebody -- i forget, one of our callers earlier today i think hit on it. i think romney -- maybe it was ray from buffalo. romney believes you know, he's a ceo. that's his whole experience. he's run companies. he can do anything he wants as a ceo. i think he kind of sees that as republican candidate that he will decide what he releases, what he doesn't. he will decide what he talks about, what he doesn't. he will decide where he goes and where he doesn't. i think that's a little arrogance on his part that maybe comes with being a ceo that's going to get him in trouble.

before we take another break, i have to talk -- i appreciate your calls. need to mention one other thing we need to keep in mind. you've heard me talk so much about global warming. that's my column which is up on our web right now. this is heat wave -- does this heat wave tell us anything? global warming is here. reaffirmed by the fact the department of agriculture reporting this morning -- here is the headline in "the washington post." "drought is the worst in half a century". 55% of the landmass of the united states is now suffering moderate to severe drought conditions. that's the worst in recorded temperatures since 1956 in this country. and already we see the price of corn in the last month has leaped up 50% something like

$7.72 a bushel right now. all of those products that depend on corn prices are going to be going up if they haven't already done so. we're just not talking about buying some corn to have corn on the cob for dinner. we're talking about beef. we're talking about poultry. we're talking about fuel for cars. ethanol. we're talking about dairy products. across the board prices. this is a real immediate impact of these high temps of this record heat wave. and of the fact that global warming is not something that still could happen. global warming is here. the question is when are the politicians going to start taking it seriously. i was checking in at the airport in providence, rhode island and somebody from washington, d.c. recognized me. she said bill press will you please go back down there and

tell these politicians to get something done? i told her lady, i sing that song every morning. nobody listens. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." residue that can redeposit on your dishware during the rinse cycle. gross. jet-dry rinse agent helps wash them away so the only thing left behind is the shine.

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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." >> announcer: taking your >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: judd legum from think progress in studio with us the next hour. quick look at some of the e-mails on olympic uniforms, gene mcmahon says hey bill,

why is there no blame being placed on ralph lauren himself for the olympic uniforms being made in china as well as all of the other big designers who have their clothes made in china. >> bill: i'll blame him for sure but mostly blame the olympic committee. barry horny says suggest you guys stick a label on this new romney scandal. maybe romney-gate would stick? on uniforms again, gary says what makes you think ralph lauren cares about chinese workers? he obviously moved there in order to pay lower wages. on bain capital jean shall from albuquerque says hey bill, love your show. we listen in the car ond watch on current. >> bill: i hope not at the same time. at any rate, she says the relevance of the bain capital philosophy is it makes the 1% very wealthy while destroying the economy by outsourcing jobs. in fact, that is what it's all about. hey, keep those e-mails and facebook and twitter comments coming.

love hearing from you. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." and cake it down to the kkk highway. >> they may have swayed me with that one. >> bill: he heard the kkk changed its mind when they realized the highway was paved with black asphalt. bill is happy with yesterday's combination of meredith shiner

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. it is tuesday july 17. good to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. your morning roundup of all of the big stories of the day. good to see you. we'll tell you what's going on and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. and meanwhile, mitt romney is still whining over his tax returns despite the fact that haley barbour and george will and bill crystal and another -- a lot of leading republicans are

telling him just release all of your tax returns mitt. get this issue behind you. mitt romney insists he's only going to release one year so far and at most, only two. my question is what's he got to hide? we'll get into that and of course, a whole lot more here on the "full court press." let's get today's current news update from lisa ferguson out in los angeles. good morning lisa. >> good morning, bill. good morning everyone. president obama will host campaign events in texas today as mitt romney hosts a rally in pennsylvania. in advance of romney's visit the obama campaign is airing a new ad in the keystone state. it again hits romney on his tax returns and is called makes you wonder. >> mitt romney has used every trick in the book. romney admits that over the last two years he's paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income. makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. >> nothing we haven't heard before but new polling would suggest these types of ads

against romney are working in swing states. even big-name republicans are admitting romney is probably hiding something in his tax returns. pennsylvania already leads toward obama. >> we know presidential candidates aren't legally required to release their returns. there is still a long history of doing so. tax history project director joseph thorndike has traced the tradition back to nixon and found candidates consistently started releasing their returns in the early '70s. of course, there are a few exceptions. jimmy carter only released one year of his returns. so did ronald reagan. mitt romney is having a little trouble with his own political ads. the campaign released a video yesterday of president obama singing al green lyrics "i'm so in love with you" but it was taken off youtube for copyright infringement. it shows hillary clinton scolding president obama back in the 2008 campaign but clinton saying the ads are a waste of time. everyone knows she ran against

the president and she's been honored to serve as his secretary of state. live in chat, current.com/billpress. 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...

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down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 55% of the united states suffering drought conditions. who says global warming is not already here. good morning everybody. happy tuesday. july 17th. good to be back with you here on the "full court press" on current tv. a great big thank you to david shuster for filling in yesterday. it is good to be back with you and great to see you. thanks for hopping on board the

"full court press" bus as we take off to bring you the big stories of the day from here from our nation's capital around the country and around the globe. it is hot hot hot hot in washington! coming back from rhode island yesterday. about 20 degrees warmer here. than it was in rhode island. man. i don't know. anybody with any sense gets out of town. but anybody with no sense comes back and here i am. i guess that's the way it works. good to see you today. we've got lots to talk about. of course we'll take your calls too, at 1-866-55-press. yep, they are still on the scene despite the heat and the humidity. peter ogborn and dan henning. hello, guys. >> hey hey. >> bill: thanks for helping out david shuster. >> happy to help. >> bill: cyprian bowlding is back on the job, too. >> nice that you two went on vacation together. >> bill: he we had a good time. we won't tell you anything about it. by the way a quick note, just

getting across the wires. one of the reasons why we haven't -- this is not a joke. one of the reasons we haven't heard from mitt romney about the fact that our team u.s.a. uniforms are being made in china is because it turns -- this is something republicans and democrats have been raising hell about. turns out that when he was head of the olympics in salt lake city he outsourced the uniforms to burma. >> ooh. >> oh! >> how curious. >> bill: another outsourcer. >> he was asked about it and he wouldn't talk about it. >> bill: that's why. >> oh, dear. >> bill: 1994 olympic uniforms -- when was that? it wasn't '94. >> it was 2002. because it was the winter olympics. >> bill: when he was still head of bain capital. made in burma. there you go. president obama out on the road yesterday. went to cincinnati and he had

his first town hall. he's had a lot of campaign events. this is the first actual town hall where he took questions from people and the questions were -- i mean like all over the map including what's your favorite girl scout cookie? >> i've gotta say that i'm a pretty -- i'm pretty partial to those mint -- [ cheering ] >> obama: that's just me. >> he is dead wrong. the president lost votes. the thin mints aren't the best cookies. the tagalongs are. no. there is no defending it. tagalongs are the best. dude, it is a shortbread with peanut butter and chocolate. how can you pick a mint cookie over that? >> bill: it is a matter of taste. he's a mint man. [ laughter ] >> bill: then he also -- he

also -- the crowd was barber. >> what will you be doing or if there's anything you will be doing for the self-employed and businesses with employees with less than ten employees? >> obama: absolutely. >> also, when can i cut your hair? [ laughter ] >> bill: i thought the president's response to that was really funny. he said look, you wouldn't trust a man who was not loyal to his barber, would you? >> that's a good answer. that's a really good answer. >> bill: loyal to my barber. damn good answer. >> who knows. obama could have sat down and walked out with steps on the side. >> bill: absolutely. judd legum will be joining us a little bit later in this hour from think progress. bring us up to date on all they're working on. ben labolt, press secretary for the obama campaign up in the next hour. will the obama campaign apologize for suggesting that mitt romney broke the law and

john stanton new washington bureau chief for "buzzfeed" will be here in studio with us as well. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> on this tuesday other headlines making news, president obama got booed at the team u.s.a. versus brazil exhibition game -- basketball exhibition game in washington last night not for his politics but when caught on the kiss cam, on the jumbotron, he did not kiss his wife. later in the game, they gave him an opportunity to do it over and he didn't -- he didn't kiss anyone. shrugged off the camera. later in the game, they did give him a do-over opportunity, he kissed the first lady on the lips and on the forehead and then the crowd went wild. >> that's the way to do it. >> come on mr. president. >> sabotage at the tour de france. somebody threw tacks across the road on the steepest climb. caused about 30 competing riders to blow tires. one even crashed. he was not seriously injured

though. the a. p. reports french police are investigating the incident. it is going to be hard to track it down. the leading riders slowed down. they followed etiquette to allow riders to catch up and not capitalize on the misfortune. britain's bradley wiggins maintains the lead holding the yellow jersey. >> if they do catch the guy, i don't think the charges are going to stick. >> bill: get out of here. >> buy a new fiat? >> bill: i'm going to start controlling your microphone. >> sorry. i'm sorry. [ laughter ] i'm usually a lot sharper. >> bill: stop it! >> go ahead. i'm done. >> buy a new fiat and you'll never have to stop for coffee on o your way to work. gawker reporting the italian automaker's 500l will include a built-in espresso machine. >> what could go wrong? >> bill: what could possibly go wrong? can't text while driving but you

can make a pot of coffee. >> it will go on sale in europe in october. no word if the model will be available in the u.s. because of the big distracted driving debate. >> bill: i would say ray lahood -- calling ray lahood, what do you think of this? >> does making an espresso in your car count as distracted driving? of course it does. it was a rhetorical question. >> bill: ray lahood, wants to get rid of cell phones, even hands-free cell phone. what's he going to think about the espresso machine? oh well, there are tvs now and computers. hopefully not in the front seat. what about it? we've been talking the last hour about the romney campaign stuck in -- they're stuck with a tax return issue because mitt romney refuses to release more than one year so far of tax returns and said at most, at most, he will only release two. and more and more republican voices, the governor of alabama

bill crystal from fox news sunday and the weekly standard, george will, of course, mr. conservative commentator abc news this week, haley barbour, former governor of mississippi, all of them, there is at least four. there have been a lot more leading republicans who have come out and said hey, come on, release your tax returns. we get this issue behind you. it is silly to refuse to release what your dad did or what barack obama did or what joe biden has done. and otherwise, it is just going to be continued to be used against you. again, talked about it. got a lot of calls on that in the last hour. now, the romney campaign are responding instead of -- trying to change the subject i guess. they're not answering the question. they're going to try to change the subject. they leaked to "the new york times" guess what? we have made up our mind on who

the vice presidential nominee is going to be and we might announce it as early as this week. so now see they're trying to get us. let's talk about -- let's talk about the -- who would be romney's running mate. isn't it a little early to release that? here's what i wanted to get your take on this morning is here are the names they're talking about okay? you see any of these as a threat? 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. first of all, there are eight that have been listed. condy rice. her name keeps floating up. she shot it down again last week. said no way no how would she even consider it. so far as we know, she's not even being vetted. here are the people, according to "the new york times" and other sources that are being vetted. all right? they include tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota. rob portman senator from ohio. bobby jindal, governor of

louisiana. chris christie, governor of new jersey. kelly ayotte, republican senator from new hampshire. paul ryan, wisconsin democrat. -- republican of the ryan budget. john thune senator republican from south dakota and bob mcdonnell, governor of virginia. [yawning] >> bill: all i gotta say is there's one test. now we know what the vetting was all about. the one test is there had to be somebody even more boring than mitt romney. don't you think? with one exception, i would say on the list. that's chris christie. i mean christie is hardly boring. which is why christie will never get the job. he'll never get the job because he would easily, easily outshine mitt romney on the stump and get more attention and more press than romney would. but remember these guys,

remember tim pawlenty didn't exactly set the world on fire, did he? he didn't get past iowa. >> going to be ending my campaign for president. i'm grateful for the people of iowa, the people of this country who i had a chance to make my case to and for my supporters and staff and friends who have been so loyal and helpful. i really appreciate all of them. i wish it would have been different. the pathway forward for me doesn't really exist. >> bill: he hasn't had a job since he left as governor of minnesota. he's just out there now kind of following mitt romney around like a little puppy dog. but you know, again hardly set the world on fire. nor has rob portman the senator from ohio not known as a firebrand he's not known for any legislation he supported either as a member of the house or now as a member of the senate. rob portman. >> sometimes people who are in the veep stakes talk too much about this internally, the media

does that the v.p. is an important element. i don't think it is very important. >> bill: not very important. he doesn't seem very interested in the job. already putting it down. and bobby jindal, we know bobby jindal was considered the bright light, the rising star, the superstar of the republican party a couple of years ago until he was tapped. remember his first term as governor, he was tapped to give the republican response to the president's state of the union. obama's first state of the union as i recall and bobby jindal bombed big time! >> democratic leaders in congress, they rejected this approach. instead of trusting us to make decisions with our own money. they pass the largest government-spending bill in history with a price tag of more than a trillion dollars with interest. >> bill: oh, yeah. it looked like he was reading it. he probably was. he had obviously taped it beforehand and you know, all of

the kind of wind went out of bobby jindal's sails. the only one with any fire, with any color is chris christie. remember last week? he was talking about the fact that he -- is trying to lose weight and he's even working out with a trainer. >> you can go without drinking. you can live every day without taking drugs. you can't live every day without eating. so in some ways, it is a really difficult thing to deal with. and i've struggled with it for the last 30 years on and off and i'm trying. it may not look like i'm trying sometimes but i am. >> bill: yeah, so of course christie says you know, i'm dieting but the problem is you know, you just gotta eat and eat. and eat. and eat. and eat and eat and eat. >> in the words of tony soprano i think it is time for you to seriously consider salads. ya know? >> bill: i don't think chris christie has a salad.

has ever had a salad. i don't think he knows what it means. anyway undistinguished to be kind group of candidates, don't you think? any of them put the fear of god into you? 1-866-55-press. where is sarah palin when we need her? jon is calling from fern daly, washington. what do you think? >> caller: good morning, bill. i wonder if any of these guys are going to want to be his vice presidential pick considering that romney is looking more and more like a crook! every single day. either he's a liar or he's a crook. you know. with where he sits on this whole issue. by the way, the line on the tour de france thing wasn't like will the charges stick. is it is will they be able to pin it? >> see that. thank you very much. see, i missed it. >> bill: you know, i think the

two of you ought to be punished for continuing this. let's just forget about the thumbtacks in the road. but john makes an important point. would anybody want this? i wouldn't say romney is looking more and more like a crook. he's looking more and more like a bum builder. like somebody inept. so if they think they can change the subject by announcing a vice presidential nominee this week, i don't think it is going to work. you know why? because the first question any reporter worth his or her salt is going to ask that vice presidential nominee is how many years of your tax returns did you have to release during the vetting process? and we know romney released 23 years for john mccain four years ago. this issue is not going to go away. do any of these people scare you? 1-866-55-press. aren't there more interesting republicans around? >> announcer: this is the "bill

press show." a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now. what makes hershey's s'mores special? pure chocolate goodness that brings people together. hershey's makes it a s'more... you make it special. pure hershey's.

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[ man ] ever year, sophia and i use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing. or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thankyou points to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way. >>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. >> i'm not prone to understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. it is the "full court press." you cannot only listen on your local progressive talk radio station. you cannot only watch on current tv. you can join the chat room and have a lot of fun talking to your fellow listeners and viewers. go to current.com and just click right on the bill press chat room and join the fun. lots of people do that every day and try it out. try it out. makes you wonder is the name of a -- we're talking about mitt

romney's campaign trying to change the subject perhaps this week. meanwhile, the obama campaign is staying on the charge of why won't he release more of his tax returns. here is their latest ad just released today. which just got in a little while ago over the wires. here's what it sounds like. >> obama: i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest. mitt romney has used every trick in the book. romney admits over the last two years, he's paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income. makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. we don't know because romney has released just one full year of his tax returns and won't release anything before 2010. >> romney: you know what? i've put out as much as we're going to put out. >> what is mitt romney hiding? >> bill: that's the question that still lingers over this campaign because of his refusal to release tax returns. as the ad says, we know in the one-year, he didn't even pay 15% in taxes.

it's gotta be -- it's gotta be that in other years he paid nothing. in taxes. you know damn well. the more i think about, the more i think that's what he is hiding. by the way president obama yesterday had a town hall meeting in cincinnati. he thinks things are going to get better in his second term. >> obama: if i'm elected not only will we be able to continue the progress we made over the last three and a half years. i actually think that a lot of republicans since this will be my last election, they will not be as interested in just beating me. >> bill: you know what? on that score, i know the man is an optimist. god love him but i think he's wrong. i don't think the republicans are going to change that tune. i get asked that question all the time by friends or people i run into. do you think the republicans will change their tune after he's re-elected and want to work together with him? i don't think so. i don't think so.

i don't trust them. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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?

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 323 minutes after -- 33 minutes after the hour now how about it on a tuesday july 17. the "bill press show" on current tv and coming to you live from our nation's capital and brought to you today by the utility workers union of america. the good men and women under president michael langford. they're delivering vital services and a brighter future and locked into a very, very important battle against con ed

up in new york city just demanding good working additions and good benefits there from con ed and con ed, despite the fact that with all of the heat wave and people depending on the utility workers more than ever, they have locked the union workers out of the shop and not cooperating. so hope the utility workers prevail in that little action against con ed up in new york. meantime, on the issues of the day, no better way to keep track of what's happening here in our nation's capital both in the congress and at the white house than checking out think progress. we tell you how important it is to our show and all of the other progressive talk shows around the country. thinkprogress.org led by judd legum, a regular tuesday visitor to our studio. good to see you again. >> good to be here, bill. >> bill: did you a little research into how the tea partiers who came to town saying we don't want anything to do with government. we'll sleep in our offices. we're not going to spend any

government money. turns out they've been spending a lot of it, haven't they? >> we looked into this. they put out a quarterly report of here's what we used on office expenses. here's how we spent the money that we get for taxpayers. supposedly to run our office and found that several of the tea partiers who came into office were going to cut the fat, we're going to cut expenses, are spending a good amount of money leasing cars for themselves. people like sean duffy who you know, is really one of the leading tea party freshmen. we found seven of them spent a total of over $100,000 on cars, that they're basically using for their personal use. >> bill: as a member of congress they don't get a car right? doesn't come along with -- >> you don't get a car just like most jobs don't come with a car. you certainly get a lot of

perks. a pretty good salary and essentially what we have kind of outlined here is -- >> bill: they do make about $185,000 a year which is enough to afford a car right? they don't have to use their stamp or -- they don't pay for stamps either, right? the ballpoint pen allowance to get a car. >> yeah so essentially they're diverting this money that's supposed to be for their office to create another fringe benefit for themselves. >> bill: what do the tea partiers say about this? did you contact any of them? >> we tried to reach out to them. one of them i know, msnbc contacted sean duffy and said that this car -- and he wouldn't give the make or the model which is interesting. as you can imagine what kind of car it is if they're unwilling to give the make or the model is being used as a mobile office.

[ laughter ] for him. that's their line. but you know, i think it's kind of embarrassing situation for them. and i think it speaks to the difficulty that some of the tea party freshmen are going to have as they face re-election because they no longer are the outsiders. they no longer can kind of point the finger at everyone else who says oh, you're wasting taxpayer money. now they have a record and they're part of the establishment. it will be interesting to see can you be successful as a tea partier, outsider when you've been part of the establishment for two years and people have seen what you're really about. >> bill: what they've been doing is what chuck grassley called sucking at the public tit. >> that's what he called it. >> bill: it is hard to go back and run as an outsider after four years of that. a little flak yesterday about -- and this is sort of a -- the

next phase i guess of mitt romney refusing to release his tax returns. he's got a proposal that would -- reward -- you report -- actually would reward people for keeping jobs overseas. president obama alluded to that, this new report that shows romney's tax plan would encourage firms to keep jobs overseas. explain that. >> this is kind of the next evolution in this battle over outsourcing. it is really the pivot from romney's personal history in business to the policy implications and what the obama campaign and some others have zeroed in on is romney's proposal to create what's known as a territorial tax system. what that basically means is if you're a u.s. company and you're doing business in any other country and you make profits there, you could bring them back to the -- you can bring those profits back to the united states and not pay any taxes.

and the problem that that creates -- not pay any u.s. taxes. you would just pay taxes in the country that you are operating in and that you make the profits there, you can bring them back to the united states. you don't pay any taxes. >> bill: you're an american firm. you're making money but not on territory of the united states and you don't have to pay taxes on it. >> and bringing it back to the united states. it is not like you're using it there to bolster your operations. and what that creates is essentially an incentive to move in some cases jobs and operations to low tax countries or lower tax countries. maybe countries that don't have any environmental regulations don't have a lot of worker protections, don't have union protections and so you move -- you can move jobs over there. make all of your money then you don't have to worry. >> bill: romney claims that his proposal would create

800,000 jobs. >> right right. >> bill: and? >> what the study shows professor at reed college who looked at it and said it would create 800,000 jobs in other countries. and essentially cost jobs, you know in the united states because there now would be an incentive to build these operations over other countries as opposed to here in the united states. >> bill: so in a sense it makes sense coming from mitt romney, the outsourcer in chief at bain who says yeah, let's give companies another tax break so they can export even more jobs than they already have. >> i think it is endemic of an attitude if your experience and whole baseline is how can we let companies make more and more money and that's the number one priority above everything else. these are the kind of policies that you end up on so it is more than just oh, when he was at bain ten years ago he

outsourced some jobs. more than ten years ago now. he outsourced some jobs. it is -- that's his whole experience and outlook and actually translates into policies that would send jobs -- would send jobs overseas. >> bill: judd legum from think progress here in studio with us. always glad to take your calls at 1-866-55-press. judd, the editor of think progress. thinkprogress.org. check it out. and, of course, because he refuses to release his tax returns, this continues to be kind of the central issue of the campaign. be whether or not it should be. there are certainly more important issues but with more and more republican leaders calling on romney to release his returns, he doesn't which prompted the obama campaign unrelenting obama campaign on this issue to come out with a new ad this morning which i

think gets right to the central point about what it all means that romney won't release anymore returns. it is just 30 seconds. >> obama: i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> tax havens, offshore accounts, carried interest. mitt romney has used every trick in the book. romney admits that over the last two years he's paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income. makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. we don't know because romney has released just one full year of his tax returns. and won't release anything before 2010. >> romney: you know what? i put out as much as we're going to put out. >> announcer: what is mitt romney hiding? >> bill: what is mitt romney -- it does make you think that there must be stuff in there he doesn't want us to know about. >> these are political professionals. they've got some very talented folks, whenever you think about their policies, they know what they're doing and there's clearly been a calculation made

that all the water we're taking on, all of the criticism we're taking on, even now from bill crystal, from matt dowd, from all of the prominent republican commenters, i've been sort of keeping track. i think i'm at least up to nine and i'm sure there's probably more as i was sleeping last night who came out saying mitt romney should release his taxes. you know, they've made a calculation that says whatever is in these taxes is much worse than even what's now become a couple of weeks and will likely extend on, i'm sure throughout the campaign of pretty bad press on this. and so it does raise the question of what's in there and i think this obama ad kind of hinted at what a lot of people think which is that based on his -- the one year of tax returns now that we've seen and the kind of techniques and uses -- ways that he reduced his

tax rate, that it is very possible that in other years his tax rate could be close to zero or, in fact, zero. >> bill: right. >> and that that may be one of the things that he's not eager to share with other people. >> bill: i could see why for a man running for president of the united states, if it came out he paid no taxes at all for even just one year. but for one year or two years or three years, that would be a big deal right? that would be a major major bad strike against him. >> because of course, if you're just a working man or woman -- >> bill: paying your taxes. >> you pay taxes and you have no alternatives to avoid them. you get your 1040ez and pay a good amount of taxes and that's just life. there's no alternative.

there's no account in bermuda. there's no swiss bank account. i mean that's just it. you have to pay your taxes and pay your social security taxes on all of your income. so it is a very different environment and i think that that could be and of course we don't know but you have to think that it shows something other than just he's paid about 15% every year and that this was the same every year because otherwise, you would just release them if it was the same. >> bill: if it were 15% every year, they would be released. that scoundrel didn't pay taxes in a couple of years. you know as well as i. what's mitt romney trying to hide? judd legum from think progress in studio with us on today's "full court press." >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: how about it. 11 minutes before the top of the hour. mitt romney digging in his heels on the tax issue. says he just refuses, refuses to release more than one year so far and maybe eventually two years although not until at least october he says will the 2011 returns be ready. judd legum from think progress in studio with us. judd quickly before we go to calls, one other issue. the republicans again shot down yesterday the disclose act in the senate. which would have at least maybe not stopped the flow of corporate money to campaigns right but let us know where some -- where most of the money was coming from.

>> basically the supreme court and citizens united said we're going to let all of the corporate money flow into the system but it's disclosure and transparency that essentially solves for it. as long as people know what's being spent, it is okay. >> bill: that was part of citizens united which most people don't even realize. >> the reality is there's still a lot of the political contributions that are not disclosed. and also not disclosed in a timely manner. and this act would make all that information public. and the republicans filibustered yesterday. so now we have essentially the worst combination which is lots of corporate money but then also no disclosure. or not enough disclosure where a lot of it is being -- is still secret. >> bill: filibuster was led by mitch mcconnell who has been anti-campaign reform forever. chief opponent who thinks citizens united was actually a good decision. i think it is worse than plessy

v. ferguson. hi ruth, good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> bill: what's up? >> caller: my concern and i would love judd -- >> bill: judd. >> caller: i'm sorry. as much as progressives and democrats understand what romney is hiding with not releasing the tax and what went on with bain, it seems to me that republicans and independents don't care. the numbers are so close between president obama and romney at the moment with all of this going on and then the amount of money that will be released against obama in september and october really is a huge concern and i would love your input. >> bill: i think that's an important point. do people care about this, judd? >> i think they do. and i think the reality is the

national numbers are always going to be close. i wouldn't expect to see a big 10 point 8 point 7 point spread at any time in this election. and i think if you talk to the obama campaign, what they would say is look at the state races and that this either is working or will work in the states that they're keyed in on. >> bill: he is up -- obama is up in ohio, up in wisconsin up in pennsylvania, up in some of the key swing states. not trying to be overconfident here. >> right. but i think the reality is it's going to be a very close election. so really no matter what you're talking about it's going to only be working at the very margins, fundamentally, there is a fairly close split between the two candidates. it has been like that for awhile. >> bill: the president keeps telling people it will be a close election. ruth's point though, is this an issue, not paying your taxes?

not paying your fair share of taxes or not releasing your tax returns? do people give a rat's ass? >> i think it is a very resident issue particularly among independents. i don't know republicans they'll probably vote for the republican candidate. among independents, most of the swing voters really start paying attention after the conventions. so what the period of time we're in now is really setting the framework and setting really setting the table for the really engaged part of the race but i think there is an interesting point which is we have all of this money that's going to be dumped in the last couple of months. it is going to be a flood like we've never seen before and does that move the needle to the republicans in a way that wasn't possible when there was less money, less of the corporate outside money that was coming in. i think that's a real concern. no one knows. it has never happened before. you never had a few hundred

million dollars on the sidelines. >> bill: i would add to the point, repeating a point we made before the break that i believe if it comes up that mitt romney paid zero taxes in one year or two or three years i think the fact that he's running for president and he didn't pay taxes will be a big issue. it will be a big issue for independents because it says a lot about mitt romney as a tax cheater. that's why he doesn't want to release his tax returns. judd, great work at think progress. thinkprogress.org, folks. check it out. thank you so much again for coming in. >> great to be on. >> bill: when we come back, i'll tell what you the president is up to today. another busy road trip. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." that's what the people want. >> i think it is actually important when you talk -- >> bill: newt gingrich said it last night. >> newt gingrich said absolutely this would be -- if you're honest about it, the policies. i think that's really important for people to recognize is that

[ man ] ever year, sophia and i use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ ♪

sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing. or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thankyou points to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way. current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, how about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. i gotta tell you one thing. man, you gotta give president obama credit. nobody is saying he's taking this thing for granted. he's on the road again today with four campaign events down in texas. leaves the white house just about an hour from now. heading down to san antonio texas, two campaign events in san antonio. right. he moves on to austin, texas. he's got two campaign events in austin texas. this evening. and then coming back to andrews air force base getting back to the white house at 1:20 a.m. tomorrow morning. man! he is determined to get that second term and he deserves it, damn it.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. happy tuesday. tuesday, july 17. welcome to the "full court press." here on current tv. coming to you live from our studio here on capitol hill in washington d.c. we've got our eye on what's happening here in washington. not much. around the country and around the world, a hell of a lot. we'll take your calls at 1-866-55-press. here's a big story of course, continuing, record temperatures across the country. if you don't think it's hot out

there, the department of agriculture reporting today that one half, over a half of the landmass of the united states is now suffering drought conditions. it is the worst in over half a century. and that's driving the prices of crops up and the price of goods at the supermarket. global warming is here. we'll talk about that and a whole lot more here on today's current news -- on today's "full court press." but first we get today's current news update here in los angeles from lisa ferguson. hi, lisa. good morning. >> hi, bill. good morning. good morning everyone. a top democrat says the party is ready to let all of the bush era tax breaks expire unless republicans give up on cutting taxes for the wealthy. washington senator patty murray presented that tough line yesterday during a speech at the brookings institution. showing democrats won't easily fold on the issue. republicans are responded with a fresh wave of counterattacks claiming democrats are putting the economy back into a

recession. but as reported, tax cuts for the wealthy do not have a history of helping the economy. according to a recent study by the center for american progress, average economic growth and gdp are actually better off when tax rates are higher than they are today. and "huffington post" has found a new document linking romney to bain capital after february of 1999. a filing with california secretary of state lists romney as general partner in july of that year. he remained on the record until 2003. romney's own signature is on that document. but it seems romney could have ties to outsourcing whether or not he was with bain capital. "huffington post" is also reporting the 2002 olympic torch bearer uniforms were made in burma. the decision sparked uproar with human rights advocates and trade groups. protestors wrote more than 1,000 e-mails to the salt lake organizers and here's the best part. the committee responded by saying the clothes were not made in burma. they were made in myanmar.

it is the same country. we're live in chat right now. we hope to see you there. current.com/billpress. outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. >> i'm not prone to understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: well, republicans complained about president obama and taxes, the congressional budget office reporting this morning that taxes in the united states are actually at a 30-year low. you can expect republicans to come out today and congratulate president obama and thank him. don't hold your breath! good morning everybody. it is "full court press" here on current tv and your local progressive talk radio station. good to see you today. thanks for joining us on this

tuesday, july 17th. covering all of the news in washington, d.c., around the country and around the globe and getting you involved in the conversation, of course at 1-866-55-press. delighted to see you today. good to be back from a day off yesterday and thanks to david shuster for filling in. thanks to the team, peter ogborn and dan henning and cyprian bowlding back from vacation today just like i am. and we are very pleased to welcome into the studio for his first visit, first of many to the "full court press," john stanton is the new washington bureau chief of "buzzfeed," a great site that will tell you -- bring you up to date on everything happening in any area of interest whether it's in entertainment or sports or -- >> furries. >> bill: or politics. john stanton. good to see you. >> thanks so much for coming in.

>> bill: i want to get to the important political news of the day. first, i have to tell you one of my most vivid memories as a tiny tiny, tiny little kid is singing with my mother when i was in the bathtub and here's one of the first songs i ever learned from my mother. kitty wells, dead yesterday at 92. ♪ >> what a great title too. >> bill: what a voice. >> sing, bill! ♪ >> bill: there's a message there, isn't there? that is classic classic country western. back in the days when country western was really songs about

people's lives and telling their full story and spilling it out there. >> it was good still back then. >> bill: really, really great. what a legend. i also saw she was the first one to perform the one that -- when she -- recorded, it was makin believe. but that became i can't stop loving you the great ray charles song. first one to record it. kitty wells dead at 92 yesterday. john, good to have you in studio. ben labolt from the obama campaign will be joining us later. will dobson from "slate" magazine. what a line-up this hour. you have been writing a lot of the "buzzfeed" site on romney and his tax returns. why won't he release more of his tax returns? what do you think? >> i don't know. >> bill: strange, isn't it? >> honestly, it's gotten to be weirder and weirder. they keep making the argument we've put out enough.

sure, i guess. but at some point it becomes -- it doesn't really matter what your reason is. it's become a story and you know you would think that at some point, they would realize we have to get rid of this issue. get it off the table. i don't think they're going to though. i think santorum in the primary banged on him banged on him. he wouldn't let him out. for whatever reason whether there's something in them they don't want people to see whether he does believe he doesn't need to give them out whether it is an issue of he doesn't, really want people to see how much money he has. i don't know why that would be an issue. i think everyone in america understands he's an extremely successful businessman. whatever it is, you know, it just keeps hanging around. it is going to start to hurt him a little bit. >> bill: the obama campaign came out with a new ad this morning where they suggest that again, the question is what does he have to hide, right. the question they're raising but they suggest that the one year we do know about he paid less

than 15% in taxes. maybe he doesn't want to release the others because there were years where he paid zero. >> that's very possible. >> bill: and if so, i would say that could be a problem. that would be a problem. >> yeah if less than 15% is the most you've paid in ten years or whatever, how far back they would end up going, that would definitely look bad and it would give the obama administration a chance to come back with this -- the secretary pays more than the ceo argument which you know, had a lot of traction, a lot of people picked up on that. that argument has gone away. i would expect we'll see it back again. >> bill: you were saying you really think that romney could dig in his heels hold the line and just refuse -- even though haley barbour and george will and every leading -- not every but a lot of leading republicans are saying just release your damn tax returns. put it behind you. >> he did it during the primary and part of that was because i

think after awhile, santorum and some of the republicans were pushing him to do it. they got a lot of pushback from within their own party which is why to a certain degree they gave up on the argument. at some point, it became just sort of this you know argument that was no longer gaining more traction with the public. and you know, he held on long enough and it just kind of died on santorum. >> bill: whether it will in the general election is another question. as well as a related issue buzzfeed.com. check that web site out. anything you're interested in, find the latest on it on the web site. you must have thousands of reporters pumping this stuff out every day. >> there's not thousands. it would be nice but we get a pretty good dedicated group of people that are working extraordinary hours. energy that i haven't seen in years in this business. >> bill: young people, long hours and little money.

that's the same philosophy that we have here at the "full court press." >> a business model. >> business model we've had. >> bill: i think it is, too. another issue you guys are writing about is this that mitt romney insists back when he was running for governor of massachusetts, he insisted he was -- it was -- he was a legitimate resident of massachusetts because he was still involved with bain capital from 1999 to 2002. now that he's running for president he insists no, i left bain capital in 1999. you can't blame me for anything that happened after that time. how does he find his way out of this and why doesn't he have an answer to it? >> they find themselves in a couple of boxes. if he filled up his documents by accident or wrong way or whatever, you know, that could be bad for him. i think that some of what they said is look, he was still

involved because of sort of legacy issues and he wasn't involved in making any decisions and you know, parts of the companies where he was still technically -- one was a payroll company but they weren't really doing the payroll anymore for bain. it is a very complicated set of explanations. even if they're right which i don't think -- i don't know that they're not right. what he's saying is not necessarily accurate. but it is still a difficult thing to get to the public. it again is one of the things that the obama campaign i think is having some success with. banging on them on it and saying you were still involved. you were outsourcing jobs. he's finding it difficult to get out from underneath this one. >> bill: any time that the romney campaign spends talking about bain capital or talking about his tax returns they're not talking about the issues that they want to talk about and that's where i think the obama campaign has really put them on the ropes for the last couple of weeks now. >> it has been a couple of weeks, yeah. you know, i get very hesitant to

do this couple of weeks ago, it was obama's worst week. whatever. we're still so far away from the election. who knows what's going to happen between now and then. i do think you're right that the obama campaign has had a couple of very strong weeks. >> bill: i agree with you. at the same time you can take a look at the end of any week and say well this week, it's not going to be determining the outcome of the election. this was a good week for romney or a good week for obama. is romney going to be able to change the subject this week by announcing his vice presidential pick? >> you know, it will certainly help for a couple of days. >> bill: do you think he'll do it this week? >> i don't know. i don't know honestly. i think no just because it seems like it is a little far out from the convention. the one upside for him to do it now would be that he's getting ready to leave the country. when he's out of the country, if he had a vice presidential running mate that he could then sort of have go around the

country while he's out of the country, they get two fronted which would help them i think in terms of taking the week or winning the week as we say around washington. but you know, republicans seem to -- have tended to wait longer into the cycle. democrats do it earlier it seems like as i recall the last couple of cycles. >> bill: so if it were going to be this week, i was looking reading last night coming back from vacation, the names that are out there. generally most people agree that the leading names are tim pawlenty, bobby jindal, rob portman, bob mcdonnell i mentioned portman. kelly ayotte, right maybe paul ryan. is the idea we need somebody more boring than mitt? >> yeah. well yes. i think they're looking at a way -- they don't want to have a situation where you have a sarah palin-type character where for all of her up side in that election for republicans, i

think they look back and say she took away from mccain. and so they don't want to have somebody that's going to do that. you pick somebody that's not going to hurt you. and pawlenty is being seriously looked at. he doesn't hurt him. he helps with conservatives. he's a very nice person and sort of a friendly guy. your average moderate american will say he's not a bad guy. conservatives will say he believes exactly what i believe. so you know, he could be a good pick. jindal i think is also a pretty solid pick for him. >> bill: the only one that i see that's on the list, i didn't mention that has any -- would bring any color or any jazz to the ticket is chris christie. >> sure. >> bill: and maybe that's the reason why they would never pick him because he certainly would get more colorful press than mitt romney ever gets. and even say stuff that romney

would never say. >> i do think with him one of the biggest problems he could face, they could face with him is places like downstate virginia north carolina or like the heart of ohio. he's a guy from jersey. like he is almost a caricature of a person from jersey. and i don't know that that necessarily plays well in the south. that it would play well in the farming areas of ohio. they may want to have a boring guy. >> bill: one last -- i know you wrote yesterday about the united states senate republicans filibustering the disclose act. why is this important? >> well, it is important because democrats want to try to create a more transparency in the super pac donations. >> bill: at least we know where the money is coming from. >> the in unwould cover donations of $10,000 or more. republicans don't like this bill at all. they argue that unions get a pass because union dues are only

$500 a year so all of their donors, the vast majority of the donors would not get covered when they move money around within unions or like the afl the chunks they do it in are generally below $10,000. although some of the republicans, if you like mitch mcconnell, for instance, first amendment issue for them. they believe that money is speech and that there should be no restrictions or controls and if you're going to give one guy a pass then everybody should get the pass. >> bill: so we will still not know where all of the corporate money is coming to. there's so much to cover in so little time. thanks for coming in john stanton. welcome back any time. >> bill: "full court press." we'll talk to ben labolt from the obama campaign press secretary in the next segment. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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.

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