[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey what do you say? good morning everybody. great to see you today. it is tuesday tuesday january -- january? where did that come from? it starts with a j. june 25. we're just waking up this morning. good to see you and welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv this tuesday morning. and there is a lot going on you're going to want to talk about. 1-866-55-press is the toll free number. that's how you reach us. or you can reach us on twitter

at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. the international game of catch me if you can continues this morning. we think edward snowden is in moscow, heading for ecuador we think. via havana, cuba. we think. nobody really knows where he is except wikileaks and they ain't talkin'. julian assange yesterday held a conference call with reporters. we were on it. where he said that edward snowden is not a traitor. he is not a patriot necessarily. he is a whistle-blower and he just wanted to tell the american people the truth. meanwhile, the supreme court yesterday kind of kicked the can down the road on affirmative action. they didn't say affirmative action was bad. they didn't -- and affirmative action, they said it could

continue as long as there's a real tough test before people use affirmative action. we'll tell you all about it 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?

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

abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! nounce broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey we caught the red panda. why can't we catch edward snowden? what the hell's going on? good morning everybody. here we go. a big tuesday. tuesday, june 25. wow! so good to see you today. welcome, welcome welcome! to the "full court press." right here on current tv. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill.

right here in washington, d.c. we've got our eye on what's happening here in our nation's capital, big vote on immigration reform yesterday. we'll be talking a lot about that. down at the other end of pennsylvania avenue, a very important briefing at the white house yesterday. i was there. the white house slamming china and russia over edward snowden. saying this is a big deal. china betrayed us and they're calling on russia to cooperate. so we've got all -- both of those big stories covered and a whole lot more. the supreme court here in washington yesterday ruling on affirmative action letting it stand as long as universities apply a tough test before they use it. wherever it's happening here -- pardon me -- there it is. that cold still lingering -- around the country around the globe, we'll bring you the stories of the day and take your

calls at 1-866-55-press. look forward to your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com, all of our friends facebook.com/billpressshow. got to look around -- the summer, you never know who's here and who's not. you gotta look around. peter's here today. >> i'm here, i'm here. >> bill: you're back. got everything under control. dan has the day off. stevie lee webb and so does alichia cruz has the week off. stevie lee webb is covering the phones. >> hey, i'm back again. >> bill: everything good at wimbledon? >> i have to go because i'm playing in wimbledon today. i'm rated 24th in the country and i don't even play tennis. >> bill: 24 seed? cyprian bowlding is here as always taking good care of us on the video cam. so there's a lot of excitement in washington yesterday looking for the red panda. >> it was crazy.

it was crazy. >> bill: it took over this town. everybody's talking about it. >> it was weird how it happened. it's interesting how it happened because the national zoo sent out a tweet and the way -- they sent out a series of tweets after that saying they were missing a red panda. >> bill: in case you don't know a new red panda about a year old only been at the zoo for two or three months and i guess it wasn't paying attention when they gave it that little training class in the beginning that you're not supposed to leave the zoo. you're here, you can have a good time and eat all you want but you're not supposed to leave. >> so, they originally just said -- we're missing a panda. we're missing our red panda. and by the way a red panda looks more like a fox. >> bill: it does. >> than like an actual panda. >> bill: when you say panda some people think -- >> a giant bear running around washington. >> bill: the cute little black

and white things. no. >> exactly. one of the tweets they sent out seemed to say that he might have been kidnapped because they say it is very hard for the red panda to escape that habitat. >> bill: they put out the options. either it's in the zoo somewhere, still on the premises, they couldn't find it or it's dead on the zoo property somewhere or it escaped or it was kidnapped. they didn't know. >> they found him. >> bill: just a couple of tourists were walking in an area where i was the other night for dinner bristle street, i know that area pretty well. this woman looks and sees this animal. knows it is not a house pet. thinks it is pretty rare. takes a picture of it and then calls and tweets it out and then calls the zoo. and says hey, something here you might want to take a look at. it was really funny. it shows the social media today.

>> it is incredible. it really didn't last that long. it was just a couple of hours before the picture of a -- couple of pictures of the panda were circulating and you know, by four or five hours they had him back in custody. >> bill: down at the white house yesterday, it was like people couldn't decide which was more important. finding edward snowden or finding the red panda. >> yeah. >> bill: turns out it is easier to find the red panda than it is edward snowden. yes. and we'll talk about that here right at the top of this hour and take your calls. avery friedman, our legal beagle who is usually on the phone from cleveland is in town! and will be in studio at the top of the next hour. to talk about the george zimmerman trial. igor volsky here as he is every tuesday, just about 20 minutes from now from think progress bringing us up to date on everything they're working on. big vote on immigration

yesterday in the senate. seung min kim from politico who has been covering the immigration issue will be here in studio to tell us about that. lots to get into. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> couple of other stories out there. the "star wars" wedding happened over this weekend bill. "star wars" creator george lucas married his long-time girlfriend melanie hobson at the skywalker ranch, bill, which i know you're familiar with. you've been there. >> bill: about five miles from our house in marin. >> it happened over the weekend. >> bill: lucas valley road by the way. >> not bad. >> bill: which was lucas alley long before george lucas moved there. >> is that right? maybe that's why he moved there. he is 69 years old. second marriage. the first for his new wife. melanie hobson, a contributor who abc's "good morning america" and the president offer a yell

investments. >> bill: they were married by -- >> tell me. >> bill: bill moyers. >> not darth vader? that's pretty cool. >> the deen dissent continues. paula deen continues to spiral toward irrelevance as she lost sheer endorsement today. the qvc is looking at terminating their deal. smithfield hams announced they're ending their partnership she can't win with the pork producers. she's been their spokesperson for several years now and will have to peddle her pork somewhere else. the story should take another turn tomorrow morning wednesday, because deen will be appearing on "the today show." she was lined up to meet with them last week and stood them up but matt lauer says they've talked to her and she said she'll be there. >> bill: definitely coming in this time. smithfield hams, man that's a lot of money. >> they're big hams.

>> the stanley cup is back in chicago. after a grueling game on monday night. the blackhawks beat the bruins to take the stanley cup. bruins were leading 2-1 with less than 90 seconds left in the game. it appears they were going to force a game seven to determine the winner. after two blackhawk goals, 17 seconds apart in the third period, they won. 3-2 was the final score. 3-2 was the final score. it is their fifth stanley cup for the chicago blackhawks. >> bill: they were always starting to celebrate in boston. >> they really were. they were in boston. >> bill: they were in boston, too. we have to -- listen the tying score, okay, because this is boston's -- i mean chicago's john -- >> keep in mind. 1:16 left in the entire game. >> bill: basically everybody says its's over. we're going to game number seven

and then -- >> he scores! brian with the shot. with 1:16 to go in the third period. and we're tied at 2! >> it was electric. >> bill: i'm going to come back and be a sports announcer. >> totally. >> bill: just -- throw it all out there man. >> they're the best. >> bill: they really are. anyhow, good for the blackhawks. congratulations. all of our friends at wcpt and company in chicago. yes, indeed. so, edward snowden what the hell is going on? you know, we started yesterday right now 24 hours ago talking about this saying he was about to get on with reid wilson who will be in studio with us from the "national journal." pardon me. we were saying that edward

snowden was about to get on the plane. seat 17a on the flight from moscow to havana and then he would go on from havana to ecuador. it looked like it was all set and done. well, they had a big surprise. the reporters who rushed out and bought tickets for the flight, they got on board. it was a 12 hour and 17 minute flight. they closed the doors. they took off. i'm sure -- there was one empty seat. it remained empty all the way to havana. edward snowden, he was not in the cockpit as some people suggested. he was not in steerage or whatever they call that, in the belly of the plane as some people suggested. he was not on the flight. you know, i'll bet some of the reporters said hey wait a minute, can i get off? even though i paid for my ticket. if he's not on this plane, i don't want to take this plane to havana. why do i want to fly 12 hours and 17 minutes to havana without

edward snowed and by the way without any booze. >> if i know anything about journalists, we like our booze. >> bill: for this flight in particular aeroflot doesn't serve alcohol. maybe they've had a bad history. >> that's exactly what it is. people go to havana to party so they start drinking and the flights get out of control. so they limit the amount of alcohol. >> bill: limit it. they did away with it. so at any rate, what we know now, this was a lot to do -- most of the briefing yesterday at the white house was consumed by the story of edward snowden where is he. the white house would only say we assume and believe he's still in moscow. that's where he is, so far as we know at this moment. he is being assisted and in negotiations with wikileaks who are in touch with the government of ecuador and the governments of ecuador and the

governments of iceland. and attempting to arrange permanent asylum for him apparently. meanwhile, the united states, you must admit looks like the 900 pound weakling here. they asked china to extradite him from hong kong. china basically flipped them the bird. jay carney said saying this is not good for our relations with china. >> we're just not buying that this was a technical decision by a hong kong immigration official. this was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive, despite a valid arrest warrant and that decision, unquestionably, has a negative impact on the u.s./china relationship. >> bill: unquestionably. and then carney and secretary of state john kerry yesterday, as well, both issued a warning to russia saying if you want to be on good terms with us, if you want any future deals with us, if you want to be our friend, we

expect you not to let edward snowden leave the country. but to expel him. that's the phrase they use to expel him back to the united states. but you know, what russia's going to do, who knows. our relationships with russia have been prickly. and we have more important fish to fry with russia to tell the truth right now. particularly on the deal of arms to syria and arming the assad government. which russia has been doing. we're trying to get them to stop that. in the scheme of things, that's a lot more important than what happens to edward snowden. julian assange had a conference call with reporters. the founder of wikileaks. peter ogborn was on the call and julia assange said we're helping edward snowden and here's why. >> edward snowden is not a traitor. he is not a spy. he is a whistle-blower.

he was told the public an important truth. >> bill: meanwhile the other thing i thought that was interesting at the briefing yesterday is jay carney was asked whether or not president obama has called president putin to say you can't -- you can't just let this edward snowden go. we really want him back here. we need him back here. and jay carney said he would not say whether the president had made a call or not but he did add, i'm paraphrasing here that whether or not -- that this matter basically is not important enough. they know what we want. they know what our position is. so this matter is not important enough to merit a presidential phone call. and i'm sitting there thinking whoa! wait a minute. what are you talking about? if this is such an important nsa program, if edward snowden is

the greatest threat to our national security since world war ii, which is kind of what you get of the rhetoric of the justice department and the nsa and the white house then why isn't it important enough for president obama to call president putin and if he won't take the time to play -- to make a call to president putin is it really something that is the number one concern of the united states? i think they're sending a strange message here. what do you think? 1-866-55-press. what should happen to edward snowden and what do you think's going to happen and where the hell is he? we'll talk about it right here on the "full court press." on current tv.

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>> "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. 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 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: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour now. he is being called -- you can see the headline on "the huffington post," edward snowden this morning the nowhere man. nowhere man. well we think he's in moscow. he didn't have a visa, russian visa so he couldn't leave the airport so apparently the moscow airport whereabouts there somewhere. while they negotiate where he goes to next.

john kerry and the press secretary jay carney yesterday both calling on russia. they've heard from other american officials as well. to expel him from russia so that he could be brought back to the united states and put on trial. that depends on how vladimir putin sees it and whether or not he wants to give president obama -- do him a favor on this issue or not. john is calling from up in munson massachusetts. >> caller: good morning. i think this is the greatest thing that's happened to a country that's out of control. these large companies pushing back and saying no, you can't have snowden. you know, everyone talks about snowed and what he's done. why did he go here? why did he go there? you know what? i think he's smart. he went to countries that we can't push around. >> bill: for sure. for sure. absolutely. >> no one wants to talk about

that bill. listen, we go around -- we go around the world pushing people around and listen, i love this country but it's broken. our government needs to be replaced and something needs to be done about it and this is really a nice beginning to see someone push back and say no, you can't have this guy. >> bill: you got it, john. i appreciate the point. we're just out of time here. you know, jay carney made that point yesterday saying it was clear that what motivated edward snowden was not telling the truth. i mean, if he -- if he hangs out with -- in china and russia and ecuador and cuba, then clearly he's an enemy of the united states. i don't buy that. i don't buy that. they're just trying to destroy the personal reputation of this guy. i think he wanted the american people to know the truth. that's why he took the steps that he did.

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>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 33 minutes after the hour. how about it. it is the "full court press." right here, coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill. and we're brought to you today by the utility worker's union of america.

delivering vital services and a brighter future under president michael langford. you bet. for more information, go to their web site at uwua.net. well we couldn't find -- can't find edward snowden but we found igor volsky. he's not that hard to find. >> left russia also. >> that's right. >> bill: you left while he was coming in. >> we kind of swapped there. waved to him in the air. >> bill: igor is the managing editor of think progress. and vice president of the "full court press" here. since he's in every tuesday morning which we appreciate very, very much. but we do a little breaking news here. during the break about the latest rumor or whatever about the whereabouts of edward snowden, peter. >> here's the deal. russian foreign minister sergei earlier this morning our time said that snowden is not in

russia. so there was some confusion over whether or not he meant that he had left overnight or whether or not he had ever come into russia but he clarified he's saying snowden never came into russia. says he never crossed the border into russia. they received no notification of it. so according to the russian foreign minister, snowden was not in russia. >> well, you know, little-known fact, he's traveling under the name carmen san diego so they're look for him now. >> bill: could it be the airport is considered like a no-man's-land and therefore it is not technically russian? >> his exact words were -- his -- he said he never crossed the border into russia. he never came across the border. i don't know if i believe that. that's what the russian foreign minister said. >> don't believe the russian government? >> call me crazy. >> hmm. >> bill: so we don't know.

we don't know where he is. back here at home, think progress has been dealing with a lot of different issues including keeping an eye on the george zimmerman trial yesterday. got off to a rocky start. didn't it? >> opening statements began yesterday in this trial second-degree murder for george zimmerman. and let's just say that the defense had some very unusual and unorthodox tactics. the defense lawyers started by talking about his own personal life his mother, that quickly was objected to because it was unusual and irrelevant to the case. >> bill: really? >> he began telling the jury about what his mother always said and how life is full of hurdles and how things are never easy and then he proceeded to tell a knock knock joke to the giraffe explaining that not everyone may like this joke and don't hold it against my client. now, once you have to say that, stop right there.

don't go into -- >> bill: just to show everybody, how painful it really was, here is defense attorney -- put it in context. the prosecution i thought this guy -- prosecutor, he was i thought ferocious. >> strong opening. >> bill: strong opening. he quoted zimmerman what he had called this kid just seeing him through his windshield, walking. and he called him an a-hole and fing punk. >> they always get away with this. >> bill: they always get away with this. then the prosecutor said it is pretty clear george zimmerman shot trayvon martin for the worst of reasons because he wanted to. >> profiled him. >> bill: the defense gets up and here's how the defense starts. >> knock knock. who's there? george zimmerman.

george zimmerman who? all right good. you're on the jury. >> crickets, crickets, crickets. >> bill: you're right. before he starts out with his long prelude about you know, want to tell you a joke now. may not be the funniest joke of all. >> don't hold it against me. don't hold it against my client. >> bill: if you promise not to hold it against him, i'll tell you. >> i think he apologized later in his opening statement because -- when i heard it. i couldn't even believe it. i couldn't even -- what are we listening to here? >> bill: so he's off to a pretty rocky start. >> pretty shaky. >> bill: avery friedman will be joining us at the top of the next hour, our legal beagle to talk more about the zimmerman case -- opening arguments yesterday. and about what the supreme court was up to yesterday too.

igor, there is news now on an issue that's been out of the headlines for the last week or so. and that is the i.r.s. we learned more about this i.r.s. investigation of tea party groups yesterday. tell us about it. >> well, you know, believe it or not, the i.r.s. wasn't only targeting these tea party conservative groups. they had separate lists. the bolo lists. which are these terms that their agents had to be on the lookout for when the organizations would apply for the nonprofit c-4 status. and they included terms like progressive, terms like occupy. all of these progressive terms suggesting that as we kind of discovered immediately after the story first broke that these agents were not targeting tea party groups with political

intent. they were targeting a whole host of groups that they thought violated the spirit of c4 which is you have to be operating with social welfare and limit how much you produce and target -- and work on political campaigns. so now that this comes to light it really kind of punctures the balloon of republican outrage of obama directing these agents to target conservatives, know these agents just operated in a very questionable inappropriate manner of targeting groups based on what's in their name and that has all now been stopped. but it was happening as late as this month. >> bill: and why were they targeting more tea party groups -- groups on the right than groups on the left? >> well, that's unclear. we don't really know the numbers. but part of the reason is because after the citizens united case, the explosion occurred on the right in these groups trying to unseat obama

going after the progressive initiatives so the political momentum, i think just in terms of numbers of where there were more groups were just how it shaked down based on the political framework of the tea party groups. >> bill: so i mean -- i guess somebody's gotta do it. but i'm going to defend the i.r.s. in this sense. so i've got an agency. this is my office. my job is to scrutinize these groups who claim to be social welfare groups, want to have a tax-exempt status so they don't have to pay federal taxes. it is my job to make sure they're legit. and i've got a limited staff however many. then suddenly citizens united passes and suddenly there's this flood of new political organizations created around the country. over 700 i think. >> there's a real flood after it. that's right.

>> bill: and i've gotta process all of these. they all want their answer. they want the positive answer but at least they want an answer like right away. right? not a week. not a year. they want an answer like right away. how am i going to deal with these? doesn't it make sense that what you would say is okay, i'll set up a group of criteria to kind of -- like a filter that you put all of these groups through and you filter out the ones that you ought to take a look at. again, there's a logic to what they were doing is what i'm trying to say. >> particularly difficult for them because all of the rules are so ill-defined. nobody knows what it means to spend most of your time on social welfare and some of your time on political advocacy. how much time can you spend? what is defined as political advocacy. so these guys, these managers at the i.r.s. really had to kind of come up with some of the criteria on their own.

there was very little direction from washington in what they were trying to do. we know this from interviews with the agents in cincinnati is they tried to find all of these groups and they found them by searching for these key phrases and send them to the technical office in washington, d.c., asking that office for more guidance. what do we do? we want to make sure we do it consistently. how do we treat these groups and that's how it all came to light and eventually, they stopped using the conservative lists in 2010-2011. apparently not the progressive lists for some reason until this month. but you're right. they had to shift through these applications, figure out what is -- try to understand what kind of standard they should apply and that's how they went about it by searching the keywords. if anything, it shows us we've got to get some real standards some real clarity on how this should move forward. >> bill: what evidence is there that the white house was

involved in this? >> there's no evidence. no matter what darrell issa says, he himself can't produce any evidence. there's just no evidence. and the guy who is believed to be the first one to pick out a tea party group and bring it to his supervisor did so because he thought it was a high priority case in the sense of it might set precedent for how they treat groups in general moving forward and that manager who is a conservative republican, that's how he described himself sent it to washington and said we need clarity so we can treat these cases consistently. >> bill: washington. >> that's right. the i.r.s. technical office in washington. >> bill: igor volsky here, managing editor on top of it all. thinkprogress.org. we're the "full court press." and we'll continue our conversation and welcome you to join us. your comments on the zimmerman case. your comments on edward snowden and the i.r.s. 1-866-55-press.

>> 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. (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: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you bet it is. 12 minutes now before the top of the hour again. avery friedman stepping in and the next half hour, that you talking about some of the legal issues in the news today. igor volsky, our good buddy and member of our team here. managing editor of think progress in studio with us this morning. he left russia the same time

edward snowden was leaving. >> passing in the night. >> bill: if you stayed there igor, you would have the big scoop. >> bill: it changes every five minutes. we told you the foreign minister in the last break had said edward snowden never arrived in russia. now, peter, there is a different story. >> this is one source on twitter, reporter for abc saying snowden perhaps being held by russian law enforcement to investigate circumstances including his passport. which we know is a problem for him. the passport. so who knows. who knows. where's waldo. carmen san diego hunt continues. >> bill: seems to me that he's in moscow. that's what the white house was saying. they're pretty sure that's where he is. they're working on that assumption and putting a lot of pressure on russia to release him and send him back to this

country. so he can be placed on trial. igor let's say hello to chris calling from walton beach florida. hi, chris, what do you say? good morning. >> caller: good morning to you. i would say that edward snowden is a traitor. he needs to be extradited back to the u.s. for him to do what he did is completely just disgraceful. in my opinion. and so many other people's opinion. for him to deliberately take the job at the nsa, knowing this is what he wanted to do, working hand in hand with greenwald and if greenwald thinks they're stupid enough to think that he's not intricately involved in this from the onset from the outset, think again. >> bill: you think greenwald is a traitor too? >> i sure do. i think that greenwald will do anything to bring down president obama. i think that he hates him. >> bill: let me ask you this. what damage did -- what harm did

edward snowden do to this country? >> i don't know. we've not seen the reaction. >> bill: you're call him a traitor. don't you think -- what's behind -- >> any time you extract government information and give it to another government, that to me -- >> bill: he didn't give it to another government. he gave it to the american people. >> , no he didn't. he's given information to china. >> bill: you don't know that, chris. he talked to glen greenwald. >> caller: he hasn't either. >> bill: but you're accusing him of being a traitor. >> caller: i think he is a traitor and he needs to know what the definition of espionage is. >> bill: pardon me. i think you do, too. thank you, chris for the call. look, you know, we can debate back and forth on whether he's a traitor or a patriot. he broke the law. there's no doubt about it. but he didn't sell his secrets to the enemy. i honestly think he felt what the nsa was doing was wrong. he thought the american people

have the right to know. i think the american people have -- to me, that's my big beef about this whole story is if they were getting -- collecting all of the information on everybody's phone calls in the united states, i think we have a right to know that. >> yes, we should have i agree a public conversation. what is troubling to me about snowden is he takes this job to get this information. he flees to china. he publishes the information through greenwald and "the washington post" and others and he puts himself in a situation where he fled the country so he doesn't face the music. he's now possibly in russia, a country that doesn't have much respect for anyone's freedom of speech. and a country that has a lot of motivation to try to shake snowden down for the information that he does have in terms of american secrets. so he's in a position where the information that he has, even if he doesn't intend to give to the chinese or to russia, could very much get into their hands and that could undermine --

>> bill: igor, all right how could we -- how were we able to -- we can't find edward snowden but we did find the red panda. >> we did find -- panda found snowden still lost. >> bill: how did that happen? >> i don't know how it got away. but i suppose that zoos in general, i think in this country are underfunded. they are drying up in terms of private donations private endowment coming in is low. newt gingrich talk about this. why isn't he on tv discussing this? but rusty got out. it was a whole problem on twitter. i'm not a big animal fan. i wasn't that concerned but i'm happy he's back. they found him. and to me, he look like a red raccoon. i don't know. >> bill: can we blame him on the sequester? >> we could. it is about $40 million that the

smithsonian lost because of the sequester. i don't know how much of that came directly from the zoo or if that meant they had to have fewer folks there guarding these animals or something. it's hard, i think to operate these organizations on a shoestring budget. >> bill: we're glad that rusty is found. and maybe by this time tomorrow, we'll be able to tell you that it edward snowden has been found. igor volsky, thank you for coming in. your insights into russia for edward snowden. maybe he should talk to you. and i'll be back to tell you what the president is up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry.

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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. (cenk) it's go time! it's go time! it's go time! go time. you know what time it is. go time! it's go time. it's go time. what time is it rob? here comes the young turks go time! it's go time. oh is it? oh, then it's go time. anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time!

>> 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: hey i thought i was going to bring you up to date on the president's schedule. that's a lie. i'll do that at the end of the next hour. right now looking at your e-mails. this one sums up with everything that's wrong with the way we're approaching this issue. bill says i see you're still supporting snowden and supporting china and russia over the u.s. the division of our country has become sad when a person defining themselves as a democrat supports china and russia over the u.s. i don't support china and russia over the u.s. but as americans i think we have a duty, we certainly have a right to ask what our government is up to. that's our american duty.

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday, june 25. and this is the "full court press." good to see you today. thank you for joining us here as we come to you live from our nation's capital bringing you all of the news of the day. and, of course, giving. >> chance, most importantly giving. >> chance to tell us what you think about it all. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. join the conversation. go to us on twitter at bpshow and follow us on facebook.

you can be our friend on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. well, the international game of catch me if you can continues. we think edward snowden is in moscow at the airport. although what we're hearing from russian authorities this morning makes it unclear exactly where he is. we think he is eventually headed for ecuador. we don't really know for sure. and we think he's going to get there via cuba. we don't know for sure. the united states meanwhile is slamming china for letting him get out of hong kong and demanding that russia not let him get out of moscow. that they just put him on the plane back here to the united states where he could be charged and prosecuted. nobody really knows this morning where edward snowden is except wikileaks and they aren't talking. in other news, the supreme court yesterday said affirmative action can continue as long as

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>>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: we found the red panda but we couldn't find edward snowden. we're still look. maybe we ought to check adam's morgan, that's where they found the red panda. it is tuesday june 25. so good to see you today. here on current tv and here on your local progressive talk radio station. you can join us on the radio if you're lucky enough to have a great progressive talk station enjoy it. support it.

and support the people who advertise on the station. and if you're not listening on the radio watching us on tv we welcome you all across the great country of ours. we're coming to you live from washington, d.c. our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill and we are so lucky today because you know whenever we get into deep water when it comes to legal affairs, we usually go out to cleveland by phone to talk to the legal beagle we share with cnn, avery friedman but he is in town today. so much action going on at the supreme court. and he's in studio with us this morning. avery, so good to see you. >> i must tell you bill, i'm so happy to be with you. i'm tempted to say knock knock. >> don't do that! [ laughter ] >> all right. i can tell by the look on bill's face, that was going nowhere. >> bill: who's here? >> second degree mistrial? >> bill: it might go over as well here as it did in the

courtroom yesterday. >> nothing was worse than that. that was awful! >> bill: we'll get to that in just a minute. and peter ogborn is running the show this morning. dan henning's got the day off. alichia cruz is off this week so stevie lee webb is here taking care of the phones. stevie lee always good to see you. cyprian bowlding keeping us look good on the cable tv. on current. >> after cyprian got so many e-mails about we need to get more cyprian on camera. ladies love cool cyprian. >> bill: they do. >> it's true. don't tell mrs. bolding that. >> bill: we saved this. this is appropriate. there is a big birthday today. >> oh, yeah? >> bill: big birthday today. sonia sotomayor. >> no! >> bill: this is her 59th birthday. she's a good friend, great justice, i think. she will grow more into the job. she's already really doing some

great things. >> chief justice roberts introduced her and he was nervous about mispronouncing her name. and introduced her brother as doctor sotomayor. it is like a mel brooks movie. >> bill: we have some famous people meeting in the wings -- waiting in the wings. ♪ this is your birthday song ♪ ♪ it doesn't last too long ♪ ♪ hey ♪ >> let's do both verses. [ applause ] >> my colleagues, the second verse is exactly like the first verse. ♪ this is your birthday song ♪ ♪ it doesn't last too long ♪ ♪ hey ♪ >> fabulous. >> bill: for sonya sonia sotomayor happy birthday. that's why you're in town. >> a secret birthday party for

sonia sotomayor. >> bill: avery friedman here with us this half hour. we're excited about that. the president of the center for american progress joining us a little bit later. and then seung min kim from politico covering the immigration hearings on the hill will be in studio with us as well. avery, you and i will get to that big trial. but first -- big headlines of the day. >> few stories making news. panda-monium here in washington, d.c.! i'm sorry. i had to throw that in there. washington, d.c. was in lockdown mode on monday afternoon as the national zoo sent a tweet that said "we're looking for a missing red panda a male named rusty. he was seen at 6:00 p.m. last night." for those of you who aren't familiar with the red panda it essentially looks like -- like a fox mixed with a raccoon. it is not like a giant, black and white bear that could maul you if it was roaming the

streets of washington. the zoo explained its habitat had been searched. it was nowhere to be found. social media swung into action. a few hours later they spotted rusty in a nearby neighborhood of adams morgan and snapped a picture of him alerted the zoo. zoo officials showed up, captured him and he's back at the zoo safe and sound. >> bill: you know, i gotta tell you if you're single and in washington, you end up in adams morgan. that's the place to go. i was there the other night walking down that street, oh, my god. >> if you're ever in lock up -- >> bill: i didn't see the panda. >> more trouble for the boeing 787 dreamliner. mechanical glitches that caused three united airlines flight to be cut short in the past week might have gotten notice except for one detail. all of the planes were boeing 787s. aviation experts say three recent incidents with united planes didn't appear to pose any threat to passenger safety but the reputation of its newest

plane, the dreamliner will suffer if glitches continue to pile up. keep an eye on that story. >> bill: i know a guy who works for that industry who told me -- >> go ahead. >> bill: thin ice here. >> setting it up. >> bill: did he tell me, he said no, they're going to fix it. they're going to fix it. but i'll never fly that plane. how's that confidence level? >> and the northwest saga continues. we told you the baby of dim kardashian and kanye west named north west. someone is trying to sell a picture for a lot of money. it is a fake. the genius is kim kardashian. she felt people in her circle were going to hawk baby photos so she wanted to catch them quickly. she hatched a plan, sent about half a dozen friends pictures of a baby she said was north west except it wasn't but someone

still tried to sell the pictures. >> smart girl. >> no word yet on what they're going to do. >> nothing. >> bill: yeah, right. all right. so avery the opening arguments you and i talked in the last week about this trial coming up. what we could expect from opening arguments. i think none of us expected what we heard yesterday but first, i want to start with the prosecution. john guy, is that -- >> john guy. >> bill: i thought he did a killer job yesterday. introducing this thing. he started with quoting george zimmerman from the 911 call where he said, you know, look at this. i see this guy walking up here -- i'm paraphrasing, right. he's fing punks and these -- a-holes, they always get away with everything. so that was -- that just showed his attitude. then he ended up by saying george zimmerman shot and killed trayvon martin for the worst

reasons because he wanted to. >> exactly. you know what? you'll never see the expression of the jurors, as you know because judge debra nelson has made sure there's anonymity. you don't have names but take this to the bank, bill. those women absolutely were floored with that opening statement. and prosecution, guy did exactly what he was supposed to be doing in getting their attention. you know, there is a theory in trial practice that you win at opening statement. >> bill: really? >> yes. absolutely. john guy did exactly what he was supposed to do. >> bill: what's interesting is first of all let's go to the defense. peter, can we play -- i want -- to play the build-up to the joke. the whole thing because i think it is worth listening to. >> yeah, i have the whole thing. >> bill: then the defense attorney gets up. if this is your first time in front of the jury -- >> exactly right. >> bill: tell us about what that's like. the opening statement. >> so much is hanging on it.

>> the opening statement is everything. you set the tone. you make a promise to the jury of what they're going to see and what this is about. it is not fun and games. it is right to the point just like what we saw with the prosecution. so here was the chance. >> bill: here is the chance and here is how the defense attorney starts. >> sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. so let me -- at considerable risk let me say i would like to tell you a little joke. i know how that may sound a bit weird in this context. >> yes, it. does very weird. >> but i think you're the perfect audience for it. >> the only audience. >> as long as you don't -- if you don't like it or you don't think it's funny or inappropriate, that you don't hold it against mr. zimmerman. you can hold it against me if you want but not mr. zimmerman. i have your assurance you won't hear -- >> bill: nothing. >> knock knock. who's there?

george zimmerman. george zimmerman who? all right. good. you're on the jury. >> bill: here's the painful silence. >> nothing? that's funny. >> that's funny? >> holy smokes! >> swing and a miss. >> i have to tell you something. put yourself in the shoes of george zimmerman right now. >> bill: oh, yeah. >> what are you thinking? oh my goodness gracious! believe it or not it got worse. it got worse. because we had a -- an effort to set up a sharp clean presentation on prosecution all over the map. and so you know what? it is starting out very tough. in a case by the way prosecutors will have a very difficult time making. >> bill: i was going to come back to that point. the last time we talked about this you i thought correctly made a point that the hurdle, the test that the prosecution has to meet, malicious intent,

is really going to be tough on them. yesterday -- >> it is a credibility thing if you think about it. the burden is always on the prosecution to meet their case, prove beyond a reasonable doubt the evidence of second-degree murder but holy smokes, what an awful way to start this trial. >> bill: let me ask you about this. what blew me away with the defense is i heard him say we don't have that bite but again i'm paraphrasing. i heard him say it is not true that trayvon martin was unarmed. he had a weapon. he chose as his weapon, the sidewalk. i mean, really? he didn't have a gun. you think of the sidewalk as a weapon? >> you understand that part of the facts which will surface will be that martin was taking zimmerman and banging his head

on the sidewalk. but to argue that, i mean just -- my fear is that insulting -- >> bill: he had a weapon. the side of that apartment complex. >> please. these are -- this is a winnable case for the defense and they're starting out all in the wrong direction, bill. it is mind boggling to me. mind-boggling. >> bill: tell us the importance of the judge's ruling on the 911 call because they played the 911 call yesterday and you can hear screams in the background for help. >> right. >> bill: but she would not allow any audio expert for either side to say whose screams they were. >> this was a courageous decision by judge debra nelson because there has to be science behind expert testimony. it is the so-called dollberg standard. the science is unreliable so i'm not going to let the prosecution

introduce experts to say who it is. i'm not going to let the defense introduce experts to say who it is. we will allow, for example the parents of both zimmerman and martin claim that it is their kid. so the jury is going to sort it out without any expert testimony. >> bill: this is going to -- when you hear that tape, and you hear the screams for help and i don't know. i'm just saying like i'm a member of the jury. and i see george zimmerman and i see that little kid or younger kid. the voice to me sounds like a younger voice. i don't know. >> that's going to be the argument. although george zimmerman's father is going to take the stand and say look, look at my son. that's my son. if reasonable doubt is send by the jury, then he walks. >> bill: right. you're in town mainly because of the supreme court. before we take a break they came out with affirmative action

yesterday. we'll talk about that. now, what's coming up? what do you think? >> we may very well see today a decision on the voting rights act section five, enormously significant decision and i think it crescendos to the end with prop 8 and then the windsor case. so we're looking -- the refusal -- the unconstitutionality of denying federal benefits. so we'll have both of those. that's edith windsor. we're thinking wednesday thursday on that. today look for voting rights. >> bill: right. the other one wednesday or thursday. so this week we're going to get -- >> we're getting everything. we're going to get everything and more. this is p.o.t.u.s. week. >> bill: did they do this, by the way, because it takes them that long to make a decision? >> no. >> bill: did they deliberately hold them up? >> you want to know something? every expert got this wrong bill. every expert! no one dreamt this was going to get remanded to the u.s. court

of appeals sitting in new orleans to reconsider what they did. the best judgment by the so-called experts was this is going to be an explosion. the end of affirmative action as we know it. and it is not. >> bill: avery friedman here, we'll take your call about the zimmerman case. about affirmative action. about what's coming up on doma and voter rights or you know, just want to get some legal advice. >> oh, man. >> bill: you want to file for divorce today or filling out your will or whatever, here's the guy. avery friedman. 1-866-55-press is the toll free number. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are.

>> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding.

i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us on bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show". >> bill: nera from the center of american progress joins us in the next segment to preview president obama's big speech today on climate change. a lot going on on that. big expectations for what the president is going to propose. right now, we're trying to sort out what the supreme court is up to this week. avery friedman, legal commentator for cnn and for the "full court press" is here in court with us, in court? whoa. >> bill: in studio with us. and you can follow him in between appearances on cnn and on the "bill press show" at avery friedman.com.

so what did the supreme court do on affirmative action? they didn't throw it out and they didn't say it is the greatest thing that ever happened right? >> let me tell you something for those of us who thought that affirmative action was in jeopardy, the 7-1 decision yesterday is really like getting oxygen. why? because it is going to go back to the u.s. court of appeals. that will be reconsidered by actually a very venerable panel. three judges, one appoint by ronald reagan, wrote the opinion. another one by jimmy carter and then the third by h.w. >> bill: oh, wow. some old-timers here. >> and the only dissent which was a brilliant one by ruth bader ginsburg talked about the majority, you know, acting like ostriches. not really recognizing the reality of this. so i have some hope that it remains part of the legal fabric of america. i think it is going to be okay. >> bill: is the voting rights

act in trouble? >> yeah. voting rights act is in trouble if the court like yesterday employed judicial restraint. if they do the same thing today it should be okay. if the voting rights act case comes down today. but i think that one is in trouble. >> bill: marriage equality. >> wow. this is going to be a whole new level of american jurisprudence. i actually believe that prop 8 is going to get knocked down. i believe the limitation on federal benefits, the he'd ith windsor -- the edith windsor case will get knocked down and we'll have a brand new substrate um of american jurisprudence. >> bill: that would be historic. every one of their decisions this week -- how big a deal? it is such a big deal that it brings avery friedman all the way from cleveland ohio. so good to see you. thank you so much for being here.

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

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>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: here we go on this tuesday morning june 25. thank you for joining us here on the "full court press." brought to you today coming to you live from our nation's capital, brought to you today by the national education association, the good men and women, great teachers of the nea under president dennis van roekel creating great public schools for every student in america. you bet. you can find out more about their great contribution to this

country at their web site, nea.org. speaking about a great contribution to this country indeed, we are all blessed to have the center for american progress on the job. igor volsky from think progress was here just a little bit earlier today. here in studio. tom pair perriello was in stud with us last week. joining us now on our news line, nera is the president of the center for american progress. thanks for sending all of the good people over here. >>heim's here with a great team so i'm excited. >> bill: i wanted to ask you about president obama giving a major speech today on climate change. in his state of the union address and in his inaugural

address, he spent a lot of time talking about the importance of climate change. so i guess this is the followup today in terms of an action plan, is that what we can expect? >> absolutely. you know, i think this is really a historic day. for the administration -- i think the administration's actions are bold. really can address the challenge that we're facing and he's really doing everything he can. as president. obviously we have a dysfunctional congress but he's doing everything he can as president to address one of the singular challenges of our time. i'm really excited about what the president's offering. >> bill: is the president, in effect saying look, we just know we're not going to get any action out of congress so here's what i'm going to do as president on my own or is he still trying to get legislation? >> no. i think -- his actions are really focused on what he can do as president.

i think we should all be wary that the congress will try to stop what many of the things he's doing. it is going to take a lot of support and people are going to have to really step up. actual people. actual americans will have to step up and support the president. but you know, his actions are really focused on what, you know what every branch of government can do. every branch of the executive side of government. >> bill: give us a couple of ideas about things the president is proposing. >> most importantly he is regulating existing -- he is starting the process of regulating existing coal plants. we've already had regulations of new power plants coming online but obviously when you do that, it makes it -- it makes the coal industry just really double down on existing coal plants. and so that's one of the

biggest, you know, leverage points 40% -- 40% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions come from you know, electricity production, the vast majority of that is coal. so this is sort of the action -- all of the people who care about that have been asking for and the president has the power to do it. i think that, in itself, will be an area where he will get a lot of pushback obviously from the coal industry. republicans in congress may attempt to stop him legislatively. and you know, i think even some democrats from states that are reliant on coal may try to do that. i think it's really important for all of us who care about climate to you know, step up and support the president. and push back against any attempts to undo his bold

actions. >> bill: this would be taken through -- carried out through e.p.a., i would imagine correct? >> yes. so far does not have an administrator. you can tell how dysfunctional congress is because obviously someone has been nominated. >> bill: we don't know the secretary of labor. we don't know the secretary of commerce. we don't have an e.p.a. minister this is par for the course, right? he nominates then the congress just sits on their butt. the climate change people that we have had here in studio over the last few months have all said the number one most important thing that we could do as a country would be to crack down on existing, existing power plants and that the president does have the power to do that without new congressional legislation. so this is -- as you say historic in the sense that the president is using that power for the first time.

>> absolutely. what's important about what he's doing today is he's really taking -- i mean if you look at his plan, he's really taking every step he can take. not just to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but to make sure we are prepared and countries around the world are prepared for you know, the inevitable climate changes that we're already experiencing. to reduce the likelihood of large scale climate change in the future. one of the reasons why this makes such a good economic decision to address climate is because we are seeing weather effects. we have the sandy storm. somewhere between $60 and $80 billion. we've taken steps to address climate over the last two decades. perhaps we wouldn't have seen the sandy storm in that huge cost. he's also making steps to build

renewables to encourage renewable development which will be an important arena for jobs. the point we've made at the center for american progress is that you know, there is really a global competition to see which country can dominate renewable energy. it is inevitable we'll have to get there. so china has made significant investments in this area. dominating in some parts of the renewable energy. so it is really critical that we take these steps and it makes -- it is a good economic decision for all of us because it will create jobs here. and we're particularly excited one proposal that we were pushing very hard is for the -- you know, push to really develop renewable resources on public lands. you could have wind farms et cetera and on public lands in a way that doesn't affect anyone's use of those lands. over the last several decades

we've been moving to use public lands for coal production, et cetera. we really think we should move that over to renewables. and there are estimates we could create 17,000 jobs which dwarf what we would -- any idea from what we would get from the pipeline. so you know, i think these things make really good decisions. what they're excited about what the president is doing and what he'll announce later today is it really is a comprehensive plan. the president's really saying this is one of the big challenges of our time. we must act. america must lead. and he's taking the steps that he can as president to take every step he can. he's using every tool in the toolbox that a president has to address one of the country's greatest challenges. i think that's the measure of leadership. >> bill: you must have found

put this in the form of a question, at the center for american progress, the american people are far ahead of the congress on this issue it seems to me. still, with all of the evidence that we've seen on so many fronts for so long about the reality of climate change and the reality of global warming and yet there's still enough, you know, nonbelievers, if you will in the congress that they're unable to take even the minimum action to do anything about it. >> yeah, well, you know, look, i think the big problem we have and this is the problem we've had in the gun debate and we've had in other areas and it is a huge problem in the climate debate is that you have -- there are significant powerful interests in the coal industry, in the oil and gas industry, particularly the oil industry, who are profiting off of a status quo that is hurting the

planet. and you know obviously -- you know the american people are far ahead of congress. and are far ahead of -- people look at sandy and that was a real turning point. recognize, you know, if you're -- we're being foolish for not trying to take steps now. because costs are huge. the costs are huge, not just in money but eventually in lives. and so you know, so i think this is an area where it's the special interest stranglehold. again, we saw it in the gun debate. now, what's fortunate about this is that you know, this is an arena in which you don't to have congressional action. i think it would be impossible. i hope it is not always impossible. i hope we change the congress and get leaders who actually think of not just the people giving them money but people who, you know, especially with the house republicans you already see john boehner attacking the president on this.

and so you know, eventually hope things change in washington but i think this is an attempt by the president to say you know, i can't be -- i can't be stopped by stranglehold the special interests have. >> bill: i think that's what the american people want. they want to see some leadership and action and they're going to see it today on climate change. the president making that speech later this afternoon. at georgetown university. president, center for american progress thanks for giving us a little advance look at what's coming down today neera. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: great to talk to you. here it is, the "full court press." this tuesday morning. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show". live on your radio and current tv. >> 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).

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>> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour. in the next hour, seung min kim from politico and david jackson from "usa today," seung min kim covering the congress and jackson covering the white house will be along here on the "full court press." and we will bring you up to date in just a second here on the whereabouts of edward snowden. he's found -- i mean he's not found. the red panda has been found. not edward snowden. but first this item.

it caught my attention. on the issue of identity theft i've told you it is everywhere. here we go. story out of michigan. a former mortgage firm employee in michigan faces prison after pleading guilty in an identity fraud case involving clients of the brokerage firm. this woman stole their personal financial information from clients. and used that to open up a line of credit in her own name. identity theft is everywhere. not just in michigan. you should be protected against it and i suggest you look into lifelock ultimate. that's what i've got. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection out there. and available. 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 get 10% off your lifelock

ultimate membership. the number to call 1-800-356-5967. for lifelock ultimate. protect yourself against identity theft. 1-800-356-5967. yes, indeed, the whereabouts of edward snowden still unknown. we think he is in moscow. he has not to our knowledge left moscow. we think he's in negotiations to -- regarding where he would ultimately like asylum. but there was a strange -- and that's where it was left yesterday at the white house briefing. i attended. but there was a strange comment this morning by the russian foreign minister that edward snowden had, in fact, never reached russia. never reached moscow. and that they have no idea where

he is which doesn't square with the accounts that he was at the moscow airport. peter, the latest? >> i'm look right now. i don't see anything really new on snowden. it is still sort of up in the air. so to speak. >> bill: so what we think is -- we're still operating on the premise that he left hong kong. went to moscow. leaving moscow apparently on the way to ecuador eventually. maybe by way of cuba but he certainly was not on that flight. they expected him to take yesterday. meanwhile, the united states is sort of a catch me if you can kind of game and the united states is really upset number one, at china for letting him go. jay carney at our briefing yesterday said this idea that hong kong says well, the paper the request that we filed wasn't in the proper form, he said they don't believe -- the united states doesn't believe that for a second. >> we're just not buying that

this was a technical decision by a hong kong immigration official. this was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the u.s./china relationship. >> bill: our relationships now with china chilly because of this. and jay carney yesterday also secretary of state john kerry sent a clear message to russia saying that even though china had let him go, they expected russia to do the right thing. not give him transit through the country to go into ecuador but expel him from russia and send him back to the united states so he could stand trial. a lot of pressure being placed on president putin to do that. meanwhile, julian assange snowden has asked wikileaks for help. they've had a lot of experience lately. protecting people who are on the

run. and finding them asylum. julian assange finding asylum in london. julian assange gave a conference call yesterday to reporters. peter ogborn was on the call where he said here's why we are helping edward snowden. >> edward snowden is not a traitor. he is not a spy. he is a whistle-blower. he was told the public an important truth. >> bill: assange says that snowden contacted them and said hey, can you help? >> mr. snowden requested that wikileaks use its legal expertise and experience to secure his safety. >> bill: he said they're currently negotiating both with the government of ecuador and the government of iceland. meanwhile, to make the point i made yesterday, this is all fascinating, where edward

snowden is and what happens to him. but the main focus, i think ought to remain on what the nsa is doing and whether that's something, as americans that we want to happen. when we come back. president obama big day today. big speech today. tell you all about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

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>> bill: you got it. seung min kim from politico to talk about immigration and david jackson from "usa today" at the white house in the next hour of the "full court press". president obama, busy day today starting off with the daily briefing at 11:15 this morning in the oval office. after which he will meet with

senior advisers then have lunch with the vice president which they do, as you know, once a week. this afternoon 1:55, the president heading over to georgetown university for a major speech on climate change. which we just previewed with neera tanden from the center for american progress. this afternoon the president after the speech, about 3:30 this afternoon the president and the vice president will meet with congressional leadership of both parties in the oval office and then at 4:45 this afternoon the president and the vice president meet with secretary of defense chuck hagel. one more hour coming up. stick around.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. welcome, welcome to the "full court press" right here on this tuesday, june 25. "full court press" coming to you live on current tv all across this great land of ours. so good to see you today. thank you for joining us here as we bring you the news of the morning. from our nation's capital all around the country all around the globe wherever it's happening, we're on top of it. we'll tell you about it. we'll take your calls at 1-866-55-press. you can tell us what it all means to you and to your family. 1-866-55-press. give us your comments on twitter. if you don't want to give a call at bpshow. that's our twitter handle at

bpshow and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. for all of our friends on facebook. well the international game of catch me if you can continues. edward snowden we think, is in moscow. he is -- we think headed for ecuador, going there by way of, we think havana, cuba. although nobody knows. actually nobody knows for sure where edward snowden is except wikileaks and they ain't talking but they're trying to help him find asylum, apparently, either in ecuador or in iceland. and the supreme court says you can continue to use affirmative action as long as there's a tough test before you use it. all of that and more right here on current tv. (vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays

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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? 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: hey, we can find the red panda. why the hell can't we find edward snowden? good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday june 25. here we are the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital. washington, d.c. where you find us right here on capitol hill. in the middle of the action. bringing you up to date on the news of the day from capitol hill from around the country from around the globe. and of course, giving. >> chance to sound off and -- giving you a chance to sound off and tell us what you think it all means, what it is all about. you can do so by giving us all a call at 1-866-55-press. join us on twitter at bpshow and

on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. one of the big stories we've been following has been the debate about immigration reform. seung min kim by politico has been on top of that, covering it in studio with us to talk about it a couple of days last week and there's so much action, she is back again today. seung minh great to see you. >> great to be here again. >> bill: keep it alive. are we going to get a vote before the july 4th break? >> it is definitely looking at it like that. even if you run out the clock i think we're looking at a vote at the latest -- sometime on friday. >> bill: this week. >> this week exactly. but you know the senators smell the jet fumes right before recess. maybe even as early as thursday we'll get a final vote. >> bill: there you go. you heard it here first on the "full court press." team here is sort of in and out this week. peter ogborn is back and running

the show. >> hey hey hey. >> bill: dan henning has the day off. be back tomorrow. alichia cruz has the week off. so stevie lee webb has come over across the pond. >> hey now. >> bill: hello hello stevie leave. >> someone stole my pet red panda right out from under me. i only got it yesterday, as well! >> bill: you stole it from the zoo. so, there. >> no, i didn't! >> bill: cyprian bowlding. the only man without a camera. he gets a big wave. >> he's got the camera. we just don't give him a microphone. >> bill: i'm sorry. >> considering all of the hate mail we get whenever we don't put him on camera, we gotta keep him on. >> bill: yeah. in fact, i think we should rename it the cyprian bowlding studio. we're coming to you live from the cyprian bowlding studio. >> now we've gone too far.

>> bill: how about it. i've shown up with a sore throat but i've never shown up with a black eye. you know what i mean? >> yet. >> bill: that's true. jimmy kimmel did yesterday. he had a real run-in with a tough customer in new york. he told us all about it last night on the late show. >> i went to the hospital and i got 11 stitches in my cheek. you know i've never had a doctor sew up my face before. i feel like one of the real housewives or something. but i learned an important lesson and that lesson is car doors open outwards. and my eye keeps getting blacker every day. my eye is to black right now paula deen apologized to it. >> bill: so he had a run-in with a car door. >> he ran his face into a car door that was open and he got jacked up. it was ugly. >> bill: i saw a picture of it. really ugly. particularly for somebody who is on television.

anybody. yeah. exactly. we're going to talk immigration here at the top of the hour. david jackson will be joining us a little bit later. give us a preview of the president's trip coming up and also about white house embarrassment over being unable to track down edward snowden. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> couple of other stories making news, speaking of paula deen there her dissent continues as she continues to spiral toward irrelevance. she lost another endorsement deal yesterday. smithfield hams announced they are ending their partnership with the recovering racist. deen has been thai spokesperson for several years and will have to peddle pork elsewhere. the story should take another interesting turn tomorrow morning because wednesday she will be appearing on "the today show." she had agreed to show up on "the today show" last week and stood them up but she has assured them she will be there tomorrow morning. we'll see what happens next. >> bill: i love that phrase. recovering racist. you know what?

on "the today show" tomorrow morning may be too little, too late. >> look, she lost her food network gig qvc has signaled they might be looking to get out. smithfield, which is a big deal for her. she's losing a lot of money. >> stanley cup is back in chicago. after a grueling game last night. the blackhawks beat the bruins to take the stanley cup. it is their fifth stanley cup win for the chicago blackhawks. bruins from boston were leading 2-1 with less than 90 seconds left in the game. on their home ice. and it looked like they were going to force a game seven to determine the winner but after two blackhawk goals in the final moments, they stunned the bruins and that is -- that is over. your chicago blackhawks are your stanley cup champions. >> bill: congratulations blackhawks. >> one of our favorite products got an audience with president barack obama.

yesterday, a gathering of business leaders from around the country made their way to the white house to chat with the president. the president wanted to talk to leading job creators about common sense immigration reform and the workplace. at the white house he met with the head of ethan allen steve case from aol and the ceo and president of chobani yogurt. one of our favorite products. bill, you've got yours. i have mine. we're big chobani fans. >> bill: empty chobani peach. from this morning. absolutely. >> dumpster diving on tv. >> bill: put it down a little while ago. i could not get through the morning without chobani. who is the head of it? >> hamdi kuya. >> bill: doesn't sound like a

greek. >> i'm not sure. we'll find out. >> bill: okay. >> the president knows him. >> bill: it is made up in -- new berlin. new berlin, new york is where they're from. >> okay. there you go. >> bill: such great flavors too. >> but wait, there's more. >> bill: i love peach. >> oh, man. >> bill: i like them all. black cherry may be right now my favorite. [ laughter ] >> bill: all right. >> we know you have a lot of choices out there for breakfast. >> bill: we're finished with that. okay now seung min kim yesterday, a big move on the way to immigration reform, right? >> that's exactly right. so there was sort of a test key procedural vote on this corker hoeven amendment and we got about 67 senators on board which

is a pretty big number considering eight or so missed the vote because of flight problems. we're expecting the total to go even higher later this week. >> bill: what does this amendment do? >> it adds -- in addition to what's already in the bill, it adds a so-called border surge. they're adding about 20,000 new border patrol agents. they're requiring that about 700 miles of fencing along the southern border be completed. they're adding about $3 billion in new technologies, drones, other surveillance equipment to help us secure that border. >> bill: total of about $30 billion cost. >> a little hire. $38 billion i believe. >> bill: $38 billion okay. senator bob corker, one of the co-authors of this amendment said yesterday that all we're doing is providing a little balance here. senator corker? he's coming along. >> we, in this body, generally speaking have worked together to try to come up with a piece of legislation that meets the

balance. this amendment to me adds that component that meets the balance. >> bill: so what does this mean? the fact that he got 67 votes and this amendment -- that was just to debate the measure. >> basically to cut off debate on this measure. >> bill: and to be able to vote on it. >> on the final passage yes. >> bill: it is clear it is going to pass. >> you only need 51 so you've already got 67. >> bill: part of the legislation. what significance of this? >> it gives republicans especially, maybe -- several red state democrats too it kind of relieves their concern of there not being enough border security in the gang of eight bill and the congressional budget office saying their bill was only going to staff about 28% of illegal immigration that kind of roused up the fears a little bit more but they're saying look, we used to just have, in addition, about $6 billion in security

technology. now we're boosting that up to almost $40 billion. this doesn't do it. nothing else will. >> bill: it seems that -- how do i put it -- they did have -- they admitted they had the votes. last time you were in, we talked about the fact jeff flake said we've got the votes to get it passed, we want to pile on more votes. we want to get a big big big vote so it seems to me that they're making the bill worse in order to get a bigger vote. >> that's the argument that was coming from a lot of immigrant advocacy groups, a lot of democrats and there are actually several immigrant groups that are not supporting the corker proposal saying border communities saying we can't handle 20,000 more agents in our communities. so i think this was the whole durbin and reed versus schumer strategy. durbin and reed said they're fine with 60 votes but

schumer -- people like mccain really want the 70 vote figure to kind of pressure the house. but i think now -- harry reid said last week, i doubt if schumer could get 70 but it looks like we're on the way there. i think they're happy with it. at least on capitol hill. i don't know about -- >> bill: senator reid -- do we have that quote from harry reid here where he talked -- sort of making the point i guess i am of what point do you just say we got a good bill. we have enough votes so let's just go with a good bill and enough votes rather than a bad bill to get more votes. i think that's what harry reid is saying. >> rather than twisting the arms of tea party extremists, work with moderates from both parties to pass bipartisan legislation. >> bill: isn't that what we're doing in this border amendment that they're going after trying to get some of the tea party republicans to vote for it? >> it's not really even tea party republicans. moderate republicans we suspected all along would vote for immigration reform.

this got kirk on board hiller on board. people like mike lee or rand paul, they were never going to support this. so i think that it kind of gave more cover more assurance to those moderate republicans and the moderate democrats too. >> bill: so now again, the timetable on this, are they halfway through their amendments? >> yeah, right now so they closed off debate last night. that sets up final passage for just this corker hoeven amendment sometime wednesday, i don't know exactly when that 30-hour period ends but and then we're expecting another procedural vote on the overall bill also sometime wednesday. timing is a little influx right now. so that's why we're expecting to see final passage of the entire bill maybe thursday or friday. >> bill: all right. when do they break? this weekend? >> yeah. they'll be back in their states for the july 4th recess for about a week. >> bill: for the week. so the goal is to get it done -- >> this week.

>> bill: and then in the house -- >> and then in the house it is the big question mark. the committee there is working through bits and pieces of bills. they've done an enforcement bill. they're going to take up a high tech bill and a bill this week. they're still working on how to resolve -- what they're going to do for the pathway -- they're calling it a pathway to status. it is not necessarily a pathway to citizenship. but still a big question mark on what they're going to do. there will be a big house republican conference meeting i believe july 10th. that can be an indication of where the republicans are headed. >> bill: right. i've heard more and more people -- we have been fairly optimistic in our conversations about immigration reform happening. i heard several voices yesterday saying they really think in the end, it's not going to happen because the house republicans based on what we saw with the farm bill are never going to be able to handle immigration.

let's get into that when we come back here. peter is in the middle of this chobani yogurt. >> it's true. i have pineapple this morning. >> bill: pine papel. -- pineapple. i like it. it is pretty good. >> let's talk about it. >> bill: your calls welcome about the chobani yogurt or anything else at 1-866-55-press. try to make them about immigration reform. seung min kim in studio with us from politico. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. 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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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey you got it. 25 minutes after the hour now here on the "full court press." david jackson joins us from the studio with president obama. i'm sorry, from the white house rather with president obama geared to make a major speech on climate change today. and leave on a planned trip to africa. in studio with us, seung min kim is a reporter who covers congress for politico. you can always follow her good work and lately, she's been on the front page just about every day of politico.com. on this burning issue of immigration reform. i want to ask you about supreme court and how it might impact immigration reform. but first, we were just talking about the house. the house is still far behind the senate in terms of

consensus, isn't it, on a piece of legislation. >> yeah, you might be able to get a consensus of house republicans but it is not going to be something that's going to get the support of democrats and that bipartisan group in the house, they keep saying we're going to release the bill. they haven't done it yet. >> bill: right. but then, you talk about consensus among republicans they couldn't get consensus among republicans on a farm bill. >> that's exactly right. >> bill: which doesn't bode well -- even if john boehner wanted to do immigration reform, right, which is a big if, even if he wanted to, let's say a bill comes out of the senate as chuck schumer and john mccain want. 75 or 80 votes. how can the congress resist this. even if john boehner is persuaded, we have to do something if the senate has that big a vote. it is not sure he can deliver his caucus. >> unless he wants to do something with the majority of democrats and a few republicans

which he's made clear he's not going to do on immigration. so we'll just have to see what the house produces. i think -- i still think it is possible that the house passes -- the house passes something maybe by the end of july. that doesn't have a lot of democratic support but can nip that magic 218 number and maybe that's conferencable negotiable with the senate sometime in the fall but then the calendar strikes, too there because congress will have to deal with the debt ceiling with budget issues sometime in the fall. i don't know if they can walk and chew gum at the same time, try to finish up immigration and do the debt ceiling as well. >> bill: they haven't shown they're able or willing to. finally, the supreme court. its ruling this week on defense of marriage act could impact the immigration reform. >> exactly. this is the issue that's been -- that's been difficult for democrats ever since they released a bill. and that gay couples aren't covered in the immigration bill. right now gay u.s. citizen

cannot petition their spouses if they're foreign-born for green cards and that's something that patrick leahy the judiciary committee chairman really wanted to add especially during the committee mark up of the bill. he said i'm going to put it forward and one democrat after another, schumer said i support this idea but i can't vote for it. because it is going to blow up this gang of eight deal. he and durbin were out there. it is going to be almost impossible to attach this on the floor. it won't get 60 vote. now they're really looking at the supreme court to strike down doma. >> bill: if the supreme court can do this, striking down doma, that will resolve this problem. >> that's the theory then gay couples would be recognized by the federal government. >> bill: the beat goes on. >> it does. >> bill: thanks for brings us up to date. >> 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: hey hey hey. 33 minutes after the hour. indeed. it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and our studio on capitol hill. and we're brought to you today by the international brotherhood of teamsters good men and women of the teamsters union. we all live better because of their good work. and you can find out more about what they are up to in many fields of endeavor at their web site teamster, teamster.org. president obama busy day. the most maybe -- most important part of which will be a major speech on climate change. a little bit later today. at georgetown university. at the white house, on the job covering the white house is my

white house correspondent for "usa today," david jackson. david, good morning! >> good morning bill. >> bill: good to talk with you again as always. we were at the briefing yesterday. kind of an embarrassment for the administration over the whereabouts of edward snowden right? >> yeah. at the very least, diplomatic problems with china and russia. quite startling to hear jay carney call out both of those countries when he complained about the fact that china let snowden go to russia and russia is keeping him from us and won't send him back to the united states. it has been quite the scene. kind of a diplomatic mess right now. >> bill: he didn't mince any words. he said it would unquestionably negatively affect our relationship with china. they're really putting the screws on russia to say they've got to release him if they want to continue good relations with the united states, right? >> very much so. i suspect there's some things going on behind the scenes there

because originally snowden was scheduled to fly out yesterday morning to cuba. he's apparently still in russia. that's under dispute. i suspect there's a lot of intensity going on behind the scenes. we'll see how this thing plays out. >> bill: when you look at russia, it seems to me that we've been also putting a lot of pressure on russia to stop selling arms to the assad regime in syria right? so that may be a bigger issue than what happens to edward snowden? >> relations with russia aren't that great right now. they've disputed -- they've had arguments over iran, iraq, of course. several disputes certainly going back to the bush administration before then. so things aren't great with russia to start with and now they're worse with the snowden situation. i don't know what russia thinks about it. maybe they think they can get something if they give snowden back to us but here again we'll have to see. >> bill: i don't know about you. what i found the most startling about that conversation with what efforts we're making to get snowden back is when carney was

asked whether or not the president has called vladimir putin. and remember carney said well, i'm not going to say whether he has or whether he hasn't but he added that this hardly merits a phone call from the president to putin. almost saying it is not that important. which seemed to contradict saying that this is the biggest spy we've ever had right? >> don't want president obama -- president obama dodged that question. apparently he hasn't talked to him. you don't want to talk to putin and get a no to his face. i was struck by that, too. on the one hand, the administration is trying to downplay. on the other hand, they're obviously quite angry about how the snowden situation has been handled by the two other countries. >> bill: i'm sure they can't say this. i was going to ask you whether you think privately, they may be a little angry at the department of justice which, i don't know it seems to me this was an easy

catch and that they blew it. you know? on the passport. they didn't revoke his passport until the very, very end. and we don't know whether the papers were filed correctly or not. but you know, two weeks after he revealed his leaks right? and he got out of hong kong. so two weeks to get him. and didn't. >> on the holder thing even before this, there were some people in the white house who were pretty frustrated with all of the controversies over the justice department. some people hold it against holder. others don't. one way or another, i suspect there are a few people in the white house who wouldn't mind seeing holder retired. the bottom line is president obama still backs him. as long as that's the case, i don't think holder is going anywhere. as far as the passport situation, i have to point out that you know, even though it is a hard thing to talk about because of the privacy act the considerations involved, i don't think you can revoke anybody's passport until you charge them with a crime. snowden was charged what, friday and at that point his passport became invalid.

he scooted from china within two days of that. i think that explains the passport issue. but to answer your question, a little bit of frustration in the white house with the justice department. frustration with the entire situation. rather absurd. >> bill: last thing that they need right now. >> on top of all of the other stuff. you mention the climate speech. climate change speech. i don't know how much attention that's going to get given the other events. >> bill: yeah, let's go there. this is a followup, the president talked a lot about -- put a great emphasis on climate change in the state of the union speech, in his inaugural address as well. so we've been sort of waiting for this other shoe to drop and today, what i read is he's kind of saying we can't count on congress. i'm going to do it myself. >> no doubt about it. he's bypassing congress. the climate change plan he will outline today is basically all executive orders now. the e.p.a., he's going to ask the e.p.a. to work with members of industry and presumably lawmakers to fashion the new rules for carbon pollution and

power plants but this is an executive show right now. he's leaving congress behind because i think he knows it is next to impossible to get climate change legislation out. >> bill: of course, this depends on the e.p.a. and the e.p.a. now without a director. >> exactly. they still have employees there. i think they're talking about a two-year timeframe to develop the new rules. who knows what the political situation will be like in 2015. also the possibility of lawsuits. so he's going to announce new rules today. when they take effect and have an impact is anyone's guess. >> bill: we're talking with david jackson, white house correspondent for "usa today" at the white house. usatoday.com, of course, you can follow david on twitter at djusatoday. david a situation that's hard to talk about, the president is scheduled to leave for africa and apparently nelson mandela is -- he is certainly in critical condition perhaps on his deathbed.

what do they do here? >> it is very -- they're monitoring more closely than the snowden situation. the south african president nelson mandela is in critical condition. it seems they're preparing people for the inevitable. he's supposed to leave tomorrow morning, wednesday morning about 9:00 a.m. but i'm getting the impression if the worst happens with mandela he may call it off and wait to go back for the funeral. it is a very touch and go situation. that's creating a bit of anxiety in the white house. >> bill: i was going to say he can't really go and bounce around africa, right? with mandela on his deathbed? >> no. the ability to transact business in countries in africa after an extremely difficult situation with the whole continent in mourning. the impress i'm getting is if the worst happens, he may postpone and wait to go to

mr. mandela's funeral which would be a couple of weeks after he dies. the south african government has an entire plan for a memorial for president mandela. it would take a couple of weeks. probably push the whole thing back if the worse happened. >> bill: you've been -- so the president is scheduled to leave tomorrow morning. right. people have been -- in africa preparing for this visit for months probably, wouldn't you say? you've been on a lot of presidential trips. imagine, if they had to pull the plug on this. >> it's been done. president obama canceled a couple of trips two years ago for various reasons including the healthcare bill. and it's not just the african countries preparing for the visit. there have been advance teams in the countries in africa for weeks now. it would be very expensive proposition to pull the plug. i don't know how much choice he would have if events develop. >> bill: particularly, you know, do you think they might call it off before he leaves?

in the next 24 hours? because again, the other alternative is he could get down there and get started then mandela die then what does he do? >> that's certainly true. if that would happen i doubt there's much he could do about that once he's in the country. in terms of doing anything ahead of time, i think they would wait until they made a decision to scrap the trip. if we don't hear anything out of south africa if the situation doesn't change, he'll leave as scheduled tomorrow morning. if something happens while he's in the continent they'll have to deal with it then. >> bill: yesterday the president -- final question, he had a meeting with business leaders on immigration reform. this looks like the one thing that he may be able to accomplish this year legislatively. do you think? >> it is a very good bet in the senate. looks like the senate will pass an immigration bill this week. the question is what the house does with it. people who count the votes say immigration bill probably could get through the house on majority basis. most of the republicans would be opposed to it so then the

question becomes does the republican leadership put the bill on the floor. that's the real question. >> bill: would john boehner accept the bill that democrats have voted for with a few republicans, right? >> exactly. that was the purpose of the meeting yesterday. members of the business community in, lot of business people have good connections with republicans. i think it is designed to put pressure on the g.o.p. >> bill: to get the business community behind it and maybe that would pick up some republican votes. david, interesting times we live in for sure. all right. you know, i was just thinking yesterday, may be the only briefing this week because there's none today. none scheduled today. and then since the president leaves tomorrow, that will be a briefing on air force i. >> unless we have developments on the snowden situation or perhaps on the -- we probably won't be hearing from jay for awhile. until the next air force i trip. >> bill: if you hear anything about snowden today let us know. >> i think it will get out pretty quickly. >> bill: david jackson, white house correspondent. does a great job.

for "usa today." >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv.

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documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. tuesday, june 25. back to a couple of big stories

in the news. first, if you are in the houston area, watch out. police are looking for a woman who has opened up fraudulent bank accounts at several houston area banks using the names of victims who had their purses stolen out of their vehicles. that's just one more example of identity theft which is everywhere and one more warning to be protected against it. i suggest you take a look at lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available. i've got it. you need it. but lifelock can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. the way to sign up is visit lifelock.com and mention press 10 or give them a call and mention press 10 for 10% off your lifelock ultimate membership. the number to call is

1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. 1-800-356-5967. so, a couple of big stories in the news today. we haven't had a chance to spend too much time on. number one the george zimmerman trial. guard me, got underway. in sanford florida yesterday. the prosecution got off to a very strong start i believe. the prosecutor john guy telling the jury that even before he had encountered trayvon martin, george zimmerman looked out the windshield of his car called 911 and went into this rant about these fing punks and these so-called a-holes who always get away with everything. he just sees this kid walking and this is his rant. john guy telling the jury that

george zimmerman got out of his car. wasn't supposed to. he had a gun. he wasn't supposed to have one. he encountered shot and killed trayvon martin for the worst of reasons, because he wanted to. very strong impression. on the part of the prosecution. and then the defense attorney got up who seems to be a real bozo. don west starts out by telling a joke that bombed to the jury. not only the joke but he apologizes for the joke before he tells it. >> sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. so let me -- at considerable risk, let me say -- i would like to tell you a little joke. i know how that may sound a bit weird in this context. >> bill: very weird. >> under the circumstances. >> bill: very weird. >> i think you're the perfect audience for it. >> bill: oh, really? >> as long as you don't -- if you don't like it or you don't think it is funny or

inappropriate, that you don't hold it against mr. zimmerman. you can hold it against me. i have your assurance you won't. >> bill: here's the joke. >> knock knock. who's there? george zimmerman. george zimmerman who? all right good. you're on the jury. nothing? >> bill: nothing he says? nothing? that's funny. no it's not. >> hilarious! >> bill: you know what? i kept waiting to hear? i kept waiting to hear george zimmerman's voice going "you're fired! ". >> sweep him off! get out of here. >> bill: man i gotta tell you. that trial for george zimmerman got off to a rocky start. and one more big item in the news. on the i.r.s. front remember, you know what the claim is, the

claim is that they only targeted right wing groups and it was led out of the white house and this was barack obama being another richard nixon going after the tea party groups and da, da, da, da da. turns out when they did a closer examination, the new guy, dan, who is in charge of the i.r.s., that the screening of these political organizations which were filing and begging for and asking for a tax-exempt status, that that screening went on longer than we thought and was a lot broader than we thought. yes, they were screening right wing groups and looking to see which one might have had tea party or republican or whatever, you know, titles or words in their mission statement. it also turns out they were screening groups on the left which had words like maybe progressive or the word occupy.

so it wasn't just right wing groups. it was left wing groups and right-wing groups and what the i.r.s. may be -- maybe in a clumsy fashion was trying to do was trying to make sure that political organizations, those that are practicing pure politics and every tea party group does, whether they're from the left or from the right, that those political organizations did not get a tax-exempt status so that you and i were not paying to subsidize their political activities. you know what? that's the job of the i.r.s. i think it is about time that somebody stood up and said thank you, i.r.s. for saving us money. thank you for doing your job. parting shot coming unnext. >> announcer: 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?

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. 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: on this tuesday june 25, well parting shot for today, it wasn't pretty to watch. but it still must have come as some relief to the parents of trayvon martin to see the man who admits he shot and killed their 17-year-old son back on february 26, 2012, finally go on trial. of course, george zimmerman has every right to a fair trial and his attorneys have the right to tell the court whatever lies they want liability unbelievable assertion that zimmerman fired in self-defense. let them lie. we remember the facts of the case. george zimmerman was not supposed to be carrying a gun. but he was. trayvon martin had a bag of

skittles. george zimmerman described martin as a punk and an a-hole just by looking at him through the windshield. george zimmerman was ordered to stay in his car but he got out of his car and confronted trayvon martin. those are the facts. now, of course as we learned in the o.j. trial you never know how things are really going to turn out in any trial. so we don't know what's going to happen with george zimmerman. but we all know what should happen. george zimmerman should spend the rest of his life in prison for murder. my parting shot for today. eliot spitzer joins us tomorrow as well as neil king from the "wall street journal" as a "friend of bill." have a great tuesday, friends! see you tomorrow.

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>> what more could you ask for when i'm filling in for steph and the mooks while on vacation but to actually the lovely and talented news maven yourself jacki schechner in studio with us. >> aren't you a sweetheart. oh, i need my mic. >> that's more of a professional broadcaster kind of thing. you'll pick that up