[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> good morning and welcome to current tv. it is "full court press." normally this is the "bill press show" but bill is out today. i'm peter ogborn helming the ship while bill is away. just for today. don't worry. business as usual for the rest of the week. happy tuesday may 28th, the day after memorial day. i hope you all had a wonderful day off. if you were lucky enough to get the day off. since bill's gone, i have not

unlike a doughnut, surrounded the empty vacuous space with wonderful goodness. we've brought in igor volsky joining us because it is tuesday. plus we're talking sports with cindy boren from "the washington post" and chris moody from yahoo news and sabrina in the third and final hour of the show. yesterday, bob schieffer had some choice words for the obama administration over their handling of the press and how their press shop has been dealing with members -- dealing with members of the media. sort of a shutout. a lot of people have talked about this and how eric holder and the justice department have treated media. now it has turned to how the actual administration is treating the media. nobody has more gravitases that bon schieffer. we spent a lot of time last week talking about apple and their

tax dodging. google is doing the same thing but they have a reason why. let's talk about it coming up on the "full court press," the "bill press show" here live on current tv. criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just

care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

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gripping, current. >> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> it is the "full court press," tuesday, may 28. thank you so much for being here. i hope all had a nice day off if you were lucky enough to can have the day off on memorial day, we did, we were -- a very rare best of occasion for the "bill press show." normally we like to work through the holidays. we took some downtime yesterday.

welcome, welcome, welcome to this week. a busy week ahead. bill is out today. you're stuck with me. i have brought in a lot of good, fun, smart folks frankly folks smarter than me to talk about the news of the day. and there is a lot of stuff going on. part of those smart people, of course is alichia cruz who is screening your calls today. if you call 1-866-55-press. and running the board is dan henning. >> good morning. >> and to you. >> on the video is cyprian bowlding. mr. bolding proudly representing the nationals who lost again yesterday. >> they won over the weekend though. >> yeah, but they lost yesterday. >> they took 2-3. >> they have some problems. >> they do. i won't argue with you there. >> not like the san antonio spurs. >> what a segue. >> let me tell you something. i make no bones about my love of the spurs. when i started working for bill press, i was, at the time, working for a radio station in

san antonio. i worked for the spurs. i left. the night that they won the world championship in 2007, i -- the night that they won i got in the car and i drove here and i started working for bill. >> really? wow! >> the last time that they won. so here they are back in the nba finals, the old men the boring spurs they were in game four against the grizzlies last night. >> will dribble it out. the san antonio spurs for the first time since 2007 are going back to the nba finals. they do it with defense tonight. the grizzlies shoot 37%. tony walks away with 37 points and the spurs beat the grizzlies in a four-game sweep. the final score from memphis spurs, 93. grizzlies, 86. >> shut them out. four-game sweep. the good news is that the spurs now get to -- look, they're a

million years old. they're a very old basketball team. >> yeah, but they're good. >> yeah, but what i'm saying is they have the time to rest up because the heat intsh pacers -- the heat/pacers series, it will last another week. >> a whole week? >> roughly. there is a game tonight and if the heat win that, then they could close it out on thursday. so i mean they've got some time. >> back to the nursing home. >> put some ice on it. >> go get some hot soup. catch up on matlock. say what you want about the spurs, they know how to win. this is 16 or 17 straight years they've gone to the playoffs. they've kept the core group of people intact. which you can't say that about the heat. they just went out and bought a bunch of nice, fancy players. they've done it through coaching and we'll talk more about this with cindy boren from "the

washington post" in about an hour. i won't focus exclusively on the spurs but i'm going to talk a lot of spurs in the next hour. you have been warned. >> that's fine. you can gloat today. they won. >> that's right. >> that's what winners get to do. they get to gloat about it. you would think i would get tired of gloating with the university of alabama my team, you would think but i don't. >> of course not. >> it is pretty great. so later on in this hour, we're talking igor volsky. our tuesdays with igor. stay tuned for that. plus, let's talk taxes. i am not the person to talk about issues of substance on -- issues of finance but i do find this story interesting about apple and google and how they're dodging taxes and their defense for it. i with a tonight talk to you a little bit about that. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> on this tuesday, other headlines making news. charles ramsey, the hero of cleveland, is not happy about

the free burger offers he's received from over a dozen restaurants in ohio. get this. they put the charles ramsey burgers on their menu. he has lawyered up and released a statement saying he never allowed the restaurants to use their name and wants nothing to do with them. he wants people to do something to help the victims locked in his neighbor's basement. mcdonald's has stepped up making a $10,000 donation for the national center for missing and exploited children. >> the destruction of charles ramsey. the p.r. nightmare. everyone will start piling on. this is what we do. this is what we do. we've built this guy up to be a hero and now we're going to drag him down. >> looks like donald trump wants to run for president again. "new york post" reports the celebrity apprentice host has spent over a million dollars on electoral research for a potential 2016 campaign.

he never officially entered the race this past cycle and said he made headlines for the $5 million offer to president obama for him to turn over his birth records. >> a friend of mine commented about this yesterday. and said that donald trump is getting like the girl who makes out with other chicks at the bar for attention. it is really like who is telling him to run? >> no one. and one of the first apple computers ever made sold at auction over the weekend and apple won which steve jobs and steve wozny yak first made back in the mid 1970s went for over $670,000 in germany. it still works. >> it still works? >> it turns on. i don't know what good it does. but it was offered for sale by its original owner. bought the computer in 1976 for $700. >> wow. >> not a bad turnaround.

>> speaking of apple glad you ended with that story dan because i have a story. we've talked about the dodging of taxes from apple and google and last week, tim cook from am was up in front of congress. he had to defend his record and their record on taxes. we'll talk about that in just a couple of moments. i saw this story this morning. yesterday, eric schmidt, he is the chairman of google. he was speaking to bbc news about the taxes that they pay in the united kingdom because they have a similar scheme running where they don't pay all of the taxes that they -- that some people perceive that they should be paying. they have offshore accounts. they have -- you know, dummy accounts here there and that helps them dodge through loopholes so they don't have to

pay what a lot of other companies have to pay. so tim -- eric schmidt from google gives this defense to the bbc. >> i view taxes as not optional. and i view that you should pay the taxes that are legally required. it is not a debate. you pay the taxes. if the british system changes the tax laws, we'll comply. if the taxes go up, we'll pay more. if they go down, we'll pay less. political decision from the democracy of the united kingdom. >> essentially what he's saying, he's talking about the united kingdom. same way they're doing here in america is you look at what the tax laws are you look at the ridiculous tax loopholes that we allow. and we talked to derek thompson from the atlantic last week who said these are some of the biggest companies in the world. apple and google. and they are able to get out and hire the best tax attorneys in the world. they have that kind of flow.

they can do that. and they can look at the law and they can nitpick and they can find the loopholes and find ways through it. and i -- i think it is a scummy way to do business. i think it's -- i think it raises a lot of questions about the integrity of the companies that we support. but i also have to say he kind of has a point. you know we have fought for a long time for real tax reform. real tax reform. the president talked about tax reform. we never get it. here we are with these companies that are skating by and not paying billions of dollars that they should be paying in taxes. all because we have a crappy system. why not reform the system. do you blame google? and apple? or do you blame the system? i kind of have to blame the system. yeah, they should be paying more. and if i was running a company that had that kind of cash, i

would like to think that i would pay more but as long as the tax laws allow them to skate that way. that's -- them's the breaks. i hate to put it that way. apple, their ceo tim cook was up in front of congress last week. let's hear first from rand paul who was the savior of apple during their hearing. >> frankly, i'm offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing. i'm offend by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of america's greatest success stories. you know, tell me one of these politicians up here who doesn't minimize their taxes. tell me a chief financial officer that you would hire if he didn't try to minimize your taxes legally. tell me what apple's done that's illegal. >> that is the point. that they didn't do anything illegal. you might not like it. you might not appreciate how

they've managed their taxes. like said, i think it is a scummy way to do business but when we do our taxes as americans, you know, we look for deductions. we find a way to minimize our tax debt. that's what we do. and as long as the law allows it i can't blame google and apple too much for doing that. rand paul continued. >> we should be giving them an award today. we should be congratulating them on being a great american people and hiring people and not vilifying them. they're doing what their shareholders ask which is to maximize profit. we've created this byzantine and bizarre tax code and chased them overseas. >> it's true. i come at it from a different standpoint of rand paul. rand paul was saying the taxes are so oppressive. it's not. when we have tax laws that allow

apple and google and other large companies, oil companies to sort of skate and find these loopholes and take billions of dollars, b-b-b-b billions of dollars out of their tax bill, we have a problem with our tax legislation, our tax laws. 1-866-55-press is our phone number. 1-866-55-press. who do you blame here? apple and google or do you blame the way that our tax laws are set up? tim cook, when he was in front of congress sort of gave his defense of how they do business. >> we don't depend on tax gimmicks. we don't move intellectual property offshore and use it to sell our products back to the united states to avoid taxes. >> yes, they do. yes, they do. they absolutely use tax gimmicks. yes, they do use offshore accounts. they do. the point is unfortunately

that's legal. that's the point that eric schmidt made. as long as the tax laws are so screwed up, they're going to do what might not be ethical but it is legal. 1-866-55-press. give us a call. let me know what you think about that. we're also on twitter at bpshow. we continue to tweet even though bill is not here at bpshow. give us your comments there. we'll be right back. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." for an erection lasting more than four hours. converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

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cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you

got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> this is the "bill press show." i'm peter ogborn in for bill today. thank you for being here on this tuesday, may 28. we're talking taxes. a topic i don't usually talk about. i'm not -- of an economic mind. i can't dig deep on these issues but i can say this. apple and google and other large corporations are skating through using tax loopholes which while you might think are scummy, are legal. i think they're scummy. but the ceo of google made the point yesterday that if you want to reform the tax laws, fine. we will obey those. if you want to get rid of the loopholes and hone in on those sort of ways for big corporations to skate around taxes, we could do that. we have the power to do that and shut it down but until then,

they have a right to use it. we're on twitter at bpshow. perry reunion says i blame the congress that allows themselves to be bought. and write the bad tax loopholes into law which allows google to not pay taxes. see, that's my point. the congress could change it. phil asks if i stand with rand and congratulating megacorporations for gaining the tax system they created. i don't stand with rand on that. i think that rand paul made the issue that this is the law and they're only obeying the law and if we have a problem with it, we need to get the laws changed. 1-866-55-press is our phone number. 1-866-55-press. let's go to the phones. tim in cleveland ohio. tim, welcome. >> caller: hey, peter. i was going to throw in, too that you know, it is the system. we should hold the company to it as much as the congress or the executive because they're the

ones with that money. they're the ones who are spending the tens of millions to save hundreds of millions and billions. so they are every bit as culpable as the congressmen and the executives who are taking that money. they're holding it out. >> that's a good point tim. and i think that, you know, we can make the choice of which products we use. i am -- i'm not just saying this. i'm deeply conflicted about apple because i know that they have bad business practices. they have some very bad work practices. when you look at the labor that they use and how much they've outsourced and yet i use an iphone. i have a couple of mac computers. you know, i am conflicted about it. let's go to max in sandusky, ohio. max, welcome to the "full court press."

>> caller: hi, i blame the system wholeheartedly but caveat to that is rand paul, what he does is maniacal and underhanded and truly twisted where he congratulates these corporations and then he takes his blow hard mouth and talks about how we need to lower the corporate tax code and then he doesn't want to touch deductions. already, of some our largest corporations pay little to no taxes whatsoever because they can take, you know, advantage of carried interest and all of the offshore tax savings. i agree that the system is corrupt. equally corrupt is rand paul is essentially fighting to lower what they already don't pay. >> all right let's quickly go to bob in gran bury, texas. >> caller: good morning. i'm glad callers realize the house of representatives house ways and means committee

controlled until bill clinton ran them out of there with his laws and you forgot to mention ceo. he paid no taxes. his corporation paid none. i don't hear him ever get mentioned because he's a friend of the president's. like say when people realize it is the congress, that's where it comes from right there. >> i hear ya bob. i don't think that people are ignoring certain factors because they're friends with the president, as you put it. i know that big business is using the current law to sort of skate around, skirt the tax law to not pay what they morally should be paying. and it is because of the laws that we have. until we can fix those you'll always have these businesses that are take advantage of the system and continue to take money out of the united states. you know what? that is the law. igor volsky joins us next.

it's tuesday with igor. stay tuned. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

>> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> you can't just play led zeppelin's cashmere, can you? you have to play the one with puff daddy rapping all over it. gotta freshen it up. crimes against music. here on the "full court press" this morning. i'm sorry. i'm sorry. eat's peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. it is tuesday may 28. three minutes past the hour. it is not monday.

it's tuesday. we're joined as we always are joined on tuesday by igor volsky. he's think progress's managing editor igor. >> good morning. thank you. >> i appreciate you coming in. so thinkprogress.org is where we get all -- 75% of our show. >> we'll work to 100 slowly. >> we're getting there. >> we get so much of our stuff from there. really good stuff because we've talked a lot about the i.r.s. and their targeting of conservative groups. it turns out that some of these conservative groups may have a little problem. >> some of the groups, it looks like "the new york times" reported, may have violated the tax code. this is all a bit complicated because there are no clear rules. the federal government says to be a 501(c)(4) an organization working in the public's benefit you can spend no less than -- or no more than 49% of your time

and money on political activity. that's very loose rule, not really codified. it is a mutual understanding. >> yeah, what could go wrong? >> same page, we hope. it is not really clear what political activity is. >> go with hand shakes. >> yeah. so gray areas all around. but it looks like at least a couple of these tea party groups did things like pass out romney campaign flyers, hosted events to defeat barack obama which would look like very partisan activity. only spent most of their money on this activity way more than the 49% 50% threshold. some of the groups that were targeted and put on the list based on tea party and patriot did, in fact, cross the line. >> this is the point bill has been making throughout this whole i.r.s. scandal. i'm using air quotes, scandal

that everyone wants to make it out to be. my problem is the i.r.s. came out and admitted that they sort of unfairly targeted the groups. okay fine. but it does appear that these groups are over the top political. >> at least these groups that were identified seemed like they were crossing the line. to be clear the way they went about filtering these groups and checking these groups and that's their job to make sure they're complying with the tax code, that's what was improper. that's what was unfair that you can't really just target the conservative groups. only liberal groups out of it. and so it is the list that became the controversy but the bottom line is, as you point out, the core issue always is after citizens united, you had a plethora of the groups come about and they're operating in a very little understood area of the law where it is just not clear. the point isn't even the little tea party groups that don't raise a lot of money and maybe

host one or two events. large groups like crossroads ups, the karl rove group spending billions of dollars on political advocacy. >> that's the poster child for why this is such a mess is the karl rove group. you cannot, in any realm of reality, say that's not a political group. >> he boasts about raises billions and billions to defeat the democrats. absolutely. >> peter: it is kind of like where do we go from here now? >> that's the problem. >> peter: clearly there's a problem with the 501(c)(4)s that are abusing the system. so now what? >> that's the concern. you're going to have a chilling effect after the scandal the i.r.s. is not going to want to touch this with many, many feet of pole. so you're going to have -- congress is going to have to do something. these are the same guys who depend on the billions of dollarss from the 501(c)(4)s to

be elected in the first place. are they going to have an appetite to do much of anything. it is not clear. right now, it is all politics and no solution but if we're going to get past this, we're going to have to put rules in place, i think. >> if you want to create a 501(c)(4), now would be a great time to do it. >> yeah. >> i can't imagine there would an whole lot of oversight on this issue in terms of turning people down and that kind of stuff. given the fact that they face so much scrutiny, the i.r.s. >> if anything, i think the hammer is going to come down on the progressive side of the ledger and in fair disclosure, think progress is part of the action fund, 501(c)(4), we don't, however run political advertising. if we did, we would disclose it. >> peter: public service. the more you know. let's talk about glenn beck. entertainer, informer, maybe now educator?

>> yeah. >> peter: good lord. >> he's coming to a school near you. prep your children. glenn beck is coming to a school near you in ohio. they're debating this new curriculum -- it is called a controversial issues policy. and the idea is that when kids talk about controversial issues like sustainable development you know, very, very controversial. you've gotta present both sides of the issue and so you've gotta talk about it in terms of the -- all countries working together to ensure that they're not disrupting the environment and hurting our planet. and you've got to talk about it in terms of u.n. agenda 21 which, according to glenn beck is a conspiracy to undermine the american freedom and sovereignty and ruin the american way. just gotta present both sides. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. the logical, rational side and the absolutely bat ass crazy

side you get from glenn beck. this is only happening in ohio for now. in spring borough school district. >> as far as we know. this u.n. agenda 21 is kind of taking off in the rnc platform. it says -- >> could you explain it? >> agenda 21 was a series of nonbinding provisions that i believe came about in '92 '93 championed by george h.w. bush who has long been interested in undermining american sovereignty. they are just agreements that say as nation states develop that they're going to be conscious of how that development affects the global community, the environments, so on and so forth. for some reason, maybe it's because there is a lot of money involved in this. glenn beck has a book called agenda 21, conservatives are saying that these nonbinding

guidelines provisions, are really again an effort to undermine american development growth enterprise, commerce, so on and so forth so in addition to this kind of warning it being in the rnc you have cities, city in indiana, i know, passed provisions within their state jurisdiction saying that they're not going to abide by u.n. agenda 21 even though it's nonbinding and not very scary at all. >> i hope that this doesn't get legs and -- >> they're voting in june and they had a town hall meeting a couple of weeks ago and as you can imagine, the parents and students were a little upset. >> i can only imagine. i want to play a clip for you igor because bob dole, former senator from kansas, was on fox news sunday on sunday. and here's what he had to say about the republican party.

>> i think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs. until new year's day next year. and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas. >> peter: you know, bob dole is the guy that i think a lot of people point to and say this is -- after bob dole is where things started to go wrong. he was the last of the really good republicans who would work with the other side of the aisle. who would reach across and he would fight with democrats and at the end of the day, go out and get a drink together. it is as -- as cliched as it sounds, he was that guy to do it. here he is, man. he's been used up by his party. >> i have to say optimistic of him to say they could get it all done by next year. that, in itself -- he's really

an optimist in his old age. good to hear. you know, he retired in '9 6 '9 8. ran against president clinton in '96 and said also in the same interview that he could not be a republican in today's republican party. ronald reagan could not be a republican. it has moved so far to the right. and of course, we all remember his last time in the headlines was when the u.s. senate voted down the international disabilities treaty. >> i want to read this because this is so cringey from "the new york times." this is about the u.n. disabilities treaty. former senator bob dole of kansas sat slightly slumped in his wheelchair on the floor staring intently as john kerry gave his most impassioned speech all year. it would ban discrimination against people with disabilities. i will repeat. a treaty that would ban

discrimination against people with disabilities as former senator bob dole sat there in his wheelchair and members of congress greeted him up there. this is more from "the new york times" story from jennifer steinhauer from december of 2012. then mr. dole's wife, elizabeth rolled him off the floor and republicans quietly voted down the treaty that the ailing mr. dole who was recently released from walter reed military center so longed to see passed. they completely burned him very publicly and that was the last time that we saw him. >> certainly no longer his republican party and again fits into this u.n. agenda 21. this fear that international law and u.n. law is going to supersede american standards and we're all going to be governed by some body that we don't have, direct representatives to. >> peter: 1-866-55-press is our phone number.

remember, we are on twitter. so is igor. he's at igorvolsky on twitter. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern.

we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) 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. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

(vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> peter: it's the "bill press show." "full court press." peter ogborn in for bill this tuesday, may 28th.

thank you for being here. talking to think progress's managing editor, igor volsky in studio with us. it is tuesdays with igor. you can follow him on twitter at igorvolsky. follow his work online at thinkprogress.org. igor, thank you for being here. yesterday, we saw a new poll on obamacare that showed that 54% of americans oppose obamacare. >> this is the trend we're seeing and with the opposition choreographed as it is between republicans, some folks in the healthcare sector, i'm frankly surprised it is not higher. and here's why. the term obamacare the term affordable care act maligned time and time again. it has always been the case if you look at the individual provisions, that's where the support is. and that's why the hope is if you kind of publicize these provisions in the coming months as they're being implemented and folks start benefitting from

them, you're going to grow that base of support for the law. >> it happens every time that one of the polls come out you know. they'll say you know, this amount of people. usually the majority as opposed to obamacare. but when you look at what's actually being done, it's always very positive. paul krugman in his piece from over the weekend talked about it. his line was that the real obamacare shock will be one of unexpected success. he looks at how things are being done in california and how they've embraced it. they've embraced all of it. and things are looking very, very good. then you look at states like say texas where they might have some problems. >> california is really the model. for a long time, folks working in healthcare said if you put a lot of insurers together within a regulated market, these are the exchanges going online in 2014 they place bids for your healthcare to get you in and

everybody's required to buy insurance, you're gonna see competition and you're gonna see a decrease in premiums. that's what we saw in california over the last few days, the premiums they posted in anticipation of getting folks in, next year, that those are some 29% below current market rates. that's a big success. it is the first state where they're really getting everything online so folks are looking at california and saying let's try to replicate duplicate that in other places. texas, a lot of the red states, who are now saying we're gonna gut the part of the affordable care act that the supreme court said we don't have to comply with medicaid expansion we're not going to do it. in texas it means 1.5 million low-income texans, good-bye even though the expansion is paid with about $100 billion of federal funds. still nothing from rick perry. in arizona, you have a bit of a

different picture. jan brewer who is as much an obamacare opponent as anybody else -- >> oh, yeah. >> is now holding up all legislation coming out of the state of arizona until they expand medicaid. and her argument is look, we are already going to be paying for it. so -- through our taxes. so why not use that money here in arizona instead of send it to other states to expend their medicaid programs over there. >> that's kind of a pro brainer. >> she should talk to rick perry. >> peter: considering how goofy she's been on so many issues -- >> she's really taking a stand here. a lot of the language, it is not just her. it is kasich in ohio. they're using this kind of religious language, this economic argument saying it the moral thing to do to give folks coverage who can't afford it. they'll end up in our emergency rooms. all of our costs are going to increase. the providers, the doctors, the hospitals are asking for it

saying they can't -- you know, handle all of this uncompensated care. >> wow. they sound like liberals. they sound like liberals. >> it confuses me every day. >> peter: the point with the obamacare that paul krugman writes we'll tweet out a link at bpshow, he reminds everyone, remember, this is conservative reform. not only was it a conservative idea but yes a very conservative reform. so i'll tweet that link out at bpshow. make sure you follow us. igor, good stuff as always. thank you for being here. follow igor on twitter at igor volsky and check out thinkprogress.org every day. in fact, you can even make it your home page. >> please do. >> we'll take a quick break and we'll take your e-mails. peter ogborn in for bill. thanks for being hadn't -- being here. this is the "bill press show."

young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his

abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> 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 >> ...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. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

>> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> peter: yes indeed, we're taking your e-mails on any topic at any time at billpressshow.com. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill press today. e-mail said bill i like you but i'm becoming increasingly aggravated by some of the positions on your show. i'm an old time progressive and i'm sick of the apple praise.

fdr, lyndon johnson and sam rae burn would be kicking the crap out of the yellowback democrats. little strong there don. i talked earlier in the show, i wasn't praising apple. i think they should, you know, i think that they have some pretty serious business practices and sort of abuses of how they treat their workers and how they build their products. i still use apple products. jim craig says i just saw a video of you running your mouth. it's true. you did trash talk the star-spangled banner. are you stupid and you have to hear yourself talk. that was directed to bill. bill says bill and peter it seems to me the pope's comments make all of the theology written over the years worthless. that about the comments from the pope that atheists can do good. yeah, it certainly undoes a lot of crap that i learned about when i was a kid. maybe you don't have to believe in god after all, you can be an

atheist and still get to heaven. not a bad gig.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] feat is the "full court press." the "bill press show" live on current tv. clearly, i am not bill press. i'm not nearly as handsome. i'm peter ogborn in for bill today. don't worry. bill will be back soon. just taking an extended memorial day vacation. we have brought in some very smart people to help me out today. we'll be talking sports with cindy boren from "the washington post" coming up in mere moments plus yahoo news reporter chris

moody will be here along with "huffington post"'s sabrina siddiqui. we talked about google and apple and their dodging of taxes. google's ceo eric schmitt defended their actions saying if you want us to obey -- pay more in taxes you'll have to reform the tax laws. we're obeying the ones that are currently in place. how do you keep john mccain off of doing sunday talk shows? you send him to syria. john mccain slipped away, went to syria and met with the rebels in syria. clearly, john mccain is the voice of the syrian rebel. i'm not sure what exactly that means. we'll have to see what comes out of that in the coming days. plus, "the new york times" and their story about the i.r.s. and who they targeted, who they looked at. it turns out some of the groups that they were looking at. not all of them, but some of them may have been violating the laws that we were afraid that they were violating.

plus we have the latest team to enter the nba finals, we'll talk about them next with cindy boren. the "full court press" live on current tv. criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well.

not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

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>> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> peter: is the "bill press show." the "full court press." i'm clearly not bill press. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. tuesday, may 28. i keep wanting to say monday. we had the day off yesterday. very rare day off on the "full court press." but bill is taking a little extended vacation. so here i am. i'm yours and you are mine for the next two hours. thank you for being here on the board is dan henning mr. henning, hello there.

screening your calls is alichia cruz. i appreciate you being here. and cyprian bowlding running the video operations, proudly representing the nats with his cap there. the washington nationals who lost yesterday. >> they won on sunday. >> have we turned into that team? we won a couple of games ago. >> actually, i'm convinced they're going to lose today. pulling up some rookie pitcher. i don't know his name, cindy i don't even know. >> at times, i think -- >> from double a harrisburg. >> really? >> peter: we're going to talk about that with cindy. cindy boren from "the washington post" joins us. as i said earlier not unlike a doughnut, i have surrounded the empty vacuous space that is me with wonderful people who know what they're talking about. so i brought cindy in from "the washington post." follow cindy on twitter at cindy

boren, that's boren with an e b-o-r-e-n, this is dan's only day this week. this is the one day work week for dan. dan is leaving. >> he's got a big week. >> dan is going to get married. >> aww! >> saturday. >> it is this saturday? >> this saturday. >> my invitation must have blown off the porch. >> bill's going, i assume. >> no, he's not. i'll tell you this. >> you didn't invite bill? >> no, i didn't. i know. i will tell you why i didn't invite you or bill. >> first of all i expected to not get invited. i understand. >> you were on the cut list. >> you didn't invite bill? >> i couldn't. >> you couldn't invite your boss? you've worked for him for six years. >> leslie and i had a long conversation. we went with the rule of no invites to people that we work with. >> wow. >> because had we done that, she would have had to invite 20 people. that would have shot the guest

list over. i can't have one guy that i work with and you understand -- >> but it is your boss. >> no, i know. >> you have to invite your boss. it is not like i have a big team. >> i have to go with him on this. >> really? >> he's made a rule. he's stuck with it. it goes across the board. >> you have to know bill. >> although i'm going to go crash it. i'm going to be in the bushes with binoculars and see if anybody shows up. >> if i invited bill, then i would have had to invite you and cyprian and alicia and -- >> drag cyprian in. he gets dragged into the wedding? >> i would have had to invite him and then -- if i just invited bill, leslie has like four bosses. she would have had to invite four people plus their wives then that's eight people. >> seat them and up to booze. >> we're up to 10. >> bill drinks a lot of booze! >> so i had to go -- we went --

it was a tough decision but no one from either of our workplaces. >> how many people will be at the shindig? >> 500. [ laughter ] >> so they had to really cut the last eight. ure final number is 134. >> holy smoke. >> big wedding. >> it will be good. yeah. looking forward to it saturday. >> well, it will be a very fun party. weddings are always a fun party. then the hangover lasts about 50 years. >> peter: 10 minutes past the hour. we're talking a lot of sports with cindy boren coming up here. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday. one of president obama's biggest supporters in hollywood graduated with a masters degree late last week. actress and activist eva longoria earning her masters in chicago anna studies from -- >> that's what i majored in. >> from cal state university at north ridge. according to tmz.

she's been taking classes for the last three years. here thesis was titled the value of latinas in science engineering and math careers. >> sure. who knew. >> i wonder if she's watching the spurs. >> she's secretly gotta be watching the spurs. >> of course. >> the prominent nfl player has come out against gay marriage. adrian peterson, the minnesota vikings mvp was asked about chris kluwe being cut in an interview with sirius x.m. he said they're friends and it hurts to see him leave but he has different views on same-sex marriage. it is not something he believes in. peterson said to each his own. he's got relatives who are gay but he's not with it. he says he thinks they should not be able to get legally married. >> that's what my dad said. that's such a dad -- i'm not with that stuff. cindy, that is certainly -- i don't think he speaks for all of the athletes. i don't think he speaks for the

nfl. >> i think it is one thing to talk about your views on gay marriage. another to talk about your views on if you had a gay teammate. and that was kind of not really addressed in the interview. i'm waiting to hear more. >> good point. someone should follow up. >> i'm sure they will. >> speaking of marriages, former members of congress, connie mack of florida and mary bono mack of california who both lost their re-election attempts last year are losing something else. their major. they announced they're getting a divorce. they got married in 2007 in one of our favorite cities, asheville, north carolina. love just was not meant to be. they're both now lobbyists here in washington. no longer -- >> yeah. >> thank you man. >> so, cindy let's start first of all. i'm open and proud about my love of the san antonio spurs. i have spur fever. i have for a long time.

i explained if anyone wants to doubt my credentials of them jumping on the bandwagon i worked for the spurs in 2007. immediately following the game seven when they won the world championship, i got in the car and started driving here to work for bill press. >> aww. >> peter: i left the spurs to come work for here. they're a great organization. thatter a great team. >> amazingly under under underrated coach. how can gregg popovich be underrated. but he is. >> it is amazing. i specifically, let's face the facts here. they will probably play the miami heat. the miami heat will be -- >> if david stern has a vote, they will. >> you look at how the heat have put things together. they bought some nice players. >> they did? >> and their coach is you know, a little shaky. but then you look at what the spurs have done. these are the same core players that were playing when i left eight years ago.

>> parker and duncan. >> duncan character. they have built this team through good management, through good coaching and i was talking to cyprian earlier it might not be the flashiest play but that tony parker, tim duncan pick-and-roll -- >> they should have gotten to the finals last year when they got to the thunder after being up 2-0 -- maybe i shouldn't remind you about that one. they're now in -- i was seeing something this morning about in the same category as the celtics and lakers in terms of a core group that's been to the finals four times together. you know. this is really an amazing achievement for them. >> and you know, for the people that say that the spurs are boring and they're old -- >> well, you know, when you win you know, you can be as boring as you want. >> it is going to be very exciting. >> just win, baby. >> we know the spurs are playing for the nba championship. it will either be the miami heat for the indiana pacers.

then the pacers have the power to beat the heat. they did it once in the series. >> should have been up 2-0. should have won the first game. thanks frank vogel. >> let's talk about that for a second. so, you know, i always give lebron some grief for not being the kind of guy you want to give the last shot to. >> that was the old lebron. >> okay, that was the old lebron. i hear that. he gets this -- they don't even defend him. hibbert was on the bench. >> he looked like a plane on the runway with people waving him on with their little sticks, like glow sticks. really? nobody is going to challenge the guy? well, you know, maybe think about having hibbert in there at the end. >> maybe. >> maybe. maybe have him in at the end? >> well, they thought that he would dish off to bosh and they needed to defend against that. maybe they needed to put a hand in lebron's face.

>> peter: so they should be up two games but they're now down 2-1. next game is tonight. how do you picture the series going? >> i think it probably goes six -- i just think -- i don't know. i just kind of feel that the heat will come out of it. it would be great fun to see the pacers come out of it just to see the incredible angst that would be caused by this and the whole notion that lebron might leave miami next year. that would be kind of fun and there would be incredible drama surrounding it. that would be fun. if you want to see an actually really really great final series, it would be fun to see the heat and spurs. >> peter: it is a classic juxtaposition of two teams that play completely different basketball. >> remember when popovich pulled his starters and sent them home rather than let them play in miami. that was in december. that was a great moment.

road trip. he told his old guys, you know, eh, go ahead fly on back. he was fine. took a boat load of money. it was a ton of money. for them, not for the heat. you know. there's just a lot of stories with it. >> peter: so when we talk about the age of the spurs, they now have an extended period here where they can rest up and you know -- that's good for them. when do you think -- tim duncan given any kind of indication of when he might leave the game? >> no. but i mean i think you would have to believe he would want to go out on top wouldn't he? he could play another year. >> he doesn't have a whole lot left. >> he doesn't. >> he's still playing great. you look at rivera and you think he said i've got enough left for one more season. you kind of have to take him at his word on that even though you

think hey, he could go on. >> we've got the spurs in the finals. we'll see if they're playing the heat or the pacers. moving away from basketball, rutgers. what is going on with that school? >> clearly they don't understand the meaning of the word "vet." you know, the athletic director that they hired after firing tim pernetti because of the mike rice problem -- >> the abuse issues. >> verbal and physical, turns out that former athletes who played for julie hermann the volleyball coach at tennessee 20 years ago said she verbally abused them, called them whores, alcoholic, she was verbally abusive. she's been in the athletic department office at louisville for 15 years. this is all clearly quite awhile ago. however, she allegedly fired -- i think there was a lawsuit about it and it was settled. she fired an assistant coach for getting pregnant and there's

videotape of her at the wedding saying if you get pregnant, i don't know, i don't want a kid running around the office. and of course, she denies even having any memory of that. the president of the university amazingly has backed her. he said that she's the best candidate out of 63. of course, this was also the guy who couldn't find time to watch the video of rice. yeah. when that surfaced. so i really have some problems with the president right now. i have a lot of questions for robert barchi. >> it seems it is a new day for sports. i don't know that that type of language was uncommon back then. we're talking 20 years ago. when i played high school sports, my coaches were -- depending on what your definition of verbal abuse is, there was some verbal abuse going on. i think that's unfortunately par

for the course in a lot of sports. >> lack of awareness back then. >> yeah, you know, i think that's starting to change. but i think this ghost might% haunt her from her past. >> i think so. i also think it is going to be interesting to see what happens with the president. this being a state school. chris chris city not terribly happy and i think it -- i don't think this is quite over yet. >> peter: what should chris christie do in this situation? >> he can press the board of governors to remove the president. i also think -- remember, there was the other little bit of a problem they had when they hired eddie george to replace mike rice. and he's an alum, all of this. he never graduated graduated from result gers. how does that not turn up? do these people not understand google? >> it's not that hard. >> no, it isn't. it is mystifying. whether there's like a

fact-finding commission that has to be impaneled, i don't know how they go about it or how christie handles it. i don't know what the structure is but this clearly is not going to work. i was baffled when barchi did the press conference after the firings when he stood there really cluelessly. not really understanding it and saying well, you know, gosh, i couldn't find highway around rutgers, i was brand new. maybe you find five minutes to watch the video. >> you would think. we have a lot more to talk about. we'll take a quick break. when last i hosted, i had you on and we were talking about the feud between tiger woods and sergio garcia which has taken an uglier turn since we last spoke. it is 21 minutes past the hour. short break. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill press talking to "washington post"'s cindy boren. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us on "bill press show"

and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> announcer: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> peter: it is the "bill press show." peter ogborn in for bill press today. 26 minutes past the hour. i'm joined by "washington post" early leads sports blogger cindy boren. you can follow her on twitter at cindy boren. you should all go do that. follow cindy on twitter. one of the things that you were tweeting about earlier is sergio

garcia and the tiger woods fight. so they've had this feud going on which took an ugly turn when sergio garcia talked about having tiger woods over for dinner. >> you know, it would have been so funny if sergio had said what tiger woods said when he was asked about having dinner with sergio. he just said no. then he smiled. that was the end of it. if garcia had said that, it would have been funny and turned the tables and everyone could have moved on but instead he went to the fried chicken line which, you know, as fuzzy zoeller can tell you is not the way to go. sergio spends a lot of his year here in the u.s. >> that was my first instinct. i thought oh, god maybe he thinks all americans eat fried chicken. but no. >> no. >> there is no defending it. >> no. also coupled with all of the other stuff. >> peter: so what was his

apology? >> well, he said he was sincerely sorry, you know. if anyone was offended, if anyone was offended, i really am terribly sorry. he seemed, you know, he looked pale through the press conference. he was a guy on the hot seat. and it is going to be great because the u.s. open is just around the corner. >> that will be fun. >> the u.s. open typically draws a little different kind of crowd than the other golf tournaments. you'll get more ordinary fans at the open because it is the people's tournament. it will be interesting to see how he's greeted. maybe he will win it. >> peter: let's not get carried away. cindy boren, thank you for being here. cindy boren. follow her. we'll take a quick break and we'll tell you about how john mccain spent his memorial day weekend. very interesting. "full court press." the "bill press show." we'll be right back.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> 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.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> peter: it is the "bill press show." the "full court press." i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. we had yesterday off. it was memorial day. i hope you all had a good one. we had a very nice one here. we took a rare day off for team press. bill is taking a little extended vacation. he will be back later this week. for now, you've got me. so we didn't get a chance to go around the sunday shows yesterday because we weren't

here. but one clip that really stuck out to me was bob dole. he went on fox news sunday. you'll remember if you're ever having conversations with your friends about how the republican party used to be. what the republican party should be like today. they talk about bob dole. bob dole was a republican through and through. he was conservative. through and through. he's still alive. he's no longer in the elected office. he's the type of guy that would fight for conservative cause. he ran for president as a conservative. and then at the end of the day he was still a nice guy to progressives and liberals. he would still go out and have drinks with progressive leaders. it wasn't war with bob dole. it was all just politics. he would work with democrats and reach across the aisle and this was the guy. this is the standard that we point to say you know, after bob dole, things kind of started

to go south. things got way too partisan. fox news sunday invited a clear ly -- frail bob dole. he did not look great. he was sort of slumped over in a wheelchair situation. his voice is not what it used to be. but he was asked about the current state of the republican party. and his advice to them on how they fix it. >> i think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors "closed for repairs until new year's day next year" and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas. >> if there's anybody that got royally screwed over by the republicans and i mention this with igor volsky but in december of last year, bob dole went to

the floor. he -- in his wheelchair, and he asked his fellow, former congresspeople fellow former senators to vote on the united nations treaty that would ban discrimination against people with disabilities. i will repeat. a treaty that would ban discrimination against people with disabilities. and he sat there in his wheelchair and senators from both parties walked up, shook his hand, said hello. bob dole was then wheeled out and the republicans killed this treaty. they shot it down. this was what bob dole wanted. something he pushed for. he got royally screwed by the republicans. it is a shame to see that the symbolism in that, that you had this sort of face of what the republican party could be being completely shut down by the current state of the republican party. one republican who managed to sort of change with the times is john mccain.

john mccain used to be that bob dole character. he used to be the guy that could work with democrats and get stuff done and not make it a partisan political fight after hours but john mccain has changed. he is as anti-obama anti-democrat as a republican can be. on the sunday shows, there was no john mccain. it was very weird. he's always on the sunday shows. he was nowhere to be found because, ladies and gentlemen, he was in syria. he had gone to syria. he crossed the syrian border and he met with rebel forces. now, the rebel forces in syria we have some real questions about. this is the group of people who recently put out a video of them eating heart out of another gentleman. this is the syrian rebels. john mccain went to meet with them. it is all part of this build-up

to war with syria. war with syria. bomb syria. let's go bomb, syria. john mccain who famously saying bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb iran when he was running for president is now meeting with the rebels in syria and some way sort of insinuating that these are the people that we definitely want to align ourselves with and go to war with the establishment in syria. i'm not so sure what reality john mccain lives in. but in the reality that we live in he didn't get elected president. in fact, he got his ass handed to him by the current president barack obama. and it was on that election at the time, a lot of it was on matters of world affairs world politics, how you think this president would handle you know, world policies and conflicts around the world. and john mccain was rejected. and now here we sit where he has

gone into syria. he met with the rebels. now, this is -- such a 2013 story, meghan mccain, daughter of john mccain, tweeted she found out via twitter that her dad had gone to syria. she said nothing quite like finding out via twitter that my father secretly snuck into syria and met with rebel leaders. the last tweet was meant in love. my father is one of the last remaining bad asses around. i'm proud to be called his daughter. bad ass. >> call him a bad ass. >> now, even weirder than that tweet, more bizarre than that tweet was the one that lindsey graham sent out yesterday afternoon. best wishes to john mccain in syria today. if he doesn't make it back, i'm calling dibs on his office. that's what he tweeted. >> that's not a parity account.

>> what did he then say happy memorial day too? >> he didn't do that. he didn't do that. in other words saying maybe you make it back. maybe you don't. but if you don't i've got that sweet office. what? who says that. just imagine he doesn't come back. can you imagine? this tweet? >> yeah. that would not go over well. >> so stupid. >> that's like wishing harm on him. that's not good. >> why is he over there in the first place? >> i don't know why john mccain thinks he's president. this is sort of a trend of any time a big issue comes up, he act the like he's the face of the republican party. he doesn't speak for the republican party. he shouldn't speak for the republican party. he's a dinosaur. and it's -- this is over. this issue is over and done with. they don't want john mccain meddling in foreign affairs. just on his own. you would have to think that this was cleared through the white house. but i'm not so sure.

>> we have an office of the white house that does this sort of work. it's called the department of state. >> we do indeed. >> maybe he's never heard of it. >> maybe not. 1-866-55-press is our phone number. give us a call on this issue. i want to hear what you have to think about that. we'll come right back. by the way, we have some special guests in the studio. we have the students of washington township. valparaiso, indiana, is in studio with us. they're watching the show. so god help them. they got up this early to come and watch this show. >> to watch you. >> peter: you know what i was doing when i was in high school at this hour, i'm not even going to tell you because there are teachers here and i don't want to give them any bad ideas. let's just say good for them for being here. 41 minutes past the hour. peter ogborn in for bill press. >> announcer: like politics? like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> peter: yes it is the "bill press show." i'm clearly not bill press. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill. 45 minutes past the hour on this tuesday, may 28. the day after memorial day. we've been talking about john mccain and his covert trip to syria. let's take your calls. we're taking calls at

1-866-55-press. juanita is in indiana. welcome to the "full court press." we have a group from indiana in studio with us. >> caller: i just heard that. >> peter: what's your comment on john mccain? >> it infuriates me to think he can just go wherever he wants and spend whatever government taxpayer dollars he wants to spend. what he says. we can't afford to take care of the poor in our country. can't afford to pay for head start or meals on wheels. we can't afford to pay for food stamps for poor kids or have free breakfasts. i don't understand how he can be so hypocritical. >> that's a good point juanita. we talk a lot about the problems we have here at home. john mccain thinks he's fighting a war single-handedly in syria. i don't even know how much money to costs to get him over there.

what good is it doing? who does he think he is when he has to go over there. >> i think he just does it to try to show up the president. >> i think you're probably 100% right. we go from juanita to anita in east jordan, michigan. anita, welcome to the show. >> caller: my feelings are the same as the lady ahead of me. we're paying them to do their job here. which they're not doing. and they need to keep their nose out of obama's job and kerry's job. >> it is one thing if the president had said to john mccain, i don't think the president would say this to john mccain, if he had said to him you know, senator you know a lot about this region. you know a lot about the middle east. we would like for you to go over and meet with these rebels and see what long-term impact could be done if we were to help them or what their long-term goals are. that's not what happened. it appears as though john mccain went over there like he thought he was the president.

>> caller: right. i don't think that's right. they need to keep their bodies here and do their jobs here. >> peter: if it managed to keep john mccain off the sunday shows maybe it was worth it. maybe it was worth it. >> peter: let's go to derek in atlanta, georgia. welcome to the "full court press." >> caller: thank you. i think john mccain is senile and to me, he's the hogan's hero guy. he's just mad at the world and against obama because he lost. this is what i would like to say. john mccain was denied -- he graduated out of his class the naval academy. he received affirmative action from his father and grandfather who were higher up in the navy but they always want to speak

about black people and affirmative action. same way about bush. think about that. >> peter: all right derek. i will think about that. thank you friend. let's talk about -- wham i going to do with that call? what do you mean? >> speaking of the sunday shows let's talk about face the nation. bob schieffer who for my money is the best of the sunday talk show hosts. i really do like bob schieffer. i think that's been around this town long enough to know how to handle the press. how to handle the produces of white house. how to talk to the white house. how to talk to members in power and he has a problem with the access that the press has been getting to this white house. here's how he started off his comments sunday. >> it has reached the point that if i want to interview anyone in the administration on camera from the lowest level worker to a white house official, i have to go through the white house press office. if they're chosen spokesman turns out to have no direct

connection to the story of the moment as was the case when u.n. ambassador susan rice was sent out to explain the benghazi episode, then that's what you and i the taxpayer get. >> he has those comments about benghazi. it goes a little bit further. i know that bill's been taking a lot of heat because he says that obama should fire eric holder. i happen to agree. i think it is time that eric holder should go for a lot of reasons. the same reasons that bill thinks eric holder should go. since we last spoke it has been confirmed that eric holder personally vetted and signed off on the tapping of james rosen's -- or the collecting of james rosen's e-mails. and tapping of phones. and so this department of justice now has a little bit of an issue with how they are going after the press. and some people are saying it is

a little too aggressive. i think it is way too aggressive that they're investigating these leaks in the way that they are. so obama's solution, the president's solution is to have the department of justice investigate the department of justice. he's having holder run the investigation into whether or not he went too far. here's what bob schieffer had to say about that. >> so i'm glad the president has asked the attorney general to review whether his investigations into leaks is having a chilling effect on journalists but it shouldn't stop there. the president needs to rethink his entire communications policy, top to bottom. it is hurting his credibility and shortchanging the public. and to head the review, how about someone other than the attorney general whose department is so deeply involved. that makes no sense to me. >> boom. truth bob schieffer style. we would say the same thing about george w. bush. we did say the thing about

george w. bush. it look like this was an overreach e. maybe it wasn't but it looks like it was. and if that's the case, there should be an investigation. and if you're going to have an investigation, maybe have someone investigate -- other than the person that's being investigated. you can't have the department of justice investigate the department of justice. how does that work? you can't have eric holder look at his own actions and deem them within reason. why not bring somebody else in. i think bob schieffer is on to something and i think it is sad that more people aren't talking about how this white house is handling the press. and we're going to talk about that more in the next hour. but we're going to take a quick break and come back and see what the president is up to today. he spent part of the weekend in oklahoma surveying the damage out there. we'll talk about that and what he has coming up next on the

"full court press." peter ogborn in for bill. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show."

john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern. 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.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. >> peter: it is the "full court press." the "bill press show." i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. we'll be joined in the next hour by yahoo! news reporter chris moody and sabrina siddiqui from "the huffington post." let's take a look at what the president is up to today. the barack and chris show goes back on the road. barack obama travels to new jersey. he will meet up with chris christie. they'll tour some of the damage there on the coast in

new jersey. let's take a look at the timing here. at 10:00 this morning the president departs the white house and he lands in new jersey around 11:00 this morning. he is going to tour some of the damage and then deliver remarks at thes abury park convention hall at 1:30 this afternoon and then back on the road around 3:00 he lands at the white house around 4:00 where he will then go straight into a meeting with secretary of defense chuck hagel in the oval office. that is closed to press. and then press gets to observe the president delivering remarks in the east room at 5:30 this afternoon. >> busy day. >> that's a busy day. it was everything -- be the president will be in four different places in one day. that's not bad. there is no press briefing today. bill normally goes to the press briefings, he won't miss out.

if you're not following us on twitter, i push twitter a lot. go follow us on twitter at bpshow. if for no other reason, bill tweets from the white house press briefings and it is so beautiful. it is so perfect. because he'll just smack down other reporters as they're asking dumb questions. it is the best. i'll watch the press briefing with twitter open and just sort of watch bill as he tweets in real time. it is really fantastic. so keep an eye out. there could be a lot of good stuff that comes out of new jersey today. maybe the photo of the president and chris christie next to each other won't be so severe as it has in the past. chris christie has gotten the lap band surgery. maybe he will have slimmed down a little bit. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> peter: good morning and welcome to the "full court press." it's the "bill press show" live on current tv. i am not bill press. i am peter ogborn sitting in for bill. he's taking a little extended time off for memorial day. we're tweeting all throughout the show at bpshow. you can find us there. like us on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. follow along with all of the things we're talking about right there as well as watching us on current tv and listening to us on the radio this hour, we'll be joined by chris moody from yahoo! news. and sabrina siddiqui from "the huffington post" and we have oh, so much to talk about. first of all, john mccain over the weekend slipped into syria.

crossed the syrian border and he met with rebel forces there. i'm not sure how the white house is going to respond to that. i hope that they knew about it. but we will get to the bottom of it. i have a bad feeling john mccain thinks that somehow an alternate reality, he was elected president. and how 2013 is this story? his daughter, meghan mccain, found out about the trip on twitter. just like the rest of us. also, a new poll out from cnn says that 54% of americans oppose obamacare when they use it as the term obamacare. when you break it out and get into the individual benefits that people get from obamacare it does much better than that. we'll talk about that plus much more with chris moody from yahoo! news right here on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire.

are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number

1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> peter: i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill. i've been getting e-mails about how much more handsome bill is. you're stuck with me one more hour. thank you for being here. it is tuesday may 28th. i'm sitting in. bill will be back soon. running the board is dan henning. mr. henning, how are you sir? >> good morning i'm great. >> peter: screening your calls is alicia cruz and on the video operations is cyprian bowlding proudly repping the washington nationals with his baseball cap yes, indeed. we didn't even talk about the nationals with cindy boren when she was here. we'll have to work that in later

on in the show. i brought in yahoo! news reporter chris moody who joins me for the rest of the hour. >> you've changed bill. >> peter: it's amazing what they can do these days. makeup. >> what one three-day weekend will do to a man. >> peter: hey, it is not often i sit in this chair but when i do, i like to bring in people who know what the hell they're talking about. >> i'll do my best. >> peter: so i was -- i admit i was up late and i was up watching the basketball game last night. i get really -- i don't freak out or geek out over a lot of sporting events. i do with the nba playoffs because i really like the spurs. game four, in memphis they swept the grizzlies. >> will dribble it out. the san antonio spurs for the first time since 2007 are going

back to the nba finals. they do it with defense tonight. the grizzlies shoot 37%. tony parker leads the way with 37 points and the spurs beat the grizzlies in a four-game sweep the final score from memphis spurs, 93. grizzlies, 8 5u6r789 we at least know the spurs are going -- they'll either be playing the heat from miami or the pacers from indiana. >> i've got nothing on basketball. >> i at least embrace -- i understand that most people don't watch nba basketball. but i really like the nba. and i really like the spurs. because they're sort of -- what a good sports team should be. they have good ownership. they've invested in their players. they take care of them over the long haul. they don't just grab and pick hot, flashy players. they built this team up over several years. >> will the spurs beat the heats? >> no. they will not.

>> i'm assuming. heat are playing the pacers. they play tonight. >> they play tonight. the heat, i'm assuming, you'll run away with the series. >> i think the pacers will probably win another game. i think it will go six games. this is good news because the spurs who were all senior citizens will get to rest up and rest their weary bones and then they get to play the young flashy heat, they'll have a full tank of gas. >> couple of years ago when lebron james moved from cleveland to miami terd asked me to write a story. i had to google lebron james and find out what he did if he was an athlete or if he was some kind of businessman. so that's how little -- when i was on irish bus in college and i was nearly killed when i asked the question "who's david beckham." so i now know who lebron james

and david beckham are. [ laughter ] >> that's great. >> i survived the irish bus and i survived that question. >> peter: you've learned something. that's good. we have a lot to talk about from the world of politics and the scandals that surround the obama administration. some of them real. some of them manufactured, i think. we'll talk about those. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news, charles ramsey, the hero of cleveland is not happy about the free burger offer he received from over a dozen restaurants in ohio which have put the charles ramsey burger on their menus. he lawyered up and released a statement saying he never allowed the restaurants to use their name and wants nothing to do with them. ramsey instead wants people to do something to help the victims locked in his neighbor's basement for over ten years. mcdonald's has stepped up making a $10,000 donation to the national center for missing and exploited children. >> it is amazing that we do this

with people in this culture in this society. we build them up and then we sort of -- >> how it goes. >> history was made saturday as the first openly gay male athlete to play in a professional sport took to the field in the u.s. robbie rogers signed a deal with the l.a. galaxy soccer team and played saturday for the first time. he came out in february after saying he was retiring from soccer but then had a change of heart and is now playing again saying he realized he could, in fact, play soccer and be gay at the same time. >> never heard of him either. >> neither have i. >> peter: i honestly hadn't heard of him either. but good for him. i think -- this is why we talk so much at the time about jason collins, the nba player who came out is it shows that working gay athletes can come out and say i am gay and not you know, they don't have to -- it doesn't have the stigma it used to have.

their players will accept them. >> jason tweeted to him and wished him best of luck. >> looks like donald trump wants to run for president again. "new york post" reporting the celebrity apprentice host has spent over a million dollars on electoral research for a potential 2016 run. you know he never officially entered the race the past cycle. made headlines to the $5 million offer to the president for his birth records. >> don't give in. >> i was going to ask you. you cover politics. >> don't cover it. >> it is not a real story. >> he's doing it to build ratings for the show. don't cover it. >> if we haven't learned now we'll never learn. >> push back against your editors, don't cover it. they'll ask you to cover it, do not. >> i like that. yeah. it is the silliest thing. he runs around saying people ask him everywhere, run for president. i mean -- i'm sure that there

are some people -- i think probably the people who hang out in his casinos for 12-hour binges at a time. i don't know that real american people want to see donald trump be president. >> they probably don't. i've written about donald trump plenty of times. he's written me a hand-written note in the past. if you write something he doesn't like, his secretary prints it out he signs it with an angry note, scribbles on it and they fax it to you. they scan it and e-mail it to you. i have a nice little letter from don trump. >> no way. >> don. >> the donald. >> that's pretty cool. >> guys, let's not do that again. although i kind of now i want to find a way to crowbar something really negative to write about donald trump so i can get one of those letters. >> he has a sensitive skin. >> i'm definitely going to do that. >> let's talk a little bit about what's going on with the white house. i want to start dan with the bob schieffer clip, the first one because you know, here on the

show when bill is here, he's talked a lot about the i.r.s. scandal and some people say it is not a scandal. some people say it is a scandal. bill's point is these are 501(c)(4)s that are supposed to be nonpolitical are clearly political. the inclination of going after them clearly flawed. it is not the thing that's going to bring obama down. let's put it that way. the eric holder going after the media is a real problem. and bill was the first i think progressive voice to come out and say fire eric holder. you need to get rid of eric holder because of how he's gone after the media for leaks. bob schieffer on "face the nation" on sunday, he talked about the obama press office and how they're sort of handling some of the criticism. >> it has reached the point if i want to interview anyone in the administration on camera from the lowest level worker to a

white house official, i have to go through the white house press office. if their chosen spokesman has no direct connection to the story of the moment as was the case when u.n. ambassador susan rice was sent out to explain the benghazi episode that's what we and you the taxpayer get. it usually isn't much. >> chris moody from yahoo! news, you cover the white house. you cover some of these things that we're talking about here. how big of a scandal is this? with the department of justice going after reporters? >> well, it is not just "the associated press." and i cover mostly capitol hill but i will cover the white house. you had fox news reporters coming out and saying that they -- not in coming out, there were documents showing they had not only been looked at but called co-conspirators and leaking information and i think that's where it crosses the line. when you're talking about -- not

just looking at lead cases but putting in the reporters as someone that you can prosecute for reporting that information. that's troublesome waters, i think. >> peter: as a reporter, when we talk about leaks you know, the administration is sort of -- has made leaks the boogie man. how damaging are these leaks in reality here, we talking about. a lot of reporters look at leaks as a story whereas some elected officials look at them as seriously damaging. >> certainly something to be said about national security. that's very important. and i think if you talk to national security specialist they'll probably err on the side of the d.o.j. this is serious stuff. please don't report this. i think jay carney was up, you know on the hot seat last week saying there is a fine line here. it is a balance. he's right. the question is the president walking that fine line and i think you'll have people in the press saying no, he's not but then you'll find foreign policy

and c.i.a. specialists saying yes, he is. so it is a debate worth having. i'm glad we're having it. unfortunately, it is at the expense of a lot of the reporters. >> that's a good way to put it. when you look at how they went through the process of going after fox news, someone who we, you know, have tangled with many times with fox news. the case of them going after james rosen and other reporters eric holder personally oversaw that. he vetted it. he signed off on it. he knows about it. he knew about it. so now the administration has put the department of justice in charge of investigating the department of justice. >> isn't that the old washington story? >> classic headline. federal government clears federal government of all wrongdoing. washington kind of thing that they do. it happens all the time. i think we should all write headlines that say something like that that shows kind of how

silly this really is. >> that was part of bob schieffer's take when he talked about it. if you think you have a real problem and if you think you have an issue that needs to be investigated, you need to have somebody investigated other than the person who's being investigated. >> we can all agree on that. >> i think that's why bill and i working for a progressive show and progressive politics. we follow this stuff. this is what we demanded of the previous administration. and when -- as bill will put it, when our guy, the president, progressives put into office is engaging in that kind of behavior if really stains. >> if bush were going after msnbc in 2006, can you imagine the uproar on progressive talk radio or tv? >> it is a valid point. so at the end of it all you know i -- bill has said it. i agree that obama should find a

way to get rid of eric holder. for reasons beyond this. you look at what happened with the big banks. nobody ever saw any kind of time for that. you look at -- you know, a lot of -- fast and furious. you look at all of the headache that eric holder has brought to the administration. you know, he served a long time. >> it does seem the president is going to stand with him. he's made that very clear. that he's not going to push eric holder away any time soon. maybe by the end of his second term here. but certainly once everything else has floated away a little bit. you'll see that happen. he'll retire and spend more time with his family. >> that's the way to put it. 1-866-55-press. on that issue of cutting loose the deadweight, right so the i.r.s., scandal continues of who they were targeting and why they were targeting them. so it looks like -- explain the

position of lois lerner and sort of where she is now and what role she played in the i.r.s. scandal. >> well, she has been -- what is it not fired but sent away with pay which is another government thing that they do. something bad, you get paid to go on vacation although i'm sure she has a little bit of anxiety. there is a struggle here between having ambiguous rules about nonprofit groups and a way to filter all of those out. and it does seem clear the i.r.s. probably made some poor decisions on how to do that. with the target -- the bolo list, be on the lookout list. favorite one was we need to look at groups that want to make america a better place. you know. so they're in this position where they have to find out if these groups are primarily doing politics. political activity. that's a hard thing to dust determine. because they're allowed to talk

about policy and take political stances per policy -- policy stances more often. but it can't be their primary activity. what the heck does primary mean? >> peter: right. >> it is difficult for this agency to filter all of these -- not to be defensive. but it's -- it's tough. >> peter: that i think is sort of what they have been saying. you look at this. it is clearly a problem. this is not how it should be done. but when you have so much gray area when there's so much of -- we talked to igor volsky in the first hour of the show from think progress who said there is sort of like an agreement, sort of like this loose understanding that these 501(c)(4)s, they can't engage in more than 49% of their activity can be political. they don't measure that. so it is such a mess that you

have to wonder when the president was going to get really tough on it and address it. i think this lois lerner thing is a step in the right direction. we got more to talk about. need to take a quick break. 22 minutes past the hour. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill joined by chris moody frommia news. right back after a short break. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." on current tv. for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> 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. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> peter: it is the "bill press show." i'm peter ogborn in for bill

press today joined by chris moody of yahoo! news. one of the stories chris wrote about is the virginia governor's race. very exciting race between terry mcauliffe and ken cuccinelli. mccallive has had a -- mcauliffe had a couple of ghosts from his past crop up including one you talked to. >> mcauliffe comes from an irish catholic family from new york of four brothers. joseph mcauliffe older brother, used to work for pat robertson's presidential campaign in 1988. he also was arrested outside of an abortion clinic protesting about that time. so i looked into this story. kind of a fascinating tale of two brothers that go completely divergent paths but both get into politics. now, the story ends with his older brother actually becoming a democrat in the '90s and is now pro-choice on abortion. you can imagine the thanksgiving dinners throughout the '80s between the two mcauliffe boys who loved to debate.

>> i'm sure. people evolve. that happens. mcauliffe who has never been shy to shy away from a debate, i'm sure that was very, very interesting. >> you can only imagine. here's where it comes full circle because mcauliffe -- terry mcauliffe has gone after cuccinelli calling him an extreme for the positions his brother once held. >> peter: oh, man. cuccinelli could easily turn that right back around. i'm very curious to see how this race turns out. >> it will be a fun one. especially as we get closer to the election day. >> peter: they're both two loud personalities. we'll see. stick around. we'll keep you here for the rest of the hour. we'll be joined by "huffington post"'s sabrina siddiqui. (vo) current tv gets the

converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) 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. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> clearly, i'm not bill press. i'm not nearly as handsome as bill press. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. tuesday, may 28. we've been joined by yahoo! news reporter chris moody who has been with us for the hour. we brought in from "the huffington post," sabrina siddiqui. >> thanks for having me. >> peter: i've described today's show not unlike a doughnut. the empty vac you on -- vacuous space in the middle and filling it with wonderful people. >> i've always thought of you as

an empty vacuous space. >> thank you very much chris. >> just that i'm thinking of you. >> i'm flattered that you had the thought. >> we're tweeting at bpshow all throughout the show at bpshow. so go and follow us there. chris is tweeting at chris underscore moody and sabrina is at sabrina siddiqui. we've tweeted out your name there. >> no need to spell that out for people. it is too complicated. >> peter: find us. it is easy. so we found out yesterday that john mccain, senator from arizona, former presidential candidate, took a trip to syria. he crossed the syrian border and he met with rebel forces yesterday. my first question when i heard that was did the white house know about it? and should the white house know about a trip like that? >> well, i haven't heard any official word from them as to whether or not they heard at the same time there wouldn't have been much communication with jay

carney since he left because of the policy day. -- because of the holiday. they could give a heads up to the white house. the president himself has not gone to syria or made a trip during this period. one could say the white house could be given a heads up. they've been working well with senator mccain on a lot of issues lately. it is better relations despite the benghazi stuff. i don't know. there's possible -- possibility certainly that they were informed about this. >> fascinating since this could be the second term of the mccain administration. >> it is interesting how he's worked so much with obama despite him working hard to show differences a couple of years ago.

>> peter: that's a good point. mccain has done some good in terms of defrosting the icy relationship between the two of them. this is an interesting move. i'm very curious to see how the white house responds to it because this goes into mccain's narrative with the syrian rebels which -- how does that sort of go with what the white house is saying? >> he's had a much more -- activist approach. we were just talking about this. he and senator lindsey graham have written letters to the administration. they've had press conferences around. they've been in favor of going beyond the humanitarian assistance which are in place and actually arming the rebels, certainly they were the ones who inquired along with a few other senators about the use of chemical weapons. that was the response in which we learned there had been possible use of chemical weapons. >> that was the red line. >> that was the so-called red line. the white house has been reluctant to actually arm the rebels even with the use of chemical weapons they want to

establish a chain of custody and make sure it was in fact, the assad regime that was behind the use of the weapons even though the rebels and -- they don't have access to the stockpiles. the preliminary u.n. report found that it wasn't the assad regime. they're being cautious. because they don't want to operate o off potentially that intelligence or lessons learned from iraq. i don't know what chris' take on it is. they've been a step behind graham and mccain with respect to taking on, you know, what would be perceived as some degree of military action. >> given history one should be cautious when arming any rebels because there's not necessarily a wonderful track record in the long span of history if you look 20 years later who will the rebels be? who's backing them now that we don't know. and i think the administration should be given credit for being a little bit hesitant and examining the entire situation before plunging. >> we all sort of -- here at the show, all sort of got like a little freaked out when obama

said the red line and when we saw that there were some of the weapons that were used and the immediate reaction from some of the politicians, lindsey graham and john mccain saying where are the planes? when are we going to go to war? it is like whoa, whoa. >> press releases are already written, waiting to go out. that's their opportunity to do it. >> that's the difficulty withdrawing any kind of red line because the problem is you can't predict what's going to happen and when it is going to happen, whether you're prepared or not for your so-called red line to be crossed. and then suddenly, you have calls for action. you have them coming not just from lawmakers who think it is appropriate for the u.s. to take a more active role but also from some humanitarian groups that don't think enough has been done. i think the mass casualties there have largely been overlooked. it is very tricky when you draw a red line. clearly, you know, i think it tempered down since then.

we haven't heard as much about what the next steps might be. >> i'm very anxious to see what the next steps might be with that because eventually, i think the white house at some point is going to have to respond to mccain's trip there. this isn't the last we've heard of mccain's trip by any stretch. >> i'm sure it will come up at today's white house briefing. >> good point. although carney is gaggling today. there is no press briefing because the president is going up to new jersey. >> ah, yes. >> where? >> exactly. >> how will it affect the election? >> how chilly is it up there and will chris christie pull his fleece out? >> is it fleece weather? >> it will be 90 degrees in d.c. surely it will be a little warm. >> always fleece weather. >> look, you know, on the shore there is a breeze. just to be safe, i hope that chris christie has one that says chris christie governor and obama shows up with one that says barack obama p.o.t.u.s.

>> maybe it will be a goodwill offer. >> that would drive republicans absolutely insane. one final note on the john mccain trip to syria. lindsey graham tweeted yesterday, i don't know if you saw this. one of the more bizarre tweets, he says best wishes to john mccain in syria today. if he doesn't make it back, i'm calling dibs on his office. >> that's a little morbid. >> we're talking about syria here. if you don't come back from that spring break to miami i've got your office. he's going to syria. >> these guys are very good friend on capitol hill. they're buddies. between them, that's funny. to the public, that's a little strange. >> i wouldn't even say that to chris. i call dibs on your desk on the hill. i would not ever do that. >> to be fair, have you seen his desk? >> we sit next to each other on capitol hill. it starts about our comedy. >> new segment on the show.

>> two mismatched sort of -- >> we got put next to each other on capitol hill and we have a great time chasing down lawmakers, causing trouble. >> i like it. i like it. lot of executives watch the show. studio executives. >> right here. >> right here. 1-866-55-press is our phone number. give us a call. let us know what you think about john mccain's trip to syria. what that means for the future of syria what it means for the white house. we'll take a quick break. more to talk about john mccain his relationship with the tea party and ted cruz. it is 41 minutes past the hour. sabrina siddiqui from "huffington post." chris moody from yahoo! news. i'm peter ogborn sitting in for bill press. >> announcer: like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show."

to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

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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. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

>> peter: my name is peter ogborn sitting in for bill today. thank you for being here. i brought in chris moody from yahoo! news and sabrina siddiqui from "the huffington post." running the intoord dan. today is dan's one day he works this week. he had yesterday off. he's leaving. he's going to get married this weekend. >> congratulations! >> congratulations! >> we had a whole conversation earlier and maybe you guys can help out. dan didn't invite me and dan didn't invite bill. >> wow. is this the bachelor party right now? >> this is the bachelor party.

yes. bring out the beers. >> i heard bill really throws down at a wedding. >> bill will go nuts at a wedding. >> just to defend yourself, your reason for not inviting your boss of six years is because -- >> we could not -- leslie and i had a conscious decision and a long conversation to not invite anyone from either person's workplace because she works with a lot more people than i do and had i invited bill then i would have to invite you and cyprian. >> you would not have to. >> i was not expecting an invitation. >> it would be awkward if i didn't. then steve -- >> she would have to invite 10, 15 20 people. >> you just wanted to call him out on the radio. >> peter: in all honesty, we talked about it this morning. i assumed you had invited bill. because bill is a big deal. >> he is a big deal. i wanted to invite him. >> did you tell lessey bill is more important than any of her other bosses? >> i tried but that didn't go over well. >> is that how bill found out?

>> i hope bill is not watching. >> he obviously knows he's not invited. >> he would have gotten. >> good gift. now he won't get. >> gift. >> i'm planning a wedding right now but the trick is do it on an island way far away from the mainland of the united states and you can invite everybody and they just can't come. >> but you get the gift. >> it is good to have blanket policies about who you're going to invite. >> i'm not expecting an invitation. episode of the buddy comedy will be me making the way there by cargo ship. >> i'm not telling her which caribbean island it is. >> it is a scavenger hunt. >> i'll leave clues. >> is it an outdoor wedding? >> outdoor on the water. >> that's gutsy. >> but it is looking good. 87 and sunny for saturday afternoon. if anything, it will be hot. >> it is a ways off. >> i have been monitoring this weather forecast hourly. >> saturday or sunday?

>> saturday. >> good. >> it is going to be great. >> i wouldn't know. i wouldn't know. >> the pictures will be on fishbowl. >> we'll have them out there i'm sure. it is 48 minutes past the hour. when we went to break, we were talking about john mccain and his trip to syria. sabrina, you were telling me about the john mccain versus the tea party. how is that relationship shaping up in the senate? >> not well. >> peter: all right. >> they've attracted some -- there is already this coalition. ted cruz, marco rubio rand paul and mike lee. they have threatened to% filibuster debate on the gun bill and then they didn't go forward with that but it was certainly for a week or two attention-grabbing moment. recently they've been insisting that the senate not appoint budget conferees. they can't have -- budget

conference without conferees unless there is a precondition that they would not raise the debt limit as part of those negotiations. and usually, you can give people motions to instruct when they convene a conference but it is unprecedented to state there must be these preconditions sort of written and agreed upon. otherwise, you can't go to conference. it is interrupting with regular order, everyone has been saying the senate should go back to regular order no more back room deals. no more do everything out in the public and debate it before the public eye. senator mccain took a stance against that. he and senator susan collins sided with democrats and said we're the ones who were saying if they shouldn't been passing a budget. and now they're saying they didn't pass a budget. it seems absurd. mccain implied the younger guys don't know how congress works and they don't know how business is done here is what he said. >> from an historical perspective. it is tradition for new senators to shut up.

>> yep. >> they get there and keep their heads down. of some them don't give maiden speeches for a long time. now you've got this new crop of young, conservative senators that are mixing things up left and right. the folks that sabrina mentioned, the rand pauls, the rubios, they're giving speeches and putting out press releases and this just doesn't happen. i think you get the old bulls like mccain and go what the heck is going on? who are these new kids? it is a new thing. it hasn't been done that way. >> there are a couple of angles. one is that the older -- they can be a little more sensible about it. they see you know, a different kind of what could be perceived as obstructionism. they don't want to be affiliated with that or associated with the younger hotheaded making a name for themselves kind of senators who are playing to their base. couple of them are 2016 probables. he had called them wacko birds and they reacted to that. but with respect to this, the

other part is you can't forget that mccain was the one who with senator levin had brokered a mild filibuster deal. that was ultimately -- ultimate filibuster deal that passed. late january. mirrored the mccain levin package. they had specifically avoided going to 51 votes and harry reid had been talking about revisiting it because things hadn't gotten better. surprisingly. there still have been a lot of use of the silent filibuster and just in general they can't get judicial nominees through. so i think mccain thinks, you know, that the actions of these senators give a lot more i guess momentum as much as i don't like that word to democrats to say we're going to go to 51 votes if we can't even get to debate on the budget. and it is his -- it is his deal.

he was part of that final package with respect to the rules changes. so he has an interest in preserving that. >> it seems that we're sort of on an unavoidable collision course. with the mccain mentality and the tea party mentality. so sort of where do we go from here? are they just going to be able to coexist and sort of take jabs at each other all throughout the process or where do we go? >> if these guys can get re-elected, that's what they have to prove. the first one will be paul. he will be -- he will be 16 i think. and he might run for president who knows but if these guys can get re-elect and show that their coalition can survive an election, you will have something new in the senate, i think. especially if they add more. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell plays an important role here. he himself has been playing to more conservative side with his re-election coming up in 2014. he started this whole you know,

let's have a preconference framework and not you know, let's not appoint conferees just yet then they took it to a whole new level. he's been noticeably quiet since mccain and collins came out and said this is ridiculous. he hasn't wanted to get in the middle but it comes down to also leadership and how they handle it. but you know again they go at it -- also comes down to -- if they don't spar or filibuster the debate on guns, a lot of it is just for show. they get a lot of media hits out of it. they get a lot of clips on tv and it goes away and their job is done. some of it is attention grabbing and then that's it. >> their supposed presidential runs help bolster them. rand paul has said, suggested that you know, if i keep you guys thinking i'm running for president, you'll cover me. he said that to a group of reporters. >> sure. after his drone thing i got all of this media out of it.

>> he might run. i'm not saying lee. he knows exactly what he's doing. give him credit for being transparent. >> peter: good point. chris moody from yahoo! news, follow him on twitter at chris underscore moody. sabrina siddiqui, follow her at sabrina siddiqui. thank you so much for being here. i appreciate both of you guys coming in. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >>. peter ogborn filling in for bill. i'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) 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.

just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. current tv is the place for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> peter: it is the "bill

press show." the physical court press -- the "full court press." thank you so much for being here. i made it through the whole show. didn't mention arrested development which the new season of arrested development is up on netflix. they did this thing where they have all of the shows up. all of the episodes in this new season. all up at once and my advice to you is don't go binge on all of them. watch one a day. watch one a week maybe. they're meant to be savored. don't go through and watch six episodes in one sitting like a lot of people on the internet have done. you ruin everything. take your time with it. anyway, bill will be back later on this week. i appreciate you tuning in and being here with me. congratulations to mr. henning who leaves today to go get married. so when he returns he will be a married man. talk to you later. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> stephanie: all right. shake it off, everybody, long weekend. good morning, jacki schechner. >> good morning. >> stephanie: i have a stack like this for jacki's health care corner this morning. >> yeah. >> stephanie: there is a piece obama shock is a good shock! oh, know! [♪ dramatic music ♪] >> what will we do. >> stephanie: it looks like good news so far.