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>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. ♪ >> michael: you're back inside "the war room," i'm michael shure. tackling the gun debate does not come without political and now personal risk. on friday, a carolyn maloney

entered legislation requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance. last night she received several death threats. the calls warned her not to move forward with gun-safety legislation and the new york police department is now investigating. today she said . . . another bill similar to hers was introduced by adam schiff. the california kongman wants to overall the 2005 protection of lawful commerce and gun act. the gun industry is the only consumer product industry that does not take full legal responsibility for its product. it's the only industry. so he is proposing legislation that would break the shield. both seem to be common sense

laws, but in congress common sense is often hard to find. joining us now is representative adam schiff. he is on the house congressional gun violence prevention task force. he joins us from burbank, california. welcome back inside "the war room." >> it's great to be here. >> michael: it's great to have you, congressman. i want you to take me inside this bill and tell me a little bit about what it does. >> as you mentioned the gun industry enjoys a form of immunity like no other industry has. they can act in a negligent way and be immune from responsibility. dealers are responsible for a huge percentage used in crimes 1% sell 57% of the guns used in crime. they are turn a blind eye to these straw purchasers who buy weapons, transfer them to people who would be precluded from

getting a gun themselves and nobody can hold them responsible. and that really ought to change because the background system -- and i'm certainly hopeful that we'll pass background checks, that will only be as good as our ability to enforce it. >> michael: congressman how does this happen? how has the gun industry been able to circumvent laws that apply to all other industries? is it because their lobby is so strong or the politicians are too scared? >> it's probably a combination of both. and liability strikes at the financial deep pocket for the nra, and that is the gun manufacturers. but why should they be able to make their products in a negligent way when those who sell alcohol or make cigarettes or any product doesn't enjoy that kind of immunity.

there's a $1 safety devise you can put on a gun such when you remove the cartridge the round won't fire. a lot of times kids will play with a gun thinking it is unloaded, and kids get killed that way. for a $1 safety device that can be prevented. but you can't hold the gun makers responsible. so some guns continues to be made in this way that endangers the public. >> michael: when you think about seat belt laws, to me that's like the seat belt law. why can't they mandate that this $1 device could protect kids? and this makes me think, congressman of the nra and they always say guns don't kill people, people kill people. what do you say to that? >> i say when a gun dealer or maker acts in a negligent

fashion, they have responsibility too. if you are a gun dealer and you have a guy coming in and he wants to buy 12 of the same identical weapon you sell him 12 guns, he comes back a week later, guys another 12 guns you probably ought to notice that these weapons are probably not for the soul use of that gun owner. so why should we let the seller off the hook when if they were in any other industry a bar tender, or a grocer selling cigarettes to minors we don't let any of those people off the hook, but we do let the gun industry off of the hook and that doesn't make sense. >> michael: yeah, i totally agree, and i think people don't know about this which is why your legislation is so important even in starting the conversation, and it's a very

small minority of gun sellers that are irresponsible. why is the gun industry and lobbyists so resistant to changing this law? >> well, again, it's where the money from the nra comes from. but holding the industry accountable is something that they are simply and diametrically opposed to and any industry that could get a free pass that negligently, wouldn't get the free pass, unfortunately this industry has gotten their will through congress in part because of the weakness of some of the members that are afraid to cross the nra, but it's not enough to get elected if you don't stand for anything, and i would urge my colleagues that do the right thing on the assault weapons

band, ammunition limitation background checks if we can't get these measures that are necessary and popperle supported through the congress it's an indictment at this point. >> michael: yeah. your colleague carolyn maloney has received death threats as we said at the top. are you rethinking how local you should be on this issue? >> not at all. unfortunately there are thousands and thousands of americans that are killed every month from gun violence in our cities. we have two different gun tragedies in america. we have the tragedies like sandy hook, and then we have the tragedies that we have every day where someone's child loses their life in one of our cities from gang violence or other gun violence or a gun accident, and we can do something about this and we need to do something about this. and i'm really in awe and admiration of my colleague

gabby giffords after going through what she did, that she has become so vocal on this issue, and it's incumbent on all% of us to do the same. >> michael: i couldn't agree more. give me one thing about which to be optimistic in the chambers? >> well i think the one thing i'm optimistic about is we have overcome more difficult hurdles than this, and there's a much greater consensus on the need and desirability on gun safety laws than there has been before. the support for universal background checks we should all be encouraged by that and now make sure it happens. >> michael: congressman adam schiff thank you so much for being here in "the war room." up next christine pelosi and tad devine will help me break down

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♪ >> michael: america is on the clock. i can't believe i'm about to say this, but there are only 1,315 days until the 2016 presidential election. this "war room" isn't wasting any time sizing up the candidates. last night hillary clinton and vice president joe biden shared the stage. we were watching for the 1,315 chance that politics might seep into the room. >> there's no woman like hillary

clinton. [ cheers and applause ] >> hillary clinton -- that's a fact. >> vice president biden and i have worked together on so many important issues, and one that is particularly close to his heart is the fight against domestic violence. >> michael: all kind words for each other. obviously clinton still has that diplomatic touch. over on the republican side quinnipiac university repieced a poll showing florida senator, marco rubio leading the republican field, followed by congressman paul ryan rand paul, and chris christie found out the top four. we were a bit disappointed, of course not to see mitt romney on that list. joining me now to break down the role 2016 politics is playing in today's debates is christine pelosi, chair of the california democratic party women's caucus. also with us is democratic

strategist, tad devine, who joins us tonight from washington, d.c. tad, i want to say that quinnipiac poll shows 59% of republicans would prefer a candidate with experience as governor. what does christie need to do to move up into the short list? >> i think he has got to begin to get republicans to like him. his problem is his own party right now. he has been willing to stand up to republicans. i think he did the right thing, for example, when his state was hit by a hurricane and he welcomed the president there and his own party turned their back on him in the aftermath. the republican party is controlled by the far right, and if he doesn't play ball with them, he will have a hard time being a nominee. >> michael: christine what do you make of the short list right now? >> there is no barack obama on

that list. he is the absolute standard barer of the democratic party. when he talked about our yourny is not complete and talked about what we need to do, he was really making a case for his third term, and who fills that out remains to be seen but the president is so far and above everybody right now that wants to take his place r place that it's almost unfair to compare any of the republicans to barack obama. >> do you think of those four are viable to go up against a democrat? >> remember they were booing a gay soldier, chanting let him die, applauding the death penalty, but not the death of

osama bin laden because president obama was responsible for that. republicans tend to like a governor that cuts taxes. they don't have that person on the short list yet. >> michael: not quite yet. tad, how long -- you know can hillary clinton keep us waiting? how long can she keep the democrats waiting before she can say, i'm running for president? >> i think she can wait a long time. i don't think there has been a stronger candidate for a nomination than hillary clinton has been in decades. so she can set her own timetable. i don't think she has to prove precipitously in any way. she can wait until the moment is right, and everyone else has to react to her. >> michael: that's a big statement, be it's really true. she is a power house going into this and if she does run it is

totally going to change the equation. could the waiting game damage the relationship between the clintons and the obamas as biden waits in the wings. >> i don't think so. i think they are both going to wait to see what the other one does. if hilary makes a run for the presidency, she is going to be very hard to stop. the thing she has going for her, and people have come to recognize this she is the one candidate who has the potential to do what barack obama did. she could have 54 or 55% of the elector rate as women, and that will have an effect on elections all the way down the ticket. >> michael: yeah, such an interesting part of the way -- the equation that we look at in 2016.

a "washington post" abc news post out today shows the divide and allowing path to citizenship, 73% of democrats, and 58% of independents support the path but only 35% of republicans do. how would you advise a 2016 republican hopeful to tackle immigration right now? >> well, listen, i would tell them if they want to have any hope of winning a general election, they are going to have to find a way to have immigration reform. the republicans came to discover that if they continue to alienate hispanics in this country, they can't win an election. so you have to find a way to do it even within the face of opposition within your own party. >> michael: christine pelosi what is standing in the way of this legislation getting through? >> the political will of the republican party.

we do have some house members who would be willing to give the speaker the room that he needs to let this come to the floor. there's a gang of eight on the senate side, all men i might add, much more diverse gang if you will on the house side writing legislation that i think has a very good chance of coming through the house, but there are republicans in latino districts, in emerging asian american districts who will feel the pull of their constituencies. we need to get that message out there in all of the languages that are necessary, so the new obama electorate can be talking to their representative. >> michael: but that makes me think they are doing another republican autopsy in 2016. tad further in to politics, mark sanford won his republican

runoff to face democrat elizabeth bush colbert. the most interesting part is his now fiance maria belen chapur standing behind him. will her presence help or hurt him? >> i think they need to go after him. the democratic campaign has to go after him on values, and has to tell the people of south carolina that this guy simply does not share their values; that what he did as governor was reprehensible, and if they make the case against him, and allow people in the street, men and women who are republicans in south carolina to make that case against him, i think it will be very formidable. >> michael: all right. it is always fun talking politics with both of you.

and we are calling in another expert. keith black is a neurosurgeon and he's joining us next. cool on the other. ice breakers duo a fruity cool way to break the ice.

♪ >> michael: i always like to say they was on "the young turks" before there was a uniform. so now i want to welcome, jenks and ben. they are cohosting today. they are wearing uniforms. >> all right. it's similar. at some point you are going to wear something similar. >> put on your glasses cenk. >> all right. we have a great show for you. >> let's hear about it. >> we're not allowed to say illegal immigration anymore. and we'll discuss whether that's too politically direct or not.

and sanford has his hot mistress out. is that acceptable? >> we'll talk to bill sharp who was the leading voice of news in charleston, south carolina where i worked for five years we'll be joining us with his take. and people are talking about the coach at rutgers being fired, and the other issue is the ucla coach, and what he didn't know regarding a sexual assault ten years ago. >> michael: all right. we will be watching. thanks guys have a great show. yesterday president obama unveiled a new effort to map the brains activity in unprecedented detail. it records new activity to find cures for brain diseases.

he asked congress to approve a $100 million investment in the so-called brain initiative. and cast as a way to create jobs. the project is modeled after the human genome project. the initial $100 million investment may seem like a lot, but it is actually quite small. to put it in context, it'sless than a fifth of what nasa spends every year just to study the sun. and it seems like a small price to pay for potentially unlocking some of the mysteries of the he joins us now via skype from l.a. where he is the chairman and a professor at the department of neurosurgery at cedars-sinai medical center.

dr. black, welcome to "the war room." >> hello. >> michael: let's start without an easy one for you. what does it actually mean to map the brain? >> it means different things to different people. some people think of an tom call map, mapping out the basic regions of the brain. that has been done in various forms. there's a big effort to try to do it using different types of imaging technique, but as you drill down below that level, you think of molecular mapping, interconnectivity, and how does that interconnectivity invoke normal functions of our personalities as well as disease states such as alzheimer's. >> michael: the number of u.s.

residents age 65 and older living with alzheimer would nearly triple in 2010 to 13.8 million by 2050. what kind of time line are we looking at and how likely are we to have a solution by 2050? >> when you think of alzheimer's, it's one in eight people that are 65 and older will have alzheimer's. 50% of people 85 and older will have alzheimer's. by the time you hit 90 that number goes up to 70 to 80%. and if you think of a child that is born today, they have a 1 in 3 chance of living to a hundred. so always hiemers alone within a very short period of time will bankrupt our healthcare system. it's a devastating disease that will only increase as we learn how to live healthier and live

longer. >> michael: dr. black how likely are we to find a solution to alzheimer's? >> i think the opportunity is -- is very high. currently the way that we diagnose alzheimer's is with a memory test. by that point the person is actually -- has been developing alzheimer's for about 20 years, and we're actually detecting these very late in the process of the disease. so if someone with diabetes had uncontrolled diabetes for 20 years, and now they are having an organ failure and we start treating their sugar level. so you have lost 50% of your brain cells and 50% of your brain weight. we now have begun to map these proteins 20 years before the patient becomes clinicattic.

so i think we're right on the cusp of developing cures >> michael: where do you think the focus of this $100 million should be? >> i think you said it at the beginning of your show a hundred million dollars. that's not a lot of money. currently the national institutes of health their budget is about $5 billion a year. so increase it by a hundred million dollars isn't a significant amount. and also to put it in perspective, the budget of a major pharmaceutical company like pfizer or merck, just to develop one new drug for fda approval is 2 to $3 billion.

so given the enormity of the problem a hundred million is really pocket change. but having a focus and having the president use his podium as a bully pit to draw at attention to the problem has been good. everyone is talking about it, at least this week and we hope from at least a neurosigns neurosigns -- neuroscience community this will translate into meaningful science. >> michael: dr. keith black we're all in awe of what people like you do every day. and thank you for coming in here and thank you for your service so much. up next brett ehrlich of course will change the subject and chime in on a right of passage for ex-presidents. >> coming up how many presidents

does it take to open a library? don't go away.

♪ >> michael: "the war room" is pleased to announce that the brain trust at florida atlantic university has decided not to name their stadium after the geo company, which is actually a private prison conglomerate with a wonderful track record of suspect business practices. president saunders enthusiasm was most likely tempered when students and the media, began calling the stadium, owl-catraz.

and brett ehrlich is talking about george w. bush's library. >> it's official. this april 25th the current and former presidents of the united states will reunite for the opening of the george w. bush presidential library in dallas, texas. this calls for a joke dump. ♪ >> this group of five is referred to as the president's club, which many consider the most exclusive club in the world. that is of course behind fatty steakhouses news busters. the event will be attended by all former presidents all living former presidents that is. so sorry, martin van buren, you

can't come. the building would have opened sooner but there was a delay after the plan to get w himself design the sign on the front of the building. the event will be not be attended by nancy reagan. so what is the point? one branch will be dedicated to the literary classics that inspired w this branch will be known as the empty branch. >> michael: thanks for joining us here in "the war room" tonight. have a great night. cenk uygur and ben mankiewicz are hosting "the young turks" next. ♪ young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but

i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.