[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good tuesday morning everybody. what do you say? welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv. we're coming to you all across this great land of ours from our studio on capitol hill here in washington, d.c. our job for the next three hours is to bring you up to date on all of the news of the day to bring you some great guests to talk about it which we'll do so. your job is to sound off and let us know what you think about what's going on. you can do so, of course, by giving us a call at

1-866-55-press. you can also join us on twitter. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook. all of our friends unite. get together on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. well, richard nixon may be remembered for saying i'm not a crook. president obama may now be remembered for saying i'm no dick cheney. yes, indeed. that's what he told charlie rose in an interview on pbs before he took off for the g8 summit in northern ireland. an interview in which he stoutly defended the nsa spying program. and reassured americans that there is no way the nsa can tulessen in on your -- can actual listen in on your telephone calls. are you convinced? i'm still not. meantime the supreme court yesterday rejected arizona's voter suppression law by a vote

of 7-2. you know you're in trouble when antonin scalia votes against you. all of that and more right here on current tv. 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. nounce broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama says he is a-okay with nsa. and he's no dick cheney, damn it. oh, i don't know. are you okay with nsa? good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday june 18. we are here with all of you on the "full court press." good to see you this morning. thank you for being part of the program on a big tuesday

morning. as we reach out to you from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c., to let you know what's going on here in our nation's capital you may be surprised, there is actually some news from the capitol today. big news around the country and big news around the globe of course mainly in northern ireland where president obama meeting one on one yesterday with david cameron and also with vladimir putin and other international leaders and the president and obama and president putin had their words and expressed their differences over arming the rebels in syria. we've got lots to talk about this morning. lots that you are going to want to talk about. we've got lot of great guests to help us through the whole morning. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. join the conversation, give us a call at 1-866-55-press. any time. love to hear from you by phone. by twitter. at bpshow.

and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. indeed. here we go. peter ogborn still off this week remember. he's got the whole week off. dan henning filling in both jobs this morning. >> good morning, good morning. >> bill: with alichia cruz standing by on the phones ready for your phone calls and then cyprian bowlding is keeping us look good on the camera, on the video cam for current tv. we're also, of course, copping to you on your local progressive talk radio station and this hour only on sirius x.m. radio. so every day a little better on the voice, every day. thank you. >> sounding much better today. >> bill: thank you for putting up with it. it is still a little scratchy but at any rate, feel great. just sound like crap. some people say i sound like crap every day. not so much for what the voice sounds like but for what i say. that's a different story.

so american samoa he's not hard to pronounce is it? >> no. >> bill: you would think it isn't hard to pronounce unless you're presiding over the house of representatives which representative carrie bent kerry bentivolio from michigan was doing yesterday. he couldn't quite get the name of the -- >> delegate. >> bill: is samoa -- >> a territory. >> bill: a territory. not a province. not a colony. >> it is not a colony. >> bill: the territory of american samoa couldn't get the name of the territory or the delegate out. here is congressman bentivolio. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from american samolia -- mr.-- thank you. >> thank you mr. speaker.

it is american samoa. >> oh, thank you. it is delegate i i haven't ag enny eni. >> bill: it seems when your name is bentivolio, you should not be making fun of anyone else's name. come on. >> yeah. >> bill: press. >> american samolia. >> bill: smith or burns or jones or something. bentivolio? so talking about great guests. lynn sweet of course, it's tuesday. tuesdays with igor we call it. igor volsky from think progress will be here for the second half hour of this first hour together. lynn sweet washington bureau chief for the "sun-times" will be here as a "friend of bill" for the next hour. we'll be joined by the great senator, dick durbin from illinois.

a little bit later in the program. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines make news on this tuesday sports, the boston bruins shut out the chicago blackhawks. i wonder how lynn sweet feels about that. 2-1 in game three of the stanley cup finals thanks to 28 saves by boston goalie rusk who has not let a goal be scored on three of the last seven games. seventh consecutive game at home for the bruins. they lead the series two games to one. game four in boston tomorrow. >> bill: game four. best out of seven? >> basically the same set-up as the nba playoffs. >> bill: bruins win tomorrow, it's all over. >> 3-1. no they have to win four out of seven. they're up 2-1. my math is a little shaky. president obama's daughters accompanied him on his trip to europe. malia and sasha now 14 and 11

are on summer vacations. they attended a genealogy presentation in ireland yesterday to learn about their ancestral connection to that country. their great, great, great grandfather on their dad's side was a shoemaker in ireland. they spent the evening with the families that work at the u.s. embassy in dublin last night and head off to berlin, germany% later today. >> bill: it is o appos troverfy bama. >> lil' wayne has ignited controversy with the shooting of his video. he stomps on an american flag and raps "my country tis of thee ♪ ♪ god bless america this soulless america ♪ some saying he has every right to free speech. others saying what he did was completely offensive and he needs to apologize and not make the video. >> bill: of course, he made it just to get that kind of

controversy. >> here we are talking about it. look what i did. >> bill: all right. 12 minutes after the hour now. yes, indeed, for president obama, maybe understand why he went off to the g8 summit and why he's going on to berlin. things may be tough in europe but might be a lot tougher for him to stay home here. it has been a rocky road for the president recently. that's where we start this morning and get your comments about what's going on. a couple of indications of how rocky the road is. we know -- we talked about this, start of the show -- started the show with this yesterday before he left for europe, the president made the decision that we are going to, at last, intervene in the civil war in syria which has been going on for two years now. and because we learned that syria did, in fact, use chemical weapons, we're going to start supplying the opposition in syria with weapons with small arms only says the president. the american people say not so

fast mr. president. he is getting criticized by some republicans and, in fact, including -- in addition by former president bill clinton for not acting sooner but in the latest pew research center poll, 70%, 70 first of the american people say they oppose sending arms to syria. don't want to see a third war in the middle east now that we're ending the war in iraq and afghanistan -- wars in iraq and afghanistan. gallup poll by the way put out -- gallup came out with their own poll that showed 54% of americans not supporting -- supplying the rebels in syria with arms. gallup doesn't have much credibility left after 2012 but certainly the pew research center does.

70%. pardon me. second bit of bad news for the president this morning in his public approval ratings cnn's latest poll is out showing that the president is now down to 45% approval. that is down from 53% in may. down 8 points. and maybe the worst news of that is that only -- 49% only 49% less than half of the american people now say that president obama is honest and trustworthy. you can see what happens after a whole month of getting beat up over benghazi and the i.r.s. and the department of justice scandals and nsa on top of that. it certainly does take its toll. so with all of that looming before he headed off for europe, president obama gave a very, very interesting interview with

charlie rose, the great charlie rose of cbs morning news and also on pbs where he stoutly defended the nsa program. president obama telling charlie rose that this is something we have to do to keep americans safe. >> i hear you saying i have no problem of what the nsa has been doing. >> obama: let me finish because i don't. so what happens then is that the fbi, if, in fact, it now wants to get content, if, in fact, it wants to start tapping that phone, it's got to go to the fisa court with probable cause and ask for a warrant. >> bill: the president saying he's got no problem with what the nsa is doing. a-okay with nsa. that's "the huffington post" headline this morning. he points out that all they're doing, all they're doing, they are collecting data on every single phone call made by every

single american any time of day anywhere in the world to anybody at all. no matter how many times you make that call. they're collecting data on every single call, where you make it, how long it is, the number where it starts, the number where it goes to. but the president says they are not listening in on those phone calls and if they want to listen in on the phone call, as you just said, as you just heard him say -- it's probably not nsa. almost certainly not nsa. it would be the fbi for the department of justice. in order to listen in, they would have to go to the fisa court and get permission, get a warrant to do so. the president saying, trying to reassure us they're not listening to your phone calls and the president says so don't think of me as the next dick cheney. >> obama: the whole point of my concern before i was president

because some people say well, obama was this raving liberal before. now he's dick cheney. dick cheney says yeah, you know, sometimes, he took it lock, stock and barrel. my concern has always been not that we shouldn't do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism but rather are we setting up a systems of checks and balances? >> bill: so, the president says we need to do this spying. we need to do this intelligence gathering. but we just have to make sure that the proper checks and balances protections for our right of privacy are in place and the president goes on to reassure us that yes those checks and balances are there. >> obama: we have the system of checks and balances. congress is overseeing it. federal courts are overseeing it. despite all of that, the public might not fully know and that can make the public nervous. >> bill: yeah. i think that's the point. the president does get to the point and i've made this point. you've heard me make it.

probably sick of hearing me say it. that's my problem with the whole program. two problems. number one, i don't think we should be collecting all of that massive amount of data. big brother. at its worst. but two if we are and we've been doing so for seven years and if, as the president said, the administration knows all about it, and if the congress knows all about it. most members of congress. and if the justice department, through the fisa court and the department of justice know all about it, then why were we kept in the dark? why shouldn't the american people know about it? to me, that makes ultimate sense. don't treat us like idiots. if that's -- this program is really really necessary to keep us safe, if it really is helpful and has proven to be helpful in finding terrorists and going out

and people want to do evil here in the united states and stopping these terrorist attacks, then, fine. we'll put up with the invasion of our privacy. but don't lie to us about it. don't deny that it exists. and why not just tell us about it. and say we're doing this and here's why and here's what we're doing. it would not be a problem. but the president himself recognizes that keeping this a secret from you and from me is a big part of this problem. president obama i'm no dick cheney. in other words i'm no bush-cheney like. he's getting close. he's getting close on this nsa stuff. i'm tellin' ya. 1-866-55-press. what do you think? 70% of the american people, no arms to syria. 45%. 54% disapprove of the job president obama is doing right

now. president obama says i'm no dick cheney. your comments welcome on all of the above at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us on bpshow and tweet using the hash be tag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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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? 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. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you can't start your tuesday without igor volsky. we'll do so in the next segment of the program. right now, we're talking about

bad news on several fronts for president obama yesterday. 70% saying -- of americans according to the pew research center say they don't agree with sending small arms to syria. the president having an approval rating of 45% which is not terrible but it is down 8 points since may. and only 49% of americans, less than half now say the president is honest and trustworthy. not a good boy scout, in other words. tom calling from boston. what do you say tom? good morning. >> caller: good morning mr. press. >> bill: bill, bill, bill, please. >> caller: fine. no, i don't trust this power that the patriot act has given the past president and this president. and i don't believe him when he says that we're not listening in on your phone calls. the reason being on cnn, they were talking about military personnel, the nsa was listening to them when military personnel

overseas were having phone sexes with their spouses or partners and the nsa people thought it was funny. i'm sorry. no. >> bill: i can't believe they're not listening in. i'm with you. i'm glad you mention the patriot act because that's what it boils down to. >> caller: of course it does. george bush and cheney, this was after 9-11. i'm sorry. i'm not going to give up my civil rights. i forget the saying but i'm paraphrasing, give up a little liberty for a little bit of safety you deserve neither. >> bill: you're talking about benjamin franklin and i forget the exact quote myself, too. it is early in the morning. but at any rate, you're absolutely right on and the problem with the patriot act is not only that it was forced through by john ashcroft and george bush and dick cheney right after 9-11 by a compliant congress but since then, the congress keeps renewing the damn thing and democrats won't take it on.

remember russ feingold, the only member of the senate to vote against the patriot act, i think they ought to have a monument to russ feingold on the washington mall. danny is in bluefield, west virginia. good morning. >> caller: good morning, bill. i would like to go through this step by step just to make sure. >> bill: sure. >> caller: one, i supported the president. i was a rabid democrat. the nsa has been repeatedly caught surveilling americans doing all kinds of things. they've been censored and they keep doing it. they're absolutely listening in on every call and every e-mail right now and sharing the information with private companies. when the president says that it's being monitored by a fisa judge, the guy that authorized -- first of all, fisa is for intelligence surveillance. so why is he authorizing domestic surveillance? >> bill: danny we gotta stop you there because the clock has run out. you're right on. good call.

>> 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: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it's 33 minutes after the hour. this is the "full court press." it is tuesday june 18. great to see you today and we are coming to you from our nation's capital. and brought to you today by the american federation of teachers, the good men and women of the aft under president randi weingarten making a difference in the classrooms of america every day. you bet. we salute our teachers and the members of the aft and thank them for their support of the

program. yes, indeed, lots going on. how do we keep up with everything in the news, you ask all the time? easy. thinkprogress.org. >> point at me, i spit it out. >> bill: igor volsky, the managing editor of think progress here as he is every tuesday morning with you. igor volsky, good to see you. do you ever take a vacation? >> i will, soon. once i get married i'll take a week. go down to the beach relax turn off my phone put away the laptop. >> bill: you won't turn off your phone. >> you will be blogging with your toes in the sand. >> there have been negotiations, strict restrictions placed on my electronic use. [ laughter ] very unlikely. >> bill: a prenup? >> practically. >> igor is a big tweeter. i follow him on tweeter. igor volsky. he's all over. >> bill: do you that by at

igor volsky. let's start -- it looks like president obama yesterday said i'm no dick cheney but there's a big feud right now, at least a difference of opinion between dick cheney and al gore, as you have reported. >> al gore coming out and saying he would not have used these kinds of powers that bush employed after 2001, after the attacks, the september 11th attacks. he began listening in, surveilling phone conversations with folks eyebrowed domestic call -- abroad, domestic calls here. he did it without court oversight back in 2001. >> bill: the wiretapping. nsa. >> the wiretapping nsa. he believes it is unconstitutional. it vile ates the fourth amendment of the constitution. >> bill: both under bush and president obama.

>> we should say the program has evolved drastically since 2001 when bush did it. you could argue oversight isn't sufficient. i think there's a lot of merit to that argument. let me just say about al gore. it's nice to hear him say this but i think that president obama, when he was senator obama or when he was state senator back in 2003 in illinois, would have said the same thing. i think there's something about the trappings of the presidency when you get into the job and you kind of have the options laid out in front of you that you become much more comfortable with these techniques given the responsibility. you think you have, while occupying that office. remember, this is the same president who in 2005, cosponsored the safe act which sought to tighten how the

government can obtain your phone records, that there has to be reasonable proof that you're involved in something that threatens national security. so gore, who calls himself what, a recovering politician, i think he said recently, says that he thinks -- >> bill: he's also a recovering television executive. >> so i hear. i'm reminded every day right? >> bill: but current tv is still here for another couple of months at any rate. i think you're right. about president obama. and anybody once they get into that oval office. but i might -- i would have to say that's the problem. you don't want -- you want them to stick to their principles when they get in the oval office and too many, this is just my opinion, republicans and democrats, pick up the trappings of the office and where they

stand, changes depending on where they sit. i think that's why a lot of people are disappointed that president obama hasn't been stronger in saying no. we're not going to continue this program. i talked against it when i was a senator. rather than saying now we can continue it but we'll do it a little differently and therefore it is going to be okay. i have a problem with the substance of what the nsa is doing. i also have a problem. we were just talking about this with the fact that the american people were not informed of what the nsa is doing. >> that's what i think is really the most problematic aspect of this story. one that these kinds of tactics are still continuing under president obama and number two that we didn't know that there were these secret laws that allowed them to do it. it is one thing -- we have a public debate and have decided this is the proper balance between security and privacy. it is a whole other thing to say that the government can make the secret laws and we can go about it without any kind of public

debate. >> bill: i was glad to see al gore come out and say what nsa is doing is unconstitutional. president obama said he wanted a debate on this issue. we got it. we got it. we got it. al gore on one side and a lot of others on that side, too. now, big decision yesterday. these last two weeks in june, we can expect the supreme court to be dominating the headlines. they come out -- their opinions usually come out on mondays and thursdays. we may get another big one -- today is tuesday. in two days. yesterday, on arizona, tell us about it. >> big surprise. the supreme court, in a 7-2 decision with scalia writing the opinion, saying that the state of arizona cannot require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. saying that federal law holds and state law can't override it. >> bill: they've passed a law saying if you come in to vote, you have to bring proof you're an american citizen which means

a passport or whatever. and if you were a naturalized citizen, you had to bring in your naturalization form. >> big certificate. >> bill: big certificate. >> can't fit in my wallet. it is really big. >> bill: i also understand you cannot photocopy it. >> it has been photocopied. >> bill: but you have to bring it in, right? >> i believe under this law, you would have to have some kind of proof. >> bill: the supreme court said no, no, no, that's going too much. when they sign up to register to vote, they sign a form and one of the boxes is i'm an american citizen and you check that box and the supreme court said you do that under penalty of perjury it is, in effect, an oath. the supreme court said they've taken that. they've signed that. that's good enough. but this has meaning far beyond arizona. >> that's the hope is that there's some argument about how far this decision will reach. some folks are saying this is a

great step forward and now it establishes the precedent to reconfirm the fact that federal law trumps state law in this area as the constitution says and that other state efforts to, as we've seen this movement, to kind of -- of this voter suppression campaign of voter having an i.d. to vote, all kinds of registrations. >> bill: which they tried in over 20 states. >> very effective way to keep african-americans and minorities out of the polls. very popular in swing states where republicans are in power. some hope that after this decision that this could at least be maybe stopped slowed. other folks are saying that the last couple of pages of that opinion allow the state of arizona to reapply with the federal election board to get

the law through and saying that maybe this is a little more narrowly tailored than we would like. so there's some gray area. some disagreement but certainly a big surprise, i think for advocates of voting rights. you have scalia, who as you know in another case, called the voting a racial entitlement when it was about the voting rights act. now, joining the majority and saying that proof of citizenship to register is one step too far. >> bill: he wrote the opinion. it seems to me that there is a loud and clear message here. when you've got john roberts voting against you arizona and when you've got scalia, not just voting against you but writing the majority opinion and you've only got clarence thomas and alito on your side, you're doing something wrong. >> shaky grounds. >> bill: absolutely. 1-866-55-press on the supreme court decision. and on al gore saying what nsa

is doing is unconstitutional. we're catching up to date on all of the important news of the day with igor volsky, managing editor of think progress. as always, your calls are welcome. and this other story, you want to get into where some republicans are now agreeing with what democrats have been saying that they either have to get on board immigration reform or it could be all over. 1-866-55-press is the toll free number. tuesday morning june 18. we'll be right back. >> announcer: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show."

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? (vo) current tv gets the 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.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: we're getting up to date with all of the news of the day with igor volsky from think progress. your calls welcome during the conversation at 1-866-55-press. we'll be back to some of the things you may not have heard about happening here in our nation's capital and around the country in just a second here. but wanted to -- god this story out of california. get this. california design firm closed its doors earlier this year and yet they left records behind containing personal information on their clients including social security numbers in a nearby dumpster. thereby exposing all of those people to the possibility of

identity theft. it is everywhere. you gotta be protected against it. as i am with lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available today. even monitors your bank accounts but of course, lifelock services can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. visit lifelock.com and enter the promo code press 10 or call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10% off your lifelock ultimate membership. the number is 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. ego, we were talking a little -- igor, we were talking about edward snowden giving an interview yesterday for "the guardian" newspaper. i checked the petition on the white house petition site. the open petition to pardon edward snowden who has still not

yet been charged. you need 100 signatures to get a response from the white house. they're up to 83,526. >> you won't see my name on that petition bill. i'm a little skeptical of this snowden character. >> bill: why? >> there's a lot of reasons. >> bill: by the way, my name is not on it because i don't sign petitions. but i would sign this one and we put a link up on our web site to ask people to sign. >> no link on thinkprogress.org. i think that -- he's a very curious character. you know, i find it troubling though, some of the things he says, where he is hiding out now, the latest release are very curious to me that there was spying in 2009. he did that right on the eve of the g8, kind of stick it to that entire meeting.

he released the cyber security nugget that we kind of knew about but was damaging to when president obama met with his chinese counterpart. so i'm very curious about his motives and i would argue that because of these latest revelations about how the nsa is spying on foreign powers which is what it is supposed to do, it is really distracting from the conversation he hoped to have which is about civil liberties and surveillance in this country. so i'm a little dubious. >> bill: all i have to say is i do think edward snowden would be very smart to just shut up right now. i think he's done a great public service by telling us about what the nsa is up to. and he ought to just take care of himself and let this thing play out. but at any rate, i think he's a hero. >> bill: now you've got some other things. very interesting story you reported on on gun ownership in this country. and vice president biden don't think the gun safety issue has gone away. i mean we, in the media tend to

only -- we're capable of talking one issue at a time. it is nsa or syria but the gun issue is still out there. it is still alive and president obama is still a big priority for him. vice president is going to mention it today. >> he's having an event today touting the progress the administration has made. there has been little legislative progress but a lot of the executive actions he announced in the aftermath of newtown have been implemented. that's a good thing. but we've talked a lot about the power of national rifle association and them being the primary reason for why you've seen so little action and background checks, limiting the capacity of high-capacity magazines. assault rifles. well, it turns out this new poll from the pew research center finds that six in ten american gun owners are white men. 74% of gun owners are male and 82% are white.

just 7% are african-american. >> bill: 82% -- >> 74% are male. and 82% are white. so the white is men and women here. for the 82%. and just 7% are african-american. and politically, it says something very interesting because you saw in the 2012 election this demographic shift the new coalition coming together of women hispanics african-americans as their percentage of population increases. you're wondering what is going to happen to the power of the nra. that's their voter base. white gun owning guy and if their political power decrease as their numbers fall, what does that mean for gun safety legislation? are we going to have stronger laws moving forward because the natural constituency of this group is just shrinking. >> bill: that's an interesting

connection too to an earlier -- a couple of months ago, there was a survey -- information came out that the number -- "new york times" reported, we talked about it here on the show that the number of gun owners is actually shrinking in this country. more guns are being sold but fewer -- >> to a concentrated group. >> bill: fewer people are buying guns so when you see the numbers, it doesn't mean more people are buying guns, it means more people who already own guns are buying more guns. >> they're stocking up. that's right. >> bill: more guns in the hands of fewer people. so again your point that the natural constituency of the nra is getting smaller and smaller. it should mean that they should be getting less and less powerful. correct? >> i think they have. they've lost some key battles in the states. they've outraged a lot of people on the federal level. public opinion is against them. the public support background

checks and all of that. i'll just say friday was the six-month anniversary of newtown and we at think progress went through some of the most inspiring moments we've seen of great grassroots activism for be some of the issues and also remembered we had a lot of mass shootings since newtown. >> bill: over 5,000. i saw that number. >> it is a high, high number. hundreds of kids as well. >> bill: igor volsky, thank you. managing editor of think progress. it is thinkprogress.org. you can follow igor on twitter at igor volsky. see you again next tuesday. >> absolutely. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." "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. 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 am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. 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? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

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>> announcer: take your e-mails on any topic at any time this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: lynn sweet from the "chicago sun times" here as a "friend of bill" in the next hour. on john mccain, gerald hunter says once again, john mccain opens his dumb ass mouth calling for a no-fly zone in syria. my question is what the hell does he know about a no-fly zone when he doesn't know anything about flying except getting shot down? oh how cruel is that? i love it. do i believe obama on nsa? wayne b says i grew up in the '60s. no no, no. that's right. i don't believe him either.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning friends and neighbors. here we go the "full court press." hour number two on this tuesday june 18. thank you so much for tuning in to current tv. anywhere in this great land of ours, we're there with you this morning. to let you know what's going on. bring you the news of the day and most importantly give you a chance to sound off about what's happening and what it means to you. and to your family. three ways of doing so at least three ways. you can join us by phone at

1-866-55-press. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow. that's our twitter handle at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. all of our friends on facebook. well richard nixon is remembered as the president who said i'm not a crook. president obama may be now remembered as the president who said "i'm not dick cheney." that's what he told charlie rose last night. it is an interview he taped before he left for the g-8 summit on sunday afternoon. and an interview in which he also defended stoutly defended the nsa spying program. and reassured americans that there is no way that nsa is tulessening in on -- tulessenning in on your telephone calls. do you believe that? i'm not sure that i do. and the supreme court rejects

arizona's voter suppression law. big news to talk about today right here on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. 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. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on!

the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)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 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. 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 am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. 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? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama says i'm no dick cheney. all right. no dick cheney. getting close to george bush. what do you say? good morning everybody. it is tuesday june 18. here we are on the "full court press." coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. right here in the heart of the action, we'll let you know what's going on not

only here in washington but around the country, around the globe and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. remember, you're a big part of the program. we want to hear from you about what these issues mean to you and your family. you can tell us on twitter at bpshow and give us your comments on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. we can't get through it all ourselves. we need a little help from our friends. no better friend than the washington bureau chief of the "chicago sun-times," lynn sweet in studio with us this morning. hey, lynn. >> good morning. >> bill: how are you? >> great. >> bill: i'm going to move this microphone. >> hi. i'll start again. good morning bill. glad to be here. >> bill: the mic was in front of you so i couldn't see you. you're the only person i know who gets up as early as i do. if you're not here, you're usually on msnbc. you get an early start. >> every day is a different story. but i can get up early if i have

to. >> do you have softball practice today? >> not today. i was up early practicing for our big june 26th female softball game. d.c. female press corps members meet women senate and house representative members and we're playing in the field a few blocks from where we are now bill press land right off capitol hill in washington. >> bill: some people call it capitol hill. other people call it bill press land. >> on the night of june 26th, i know you have to get up early for the show -- it is an evening game. >> what is your team game again? >> the bad news babes. >> that's right. the bad news babes. >> it is a benefit for the young survivors, breast cancer network. >> bill: ooh, that's important. >> it is a cause. as i say it is a bipartisan bicameral. >> bill: do you have a web

site? >> i will call it up because i'm blanking on it right now. >> bill: call it up. >> in the course of this morning, i'll do it. >> bill: we'll let everyone know. >> serious softball game. and reporters have been practicing 7:00 a.m., women members get up early too that's the only time of the day to carve out and do something uninterrupted. >> bill: we used to call that deflower the breakfast hour. >> whoa. i'm not going on that one. > bill: when i was living in sacramento, we had a book club. that's the only time -- >> that's interesting for a book club. >> that was the only time we could find to set time aside. somebody came up with the phrase, deflower the breakfast hour. dan henning. >> good morning bill. >> bill: alichia cruz and cyprian bowlding, thanks to you all. talking about sports. you got us talking about sports. big playoff last night.

part of the playoffs of the stanley cup. lynn, you will not be happy with this. >> i don't stop. it is too painful for somebody who is from chicago and works for the "chicago sun-times" which, by the way has terrific coverage of the game, sad to say the blackhawks lost against -- what's that team in boston? >> knocked away. kelly pushes into the corner and that's it. bruins with a 2-0 win in game three and they lead the stanley cup finals two games to one. >> bill: you go back to chicago now, right? i think. doesn't it, dan? >> game four is still in boston. >> still in boston. i wish the blackhawks the best. go hawks. you guys are going to torture me? >> bill: tie it up. >> i'm not evenhanded. i'm deeply partisan on this one.

i'm pro blackhawk. >> bill: good for you. lynn sweet here for the hour as a "friend of bill." senator dick durbin joins us. >> he will be pro -- i'll bet he will have the same position. >> bill: at the top of the next hour. we'll be joined by sung kim from politico to talk immigration reform. lynn, you and i will get into the news of the day. but first -- dan's got the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday. another day another search for jimmy hoffa. authorities went on the trail north of detroit yesterday acting on a tip that the former teamsters boss who disappeared in 1975 was buried there. "usa today" reporting the oakland county michigan sheriff and the fbi have begun digging in a field that the son of zor illy has his body in it based on what his late father told him. the son tony is 85 and they hope they can find the body and bring closure to the hoffa

family. >> bill: don't you think they ought to just leave jimmy hoffa wherever he is? how many fields, how many backyards have they dug up looking for hoff ifa's body? didn't they break up concrete? >> i don't see a problem in trying to solve it. there is real family involved. >> bill: jim is the head of the teamsters. >> i don't want to be disrespectful. >> bill: no, yeah. >> somebody of ancient times. this is a real person who has family and still has to be heart wrenching to keep reading it. >> bill: jim hoffa is a good friend of mine. i've never talked to him about this. i wonder how they feel about the fact there's still this circus of getting all of the people out looking for the body and they don't find it and it goes away

for a couple of years. somebody else comes up for a tip. >> i don't know how you would have closure when you have this kind of on-going. the fact is no one knows what really happens. >> bill: after all this time. >> ben cohen of ben & jerry's ice cream will be here in washington today looking to get the money out of politics. the ice cream star will be at his store at une station and on capitol hill where he will be handing out not just ice cream but dollar bills stamped with phrases like stamp money out of politics. he tells "the huffington post" he's doing this to raise aware witness overturning citizens united to. show money is not speech and corporations aren't people. if you get one of the stamped dollar bills from him today, you can take it to any ben & jerry's and get yourself a free ice chrome cone. >> bill: ben & jerry's used to be right next door to our building. pizza place is now which is great by the way. used to be a ben & jerry's and once a year, they used to give

away -- i forget what the day was, they would give free ice-cream cones away. that line -- >> they didn't do sundaes on sundays. >> bill: the line used to stretch around the block to get the free ice cream. >> the patriots got a good deal in acquiring tim tebow when you compare what they're paying to the situation that his former team, the new york jet are in. "usa today" has found the jets owe $1.5 million on tebow's contract. most of that actually goes to his former team, the denver broncos for one year of work. the patriots, however are scheduled to pay $1.3 million over two years and none of that is guaranteed if he doesn't make the final 53-man roster, they don't owe him anything except for workout bonuses. the jets are surely kicking themselves now. >> bill: how about that. thank you dan. lynn sweet the president before he went off to the g-8 two years into the civil war in

syria, with a lot of pressure for a lot of people for the president of the united states to get involved, somehow the president finally said friday thursday, late thursday, okay, we're going to do so. we're going to send small arms to syria. pew research center out today with a poll showing that 70% of the american people do not support that decision. >> it's interesting because the public -- i'm not surprised especially since -- what the intervention means to most people. boots on the ground. it is not. it is very much an attempt by the u.s. to work with allies and allies potentially in the region who have most at stake. i think that's a lot of information. when you ask what if they ask the question, do you want to stop the genocidal slaughter of innocent people. i think we would have had a different answer.

>> bill: you and i have sat through many briefings at the white house where jay carney said we're not going to tell you what we're going to do but we'll certainly do something if they've used chemical weapons. the u.k. and france came out -- >> early on. >> bill: months ago said they use chemical weapons. it has taken us this long for our intelligence people to be convinced that they did. >> there's a lot going on. one of the things the president is doing is trying to meet and persuade russia to stop assisting syria. there's a lot of ways to help. arm rebels, now the president is now convinced the red line he painted somewhere is crossed. again, as maybe this is the side issue, bill. i don't know why he ever uses the phrases because he's done this before. you make a threshold then the debate is did we get there or not. >> bill: lock yourself in. right. my question is are we going to be able to -- do you think we

can maintain a position, all we're doing is small arms. nothing more. no anti-tank weapons no anti-aircraft weapons no-no fly zone. this is as far we're going to go. isn't this a slippery slope? >> it is. especially since the remedy might not be the same as time goes on. libya, the no-fly zone was a tool we used that we thought was effective. so, you know, these things evolve. what we're really seeing is a statement for what is going to work right now. and whether or not that slope is slippery or not probably depends a lot on what the allies want to contribute for the alliance that is being formed on this. a lot depends on russia. what if russia would be more helpful in this? that could change the dynamic pretty swiftly. >> bill: totally. nobody -- gene robinson in the washington most makes a point this morning. nobody pretends that giving small arms to the rebels is

going to end the violence in syria. there are a lot of questions about why we waited so long. why we're only doing this or why we're doing this at all or why we're only doing this. and where this goes. what the event -- where does this lead? >> that's problematical. it will be interesting to see once the power is installed as our new u.n. ambassador, if she's confirmed if she'll be able to have a different role. she and susan rice who is now the current u.n. ambassador coming to the white house to be the national security adviser i believe are on the same page. power has an international reputation for trying -- international expert trying to avoid genocidal situations. which is what we have right now. i say that. that is a word that's fraught

with legal meaning. it will be interesting to see what she's able to do in her new role. there is another concern that once you bring arms in, it is hard, perhaps to control who really gets them. >> bill: absolutely. very, very important issue. and some people have also made the point which i think is valid that so you have two years and over 92,000 people killed with conventional weapons. we do nothing. and then we ascertain 150 people were killed with chemical weapons and we send arms. so it's like 92,000 plus on one side and 150 over here. >> well, i can't remember who told me this. somebody who had a relative in syria said -- who wanted the u.s. to help, said what difference does it make if i'm sitting in my apartment waiting to be killed by a bullet or a chemical. so it seems to be hard to understand but i bet when you're

trying to, again, weave together an international coalition when you have a conventional civil war, i think it is harder to have an international response to it, frankly bill. once you go into chemical weapons, it is seen politically as different. >> bill: now today there is another poll out from cnn showing that 49 -- the president's approval rating has dipped from 53% down to 49%. 45%. down 8 points since may. my question to you is after benghazi i.r.s., the department of justice nsa and now arms to syria, is that any surprise? >> on-going guantanamo starting up again. no, i'm not surprised. are any of your listeners surprised? i don't think so. it has been a rough patch. >> bill: it has.

no wonder they're going to northern ireland. even northern ireland seems like a -- >> well -- >> bill: hold your thought. we'll take a quick break come back with lynn sweet here from the "chicago sun-times" and don't hold your thoughts. let us hear them at 1-866-55-press. tuesday morning. we'll be right back. >> announcer: on your rodeo and on current tv. this is the "bill press show." for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... 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 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 "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: all right. here we go. 25 minutes now after the hour. it is the "full court press." here on a tuesday morning. june 18. lynn sweet in studio with us. softball star. star of the bad news babes here.

>> i found the web site. june 26th benefit game. for information please go to congwomensoftbaseball. >> it is on twitter and our facebook page. >> bill: there we go. that game is going to be a sellout. you will have to get the nats stadium for this game after we're promoting it for you. >> we're happy in our field. >> bill: so we were talking before we left about president obama with pretty rocky road lately. so is this just second term blues or what's he do? >> well, one thing that is interesting -- >> bill: you've covered him by the way since he was a state senator, right? >> and i was in berlin with him during the '08 campaign where he had the crowd of 200,000 people

in a park near the brandonberg gate where he is speaking tomorrow. he flies to berlin tonight from northern ireland. where he is for the g-8 and the germans were giddy about the prospect of a president obama in '08. i'm sure he will get a warm welcome. from every report i hear, the days of euphoria over a president obama are gone. part of it is some of the items we talked about a few minutes ago. he has not changed the world in a way some people thought he would which is a hard thing to do. it is a very high threshold. even our newest -- the international issues that are hard. harder for people are benghazi. drones we had not mentioned. these are all things, the nsa snooping as far as it may be hard to explain to the world. i think there is an argument to be made for doing it. which we could get into if we

have time. you need a lot of intelligence in a dangerous world. all of that though has made president obama -- brought him a bit down to earth. front pages were as if -- i keep using the word giddy with excitement. it will be interesting to see what the reception is tomorrow. >> bill: that huge turnout in berlin. i wasn't there. certainly saw the coverage of it. it was so great. remember that the right-wingers in this country said it was hitleresque. >> well, that is a term one should never link anything good with. that's when mccain talked about him being a rock star. >> bill: immigration next. 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: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: the fun continues here on the "full court press". this tuesday morning. tuesday morning june 18. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and brought to you today by the united steelworkers and their international president leo gerard. the outspoken, ever colorful leo gerard. north america's largest industrial union representing 1.2 million active and retired members. find out more about their good work at their web site, usw.org. congress back in session. they're back from their weekend break. and members of the senate lining up again today to debate proposed amendment to the

immigration reform bill. that is the number one item of business before the united states senate. soon will be before the house of representatives. sung min kim covers this issue as well as everything else going on on capitol hill for politico. she joins us in studio this morning with our "friend of bill" for this hour lynn sweet. washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times." lynn. >> good morning again. >> bill: good morning again. i want to ask you it seems to me from my perspective and we're not that far from the capitol, six blocks here, that republicans are doing everything they can to scuttle immigration reform. >> it depends on some republicans. there's obviously a group that are a part of the bill. they're trying to strike compromises on different parts to get more republicans on board but there is a certain faction of doing everything to slow the reform process down.

"the new york times" had a great profile this morning on senator jeff sessions. he's on this one-man war against this immigration bill using every trick in the book he has to slow this down. >> bill: which camp is marco rubio in? >> he's confusing us all, isn't he? he's in this very delicate position. he has to have this balancing act between being part of the gang of eight to push immigration reform across the line but at the same time, keeping his own credibility with conservatives and bylining himself too much with the chuck schumers and toomers of the world. >> bill: for example he's proposed an amendment that says, lynn and seung min you go through the process of citizenship, you follow the path to citizenship which is 13 long years. they haven't even agreed on that

yet. it may be longer. with all of the requirements and all of that time, and then rubio says you still have to wait five years after that before you can qualify for obamacare which is ridiculous. he can't be serious about wanting the bill if he's putting that on it. really? >> i think he's still serious about wanting a bill. but you know, i still think he still wants something. i think he's put too much political skin in the game for nothing to happen. >> i have a theory. you have to get to conference. because as your listeners know or may not know, everybody gets two bites of the apple. of the house vote, the senate vote and then the two versions have to be merged into a situation called conference and then they vote again. i would think that the obamacare issue which really should be a health insurance immigration border security, three issues that have become interrelated,

interdependent on each other i think it is a bargaining chip. it could change later. and you're going for the good, not the perfect here. >> bill: then he also says that if you put something in there about same-sex couples poison pill. >> he said that from the beginning. there was a reason why that plan wasn't in the original gang of eight bill and then the reason why it was never brought up in the judiciary committee. he's actually been consistent by saying he would pull away a support if that was included. i also -- also, at the same time, you're looking at a 60-vote threshold in the senate. i don't think that will get added that provision to the overall bill. >> bill: lynn, covering illinois especially, for the "chicago sun-times," your senator, mark kirk, surprised everybody. he didn't -- he wouldn't even vote to bring this to the floor. >> it was a surprise vote. >> bill: 84-15. >> two roll calls a week and a

half ago. >> bill: he was one of the 15. what's up with that? >> so he voted with the minority of the minority. baffled a lot of people both locally and nationally about why he would do that. especially since as he would head into presumed re-election bid in 2016, no matter what his ultimate vote is on immigration he has a permanent record of voting no. when you're not even sure what the final bill will be. the whole point is to advance it, change it, revise it, amend it to your liking. the issue is border security. he would like a senator cornyn-like tougher approach. so would some other people. it is up for debate. the merits of the border security provisions. i think politically, it is fascinating to look at the tactic he chose which was to vote no at this early stage which, in a state such as

illinois with so many hispanic voters, so many immigrants and not on the border of arizona. border state. where these security issues are particularly a priority. it is baffling. the immigration issues in illinois have a lot to do with employers, republican and democrat employers wanting to get the visas for the high-skilled workers wanting to get people legalized most skilled workers. establish the business community, mainly republican. political base. want immigration reform. so we'll see how this evolves. for now, it is a baffling move. >> bill: i do want to get into a little bit about the actual substance of the argument about border security. you mention john cornyn. a republican who says i want comprehensive immigration reform. but i also want an amendment insist upon an amendment that% says basically unless the border is 100% secure, we don't do

anything else. if you look at the border today the border is more secure today than it's ever been, right? isn't that a fact? what the hell do they want? >> they're seeing what's going -- they're down in texas. >> bill: they're talking as if it is still 1975 or 1985 when hoards of people were coming across the border and it was a porous border. it's not today. it's just not right? >> well, you know what, what also happens here is you now link two potentially unrelated issues which is the role of government which is to secure our borders of which that's government officials control that. congress controls that with the amount of money they give. the programs they decide and a path to legalization. millions of people who are not connected to whether or not the border is porous or not. >> bill: no, right. i just keep hearing this mantra.

first, we have to secure the border. we have more border guards there. we have drones there. there are fewer people coming across. get all of the facts. we've done a pretty good job of securing the border. >> also the fact that people forget -- there's talk out there about we're not deporting anyone. actually the obama administration has had the highest number of deportations ever. so they are actually doing a very good -- that's been angering immigration advocates because they've been deporting so many people. >> bill: what's happening in the house while we're all paying attention to the senate? >> well, there is actual, a little bit of movement in the house. the bipartisan group now down to seven members, they might release a bill this week. maybe as early as wednesday. that's a little bit optimistic. later this week, maybe early next week as well. what's interesting to me, speaker john boehner is meeting with the hispanic caucus. no specific agenda. but immigration will be a big

issue. it is actually the first time in history that a republican speaker has met with the hispanic caucus. >> bill: is that right? >> entirely democratic because the hispanic republicans have their own group. that meeting is wednesday. it will be interesting to see how that conversation goes. >> they must have an agenda. they don't have an agenda? >> the boehner people say they don't have a specific thing but obviously it will be on immigration and how boehner specifically is going to approach immigration reform. >> whether it is piecemeal whether they take up a bipartisan bill or these very conservative pieces of bills that are going through the judiciary committee. there's actually a committee markup on one bill today that democrats hate. they're going to be protesting that bill later this afternoon. so i think they're just looking for clues to boehner's thinking. >> isn't the point from the pro immigration reform viewpoint just to have the house pass something again to get to the

conference bargaining table? they don't do anything then -- >> that's exactly right. >> if you end up passing little things that aren't able for whatever reason to go to conference. that's why people are pushing for -- let's do a big bill. >> they do the piecemeal approach, in the end can't they do another legislative -- they could put them together so -- whatever they pass -- so when they go to conference, it is an issue, bill. >> bill: what i find somewhat refreshing is at least something's happening. >> it is. >> nothing happened for so long. >> it is very rare now a days in congress to have both house and senate moving on their own paths on a similar piece of legislation. >> bill: an solutely. lynn sweet from the "chicago sun-times" and seung min kim from politico on immigration and other issues in front of the

congress. we'll be right back and invite you to join the conversation at any time at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv.

alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. (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: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. congress, hard at work on immigration reform. it looks like this is one area where things are actually going to happen. seung min kim political reporter on the hill in studio

with us and lynn sweet washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun-times" here as a "friend of bill." we should first tell people exactly where they can find both of you. politico.com. >> indeed. >> bill: lynn at sun times. >> sun times.com. my twitter is at lynn sweet. one word. my blog is also on the "sun-times" site. sun times.com/sweet. >> bill: we've got the blog. >> and twitter. at lynn sweet. i want to see people signing up as we speak. i want to see the numbers up. it is like pledge night. let's get ten more followers in the next ten minutes. >> bill: let's do that. >> thank you bill. >> bill: we were talking about immigration reform. i want to talk about the politics of it. senator menendez from new jersey was asked about this. on state of the union cnn sunday morning.

he had a very blunt message for republicans on immigration reform. >> i would tell my republican colleagues both in the house and the senate that the road to the white house comes to a road with a pathway to legalization. without it, there will never be a road to the white house for the republican party. >> bill: no path to citizenship, no path to the white house. >> oh, please. republicans, i have been hearing this argument for a long time now. all of these -- do you really think that's the best appeal to republicans? if you're a republican, do you think a democrat has your heart -- i believe the analogy is true. i think is true. but i don't know if it is effective. as all of a sudden, the democrats really care about electing republicans to the white house. >> bill: you know that's what bob menendez cares about. he wants republicans to have -- >> i think there needs to be a different way. i heard one of the blowbacks to mark kirk, senator kirk in

illinois we heard. i was on a conference call yesterday with one of the big unions. oh, in illinois, to be re-elected. senator kirk, you have to be for this. as if the democratic aligned interests don't want a democrat in the white house. democrat in the house and senate. i just wonder yes it's true but do you think republicans want to take their political advice from democrats? >> but it's not just bob menendez saying -- i can't count how many times lindsey graham and john mccain is said this to us. he told us last week on the hill and i think he said again on one of the sunday shows if we don't get this done in 2013, we're dead in 2016. >> that's more effective. >> bill: lindsey graham says it is a death spiral for the republicans. >> i'm just saying -- to republicans. >> not necessarily bob menendez. >> who is not the political director of the republican national committee. >> bill: personally, i hope they reject it.

but republicans meaning reject the advice. but i think they would be wise to take it. this is related in a sense that "the new york times" lead article today is speaking of what's going on on the hill, unfazed by 2012, g.o.p. is seeking abortion limits. you know the bill i'm talking about in the house. "the new york times" points out this morning, this is the most restrictive abortion bill to come to a vote in either chamber in over a decade. is this the republican path to power? in 2016? >> never being resolved. i've been writing about this issue in the beginning of my career. it just doesn't end does it? you would think the woman's vote alone would say this is a nation with a lot of issues. even if abortion, no matter where you stand is your heartfelt issue, it doesn't mean

it has to be the priority or has to come up now. >> bill: that's the point. for these republicans -- it has -- for them, it has to be the priority. they can't let go of it. we had the republican national committee come up with a study and then the college republicans come out with a report. both of which said let's stop talking about abortion and rape and start talking about jobs and the economy. and yet here we go. what is the house voting on? you cover it. this is their bill. >> they have a few things on the agenda. that is one of their prime legislative items. i think it will be later today or tomorrow. >> bill: so how does this -- again, i agree with you. we're not debating abortion here right? let's talk about the tactics of it. how does this expand the base and the outreach of the republican party? >> two women it doesn't -- to women, it doesn't help. >> bill: anybody they don't already have. >> especially when it comes to -- you know, when you're

working on bills like this and it leads to moments that we heard from the arizona congressman with the rape and the pregnancy. >> when you have a full plate you make it fuller then there starts to be what i think of as seepage. meaning as you're trying to make the deal for a very important complicated bill like immigration, when you go talk to someone, if you're a whip or one of the lawmakers then you know. you have to say i can't be for you on this. you know how it goes. and then there's an ask -- on the abortion side. even for the abortion advocates timing means a lot in congress when you bring things up. i would think even if that's the case they want to advance i don't see how this particular time legislatively, they think they can advance their cause. >> bill: no. i would think it is the last thing that john boehner would be wanting to do. >> also shows the trouble that the republicans --

>> bill: john boehner is not in charge. this proves it. thank you so much for coming in. great work. >> great to be here. >> bill: lynn sweet you're the best. thank you so much. for that softball game, we're going to get a lot of people out there. we'll get a lot of support for that. link us up on the web site. come back again soon. >> thank you. >> 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. this show is about being up to date, 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. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. top of the next hour, senator dick durbin, assistant senate majority leader will be joining us and then we'll be joined by

elizabeth wydra from the constitutionality accountability constitutional accountability center on the supreme court's big decision. yesterday, president obama second big day at the g-8 summit, today with plenty of receptions, family photo. he will be visiting again with david cameron of the u.k. there is a working lunch. and then he goes off to berlin. for a big speech on the brandenberg gate in berlin. a replay of what he did in 2008. one more hour of the "full court press" here on this tuesday morning, june 18. we count on you to hang around for dick durbin. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> bill: good morning friends and neighbors. what do you say? it is tuesday morning, june 18. this is the "full court press" coming to you live on current tv across this great land of ours coast-to-coast. with the news of the day wherever it is happening. we've got it covered. we're there for you in our nation's capital around the country, around the globe. we'll tell you what's going on. more importantly, give you a chance to sound off on the issues of the day because that's what we want to know. what they mean to you and to your family. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. join us on twitter at bpshow and all of you friends on facebook, you can tell us what you think at facebook.com/billpressshow. well, we know richard nixon will

be remembered as the about the who said "i am not a crook." now, president obama will be remembered as the president who said "i am not dick cheney." that's what he told charlie rose in an interview taped sunday afternoon before he took off for the g-8 summit, an interview in which he stoutly defended the nsa spying program and reassured americans that there is no way the nsa can actually be listening in on your telephone calls unless they have approval of the fisa court. so they're recording -- they're keeping track of our phone calls but they're not listening in on any of them. do you believe that? i'm not sure i do. and the supreme court said no to arizona's new voter suppression law. good news on that. and more 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 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." >> bill: i know dick cheney. that's what president obama told charlie rose before he took off for the g-8 summit. the question is he george w. bush? hey, good morning everybody. what do you say? happy tuesday june 18. great to see you today. it is "full court press." coming to you live from washington, d.c., our nation's capital. with the news of the day where it's happening in our nation's capital, around the country, around the globe, we're on top of it. we'll tell you what's going on, what it all means what our take on it is and then open the phones, open the twitter open the facebook and get your

comments on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow and if you're not our friend on facebook, why the hell not? we'll take your comments on twitter at bpshow. that's our twitter handle and by phone, 1-866-55-press. peter ogborn not here with us today. he's got the week off. he's, i think still in vegas pretty soon heading out of vegas. he's been to vegas four days now. he doesn't have any money left. >> i'm curious to know how he did. >> bill: yeah. does anybody leave vegas with any money? no. but they keep going back because it is a great place. dan henning is here. >> good morning. >> wearing two hats at least this week. dan, good morning. good to see you. alichia cruz has the phones covered. and cyprian bowlding is keeping us looking good on camera. on current tv. the interview with president obama and charlie rose, made a lot of news.

it was taped sunday afternoon. broadcast last night on pbs. and the -- charlie rose did point out that you know, a lot of people, mr. president are setting on these national security issues that you know, there's not much daylight between you and george bush and dick cheney. they're calling you bush cheney-like. president obama said no way, no how. >> obama: the whole point of my concern before i was president because some people say obama was this raving liberal before. now, he's dick cheney, dick cheney sometimes says yeah, you know. he took it lock, stock and barrel. my concern has always been not that we shouldn't do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism. but rather are we setting up a systems of checks and balances? >> bill: yep. not dick cheney. the difference is -- there is a difference.

the president went to the fisa court which bush-cheney did not do. they were actually wiretapping bush and cheney. with the president it has been amassing phone records not where it is happening with the permission of the fisa court. a little bit later we'll talk to elizabeth wydra from the constitutional accountability center about the big supreme court decision yesterday on arizona's voter suppression law. but we start out this hour an honor to do so with a good friend, number two democrat in the united states senate, assistant senate majority leader, dick durbin from illinois. hey, good, senator nice to talk to you again. >> how you doing bill? >> bill: i'm doing great senator. nice to talk to you. thank you for joining us here. >> sure. >> bill: i want to see if we can -- let's start off by making it official, senator durbin. you are in cycle, as we say in this job. which means that you're up in

2014. are you a candidate for re-election? >> i'm making every preparation to be a candidate and people are saying why are you so darn -- about it? it turns out there are a number of reasons. some of them relate to your performance in the senate. how you're viewed by the media at home. there will be an announcement. it will not be a surprise. we're making every effort to be ready for whatever lies ahead. >> bill: well, with the full permission of al gore, the head of current tv, we are offering you that opportunity here this morning, senator. care to make that announcement. >> i appreciate it, buddy. hold off for the moment. >> bill: i think we know what the announcement is going to be. are you ready to tell us what's going to happen to massachusetts? >> well, we believe ed markey is going to prevail.

he's ahead. he's been ahead in every poll. the uncertainty of a special election and a low turnout is a cautionary note. but we understand that, as well. and we're doing our best. the president's been there. we've contributed, support ed. i served with him for a number of years in the house of representatives. he's an exceptionally talented person and would be a great complement to elizabeth warren serving the commonwealth of massachusetts. we believe he's going to win. we're taking nothing for granted. >> bill: i think people have learned a lesson from the scott brown election of several years ago, right? >> amen. and not to take anything away from former attorney general of massachusetts but ed markey has run very good campaign. and as i said, special elections make you nervous. you're just not quite sure who's going to be there. >> bill: big order of business on the senate floor is immigration reform. do you think there will be a big for sure and how many votes?

>> good question. i do feel positive about it. but i've been invested in it for four or five months. the eight of us met again, four democrats, four republicans sat across the table. went through some gut-wrenching conversations about what's next. and i can't tell you the ultimate vote we believe we need 60 to pass in the senate. i think we'll have 60. there were 82 senators who voted to go forward with the debate. that is a positive thing. there are about 15 that just died in the wool -- dyed-in-the-wool no votes. i hope we can bring republicans senators who were undecided to the belief that this bipartisan approach is balanced and a good one. i think we can. >> bill: there's some feeling and some senators expressed this, senator, that you need to get up to 70 plus votes so you have enough momentum to move that bill and to basically prompt the house to actually take action. do you think you need 70 plus?

>> here's the dilemma. 70 votes on the floor of the senate mean dramatic changes to the basic bipartisan agreement. we could end up losing votes on the democratic side. so we've got to balance this. that was our conversation last night. there has to be some balance here. thinking about ways to attract the most conservative republican senators may be at the expense of moderate, progressive senators on the left. i want to stay as close to the agreement as we can. if there are some modifications and changes we can make that don't compromise the basic agreement of border security with path to citizenship i'll be there. >> bill: you know, senator you mentioned the vote to cloture which was overwhelming. only 15 senators voted against opening debate on the immigration reform bill. one of those 15 was your cosenator from illinois which surprise at lot of people with mark kirk.

have you talked to him about that and how do you read that? >> mark has been consistently against immigration reform. he was against the green act and has publicly stated he would not vote for this bill. i let him speak for himself. but he has made a big point about border security. of and i hope when he takes a closer look at what we have in this bill and perhaps the modifications on the floor he'll reconsider his position. >> bill: i want to -- ask you just a little bit about before we move on to another topic. i keep hearing that mantra from a lot of republicans, first we have to secure the border. first we have to secure the border. before we do anything else. the john cornyn amendment right? 98% or whatever. border security today is pretty damn good shape. >> sure is. i just sit there and bite my tongue, shake my head and think this is like the impossible dream. no matter what we do at the border, there will always be critics who say geez, you know, i think somebody got through

over there. this is a 2,000 mile border! there are people desperate willing to risk their lives to get into this country. that's the same reality that we face in many other aspects in public life. if a terrorist is prepared to give their life, you know, terrible things can occur no matter what precautions are taken. i'm not saying this is and an algous situation but the desperate nature of many of the immigrants leads us to build the fences, put in the surveillance and accept the reality it will never be 100%. but it is dramatically, dramatically better than it's ever been. the safest border in 40 years. we've doubled the number of people on the border. we have fences. we have night vision. we have radar. all of this is at work. it isn't as if we're taking taking this lightly. we're determined to do the best we can do. >> bill: they've got drones. assistant senate majority leader dick dushen is our guest.

a lot of talk recently about the nsa and their amassing of records of information on telephone calls made in the united states. you have long raised the issue of this delicate balance between national security and privacy. do you support what the nsa is doing? >> no. that's why i've introduced amendments year after year with no success to limit the scope of the nsa. i knew what was going on. couldn't say it. you know. that's the way it works up here. they take it. the classified briefings. they say don't ever repeat it. well edgar snowden did. once it became public, we could talk about it. what i've tried to say over the years is this. i'm not sure i need to know bill press's comings and goings when it comes to the use of his cell phone. if he's not a suspect. if he's a it suspect, i want to know everything about you and we want to find out if you're doing something that could harm innocent people. that's important but to collect

all of this information on so many americans to store it, strikes me as going too far. i think that we ought to say if there is a reasonable suspicion that you are connected in any way with someone who would do harm to america then for goodness sakes be prepared. we'll look at every aspect of your life to keep us safe. but just to collect the information on every person who happens to walk down the street on the chance that they may be a suspect in the future goes too far. >> bill: probable cause. >> the president -- and you know he's my friend, i support him. i believe he's done an extraordinary job and i encouraged him to run in the first place. i've never been disappointed. we've disagreed a few times but i've never been disappointed. i think he's sensitive to this. there was a time when he was a cosponsor of the durbin amendment. so if i could sit down with my friend the president, i would say you were right the first

time. let us try to narrow the scope of it. lut let me raise something else really quickly bill. the real question here is whether americans particularly younger americans value their privacy and that is a legitimate question particularly for this younger generation which is in full expose every minute of every day on facebook and twitter and things i'm not even aware of. they're telling the world what they ate for breakfast what their thoughts and musings were during the course of the day funny scenes that they've observed. pictures of things that they've seen. and you think to yourself well when you live such a public and visible and open life, have you reached the point where privacy isn't a value? it is a value -- i think it should be -- if it is a value let's be careful not only the government but also the business and private sector of this world don't invade our space. let's have a little corner of the world that is ours. our families, our personal

lives. >> bill: nice to hear someone speak up for privacy. you've done that on the issue of drones as well. do you think there will be some hearing -- the president said one thing he said is okay, at least this will spark a debate about this issue. and i think we need that debate. the president says he welcomes it. will there be that debate in the united states senate? >> yes and there should be. it was weeks before the snowden disclosures that the president gave a speech, i believe national war college -- >> bill: national security university. >> where he basically said america has to stop thinking as a war-time nation. war-time nations think differently than nations that are living in peace. war-time nations under abraham lincoln suspended habeas corpus. war-time nations facing world war i in the united states brought up the alien saidition acts and looked for those in every corner who may be a danger. world war american like fdr

interned japanese-americans. there are things we do in wartime that we cannot even hardly explain in peacetime. the president is really challenging us to think about terrorism as an ongoing threat but not one that changes our values as a nation. that is a tough order but it is something that congress has to engage in. >> bill: absolutely. we'll let you go, senator. you mention your friend, we talked about this. you're encouraging president obama to run early on. another friend of yours from illinois is former white house chief of staff, bill daley who now says he's going to run for governor of illinois. are you encouraging him to run? who are you supporting in this race? >> since i'm likely to be a candidate myself, you can imagine i'm staying out of the primary. we have an incumbent governor, pat quinn. his numbers aren't strong, facing a pension controversy in springfield. attorney general lisa madigan an extraordinary public servant whose father happens to be a speaker of the illinois house and one of the more powerful figures in springfield and now bill daley former secretary of

commerce former chief for the president. polling numbers indicate that this has become a harsh race. as a result of that, you know, there is a belief that i'm not sure who will file. there is a belief of a spirited primary which i'm going to observe with great interest. >> bill: from the sidelines right? >> that's it, bill. >> bill: you got it. senator durbin, great to spend time with you. senator dick durbin, great guy. great guy. number two democrat in the united states senate. we'll be right back on the "full court press." >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bf. this is the "bill press show." (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.

we have a big, big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. 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. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of

stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on! 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." >> bill: it's 26 minutes after the hour now here on tuesday june 18. good to have you with us. supreme court coming down with a couple of big big decisions yesterday. the one that got the most attention, their rebuke of the state of arizona on the issue of voter i.d., state of arizona requiring people to bring proof of citizenship to the polls before they were allowed to vote. the supreme court overwhelmingly 7-2 saying that was unconstitutional. we'll be talking about that in the next half hour with constitutional accountability center chief counsel elizabeth wydra. meanwhile, there is another story in the news that hasn't gotten a lot of attention which i found intriguing. regarding 7-eleven. 7-eleven stores.

and you know, look, they're everywhere. we all use them. from time to time. they're the -- i think maybe the oldest and certainly the best known and the greatest number of convenience stores. >> has to be. >> bill: in the country. the fbi yesterday raided some 14 stores in long island and virginia. actually, they're investigating they've got search warrants for 30 other stores across the country. and these are people -- these owners apparently unknown to -- and unbeknownst to the leadership the executive branch of 7-eleven, these were the owners of the stores, the franchises who basically had slave laborers there from the philippines and particularly from pakistan, keeping these people paying them less than what they were supposed to get and keeping them in the kind of slave conditions by using fake

security card numbers. here's james hayes from the homeland security agency telling us about it. >> employees were threatened when they complained which was rare with the threat of deportation with the threat of job loss. it was a terrible environment for these employees and they were ruthlessly exploited. >> bill: ruthlessly exploited. some 50 people who didn't have permission to be in the united states employed in the stores and because they were not citizens the franchise owners were taking advantage of them. you'll hear more and more about this story 7-eleven in long island and virginia. when we come back, big decisions by the supreme court. big defeat for arizona. >> 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: download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time, anywhere. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: what do you say? it is 33 minutes after the hour this is tuesday june 18. it is the "full court press." we are brought to you today coming to you live from our nation's capital and brought to you today by the international brotherhood of teamsters. good men and women of the teamsters union. doing great work under president jim hoffa and you can find out about the great work at teamster.org. you would be surprised at some of the many fields of -- endeavor the teamsters are involved in today representing working families, not just driving trucks is what i want to say. in the airline industry, public

employees, and of course, the trucking industry, the teamsters doing great work. check out their work at teamster.org. you won't hear me say this very often but i'm very nervous introducing our next guest this morning. we have a lot of guests in studio but this one this guest makes me particularly nervous. elizabeth wydra is the chief council for the constitutional accountability center but i'm nervous because the last time she was in studio, the lights went out. you may remember that. >> that's right! >> bill: for a whole half hour, we lost power. >> i know. i broke the show when i was on. >> bill: you did! we had to shut down. >> we've got the back-up generators fired up and ready. >> thank you! >> bill: elizabeth nice to see you. actually, nice to be able to see you this time. >> thank you for keeping the lights on. >> bill: we couldn't see you the last time because the lights weren't on. remember, we got through the -- the next part of the show using the flashlight app on the

iphones. >> bill: the supreme court, we were told the last two weeks of june, we would be getting some -- the big decisions from the court. they did not disappoint yesterday. let's start with the one on arizona. what did they decide and what's the significance of it? >> so, this is sort of the other voting case of the term. everyone has been focused on the voting rights act case but this case is also very important. so the case comes out of arizona and as you know, arizona likes to pass all of these restrictive rules when it comes to citizenship and immigration. and so what arizona had done was say okay, we understand that congress has set federal form for everyone to use to register which was intended to streamline the voter registration process allow more people access to easy registration so that we can really try to include as many

people as possible in democratic participation. seems a worthy goal. >> bill: the motor voter act. >> arizona said okay. we know that the federal statute says you must use this form but we don't like that you only have to swear under penalty of perjury that you're a u.s. citizen. we want you to actually attach proof. and so what was for the supreme court -- before the supreme court was if arizona's additional requirement of proof of citizenship conflicted with the federal law that said no, you just use this one form and that form doesn't require you attach anything to show you're a citizen. you just have to swear under penalty of perjury. >> bill: and the court ruled? >> the court ruled a major -- in a major rejection to arizona's law, written by justice scalia, no less, that arizona's law conflicted with the federal motor voter act. and when you have a conflict, when the federal government is

regulating elections the federal government trumps state law and so arizona's law was struck down. >> bill: right. so you've got not just the four sort of dependent liberal justices or progressive justices but then you've got anthony kennedy and john roberts chief justice and antonin scalia, siding against arizona. >> absolutely. >> bill: pretty solid rejection. >> absolutely. it is a major rejection. justice scalia wrote the opinion. >> bill: he's the author of the opinion. >> it is a very broad affirmation of the federal government's power under the constitution to displace state law whenever they act to regulate elections and the process of having elections under the constitution's grant of authority under the elections clause. >> bill: so that just also shows -- i'll say this. you don't have to say it.

how extreme clarence thomas and samuel alito are in their opinions that they wouldn't even recognize this case. but what message -- is there a broader message than just the state of arizona here? on this decision? do you think? >> well, you know, i like -- >> bill: because there were 30 some states that had various forms, maybe two others, i think that had the same thing doing the same thing arizona was doing but there are po other states that have various ways, voter i.d. or shortening the early voting period. various other ways of trying to make it harder to vote. >> well, so, you know, i think when it comes to those efforts you know, i think that's another question for the court. this is really about the registration process. so it doesn't necessarily implicate the voter i.d. requirements that a lot of the states have passed when you actually show up to the ballot box. this is sort of the initial entry point into political

participation. and so you know, i think that -- there are a couple of ways of look at this. the optimistic way is that you know, what justice scalia's opinion said for seven justices on the court when the constitution gives the federal government power, it really means it. there's no sort of unwritten exception for arizona. but you know, the other sort of less optimistic point you can take from the opinion is that justice scalia went out of his way to say that arizona could go back to the federal agency that is charged with deciding what goes in the federal form and ask for a state-specific exemption that says that they can, in addition to the one federal form, require their own citizen ship proof. >> bill: why would they do that for arizona? what's so special about arizona that they have to do it differently?

i mean other than the fact that there are a lot of racists in arizona as far as i'm concerned. with the laws they keep passing. >> louisiana has actually gotten this special permission from the election assistance commission, this agency that is charged with fielding these requests. so louisiana has already gotten special permission in this regard. it wouldn't be unprecedented for arizona to be able to come in and say because we have this citizenship requirement and we feel we need the additional proof, we should be able to require it. >> bill: the supreme court 7-2 knocking down arizona's special requirement, proof of citizenship when you register to vote. 1-866-55-press. your comments welcome on that. now, the justices also ruled on the miranda-related issue. explain that for us. >> as everyone who's watched law & order or movies, knows

the miranda rulings are you have the right to remain silent. you have the right to an attorney. and so the case yesterday dealt with the right to remain silent. part of that. and what the court said was really -- i think a lot of people find surprising which is that in order to invoke your right to remain silent, you often have to speak up and claim it. >> bill: yeah. when i read about the case, i really did not understand it. so they said -- again it said if you remain silent, that can be held against you. used against you right? >> right. so in this case, the person had not been arrested. so he actually was not required to have his miranda rights read to him. he hadn't actually been arrested. he came into the police station voluntarily. was being asked questions about the two murders that had occurred after a party. and so he was voluntarily

answering questions and then the police asked him so will the shell casings we found at the site of those murders match the gun that is at your house? and he didn't respond. and then at his trial the prosecutor said oh, this fellow was answering questions right and left but when we asked him this one, he stayed silent. and so he's claiming look, using that against me in court is violating my right to remain silent which if it is going to have any meaning that you don't have to incriminate your sex then it can't be used against you later. but what the court said yesterday was that you know, in fact, in situations like that, and actually in most contexts, you have to say i'm invoking my right. most people aren't lawyers. do they have to say the words fifth amendment? do they have to say i invoke my

right against fifth amendment? >> bill: this is 5-4. >> yes, it was. >> bill: you can see why. all right. your questions about -- and there are some other issues coming up. we'll get into some of those. other decisions. we'll be hearing from the court maybe as early as thursday of this week. elizabeth wydra here from the accountability center. toll free number, 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. the supreme court, it always seems like you know, they hang back and don't do anything all year long and then just before they're ready to leave for their summer break boom, boom, boom, boom, we hear about all of their decisions. but they've been working on them, to be fair and having their oral arguments and writing their opinions. and thinking these things through. that's what they get paid for right? >> absolutely. >> bill: we heard what they have to say about arizona and about miranda right of silence. yet to come, three big issues, affirmative action. any idea when these -- affirmative action, voting rights, the voting rights act and then marriage equality both

defense of marriage act and proposition 8 in california. >> exactly. so affirmative action, that case was argued in october. and that's the only case that that's sort of old on the court's docket that we haven't gotten an opinion for. i think it is just not done. they're probably going back and forth. >> bill: really? still, at this time? >> yes. >> bill: is this the same old affirmative action argument? what's new about this one? it is a college -- >> a few new justices on the supreme court. >> bill: i got it. we had -- the last cases dealing with michigan, just about nine, ten years ago. so you know, in that opinion justice o'connor said maybe in 25 years, we'll revisit this. time flies when you get two new conservative justices on the court. >> bill: michigan said, in the michigan case, the court said it's okay to consider race as one factor? >> exactly. the court said you can't have these sort of quota systems.

but you can use race as a factor in trying to achieve a diverse student body. >> bill: this particular case says you cannot use it at all. is that correct? is that the argument? >> it's interesting. so what abigail fisher's lawyers argue, she's the one challenging the university of texas's race-sensitive admissions policy. she says that you know, one university of texas policy that takes race as a factor among many either falls under the court's existing gyres prudence or if it doesn't, you have to overrule their precedence. this could go very far in changing the way schools use affirmative action policies to create diverse student bodies and university of tex has said to try to create a critical mass

of students. >> bill: wouldn't it be mean in this day and age, especially in this day and age wouldn't it be hard for the court to rule that particularly in the state of texas, it would be okay to have an all white student body at a university? >> the argument is that so university of texas has this 10% plan where the top 10% of students in high schools automatically get admitted. and so what fisher is claiming is this has already gone a significant distance to create diverse student body. but you know, i think we get back to this question which comes up in the voting rights act case again is it the court's role to really be the one who is setting policy to second guess in this case, it is the university admissions policies and the voting rights act case, it is congress and there, it is worse because the constitution gives congress, not the supreme court the power to decide how to

best protect the rights of americans to vote free from discrimination. >> bill: in the voting rights act which is shelby county, georgia -- >> alabama. >> bill: the good people of shelby county say hey we ain't no racists anymore. just trust us! you know we're good folk here. we know what we're doing. that was the old days. we've really changed so just let us do it our way right? >> well, you know, i can't claim to know the hearts and minds of the people of shelby county. but at oral arguments justices kagan and sotomayor raised a really good point which is that you know, even if their arguments about how the south has changed et cetera we don't need the harsh measures to protect voting rights, shelby county still has a very recent history of discrimination when it comes to voting. and so what those justices raised was look, you can claim the arguments about how the

south has changed for everyone else but you look at the actual past practices recently in shelby county, you can't really count yourselves among that. >> bill: it seems to me that the burden of the voting rights act is not that strict or not that burdensome. all they have to do if they want to change their law a little bit. this very to get -- they have to get the support of the justice department. the approval of the justice department. >> we call it the preclearance. >> bill: no big deal. >> in fact, there's been testimony from state and local election officials who say you know it isn't actually that big of a burden. we've worked it into our bureaucracy with the exception of redistricting, it is really not -- it doesn't take that much time at all. >> bill: they're going to get approved if they're doing the right thing. >> exactly. the denials of preclearance are extraordinarily rare. >> bill: just about 30 seconds

on same-sex marriage, defense of marriage act and prop 8. what's the prognostication? >> i don't think we're going to get these until the last moment of the term. you know, i think the court will do the right thing at least in the doma case. >> bill: overturning defense of marriage act. >> i think they will. >> bill: almost nobody is standing up for that anymore. but proposition 8? >> it's interesting because the justices really seem to want to find a way to not decide that case. you know i can't imagine there are five votes to uphold california's ban on gay and lesbian couples getting married but they might try to find a way to avoid get to that. >> bill: let it happen in california but they won't apply it to the rest of the nation. >> most likely. >> bill: interesting stuff going on. nobody's on top of it more than you. elizabeth wydra. we left the lights on for you! >> hooray! >> bill: that means you're welcome back. constitutional accountability center. it is the u.s. constitution.org.

the u.s. constitution.org. i'll be back with today's parting shot. thank you. >> 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 "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. this show is about being up to date, 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.

>> announcer: the parting shot with bill press this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. on this tuesday june 18, my parting shot for today, we were talking to elizabeth wydra of the supreme court. releasing a big decision yesterday by an overwhelming 7-2 vote. the nation's highest court rejecting arizona's law requiring residents to show proof of citizenship at the polling place before casting their vote. a great blow for liberty.

because this was one of the worst attempts by red states last year to suppress the vote. the only purpose of requiring people to provide proof of citizenship on top of the federal voter registration form was to discourage people from voting. yesterday, supreme court decision sends a message to all of those other states who tried this and other ways of making it more difficult for people to vote especially minorities on the floor and that message is very simple. voting is one of the most sacred rights we have as americans and not even the conservative roberts' court wants the states messing around with it. that's the message. that's the show. come back for more tomorrow.

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>> stephanie: all right. hello, current tv land you are right. everything old is new again. they are digging up jimmy hoffa again. >> check under the bag of glass. >> stephanie: check under the bag of vipers. >> they keep getting these new tips. >> stephanie: right. right. >> i think it was the