[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. friends and neighbors great to see you this morning on a wednesday. it is wednesday june 26. in fact, this is the "fu court press"nd we are boing out to you live all across this great country of ours on current tv from our studio in washington, d.c. right on capitol hill where we've been up, we've been checking the wires. checking all of the web sites. look at what's going on here all

the news of the day from our nation's capital. the supreme court, for example washington, d.c., president obama and his family getting ready to take off on the long trip to africa. we've got that covered as well. we'll bring you up to date on everything that's going on as well and give you a chance to comment. that's what makes if so special. your calls your comments, your calls at 1-866-55-press. your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama and the first family leave this morning for a week-long trip to africa take them to senegal to south africa and tanzania. by the way former president george w. bush is going to be on the african continent at the same time. there is no plan now for them to hook up. but of course, all eyes will be on the hospital in pretoria where the great nelson mandela remains in critical condition. here in the united states, the supreme court took a sledgehammer yesterday to the

voting rights act and vladimir putin says that edward snowden is free to fly anywhere he wants and he's not going to send him back to the u.s. that and more on current tv. conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision"

>> oh come on! the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> i think the number one thing that viewers like about "the young turks" is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. >> you're putting out there something that you're proud of. journalists want the the story and they want the right story and the want the true story. >> you can say anything here. >> i spent a couple of hours with a hooker. >> your mistake was writing a check. >> she never cashed it! >> the war room. >> compared to other countries with tighter gun safety laws our death toll is just staggering. >> the young turks. >> the top bankers who funneled all the money to the drug lords, no sentence. there's just no justice in that. >> viewpoint. >> carl rove said today that mitt romney is a lock to win next pope. he's garunteeing it. >> joy behar: say anything. >> is the bottom line then that no white person should ever,

ever, ever use the "n" word? >> yes! >> only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: vladimir putin says edward snowden is a free man. he's free to fly anywhere he wants. one of those options is probably, at the present time, not on a flight back to the united states. great to see you this morning. here we go at -- on a wednesday morning rather.

26 minutes after the hour. we got it covered this morning. >> it's not quite that late. it is not 26 minutes after the hour. it is six minutes past the hour. >> bill: thank you. >> i'm sorry. i didn't want anyone to feel like they were -- >> bill: i just rolled out of bed. what the hell. >> it's all right. >> bill: let's start again. let's play the music again. good morning. it is wednesday june 26th. this is the "full court press." my name is -- bill press. [ laughter ] >> are you sure about that? >> not really sure about that. >> bill: there we go. we're coming to you live from washington, d.c. did i get that right? our studio on capitol hill. bringing you the news of the day and of course, if you dare get in -- i would love to hear from you on the phone on twitter and on facebook. good to see you this morning. you know the phone number. it is 1-866-55-press. i can remember that. you know our twitter handle at

bpshow and on facebook, it is facebook.com/billpressshow. it has been a scorcher. it was a scorcher yesterday here in washington, d.c. 90 plus and the humidity is bad as it gets. it was a good day to kind of get out of town. this is what i did yesterday. escaped to the beach. had a nice, big swim in the ocean and some good body surfing then back to washington. i feel like going back there again this morning. i walked out the door this morning, it feels like a steam bath. most of the team back here assembled today although alichia cruz is the smart one still at the beach. peter ogborn with dan henning back. >> good morning. >> hey, hey, hey. >> bill: alichia cruz gone. stevie lee webb gone. new member of the team here to screen our phone calls for us. cyprian bowlding as always, here on the video cam. good morning cyprian. good to see you all.

the action yesterday was not here in washington d.c. it was down in texas in the texas legislature. they're about to consider the toughest tightest restrictions on abortion seen by any of the states or the congress in decades. but wendy davis state senator from texas was not about to let it happen. she showed up at 11:00 yesterday morning wearing a pair of pink sneakers and everybody said uh-oh! the marathon is about to begin. it wasn't the marathon. it was the filibuster. she taught members of congress about how to filibuster. she stood up at her desk on the floor and said here i go. >> members i'm rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of texans who have been ignored. >> bill: and she started

speaking and she started and the goal was as you'll probably learn, she had to go until midnight to run out the clock so they could not vote on this draconian bill. and she got until about -- she spoke for over ten hours. so she's close to getting close to midnight when the guys, right, the boy's club in texas figured man! this woman she's going all the way. we gotta do something here! they called a few fouls and accused her of breaking the rules by getting off topic. talking about sonograms, for example. they said sonograms have nothing to do with abortion. oh yeah, they do. ask governor bob mcdonnell from virginia, what they have to do with it. ask ken cuccinelli from virginia what they have to do with it. at any rate, the lieutenant-governor called her out on three strikes.

>> has indicated three infractions of the rules would be sufficient to move the body -- for the body to move to remove the senator from the floor for the purpose of debate. >> bill: so he said she had violated the rules. he ended the filibuster but that didn't really end the filibuster because her supporters in and the people in the hall there got so outraged, we have that -- listen. it was so loud, they could not continue the vote. could not hold the vote. and the clock ran out. midnight came and went. the bill had not been voted on and the lieutenant-governor had to to his dismay, announce that the bill was not going to become law so good for wendy davis! she succeeded in stopping that in texas. really. great day.

great day for texas. >> it is amazing when you see that stuff still happen. we hear about it. we saw rand paul sort of do his -- attempted a filibuster a couple of months ago and it worked. she went all day yesterday. >> bill: yeah but you know all of these -- again in so many cases right-wingers have taken over the state legislators and trying to do some horrible things on voting rights, on women's rights on worker's rights, on the rights of lgbt community. it takes people to stand up and stop them. i wish somebody could have stopped the supreme court yesterday. we'll talk about that here at the top top of the hour. former governor eliot spitzer joining us as he does every wednesday morning. neil king will be here from the "wall street journal" as a "friend of bill" and fred krupp is the president of the environmental defense fund. very happy with president obama's big speech yesterday on

climate change. he'll be joining us in studio to tell us all about it. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> on this wednesday other headlines making news, a day after making a crack at president obama during a concert in washington, rolling stones singer mick jagger spoke out on twitter in support of the president's climate change speech yesterday saying hearing his speech was very refreshing and he likes the new ideas. monday night, at the stones show here in the city, political reports that jagger said "i don't think president obama is here tonight but i'm sure he's listening in." >> bill: yeah, i know. just a funny joke. >> sure. harmless. >> people who act like people are a big deal -- >> we're learning more about the firing of george zimmer, the founder of men's wearhouse. the company released a statement saying they fired him because of his outrageous demands. he expected veto power over significant corporate decision even though he had handed over

control of his company in recent years. he also refused to support a new management team unless they ac which esed to his demands. after releasing the statement the company's stock jumped 5% yesterday. >> i don't know. they've done him dirty. >> bill: they did him dirty. it will be interesting to see how they do without the guy who is the whole brains and vision of the company. dumb ass move to fire him. >> i read something that said they had shot so many hours of footage for him that he could remain in the commercials. he probably won't. >> they have the rights to him. >> they own him. his image anyway. >> we still like the way we look. there is a new vehicle that claims the title as the most american-made vehicle in the country. it is now the ford f-150 pickup truck according to cars.com. it is says to be called american made at least 75% of a car's parts need to be manufactured in the united states. the toyota camry held the top

spot for the last four years but now the f-150 is up there because of surging sales and ford creating more american jobs, most specifically at its dearborn michigan, processing plant. >> bill: good for ford. ford should be the number one car. >> damn, right. >> bill: not a toyota. >> i loved that truck. >> bill: that's a classic truck. >> yes, sir. >> bill: it was a sad day yesterday here in washington d.c. the supreme court decision on voting rights. it is just hard to even express what a setback this is for all of us as americans to think that the supreme court basically what they were saying with this decision 5-4 decision and you know who the five were the predictable five, these five justices, in effect, said racism is over in this country. we don't have to worry anymore about anybody discriminating against others because of the color of their skin. those days are long gone.

that's past history. we can close the book on that and we will move on and just sing cumbaya for the rest of our eyes. that is so wrong. sure, we have made, definitely, a lot of progress in this country. we can salute that. look at barack obama, if you don't think we've made progress in this country. we salute that. we celebrate that. but let's not kid ourselves. how many examples could we cite of continuing evidence of discrimination and racism in this country? and the voting rights act particularly, you know this is the holy grail the voting rights act. it is the very first civil rights act enacted by congress. it was championed by lyndon baines johnson president johnson, after the murder of john f. kennedy who was -- hadn't done a lot but then finally, was on the ball and

moving -- he and bobby kennedy toward some voter rights legislation when he was assassinated. southerner lbj picked up the torch, probably got the bill passed where john f. kennedy could not have gotten it passed. signed it into law. historic moment. what it said basically was look, you cannot block people or make it more difficult for people of color to vote in the south and particularly those states and those counties mostly southern states where they have had the worst record of discrimination. if they do anything about voting regulations or requirements on their own voting. they have to first get approval. specifically named which district they've got of shelby county the big one. they have to get approval first from the department of justice. it wasn't an onerous burden. it was a necessary burden but it was not onerous. in fact, history shows most of

the cases where the states and counties came up with a plan, sent it to the justice department, if it was carefully worked out they got approval. so they could live with this. but they didn't want it hanging over them anymore. so the justices said -- five of them said oh, well, oh, well, that was a long time ago so we're going to send this back to congress because congress passed it in the first place and they can fix it. as if this congress, this broken congress could fix anything. that's the second real body blow yesterday. and stupidity about his decision. first is to, in effect, in effect, even though they didn't actually do -- in effect, invalidate section five of the voting rights act but secondly, to presume that congress, this congress, is capable of doing anything is just ludicrous. nobody was hurt more about this than congressman john lewis

legendary, the hero of the civil rights movement and the voting rights act who spoke yesterday and said how he thought this got right to the heart of the matter. >> i think what the supreme court did was to put a dagger in the very heart of the voting rights act of 1965. >> bill: and congressman lewis said he personally was very, very shocked and takes this personally. >> i'm shocked. dismayed disappointed. i take it very personal. i gave a little blood on the bridge. almost died on the bridge for the right to vote and the right of people to participate in the democratic process. >> bill: i walked across that bridge with him on the 40th anniversary of the salma march. and he did. this is what -- not just john lewis, many people. did give their lives. other people really risked their lives for the civil rights movement. martin luther king jr.'s rolling in his grave this morning over

this. 50 years of hard work and sacrifice just dismissed by five justices of the supreme court said oh, oh, big smile on our faces. we're perfect now. we don't need any voting rights act. civil rights? what the heck. >> it is sick to hear because it also drives home the fact that it wasn't that long ago that we had these problems. you hear john lewis talk about how he lived through them. it's not like this is ancient history. >> bill: i love your take on this decision yesterday. i gotta tell you. it underscores again how important it is, how important it is when we vote for for president because the president most important decisions any president makes is who's going to sit on the supreme court for life. you know. isn't it ironic that the supreme court decision saying, in effect again, segregation and racism is all over in this country today. discrimination doesn't exist

anymore. we can just trash the voting rights act and it happens in the same week that paula deen is fired for making racist remarks and setting up some racist wedding ceremony. happens on the same day that the opening arguments are heard in the george zimmerman case on trial for murder, murdering a 17-year-old unarmed black teenager in florida and claims he ought to get away with it because he says he was firing in self-defense. who says discrimination doesn't exist in this country anymore? these justices don't live on the same planet you and i do. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show."

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

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. talking about the supreme court's decision yesterday. its assault on the voting rights act. "the new york times," a blistering editorial today saying among other things, "invidious and pervasive voter discrimination has not come to an end." we saw that last year. we saw more examples of more states, some 30 states, i believe, certainly north of 20, who tried in all kinds of ways to suppress the vote. some of which were shot down. some of which they got away with. more efforts than ever before to suppress the vote which means really we need the voting rights

act more than ever before. supreme court says oh, no, we don't. racism is dead in this country. what are they thinking? five justices said that anyway. peter on the social media front. >> yes sir we're on twitter at bpshow. join the conversation there. pbtrue says bill, these conservative judges are so out of touch that they have no clue as to what happens in this country. and fred wilder says does paula deen get her job back now that scotus says racism is the law of the land? >> bill: yeah. maybe they should have had her in as an expert witness. >> justice paula deen. >> brandon is in everett washington state. hello, brandon. >> caller: good morning. democrats, if they got their act together put enough pressure to force congress to hold a vote to one, maybe create a national i.d. for voting and to make

voting a holiday like they do in places like australia. >> bill: i'm all for making it a holiday but the problem is, brandon, the congress is not going to do a thing because the democrats make barely, barely have enough votes to get something done in the senate. but you know, with the house under the leadership of john boehner, nothing's going to happen. nothing's going to happen. >> quickly, the other thing is -- >> bill: go ahead. >> caller: democrats need to stop coddling the republicans. they knew exactly what they were doing. they did this deliberately. >> bill: here's the problem brandon. that's what's so evil, if you will, about the supreme court's decision. the way they did it. well everything's fine, number one. if there is any continuing problem, then congress can tell states how to do it.

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

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

>> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 33 minutes after the hour here. it is a wednesday morning. june 26th. by the way less we forget, we have a new united states senator from massachusetts. his name is ed markey. big win last night up in the bay state. you know, so much of those polls that gabrielle gomez released.

he was only three points behind. the drudge report took that and ran with it. it is neck and neck -- no, it wasn't. it never was. markey beat him by 10 points solidly. ed markey, great guy. he will be a great united states senator from massachusetts. right now we're talking about a very, very troubling disappointing, bad decision by the supreme court yesterday on the voting rights act saying 5-4 that basically discrimination, racism, all of those people, not accepting everybody as just equal under the sun and under the constitution. those days are long gone. we don't need any voting rights act anymore. so much just threw it right out the window. john roberts saying i know about civil rights than martin luther king or john lewis or lyndon b. johnson or any of the great heroes of the civil rights movement. 1-866-55-press. toll free number.

your comments welcome. your calls welcome. we'll be right back to them in just a second. but one more example of where identity theft is everywhere you look. how about up in new york state an employee of a town up in upper new york state mistakenly made public social security numbers of 78 ambulance workers and beneficiaries. that information stayed up on the town web site for five days and now those people have been warned. you better watch out. somebody could be taking advantage of that. and committing identity theft. that's why you need to be protected against it. lifelock ultimate is the most comprehensive theft -- i.d. theft protection available. that's what i've got. encourage you to get the same. here's how you do it. you visit lifelock.com and enter the promo code press 10 or make a call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10% off your lifelock ultimate

membership. the number to call, 1-800-3 a 1-800-356-5967. >> one quick comment. we're tweeting at bpshow. we tweeted out the supreme court should be ashamed of themselves for what they've done to the voting rights act. julie said they're far from being ashamed. rob sert proud of what he's done. this court is going to go down in history as the worst ever. >> bill: hard to disagree with that. >> i don't have an argument against it. >> bill: yeah. ruth bader ginsberg with a strong dissent yesterday saying that back -- pointing out that back in 2006 by the way the voting act -- the voting rights act was continued by congress and with very little dissent. republicans and democrats 2006

said these special requirements that are there particularly for the states should be there continue to be there and renewed the law. even james sensenbrenner who as conservatives, you can get republican from wisconsin said at that time "states covered by section five are not not unfairly punished under the coverage formula." democrats and republicans looked at it in 2006. they concluded that these special restrictions on those certain jurisdictions under the voting rights act should continue. supreme court threw them away. craig is in niceville florida. hello, craig. >> caller: yeah, i don't understand why it only applies to say just the southern states and certain counties. i mean you pointed out there's

30 states that have laws. the actual worse case of racism since 1965 has been like rodney king in los angeles the move organization in philadelphia and the burning of buses during segregation in '27 and -- in '72 and '73. why does this just apply to certain counties and certain states? why isn't it nationwide? that's what i don't understand. >> bill: i think you're confusing apples and oranges. the incidences you're talking about, you know, are protests or other activities that took place which may or may not have been examples of racism. but the law deals with the nine people -- americans the right to vote based solely on the color of their skin and the counties and the jurisdictions that are mentioned are in the law because

there is historical record of their trying to keep african-americans out of the polling place. deny them the right to vote. there is historical, physical evidence to say that these are the worst offenders in the country. that's why they're there. that's why we need it. pat is calling from los angeles california. hello, pat. >> caller: good morning, bill. i'm fired up this morning. you know, justice thomas and his opinion equated the actions of civil rights workers and activists to those of slave owners. you know, david koch paid $2 million for dred scott's bible then gave it to him. i hope he's got a pair of asbestos gloves in order to handle that thing. >> bill: that's the last person who should have his hands on that. i didn't read that. i hadn't read -- was that in thomas' concurring opinion yesterday? >> caller: that's correct. it just shows you how far -- what do you expect --

>> bill: what do you expect of clarence thomas. he's the worst of them all. it is a sad day because this is something -- we have a lot of important problems to face, i think. as americans. a lot of stuff we ought to be work on, right? a lot of stuff that's gotta be fixed. i would say one of the priorities should not be let's roll back the clock on civil rights. couldn't we just accept that as progress that we have made as a nation realize where we were, realize how far we have come and how much we have achieved and how much better off we are today and yet we still have a lot of progress to make. and then move forward. but instead they're going back and all of the effort, all of the -- i mean, let's listen to dan, here's the governor of alabama. who wants us to believe that

there ain't a racist left in my state of alabama. >> you have to look at results and the results are 27% of the representation in this state are african-americans. and we have lived up to what the supreme court asked us to do over the last 48 years. >> bill: i don't know what that means first of all. i don't consider alabama to be the role model right for -- >> they're not leading the way in race relations. >> bill: exactly. what i'm trying to say. if he says 27% representation of african-americans, what's the population of african-american population in alabama? and if they got 27% then it seems to me that's 73% they don't have, right? i don't know what point he's trying to make. jerry up in liberty maine. jerry? >> good morning bill.

how are you? >> you know what really disturbs me, bill, first of all. you don't expect the supreme court and its ruling after ruling after ruling, although the obama healthcare, that was a little surprise there. >> bill: surprises on that one. not on this one. >> what businesses me off is the republicans can't win on the issues so they undermine the system. you don't expect the supreme court to help them. what i'm saying is there is a direct link between that and some of the outrageous things going on nationally during the last election. >> bill: absolutely. >> you just don't expect the supreme court to be hand in hand with what has become a corporate fascist government. >> bill: you expect the supreme court to be above it but what this does, jerry it validates all of the efforts on voter i.d. and shortening the time for early voting and voting on weekends, any effort, all of the efforts in all of the states to suppress the vote. yesterday's decision validates that.

we're going to see more of it the next time around because of what the supreme court said. sad day indeed. you know, governor eliot spitzer has had a lot of opportunity to deal with challenges to people's act to vote, as well. he has taken a good, long look at the supreme court decision yesterday. we'll find out what he thinks about it all next here on this wednesday morning edition of the "full court press." >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

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

anything. (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: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 14 minutes before the top of the hour. it is a wednesday morning june 26. wednesday, you know what that means. that means eliot spitzer time and you know, i've never seen anything like it, peter. i never saw a candidate stand up and say i was elected tonight for one reason. i was elected tonight because my friend, eliot spitzer threw a fund-raiser for me in new york city and there it is and propelled me all the way to the u.s. senate. good morning eliot. >> i missed that part of his speech also, for some reason. >> bill: congratulations. what a big win huh? >> it is so nice to see ed markey win. he has been a stupendous congressman. he will be a great voice in the senate. it shows the aberrant result

when scott brown snuck in there a couple of weeks back can be viewed that way as a momentary blip and who knows what it was. it was 2010, but it is nice to see a bit of normalcy return and sound judgment and look, it makes one feel good about the electoral process again. >> bill: it does. about the people of massachusetts for sure and the other thing i have to say is often, as democrats you know, we screw up in some of the elections, we just don't have our act together. this time, clearly the dnc was there. the desc was there president obama was there schultz was up there, joe biden elizabeth warren. everybody got together on this one. >> you don't make the same mistake twice in a row. i remember when martha coakley the a.g. of their -- but somehow that slipped away. nothing changed the dynamic. ed did not let that happen. it was nice to see everything

fall into line. it is a big win. >> bill: we can all feel good about that this morning. not feel so good about the supreme court yesterday eliot. >> the old line, right without a remedy is meaningless. that's what they've done to the voting rights act. we understand. we care about voting. it is important for democracy. too bad. we're not going to let the federal government ensure that states that have a long history of prohibiting voting based upon pretense were not going to do anything about it anymore. this is the revenge of the most conservative voices on the court. and they're not kicking back to a congress that will never put in place the remedies needed to ensure voting. we shouldn't forget. last year's presidential election was perhaps determined by the capacity of courts to strike down the voter suppression laws that had passed in a raft of states and you know, that capacity to strike those laws down may be eviscerated by this decision. >> bill: plus, isn't this sort of a green light for these

states to go back and repeat what they tried to get done or even go further and for other states to join in? >> absolutely. this is a statement we think history has changed officially so you can go back because we're going to pretend we don't need to look. you should look at what the brennan center did. maybe i'm partial here in new york. but they led a lot of the litigation challenging the voter suppression laws and they're bereft saying now we're going to be denied our federal statutory foundation for challenging these laws. >> bill: brennan center, they do great work. their leader on the show here. they were out on the forefront with the states exposing what they were doing and pointing out how it undermined people's basic right to vote. the other thing so insidious about their decision yesterday is the idea that you can expect this congress to get anything done. right? >> right. the mythology that the right -- we're just sending it back to

congress. oh, right. this is the congress that will vote another 85 times to repeal obamacare. will pass meaningless and horrific limitations on choice and oh we haven't done the budget yet. haven't done all of the important things. this is an insanely bizarre congress. and john boehner -- the morning when i do feel sorry for him when he has to deal with the tea party, one level maybe the guy -- but he's getting what he deserves. they permit the tea party to run their party. now we can't get anything done. >> bill: former governor eliot spitzer with us this wednesday morning on the "full court press." so eliot, what do you think about -- were you surprised, let me put it this way, we knew what vladimir putin was going to do about edward snowden. >> this is -- evolving story. it is hard to know from the headlines running across the ticker but it is a metaphor from the years past. there is no such thing as a ticker. >> bill: i haven't heard the phrase for a long time.

>> i've been watching the wall street movie from 1920 or something. but it is hard to know exactly where things are. it is not playing out well. it's giving putin an opportunity to pound his chest and kind of make fun. it does make our foreign policy look a little bit weak. you gotta admit. here we are -- please, please, please, return the guy. and it is deeply problematic. at many levels, policy level which we've discussed the issue of whether booz allen which is a private company is now determining how our secrets are protected, whether a guy can go to a booz allen intending to release secrets, be hired and succeed in doing it. whether the nsa is abiding by its own rules about what it does and doesn't listen to. the piece of it that bothers me, that isn't getting enough attention, i think is the clapper, head of national intelligence. he committed perjury before congress and nobody is saying boo about it. he lied when he testified about whether this program exists.

flat out lied. no polite way of saying it. he didn't correct his testimony. it is not as though he then went back and said i was in a public setting. i had to say this or maybe i shouldn't have but i did. he just let the lies get out there and my question is why isn't he being prosecuted for that. >> bill: there was another letter yesterday -- it wasn't from clapper. keith alexander the head of nsa who wrote a letter to a couple of senators admitting that they had also, on their web site, they had mischaracterized exactly what the program was all about and how often in fact, they pick up -- actual conversations so they misrepresented all along clapper and alexander. it is troubling. >> it is more than troubling. again, there are so many layers of this. there is the deceptions to the public about what is being done. there is the act of lying before congress. there is the tension between this justice department spending

how much time, pressure, energy, going after roger clemens because he purged himself about steroids. okay. it is what it is. but then they let this sit there and nobody does anything. i don't understand where the judgment calls are in terms of how we deal with these issues. >> bill: i hope we deal more with those issues and those questions than whatever happens to edward snowden. but that's my own little beef on this. eliot, it is so good to talk to you again as always. >> it is a pleasure! >> bill: thanks, my friend for starting the day with us. >> always a joy. >> bill: former governor of new york and former host of the "viewpoint" right here on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. >> 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: take your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: fred krupp who is the president of the environmental defense fund in studio with us to talk about president obama and climate change in the next hour. scott says to me, bill, you're the one who's lying. here are three facts you completely ignored. george zimmerman's nose was broken. he had deep gashes on the back of his head and trayvon martin's only injury was bruises on the back of his knuckles. outside of the gunshot wound. oh, oh yeah. by the way yeah, he had a gunshot wound in his chest and he's dead! this was not self-defense.

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

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning friends and neighbors. what do you say? it is wednesday june 26. great to see you today. this is the "full court press" on current tv. coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c., our nation's capital where we are perched to watch what's going on and report it all to you. whether it is supreme court decision on voting rights or big

senate victory up in massachusetts. or president obama and his first family getting ready to take off for a week-long visit to africa. we've got it covered. we'll tell you what's going on. and give you a chance to comment. we want to hear from you by phone at 1-866-55-press. want to hear your comments on twitter at bpshow. and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. yes, president obama and the first family in just two hours will be leaving the white house off to africa for a week-long trip to senegal to south africa and to tanzania. former president george w. bush is going to be in africa at the same time. no plans on the two of them to hook up but, of course, all eyes will remain on the hospital in pretoria where nelson mandela remains in critical condition. the supreme court taking a sledgehammer to the voting rights act yesterday and ed

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

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if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> i think the number one thing that viewers like about "the young turks" is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. >> you're putting out there something that you're proud of. journalists want the the story and they want the right story and the want the true story. >> you can say anything here. >> i spent a couple of hours with a hooker. >> your mistake was writing a check. >> she never cashed it! >> the war room. >> compared to other countries with tighter gun safety laws our death toll is just staggering. >> the young turks. >> the top bankers who funneled all the money to the drug lords, no sentence. there's just no justice in that. >> viewpoint. >> carl rove said today that mitt romney is a lock to win next pope. he's garunteeing it. >> joy behar: say anything. >> is the bottom line then that no white person should ever, ever, ever use the "n" word? >> yes!

>> only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." isn't it great there's no more discrimination in this country. yeah. according to the supreme court there's not. according to five justices in the supreme court there's not. and they're dead wrong of course. good morning everybody. it is wednesday june 26th. good to see you this morning. welcome, welcome welcome to the "full court press." right here on current tv. and on your local progressive talk radio station. good to be with you today and

good of you to join us for our little hopscotch around the world, around the globe, around the country around the nation's capital to let you know what's going on and to find out what you think about it all. you've got opinions as strong and as good as ours so let's hear from you. on the phone at 1-866-55-press. on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. and on twitter at bpshow. we're monitoring your calls and your comments and ready to let you sound off on the issues of the day. the whole team here. well, no no, not quite. so, we still have one member out. gradually getting everybody back and then others will pop off again. it's summer. what the hell. peter ogborn and dan henning good morning. >> good morning. >> bill: alichia cruz is off

with her family at the beach this week. javon paris is in this morning ready to take your phone calls. cyprian bowlding, as always, on the video cam. here for current tv. we welcome you all and big news out of massachusetts yesterday. long-time good friend of mine, great friend of the people of massachusetts, great public servant to the people of massachusetts was rewarded last night. wasn't even close. rewarded with a seat in the united states senate. here is the new senator, ed markey accepting with a note of joy. >> this victory belongs to you it belongs to your families. i am deeply humbled. i'm profoundly grateful. thank you so much! [ cheering ] >> bill: i thought it was great that markey wins on the day that president obama gave his speech on climate change. nobody in the house was a bigger

leader on energy issues, on environmental issues, on the need to really move toward a fossil fuel-free energy policy and nobody more supportive of renewable energy than ed markey, green jobs. this is what he said we ought to get to work on. >> i want to put steelworkers and ironworkers and welders and electricians to work building the new backbone for a new energy economy here in the united states and around the world. >> bill: nobody better equipped to hit the ground running on that when he gets to the united states senate, i'm sure he will be sworn in not today -- if not today. they won't waste any time. >> now it is musical chairs because now we're going to have to figure out who gets his house seat and you know, who knows where they come from. could be mo cowan.

>> bill: yeah. too late for me to get a condo -- >> probably. i don't know how quickly you can establish residency. >> bill: lots coming up. speaking of the president's climate change speech, fred krupp, president of the environmental defense fund, happy with the speech yesterday. he will be here in studio in a few minutes to tell us all about it. we'll also be joined in the next hour by neil king, as a "friend of bill." neil king from the "wall street journal." one of your favorites and one of ours. then we'll check in with "the boston globe" for more about the ed markey senate race in the next hour as well. and vladimir putin flips the bird to president obama. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this wednesday. paula deen's sons broke their silence yesterday and defended their mom saying they have never heard her speak in a racist manner appearing on cnn, jamie and bobby deen said the

deposition where their mom spoke about using the n word was character assassination. they say their mother has apologized. they don't know what else she can do. >> bill: i'm glad the sons are sticking by their mother. >> they're from the south. they stand by their mama. that's what we do. however, they can be wrong on this issue too. >> bill: they stand by their mama but their mama done wrong. >> carnival cruises has had a lot of problems over the past year with several cruise ships suffering from mechanical problems, fires and nonworking toilets. it looks like they're finally making a big change. the board fired its long-time ceo yesterday. mickey arison in charge since 1979 was pushed out even though the company reported one of its best quarterly profits in years yesterday but that became only basically because of lower fuel costs. arison, of course, also owns the miami heat. he took heat when he stayed at a basketball game back when he found out about the ship with

the crisis with the nonworking toilets. >> bill: priorities. >> i tell you one thing -- >> bill: the toilets were working at the stadium. >> not that i have sour grapes or anything but the owner of the san antonio spurs wouldn't have done that. >> and another day another run-in with the law for chris brown. the troubled r & b singer has been hit with hit and run charges stemming from an incident last month where he rear ended someone and reportedly gave fake insurance information to the other driver and also allegedly did not offer to show them his driver's license either. he faces a maximum of four years in prison if convicted. he took to twitter yesterday saying his accuser is just looking for a payday because she found out he was a celebrity. >> i'm starting to think chris brown might be trouble. >> bill: no, you think? >> oh, indeed. you know, every day now, we've been -- the latest on edward

snowden, where is he and where is he heading? we thought for sure, monday, he was in moscow. yesterday, it was a little unclear because the russian foreign minister came out and said he ain't here. we haven't seen him. he never showed up and never arrived in russia. it was kind of strange. but there were pleas yesterday from jay carney at the white house, from secretary of state jay carney who did believe that snowden, the whistle-blower -- they were pleading with vladimir putin even though we have no extradition treaty with russia, pleading with putin to do the right thing and to just in the interest of cozy relations with the united states, between the united states and russia, to expel, that was the word jay carney used, to expel snowden and send it back to the united states to stand trial. well, no doubt about where he is

now. we cleared up that mystery. vladimir putin himself cleared up the mystery. vladimir putin who was happy to stick it to president obama because he feels that we're always complaining about the russian's lack of transparency and lack of openness and lack of privacy in that country and here we turn around and we have to admit that we've got this massive collection of data on the part of the nsa and so putin, in effect, is saying the pot can't call the kettle black you know. people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. whatever little cliche you want to use. putin admitting yesterday through a translator that yes indeed, edward snowden is at the moscow airport. he is in the transit zone there. he says they didn't know he was coming. but now that he's there they're

not going to throw him out and put him on a plane back to the united states because putin says, he didn't commit any crime here. so he's a free man. he's in that transit zone. he sort of -- you gotta really -- this is a stretch of the truth to believe this. he says they have no authority over him. since he's in that transit zone. and hasn't left the airport. he's a free man and free to fly anywhere he wants. meanwhile the obama administration continuing its pleas to putin to do the right thing as if he's going to change his mind. patrick, the spokesperson for the state department yesterday. >> we do not have an extradition treaty with russia and do not expect mr. snowden would be formally extradited. we do believe there is a basis for law enforcement cooperation to expel mr. snowden based on the charges against him and the status of his travel documents. >> bill: we believe that.

and so we're saying please, please please, please, vlad, please do the right thing. >> this is somebody who is accused of very serious crimes here in the united states. he'll receive the fair application of justice and we would like to see him returned. >> bill: guess what. >> they're asking nicely. >> bill: they're asking nicely. >> give them that. >> bill: but i made the comment yesterday on our show and also on -- on "the war room" on monday night that i thought in the end, even though they were asking putin to do the right thing they claim. by sending edward snowden back, that we have bigger fish to fry with russia. and let's start with syria, for example or iran or afghanistan. and secretary of state john kerry made that point yesterday. he said yeah, we want him back but basically we're not going to start world war iii over

edward snowden and he, john kerry, recognizes they've got a lot more important items to deal with russia on and to seek russia's cooperation on than this one. we don't know what's going to happen to snowden. love to get your comments at 1-866-55-press about this. which is again i think that too much attention is being paid to edward snowden, where he is and where he is heading and whether or not he should be allowed to escape or be brought back here and tried as a traitor or is he, in fact, a whistle-blower. i think what's more important and i wrote a column in the hill on this point yesterday is that we don't lose sight of the fact the real debate we ought to be having is not what happens to edward snowden. the real debate is what has the nsa been doing? were they doing the right thing? or were they really reaching too

far in collecting all of the phone data. what is happening to it. who has access to it. how long do they store it. why is it a private contractor, booz allen basically is deciding what the national security policy of the united states is in terms of how much data we can collect and when and how and from whom. and somebody who has only worked for them for three months and went there with the intention of getting this information was able to get a job and within three months, find out everything that the united states was up to anywhere in the world. and added to that, a point that governor eliot spitzer made in the last hour, that maybe we ought to be talking about why is the nsa been lying to the american people about it? why did james clapper the director of national intelligence go in front of congress in response to a question from senator ron wyden are you collecting information

on phone calls i'm paraphrasing but ron wyden asked him directly whether or not you're doing what the nsa was doing and james clapper says no, we are not collecting data on phone calls from average americans. he lies. he now admits he lied. yesterday, keith alexander, the head of the nsa wrote a letter to senator wyden and to senator mark udall saying that the nsa web site, which claimed that there is no way they ever listen in on any phone calls remember, they're just collecting the data. they don't listen in. he said the web site that claimed that they had never, never listened, not even inadvertently was wrong. >> oops. >> bill: was wrong and they have since taken that down. so we're not being told the truth about this program. we're just told to believe that this program is necessary and to accept it. and this is what -- this is the debate i think we ought to be

having. not what edward snowden's getting to eat at the moscow airport or what plane he might be getting on next. >> right. >> bill: it's interesting not the heart of the matter. 1-866-55-press. vladimir putin are you surprised? he loved -- he loved that chance to stick it to the united states.% your thoughts welcome at 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. >> 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." 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.

>> 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. 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? >> announcer: radio meets television. the big press show. -- the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: 24 minutes after the

hour. 25 make it after the hour. wednesday morning. june 26. lots of news. lots to talk about today. vladimir putin saying edward snowden who? i haven't been to the airport lately. i haven't seen him. certainly not sending him back to the united states. joey is calling from chicago. >> caller: i say god bless putin. he's the only one who's right about this. by the way bill, i don't understand how everyone could go after snowden when he told the truth and nobody gives two craps about clapper lying to congress. he lied. the other guy told the truth. they should be filing charges on this guy. >> bill: remember roger clemens testified in front of congress and lied about using steroids right? >> caller: yes, he was in more trouble than these guys in this administration. justice department better wake up. this justice department, it is a joke bill. you've been around to see enough

of these administrations. this is bad. these people don't know how to do nothing. >> bill: you got it. that's why i said a long time ago, they ought to fire eric holder. big, big story today. and we need to salute wendy davis, state senator out in texas. texas was poised to pass this anti-abortion bill the worst toughest and the most restrictive in the entire nation. would have required shutting down almost every planned parenthood clinic in texas. wendy davis wasn't going to let it happen. she is state senator. she showed up yesterday morning with pink running shoes on meaning she meant business and about 11:18 yesterday morning she started to filibuster and she had to filibuster until midnight because to stop this bill from being heard, here is how she started off. >> members i'm rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of texans who have

been ignored. >> bill: she had to speak for over 12 hours. if i were her, i would have slowed down a little more time between each word. >> that's how you filibuster. >> you gotta stay on topic though. >> bill: she had to stay on topic. they were after her. they were going to shoot her down any way they could and finally, after she had spoken over ten hours they got her the opponents got her on a technicality and lieutenant-governor dewhurst, david dewhurst, he came out and said hey, three times, you have strayed off the topic because she talked about, for example sonograms which he said wasn't allowed. here's where he says three strikes, you're out, babe. >> officer has indicated three infractions of the rules would be sufficient to move the body -- for the body to move to remove the senator from the floor for the purpose of debate.

>> bill: so then they shut her down but chaos erupted in the state senate. there was so much noise. there was so much protest. wendy, wendy wendy, they're all shouting. >> it was great. >> bill: they could not continue with business. so they got to the magic hour of 12:00 midnight and the lieutenant-governor had to announce that they had reached the end of the session and the bill had not been acted upon therefore, the bill could not become law. good for her. single-handedly shot down this horrible piece of legislation. when we come back, president obama on climate change. environmental defense fund telling us all about it here on the "full court press." 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?

♪ so hot in ♪ ♪ so hot it hurts ♪ >> announcer: is the "bill press show." >> bill: i honestly don't recognize that music. >> of course you do. this is right off your ipod. >> bill: oh, it is? >> nelly. hot in here. >> bill: so hot it hurts i can identify with. the heat hurt me so bad yesterday, i went over to the ocean and jumped in. and had to come back to washington so i'm not sure what i gained by it all. anyhow, it was so hot yesterday president obama took his jacket off over at georgetown university. 33 minutes after the hour. gave a great very important long-awaited speech on climate change. signaling that he was tired of waiting for congress. new congress wasn't going to get anything done. so he was taking as much action

as he could executive action to get us moving in the area of climate change. here is the president telling the students there we've got to get to work. >> obama: as a president as a father and as an american, i'm here to say we need to act. >> bill: and president said my first step is something again that people we've talked to about the issue say this is the first thing we can do and must do is crack down on existing power plants. president obama saying we're going to do just that. >> obama: today, for the sake of our children and the health and safety of all americans, i'm directing the environmental protection agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants and complete new pollution standards for both new and existing power plants. >> bill: for a long time, one of this country's strongest most effective environmental organizations, the environmental defense fund who has been taking

the lead on climate change issues for many years fred krupp is the president of edf here in studio with us. fred, nice to see you. >> good to see you. >> bill: thank you for all of your good work over the years. this speech yesterday a long time coming and good direction right? >> i definitely think so. i think we're emerging from the period of climate silence where politicians didn't want to mention the word but the politics have changed. you know, as people have experienced the real effects of climate whether it's farmers in nebraska or small business owners on the jersey shore washington is starting to catch up and i think the president's impatience with congress well deserved impatience with congress, makes this a turning point because ultimately, i think, there will be more and more demands for action. >> bill: he made that point yesterday where he said you know, i'm willing to listen to anybody's argument, anybody's

ideas but if you're still denying climate change, he's not wasting his time on that crowd anymore, right? >> no. he wants action because -- >> bill: flat earth society. >> he was strong. some people haven't spent enough time to understand the science. there are the paid critics who are confusing folks for a reason. so i understand why some people are in a muddle. i probably have a little more patience than the president does for folks who just don't have the time to look at the science. anyone who has looked at the science, it is pretty clear that all of this carbon pollution we're putting into the sky threatens our future. >> bill: do you share the president's belief that this congress, the way it is constituted with flat earth like james inhofe is not going to accomplish any legislation this year? >> i think that is right unfortunately. although i see something coming,

obviously this issue hasn't matured the way the immigration issue has. but the immigration issue is an issue where thanks to the politics, there is a demand for bipartisan action and it's dangerous to be in either party and be against immigration reform, i think. and so i think that same thing will happen on climate because young people, especially who have grown up understanding the science, there's not going to be a future for a party that denies the science. >> bill: you know, that's an excellent point. we've seen that with marriage equality too. who would have thought ten years ago that republicans would be falling over themselves and democrats, right to embrace same-sex marriage but they are today. same thing with immigration reform. we're still years -- a couple of years anyhow out from the day when people will be rushing to embrace climate change. >> i'm not predicting action by congress this year. i think we will come to a time when we get action. the key is will it be too late by then?

that's why the president starting early with the biggest source of carbon pollution in the united states power plants which was the central piece in his announcement, power plants put out 40% of the carbon pollution in the united states. >> bill: existing power plants. >> existing power plants. so yes he's proposing the e.p.a. start on putting together rules, not only on the construction of new power plants there aren't that many of those but also flexible rules on existing power plants to lower their carbon footprint. >> bill: there are two problems with that, right? one, we don't have an e.p.a. administrator. and some republicans in congress are saying well, we'll fix that plan of yourself, mr. president. we just won't give you the head of the e.p.a. two, you've got a coal industry pretty powerful. electric industry pretty powerful. they're going to fight the new rules and regulations correct? >> the coal industry, likely will. electric power industry, i think has a diversity of opinions.

some of the power companies have seen the day coming where we'll have to have carbon limits. and some of them, i think will pitch in. the president has called for a roundtable approach like he did with automobiles. get the stakeholders together and let's see if we can come up with a way that achieves the results in automobiles more miles per gallon less money out of pocket of consumers. and less carbon pollution. let's see if we can do that same approach for power plants and i think you will find some of the power companies will participate. i hope some of the coal companies will too. but that's less certain. >> bill: on an e.p.a. administrator, can they get it done without an administrator? >> you know, i think when they take a closer look at mccarthy i'm hoping they'll understand she's worked for a series of republican governors. jodi rell in connecticut. mitt romney in massachusetts. she's a consensus builder. she is not way off on either end

of the spectrum. and i just don't think obama's likely to appoint a more centrist person than her. i think it is everybody's interest that we have a permanent head of the e.p.a. >> bill: somebody to deal with if you're going in there for good reasons or bad reasons whatever. dan, if we can the president also said something i found pretty surprising he even put it on the agenda yesterday. about the keystone pipeline. here's the president's comments. >> obama: the effects of the pipeline's impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. >> bill: so he mentions the pipeline but he doesn't say whether or not he's going to approve it or not. but would hinge on whether or not it is contributing, as i read it, to climate change. >> i think that's the right criteria. the tar sands are very dirty fuel. very energy expensive.

to turn them into gasoline. it's ruinous for the land. you know, his remarks make me hopeful but i don't think he's announced a decision yet. >> bill: how do you read it? is the signal that he's sending i'm going to approve it but i'll make sure it is as environmentally sensitive as possible or i'm going to reject it? >> you can read that -- you can read his statement either way i'm afraid. i don't know. i don't think we'll have a decision on that until the fall. >> bill: yeah. well i hope you're right. you said something earlier that the president we can't wait and the president is moving this early. but he's not really moving this early, right? i mean we may have already -- i wouldn't say we've reached a point of no return but there's already massive evidence that the age of global warming is

here. >> well, there's no question we're already experiencing longer droughts. we're experiencing more heat waves. we're experiencing torrential rainfalls. i live in the new york area. the fact that sea level is up a foot meant the storm surge came way deep into manhattan and the jersey shore the connecticut shore. thousands of homes were destroyed. so we're seeing the effects of climate change. we're seeing it in increased corn prices because of the drought affecting half the country, has lowered the yield of corn. yes, we're too late to effect, to change all to prevent all of the worst effects but we can't give up and you know, this is -- i think this is an issue that those of us with any influence those of us alive today will be judged by future generations

did all of us pitch in and do enough. i think the president was rallying folks to press their elected officials for action now. >> bill: there's a lot of criticism of president obama for not doing anything about this at all in the first four years. but he devoted a lot of time to it in his inaugural address. he devoted a lot of time to it in the state of the union. and he's got this speech yesterday. so from the environmental communities, point of view, people feel okay, now we've got the leadership we need. now president obama redeemed himself? >> first of all i think we do need to give the president credit for action on cars in the first term. right out of the box. he doubled the fuel economy standards for automobiles and they are a big input into climate pollution. i would have liked to have seen him being more aggressive in the first term with congress showing the lead. i think we might have been able to get a climate bill there with leadership from the president but i welcome his leadership

now. and you know, we're about going forward and you're right. in the state of the union, in a series of moves since then, most particularly yesterday he is saying he's determined to make sure that his legacy includes action and i applaud him for that. i think everyone in the environmental community right now is applauding. >> bill: major speech yesterday by the president and a major action plan that he laid forward. are we giving it enough attention? we want to give as much as we could this morning. fred krupp is president of the environmental defense fund. your calls welcome. weigh in on what you think we can expect anything out of this congress. whether the president's plan does enough. 1-866-55-press. our toll free number. we'll be right back on the "full court press." >> 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? >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: certainly the most important environmental issue facing us all, maybe the most important environmental issue ever, we're talking about the survival of the planet here with climate change. fred krupp is the here with climate change. it really is no exaggeration to say this is the number one challenge facing us, is it, fred? >> i don't think so. >> bill: it is part of survival. >> we're talking about survival. there will be element of this

plan because of the politics that are controversial. but the fact of the matter is what the president is talking about is clean energy. lowering pollution. making the economy more competitive. and giving us a chance against climate change. it is common sense stuff. >> bill: peter some comments on the social media? >> we're on twitter at bpshow. the writing is on the wall. the xl pipeline is dead unless it can find a way to conform to the new coming regulations. that's one person's thought on how they took the president's comments yesterday. and zoomer an says timing is everything. p.o.t.u.s. could have never given the speech in the first term and gotten re-elected. that matters. there you go. join the conversation at bpshow on twitter. >> bill: here's what worries me about the pipeline not to spend too much time on that. the president already approved this one stretch of the pipeline. remember he went to texas and he

said so, this last link sort of -- so i'm opposed to the pipeline but what worries me if they've got the last link in place, they're going to say now we've got to link it up with the source. right? so should i be -- am i overly concerned about that? >> you know, i don't know about that. i think the last link of the pipeline has multiple uses, not just to carry tar sands oil. i don't think it's -- wasted anyway. i think there still could be justification for it for other reasons other than to bring the canadian tar sands in. >> bill: i want to come back to this question of too late. are the glaciers ever coming back? is the icecap coming back? we're not going to have to build these dams in new york or the jetties or whatever because the sea level is going to go back down? have we reached the point of no return? >> look, bill, for now we've got a certain amount of climate change cooked in. it's bacon in the oven.

until we can figure out a way to subtract co2 from the atmosphere, the planet will be warming but you know, there is a professor at oberlin college named david orr who said prediction prediction is an estimation that your chances are good. everything's going to be okay. rather optimism is a prediction that everything's going to be okay. but the difference between optimism and hope is hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. >> bill: i like that. >> i'm hopeful because we cannot afford to throw in the towel on this. first, we've got to change the trajectory of emissions which so far keep going up and up. more emissions of greenhouse gases every year into the atmosphere. >> bill: we're still -- we're still growing? >> yes the united states is now low -- has now lowered its emissions but the rest of the world, especially china has increased. we've got to turn the curve to

safety after we bring the rate of current emissions down. then we've got to figure out a way to soak this stuff out of the sky which is going to be very hard but if we give people economic incentives to do that, you know, money has a way of being the mother of invention. >> bill: you know, i think the american people are way, as they are in many issues, way ahead of the congress and way ahead of maybe you know, a lot of officialdom on this. but that is sort of frustrating because you know, we don't make the decisions about what the power companies do. is this out of the hands of ordinary people to do anything about? is there anything ordinary people can do about climate change? >> absolutely. the president talked about the importance of all of us talking to our friends our neighbors our colleagues at work, students for those in the student years.

i think we have a big opening now because the effects of climate change have become so visible. the meteorologists, the scientists are telling us we do get longer droughts and more heat waves and these torrential downpours. >> bill: we see it. >> we're living it. and because of that, i think there's an opportunity for people to rally around and demand common sense solutions that keep costs down of electricity but we can do it. the president said yesterday americans aren't folks who live in fear of the future. we shape the future. and i think there's an opportunity here for people to get together not only to press for federal legislation but also to do things in the towns and communities and the school buildings that they live in, in their own homes to insulate things. and to get the state public

utility commissions to change the rules that protect utilities to all do the same thing and give incentives for utilities to lower their carbon emissions. >> bill: the leader in that again, the environmental defense fund, an organization that deserves your support. edf. edf.org. thanks fred, for coming in today. >> thank you bill. >> bill: keep up the good fight. we're right there with you. >> all right. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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."

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(vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. 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? >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: how about it.

neil king here as a "friend of bill" in the next hour from the "wall street journal." we'll be joined by jim o'sullivan from "the boston globe" to tell us all about the big senate race up in massachusetts. yes, this is the day the president and the first family leave on the long-awaited first really major trip for the president to africa. he will be going to senegal to tanzania and to south africa. they leave the white house in 45 minutes out to andrews air force base then off for the long flight where they will arrive at 8:25 p.m. african time in senegal. no briefing today. jay carney will be meeting with reporters on air force i.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning, good morning, friends and neighbors. what do you say? it is wednesday, june 26. good to see you this morning. welcome for the "full court press" right here on current tv. where you happen -- wherever you happen to be in this great land of ours, we're with you. to bring you up to date on the news of the day and give you a chance to tell us what you think about it all. 1-866-55-press is our toll free number. join us by phone. you can give us your comments on twitter at bpshow. on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow indeed. president obama and the first family 45 minutes from now head out of the white house on a week-long major trip to africa.

they will be visiting senegal south africa and tanzania. by the way former president george w. bush is going to be in africa at the same time. there are no plans for the two of them to hook up. but, of course, all eyes will remain on the hospital in pretoria. where nelson mandela is still in critical condition. here at home, the supreme court yesterday taking the sledge hamert to voting rights act turning the clock back 50 years on civil rights in this country. martin luther king must be rolling in his grave. vladimir putin has said edward edward snowden is at the moscow airport. he's free to fly anywhere he wants. we'll bring you up to date on that and a whole lot more here on current tv. but still support the drug war you must be high. >> i think the number one thing that viewers like about "the

young turks" is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. >> you're putting out there something that you're proud of. journalists want the the story and they want the right story and the want the true story. >> you can say anything here. >> i spent a couple of hours with a hooker. >> your mistake was writing a check. >> she never cashed it! >> the war room. >> compared to other countries with tighter gun safety laws our death toll is just staggering. >> the young turks. >> the top bankers who funneled all the money to the drug lords, no sentence. there's just no justice in that. >> viewpoint. >> carl rove said today that mitt romney is a lock to win next pope. he's garunteeing it. >> joy behar: say anything. >> is the bottom line then that no white person should ever, ever, ever use the "n" word? >> yes! >> only on current tv.

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at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on! the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

>> bill: we have a new senator from the state of massachusetts edward markey. ten points over gabrielle gomez. what do you say? here we go on the "full court press" this wednesday morning june 26. good to see you today. thank you for joining us. special day indeed. so much going on. supreme court. president obama's travel. immigration. everywhere you look. news to talk about today. we needed some help to get through it all. we got it. neil king, national political reporter for the "wall street journal" and a friend and a neighbor so we can roust him out whenever we need to.

a member of "the hill" tribe. >> we're an esteemed tribe. >> bill: we're hillites. >> not hillians. like hudites. we're a proud bunch. >> bill: we are. and a loyal bunch. and we're -- by the way we are assembling a team of more and more hillites. pretty soon, the show is going to have a rule. unless you live on the hill, you're not a guest on the show. >> right. or you could go the other way around. if you live on the hill, i'm sorry. it is too insider. >> it's true. we have a whole family of people that live in the neighborhood that come in. >> i can suggest more. >> bill: let's talk about it later. you, with the exception callers and listeners can be from anywhere and join the crowd around the table here. we'll save a seat for you at the table at 1-866-55-press.

the toll free number. on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/thebillpressshow. join me and the team. hello, guys. >> hey hey hey. >> there you go. >> bill: alichia cruz is over at the beach this weekend with -- this week with her family. javon paris is here taking care of the phones this morning. good to have you with us. cyprian bowlding, we have to pay special attention. i hope you were very kind to cyprian because he keeps us look good on camera, you know. >> he puts on that digital makeup we all need. >> bill: without that, geez. so jay leno had a little bit of fun. the president gave a major speech on climate change at georgetown university. and jay leno said it was maybe very very timely. >> president obama gave a big speech on climate change. he believes global warming is getting worse because apparently he's sweating a lot more during his second term.

the global warming -- >> bill: yeah, just tad little sticking it in. there's one good thing about global warming. if you ask people like peter ogborn. >> npr reports in 100 years rising sea levels could wipe out a city like miami. today, the san antonio spurs said good! [ applause ] >> i would have no problem. >> bill: peter is still in mourning. >> i used to work for the spurs. >> bill: we hired him -- >> they hired me away from the spurs. i'm a big basketball fan. i play basketball -- i played basketball in high school and i play whenever i can and i like the way they run that team. >> i like tim duncan a lot. i love how -- i had no reason to be having allegiance with other team but i formed one for san antonio. >> a lot of people just because they hate the heat. >> i called it the humidity.

just to -- not the heat. it's the humidity. [ laughter ] you know the joke. >> bill: i know the joke. we've got them here. we've got them both here in washington, d.c. these days, too. oh, man. neil king here for the hour as a "friend of bill." isn't that great? we'll be joined by jim o'sullivan, reporter for "the boston globe" who's been covering the markey gomez race from the beginning. will bring us up to date on what happened and why. good questions for him. right to the news of the day. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this wednesday as we get closer to full implementation of the affordable care act, the white house is looking at ways to market obamacare to the american people. most likely using celebrities. the hill is reporting the administration is in talks with the global philanthropy group which represents stars involved with causes and charities like eva longoria, john legend, shakira, madonna and bono and

bill gates among others. hs is talking with the nfl to sell obamacare as well. we could start seeing ads on tv over the next six months. >> bill: they're going full-bore. i think it is a good move. it is available now. a lot of people don't know it's available. so they want to get the word out. >> the whole thing about making it work is to get the under 30 folks to sign up. so i guess that makes sense. i have a feeling most people have their own pretty good healthcare. >> those people do. >> they want to young people who are in good health to know that it is available and get on board. >> paula deen's sons broke their silence yesterday and defended their mom saying they have never heard her speak in a racist manner appearing on cnn. jamie and bobbie deen said their their -- the deposition about their mother was extortion. they say paula has apologized. they don't know what else she

can do. >> bill: stand by your mama. the southern thing to do. >> they were contradicting what she said in her own deposition as if she had lied in her own deposition. they were saying she couldn't have said something like that. it was very weird. >> i for the first couple of days didn't read the actual deposition. then when you do, it is way worse than i thought. it is really, really bad. she, by the way was just on "the today show." >> she actually went on. she apologized. she said that she had used the word particularly after she had been robbed at gunpoint. she described the men who robbed her as n words. the take away from the interview is she says i is what i is and i'm not changing. >> did she apologize for the lard and butter in her food? >> she did not apologize for that. >> the miller coors factory in golden colorado, which produces coors light and other beers has

gone completely waste-free. "huffington post" reporting the factory produces no trash whatsoever. 100% of its by-products are reused, recycled or sent to a waste to energy facility to be used as an alternative fuel source. also use hops and barley after the beers have been brewed are thinned out to feed cattle. nothing is wasted. they spent $1 million on this project over the past two o years and it is complete. they no longer have use for traditional dumpsters and trash cans. >> bill: they have to have some trash. >> i hope nothing goes into the beer. >> no trash. >> those are lucky cows, right? >> that's awesome. >> more hops. >> cows are falling over in the field. starting fights with people randomly. >> bill: all right. neil king, we're going to talk politics and the massachusetts senate race but that's -- in about 20 minutes. that's not the most important political news of the day. the most important political news of the day is there is a

new leader in the polls in new york city for mayor. anthony weiner is up 25 points. christine quinn who has been the front-runner so far is sinking like a rock. she's down at 20 now. this is -- you know, the redemption for anthony weiner, right? >> it looks like. the two were in a runoff. quinn would lead him in a head to head. but still you know, a huge crowded race like that can have weird results. it is probably exactly what mike bloomberg has had in mind in trying to pick a successor right? >> bill: it is certainly what weiner saw as a possibility when other people laughed at him. he said no this is a crowded field. i could get in. he's got higher name recognition than anyone else. he's a damn good campaigner. just to round it out, by the way, so bill thompson, a great guy. they're all good candidates. bill de blasio he's been on our

show many times. 10%. john lew the controller at 10%. weiner popping up to 25. the guy like you say odd curious, mercurial but he's very energetic. he's good out and about. he knows how to relate to folks. >> bill: will it be an embarrassment to new york if he's the mayor? >> it might be a little odd the minute he's elected and people might say how is that possible. i guess it depends on how he then -- >> bill: in many ways, he fits new york. >> absolutely. >> bill: his personality. the whole fact he could defy current wisdom like this and get elected or even be a serious candidate, let alone get elected. >> talk radio person. >> bill: damn right. >> it is interesting because he's kind of his own man.

he's kind of his own man right now. he's man of the people. dee -- he doesn't have big backing from anybody. he's out there doing what he wants to do. >> moving right along. for the last two days, we have been saying very, very nicely, please vlad, vlad old buddy relations between the u.s. and russia are so important to us. please do the right thing and send edward snowden back. were you surprised that vladimir said up yours? >> not really. i kind of wondered whether in the end, the spy he is himself hardly perfect person on that front might think maybe this isn't the kind of thing i want to condone. >> bill: maybe kgb loves kgb. >> well, i mean, there's great stories as this thing has gone along. it is has been the ultimate movie. a lot of screenwriters have said dang, i wish i had thought of this one. it is unbelievable. but we all know about the pizza

and sausages he ate in hong kong. is that why you go to hong kong? i thought there was better understood than that. what's he doing in this? what are the russians doing with him? what's the interaction? certainly, they're not just letting him hang out in a queen size bed and order takeout. the longer he it stays there makes it more uncertain it is he flies off to some friendly place somewhere else. >> bill: peter and i were talking about that earlier. i think what he's doing is working with wikileaks and his attorneys making sure that his next step is, so far by the way, he's -- i wrote a column about this for "the hill" a couple of days, he's outwitted the department of justice the fbi, everybody right, so far. so his next move, he has to make sure he doesn't get trapped somewhere, right? he better do it fast. >> i think it is amazing, have

you ever gone to russia. you have to get your visa in place. they look at -- they look at it. same if you're an american going to cuba. the idea he's like just somehow or other skirted through everything in hong kong got on a plane total surprise when he arrived in russia. that he was supposedly about to fly off to havana, it is amazing. someone created his channels of movement. >> bill: sidebar here but carol and i went to russia. we were on an official trip. this is still the soviet union then. this was years ago. on an official trip. we had arranged, on our own without telling anybody to take a little side trip. we went up to visit some -- we flew out of kiev. didn't tell anybody we were leaving.

we arrived at the airport in kiev. >> in kiev or lunen graph? >> bill: we got off the plane met by a car and driver and an official soviet union official who knew we were coming and drove us to our hotel and took our passports. >> courteous right? >> yeah. >> bill: i thought boy you know, the old adage about a sparrow doesn't fall before -- >> soviet russia, travel books you! >> bill: yes, i know. that they know everything that goes on over there. snowden ends up -- who knows where he ends up but isn't the real question, there are still a lot of questions about what nsa is doing and has been doing. >> i keep going back and forth. i know a lot of people are caught in the weird swirl of how do you regard him and what he's done. are we going to embrace him as a

heroic whistle-blower or -- i'm grateful for knowing now what we know. that's a good thing. no doubt about that. on the other hand, do we let all such people be rogues and decide on their own merits what should be out and everybody is a loan operator. that is chaos. >> bill: meanwhile we're all worried about what happened to edward snowden. james clapper the director of national intelligence goes in front of the united states senate and lies about what the nsa is doing and he admits that he lied to senator ron wyden in front of the committee and nobody seems to care. what the hell is that about? >> you know, well, it has been commented on at length, since 9-11, we've just built this whole, huge domain of -- so much of what's important about what the government does is increasingly done by third parties, private sector people. people that aren't that easy to control. >> bill: when a million people have what i heard estimated as top security clearance, where is

our national security? >> yeah. keep track on those folks. >> bill: some of whom have been working for three months, right? >> all he had access to in three months. pretty amazing. >> bill: when neil and i get started, i'm telling you we're just getting started! 1-866-55-press. join the conversation. we'll continue here on the "full court press." >> only on current tv. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

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

about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at bill pressshow.com. >> bill: 25 minutes after the hour now. neil king is in tud of studio

with us. national political reporter for the "wall street journal." >> we're tweeting at bpshow. you can join in the conversation there. steve says send those guys who caught the red panda to go get snowden. they seem to be able to catch things that want to get loose. that's an idea. >> bill: it was kind of funny we could find a panda so quickly. >> itit was a cute panda. >> they're not even the cute pandas though. they're black and white. >> bill: didn't make it all the way to capitol hill. we were hoping it would make it to capitol hill. neil, supreme court yesterday. dan, if we can congressman john lewis, talk about civil rights, he's the icon. he's the legend. he was deeply disappointed in the supreme court decision yesterday and the voting rights act. here he is. >> i'm shocked dismayed, disappointed. i take it very personal. i gave a little blood on the bridge.

almost died on the bridge for the right to vote and the right for people to participate in the democratic process. >> bill: it looked like five people on the supreme court were saying hey civil rights, who needs those laws anymore. we're now all discrimination, all racism. it is all behind us. >> there's no doubt there's some serious historical potency in all of this. i take a tiny bit different view of the thing. in the end there's no denying the fact congress did sloppy work in 2006 and it re-authorizing bill for 25 years. the same states that we've been scrutinizing since 1965 would essentially remain scrutinizing the same fashion until 2031. because they had no ability to get into or desire to get into the sticky business of trying to figure out should we update this formula, there are bad things that happened in ohio and wisconsin and illinois, all kinds of states and this is sort of -- you know, basically i mean, what the court did was throw it back to congress and say you figure out a proper

formula based on current data and then go for it. right? because they didn't undermine the ability of the federal government to use this preclearance process. that could be for a later day i suppose. >> bill: they say basically the test had not been updated and has to be updated. neil, that counts on this congress to get anything done. >> i know. >> bill: let alone a sticky issue like this. >> that's more of a congressional failing than some horrific act on the part of the supreme court. right? that's where our failing in this city is right now is in congress more than anything. you see that all over the place. >> bill: it is broken. we'll go up to boston and talk to jim o'sullivan from "the boston globe." 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

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show" live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: here we go. it is a wednesday morning june 26. how about it. 33 minutes after the hour now. this is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and our studio on capitol hill. in studio with us as a "friend of bill" this hour, neil king, senior political reporter for the "wall street journal." he and i have been on the road to several campaigns together. but we didn't make it to massachusetts here for this senate race. >> jim will scold me for it that i wrote a bit about it but never made it up there. when i talked to the campaign, don't worry you're not missing very much. >> bill: so we depend on the excellent reporters on the scene none better than jim o'sullivan, political editor and reporter

for "the boston globe." good morning. >> good morning. >> bill: good to have you with us this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: what happened? we thought this race was neck and neck, right? that's what gomez was saying. >> well, neil hit it on the head. there wasn't much to miss. it was a somber affair, i'm afraid. one of these things where you knee that markey had the built-in advantage because it is a blue state and the democratic party leaders here were determined not to allow a 2010 repeat. gomez was never able to catch fire either in the state or nationally. he didn't draw the national attention. he didn't have something to run against like the healthcare law that scott brown ran against and markey just kind of cruised. >> bill: i must say i haven't heard that word some ulent for a long time. >> they took it out of my lead

last night. >> bill: that's a good word. very little used. very appropriately here. so you know, what struck us from -- me from a distance is so there's ed markey but you know, barack obama goes up. joe biden goes up. debbie wasserman schultz is up there, elizabeth warren, everybody who could help is helping. here's gomez and nobody's at his side. where was karl rove? what were all of the big pacs? >> i can jump in. the one thing that's interesting about this is said something else about the republican party particularly in areas of the country that aren't particularly friendly to the republican party. it is hard to find the right surrogates. you know rubio did some stuff for him. some fund-raising stuff for him. mccain was there but mccain was seen as like one of the few republicans that he's obviously done well in new hampshire spent a lot of time there. chris christie might have been of some service. you're not -- are you going to get mitt romney to campaign with you? do you necessarily want the

backing of karl rove american crossroads? yeah, it would be helpful but it would play into the narrative that was being used against him in a big way by the democrats that this guy would be a stooge of the all of the things you don't like about the republican party. there is not a big bench of people they can draw on for that kind of thing. >> if you recall in the 2010 race brown's campaign actually urged the nrsc to stay out of massachusetts because in massachusetts, the national republican brand is so toxic that the recipe for running against a republican in massachusetts is just simply to tie them to the national republican party and say if you send this guy down to washington, he's going to be a tool of mitch mcconnell. elizabeth warren resisted this for a long time. her campaign felt that her narrative wasn't able to carry the day. in one of the debates she came out with a terrific line saying if you elect scott brown you are going to -- enable senator jim inhofe of oklahoma who wrote a book called climate change is

a hoax, to be chairman of the committee that oversees the e.p.a. the poison pill for independence in massachusetts who decide elections up here. they really can't stomach the idea of the national g.o.p. >> jim can i ask you one thing. if you look on the face of it, especially from a distance, there were those including at the nrsc said here's this guy gabrielle gomez here is a young guy, dynamic former navy seal, harvard grad, hispanic, comes from an immigrant background so there's that. was he all that impressive -- is there something we're missing in that whole profile that weakened him in general? >> he wasn't a great candidate. he wasn't terrific on the stump. he wasn't, by his own admission he's not the smoothest speaker. he didn't put it all together. and he was sort of -- you know, you would think this would play great in a general.

he was really hamstrung among some in his own party by the letter he wrote to governor patrick saying appoint me as the interim senator. i will go down there and help facilitate the president's agenda on guns, on immigration. that's aisle crossing and terrific and it is an appeal to moderate -- it was a bridge too far for some conservatives here and i think nationally. >> bill: do we know when markeyy will be sworn in? i imagine they won't wait very long. >> it is kind of up to him. they have ten days before they can certify him because of the overseas ballots. it is sort of up to him when he resigns. after that, he can be sworn in. >> do you think -- i love this story you did today and that headline unlikely to become a celebrity senator. that's probably putting it mildly. you know, i talked to folks particularly on the republican side peddling this conspiracy idea that there was a deal within the democratic party that he would win this seat but wouldn't run to keep it.

do you think that's at all unlikely? do you think it is a given that he will run to win it in earnest and do a full six-year term? >> i think it is very unlikely. >> not only would that be -- >> bill: unlikely he would not run for re-election right? >> unlikely he would not run. it would not em be a destabilizing thing for the democratic party but remember, ed markey ran for the seat in 1984 when he was -- a comparatively young congressman. he ran for the senate seat in 1984. that was the year that john kerry was elected to fill paul songs a' seat. this is not something that ed markey decided to do on a whim. something he's wanted for a long time. and to be a seat warmer in the mold of cowan or smith, i don't think is on the docket. >> bill: he resigns from the senate from the house.

which means a special election doesn't it to fill his seat now. >> there will be a very crowded special election. >> bill: is mo cowen going to run? >> no, no, no, no. i don't believe -- senator cowen has been pretty clear he's been happy with the opportunities he's been given and i think he wants to go into the private sector. >> what's the rough for massachusetts voters who are just totally sick of special elections? >> bill: yeah, right. >> elections in general. but there's no rest for the weary because we have actually a lot of folks love the political class up here, the junkies were waiting for this senate election to get over so we could get on to the real stuff which is the boston mayor. we have now the markey seat. we have a gubernatorial election. and of course markey is going to have to run for re-election or someone is going to have to run for election of the senate seat as gomez put it, for 17 months.

>> bill: what happens to deval patrick? >> governor patrick is likely to fill out his term. he has also said he wants to make a little money go into the private sector. fairly lucrative business career to run for office here. and he is always in the 2016 conversations. if you consider the first tier to be hillary by herself he's sort of the second or third tier candidate depending on how you rank them. i think at this point. but he talks -- he talks to the base, if you go back and watch his convention speech in charlotte, he talks to the base in a way that very few democrats do. he had that great line saying it is time for democrats to grow a backbone. and he would be tremendously appealing. he's had some problems up here. some management problems he would need to explain. but he can't be very far out of that conversation, i don't think. >> there's also -- >> bill: there were hot rumors around washington for awhile. had an appointment in the second term of the obama

administration too. which we haven't seen although attorney general may be open if obama follows my advice but i'm not sure he will. >> no. the governor's been fairly clear that he's not going to do that. people sort of refuse to believe him. i have a hard time seeing him leaving at this point. particularly because just recently his lieutenant-governor stepped down so that leaves the number two spot vacant. i think that was a final signal to a lot of people up here that he's here for the duration. >> gomez have a second act? did he do well enough, get his name out there enough to run for some other lesser statewide office? >> i think he does. i don't think that he disgraced himself by any means. this is the first time, other than a failed bid for a small town in massachusetts, this is

the guy's first bid for office. i think he developed while he was on the trail. he will be a better candidate next time around. >> he seems interested. >> oh, absolutely. he gave -- he gave every indication last night, if you see -- look at the nrsc statement, they were absolutely prodding him. not just to run but to run again for senate. >> bill: right. jim, nice that you have maybe a week between special races or something here. so we'll let you kick back. we thank you for all of the good work you've done on this one and for sharing of some your insights with us this morning. good to have you with us. >> thanks, guys. >> bill: jim o'sullivan is political reporter and reporter up at the "boston globe." what a fun place to cover politics. >> no kidding. jim, these guys that are just every little thing they're deeply in it and really, really good. >> bill: we'll be back. the supreme court the big one

on marriage equality. coming down today. we'll get into that and a whole lot more with you and neil king when we come back. >> go mobile with bill press. download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time anywhere. 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? 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. >> bill: wrapping up here on this wednesday edition of the "full court press." and neil king here in studio as a "friend of bill." this hour.

national political reporter for the "wall street journal." the supreme court wraps it up today, too. in big style. they say biggest bang until the very end. while they disappointed a lot of people with -- on voting rights yesterday, are they going to disappoint again today? >> here's my prediction. they will strike down defense of marriage act and that they will sort of pass on proposition 8 in california by throwing -- dismissing the case essentially for lack of standing. i mean not lack of standing but what's really ironic about both of these -- >> bill: but no application beyond california is what you're saying. >> they would basically let the overturning already done by the lower federal courts just stand. >> bill: right. >> one of the things that's funny about both of the cases is nobody with clear standing has come before the court to defend them. in the case of the doma, the defense of marriage act, it was the house republicans who went

to the supreme court and defended -- >> bill: the administration did not. >> representative of the united states. >> the same with the california case. it goes to show how the issue when it comes to the actual representation -- representatives of the government that should be stepping forward to defend their own laws just aren't interested in doing that. the defense of marriage act it will be -- it would seem extraordinary if they were to uphold it and considering it is just about the application of 1,000 and some laws. many of them tax-related laws. federal ones that apply to married couples. we can get preferential treatment of the tax code to married people but not others when this is an issue that is essentially a state issue. >> bill: it seems to me it would be difficult to make the case which is basically an argument for discrimination. this is why these people should be treated differently under federal law than these people over here.

how can you make that case? >> it will be really interesting back to back moment. yesterday, the state -- the court essentially struck down something that congress had overwhelmingly re-authorized. in 2006. and in this case, if it they were to strike down doma and they would be -- of course, then overturning something that congress had approved by a big margin in 1996. >> bill: here's what strikes me about the supreme court decisions that have been released so far. i don't know that i've seen this or maybe not been aware of it with supreme courts in the past but it seems to me there's a lot of politicking going on now in reaching the decisions. if you look at the affirmative action, they figured out a way that they could get seven votes by really not doing anything. they didn't invalidate affirmative action. they didn't affirm affirmative action. they said you can still use it

but you have to do -- come up with a tougher test maybe. they got 7-1 on that. in effect, kicking the can down the road or kicking it back through the university. on voting rights, they sort of said we're not going to invalidate it. we'll leave it stand. you have to have a tougher test. we'll kick it to the congress. so now, on defense of marriage act, you're right. they could very well say doma, everybody agrees, that one goes. in california, yeah, we're going to let the lower stand. we'll kick it back to the courts and to the states to decide what to do. >> they could do a model one even on doma as well. >> bill: they could. playing politics. >> what do you think obamacare roberts found this wily way to defend obamacare but under a totally different -- from a different vantage point. >> bill: maybe they're trying to have it both ways on all of these issues. i think of the supreme court as

they're the ultimate decider. this is right. this is wrong. >> i know. it is funny because of course, yesterday, there were tons of people particularly on the left saying this is judicial activism. this is them from the bench. you can kind of make that argument. on the other hand, they were saying we didn't approve of what you did in '06. we're giving it back to you to be legislator and legislate in a proper way. judicial activism, this wasn't full-on. this is a muddled thing. that's what they did with affirmative action. we could see a lot of that today at 10:00 on the gay marriage front, too. >> finally, sarah palin is back on fox news. is this the end of the world as we know it? >> she's been hired back? i didn't know that. >> bill: yes, she was gone six months and they decided they could not live without her. >> huh i wonder if they'll re-up the other contracts they moved away from. what will she be doing?

opining from alaska like she has in the past? >> bill: the american people have been deprived. like without oxygen for six months because they haven't had sarah palin opinions. who knows. it has to be diminishing doesn't it? >> bill: i would think. roger ailes usually makes the right decisions. i'm not sure about this one. neil king, we're out of time. not out of issues or opinions but clock rules. good to see you my friend. >> great to see you as always. >> bill: thanks for coming in again. i get the last word, i'll be back -- it is my show, damn it. i'll be back with a parting shot. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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

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>> bill: here we go on this wednesday, june 26th. my parting shot for today by a 5-4 vote yesterday the supreme court rolled back the clock on civil rights. good thing they break for summer next week or else they might also bring back segregated schools, segregated drinking fountains and look, the civil rights act was pushed through congress by lbj in memory of the assassinated john f. kennedy. section five of the act required those counties in southern states most guilty of discriminating against african-americans and denying them the right to vote to get advance approval of the justice department before making any changes to the voting laws.

they were approved by the way and that approval often sought by southern states, they were almost always approved by the d.o.j. yet yesterday the court struck down section five in effect saying the entire south has change and no longer needs any special oversight. yeah, what planet are those five justices living on? sure, we made progress but we still have a long way to go. there is a lot of blatant racism left, especially in the south. isn't it ironic the court would rule the same week that paula deen got fired for making racist comments and the same day, george zimmerman went on trial for killing an unarmed black teenager. how sad! how sick! have a great day folks. see you back here again tomorrow.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> hal: here we are talking about social media right away. you know the great thing about having jacki in studio as i'm filling in for steph while she's on vacation in week is that i'm learning all kinds of things including the fact that apparently facebook still exists and there are still people who use it. [ laughter ] is that true? >> you're a little bit of a social media snob. >> that's the whole point. >> nobody else uses it, then it is really not social.