[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey here we go on a monday morning what do you say? hope you had a great weekend and are ready to tackle the big news of the week here on this monday morning, july 22nd. good to see you today and welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv. great way to start off the day. with our little conversation about the stories of the day. and you're weighing in by phone at 1-866-55-press.

on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at fies book.com/billpressshow. here in washington, d.c., everybody is still buzzing about president obama's powerful comments friday afternoon on the trayvon martin case for the first time, he spoke as a black man to white america explaining how because of their personal experience african-americans will always see what happened to trayvon martin with a different perspective than white americans will. meanwhile, the president goes back on the road this week, traveling to illinois and to missouri on wednesday. jacksonville on thursday to try to get the focus back on the economy and jobs. terry mcauliffe and ken cuccinelli squared off saturday in the first debate in the virginia governor's race. we members of the white house press corps mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and

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

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

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.

and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> bill: breaking news kate middleton is at st. mary's hospital in labor. prince william at her side. will the new prince or princess be born before the end of the "full court press" this morning? oh my god. never been so breathless starting a show. good morning everybody. what do you say?

it's monday morning. good to see you this morning hope you had a great weekend. found a way to stay cool. it finally dropped about 10 degrees here in the nation's capital. last night got below 90 for the first time in seven days straight. so good to see you this morning wherever you happen to be in this great land of ours, we're there with you on your local progressive talk radio station we're there with you. on current tv, whether you're listening or watching, we welcome you to the program and invite you to join in, chime in, give us your thoughts, your opinions, your comments by phone at 1-866-55-press. on the twitter at bpshow and on facebook. become our friend if you're not already. facebook.com/billpressshow. oh man, great weekend. except for the nats didn't have such a good weekend here. >> who?

>> bill: right who. peter ogborn and dan henning. good morning guys. >> hey hey. >> alichia cruz on the phones. i blame cyprian for the nats. we count on him to go to the games, cover the games and bring them home. dodgers go back to the west coast. i don't know where they go next but they got three in a row out of the nats. and yesterday was horrible. >> it was bad. it was like 7-0 in the second inning. carol turned the game on, it was 7-1, she said i'm not even going to watch it. when carol gives up on them, pretty bad. pretty bad. another big sports event yesterday, how about it. phil mickelson so often the bridesmaid but never the bride. but boy did he come through yesterday. birdied four out of six of the

last -- four out of the last six holes including number 18. here's how it sounded on espn. >> phil mickelson slides the putter behind the ball. this to slam the door to one of the finest final rounds in open championship history. on the way. that goes down. yes, the double for lefty. his fifth major championship. >> bill: all right. lefty, huh? >> tiger had a chance there. >> bill: he was 1 behind. >> he just fell apart in the end. >> bill: phil mickelson said i've never played better. >> today was one of the best rounds i've ever played, it was the best i ever putted. i was seeing the line. it was an incredible day on the experience. >> bill: good for him. he's a great guy. >> and now the next one he

wasn't won is the pga championship in two weeks. so that's his next hope. >> he's got the jomentum. >> bill: reid wilson joining us as he has been lately on mondays. reporters from "huffington post" and the root here and president obama stunning the nation on friday with his remarks about trayvon martin. it is our first chance to talk about them and your first chance to comment on them. we'll start right there. followers of geraldo rivera got quite an eyeful on twitter over the weekend. the fox news host tweeted a self-y not wearing much of anything. he stepped out of a shower and was wearing nothing but a bath towel very low across his waist with the caption 70 is the new

50. >> bill: why did he think we all want to see him -- >> i don't know. he's basically naked in this picture. >> he has a towel covering up -- right up until the -- >> bill: okay. i'm pulling the photo up now. >> here it is. there it is. bill hasn't seen it yet. >> bill: uh, okay. >> there it is. >> it's a weird thing to tweet. >> bill: i don't see -- brian williams would do that? no. scott pelley? no no, no. why? >> as i said, over the weekend like i give geraldo a little bit of credit because he acted like a complete jerk and made an ass out of himself way before we rewarded people for doing it.

he was sort of a trailblazer in that. >> bill: it looks like it has been taken down. >> he deleted it. not like anybody can capture it and share it over and over and over. >> bill: what does he want to be? anthony weiner? >> if anthony wein her tweeted that -- >> any politician, they would be in trouble. the statistician who nailed elections is leaving. nate silver who authored the 538 blog is heading over to espn to work his statistic cal magic there. he got his start in sports doing baseball stats but he will not totally leave the political arena since espn is sister to abc during election years he will contribute to abc news. >> bill: he's one talented guy. i'm not surprised to see him move to cnn. >> he knows sports. when we had him in studio. >> bill: sports and politics.

>> and in sports, chris frum became the second british cyclist to win the 100th tour de france yesterday. having held the lead for 13 impressive stages, winning by the largest margin of victory since 2005, four minutes and 20 seconds over cyclist from columbia. his jersey will stand the test of time. certainly a dig at riders riders who won the race before him but have lost their titles because of steroid loose. >> bill: thank you dan. yes, indeed. keeping our eye on st. mary's hospital. but meanwhile -- >> i'm not. personally, i'm not. >> bill: i just was laughing because all three cable channels that we've got the monitors up, all three were on -- at least they started kate middleton kate middleton. much more important stuff to talk about. it has been said we need a

national conversation on race after the trayvon -- the verdict in the trayvon martin case. george zimmerman walking. well that conversation got started, boy did it ever. friday afternoon. and was started by the president of the united states. the context here is it was all week long, at the white house we had been hammering jay carney. the president put out a brief statement the day of the verdict but since then, he hasn't said a word. we were hammering jay carney, is he going to make any comments about this? going to make a speech about this? don't you think he should? in due time, you'll hear from the president and what was going on was we had five different interviews scheduled with local stations and spanish speak stations. they expected this question to come up. all five interviews came and went and nobody popped the question.

so thursday afternoon the president called in his aides and said you know, i really want to talk about this. this is really important to me. and he kind of went over the points he wanted to make. friday afternoon the regular briefing at 1:30 with zero, zero advance notice at all they gave the two-minute warning everybody takes a seat. the door opens and in walks the president of the united states. finally, there to talk about the trayvon martin case, he talked for 17 minutes and boy what a powerful, emotional personal stunning statement it was. then the president said -- made more sense about the trayvon martin case in 17 minutes than all of the millions and millions of words that have been spoken or written about it since george zimmerman first fired those shots a little over a year ago. and the president really -- what

was unusual is you know, he has -- he hasn't called himself this but people identify himself as the post racial president and he's always -- like hesitated to address things as a black man. he's always taken position of more of i'm president for all of the people. friday, no doubt about it. he spoke as a black man to all americans but particularly to white americans. and he made four important points, i thought. first of all he said we should accept this verdict but we can also question it and we should question it because it was so stunning. secondly he said, ya know, that african-americans, because of their experience, will always see this case and other cases too, by the way from a different perspective because -- than white people will, again because of their experience.

thirdly, you know, he acknowledged the violence and acknowledged the fact that a lot of young african-americans are involved in violence themselves but he also pointed out, it is also true the system is unfair. black youth are treated differently than white youth and are more likely to be victims of the system. what for example he raised the question would have happened if trayvon martin shot george zimmerman. would he have been as likely to get off? unlikely. then finally fourth point the president said we've got to re-examine the stand your ground and self-defense laws to make sure they're not encouraging violence and giving people an easy escape route. here is the president saying a look at trayvon martin, hey that could have been me. >> when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son.

another way of saying that is trayvon martin could have been me. >> bill: could have been me. chilling, you hear that. >> also said -- >> bill: 35 years ago. >> we talked to a lot of people about this. i said this before. the thing that really made this story click for me was when we talked to jamal simmons and he said every black man has had a time in their life that someone has come up to them and said are you sure you need to be here? do you need to find your way out of here, boy? or some way of saying we don't want you here. >> bill: or you don't belong here. people cross the street, they see a black man coming across the street, they'll cross the street rather than walk by him on the street. the president said he's experienced it. >> there are very few african-american money in this country who haven't had the

experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me. there are very few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. there are very few african-americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. that happens often. >> bill: we talk about this last week. i talked about this with john fuglesang last monday night on current tv. as open as i am and i think as open-minded as i am, on these issues, i've never had that experience of being racially profiled. i walk in an elevator. no one is going to be afraid of

me. walking down the street, nobody is going to see me as a threat. it has happened over and over again, there isn't an african-american man who hasn't experienced that. this is the history and experience where african-americans are coming from and it can't go away. >> obama: the african-american community is look at this issue through a set of experiences. and a history. that doesn't go away. >> bill: very, very, very powerful. remarks on the part of the president. and i just -- i just wish that every single american, republican democrat, liberal or conservative, would read those 17 minutes and just reflect on them and i think you would understand what the whole thing is about. then the president finally again said we can't leave it here. i said that last weekend.

i got attacked by some right-wingers for saying that. we can't leave it here. we've got to go from here to look at the stand your ground and self-defense laws and make sure that we're just not giving people an excuse to kill. your comments on the president's comments 1-866-55-press. nothing more important to talk about on this morning's "full court press." >> announcer: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael

shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. president obama starting the conversation very powerfully about race at the white house on friday afternoon. surprise appearance in the briefing room is all anybody is talking about this morning. peter? >> really quick comment on phil mickelson winning by the way. we got a comment on twitter. phil mickelson had negative things to say about the president. he said taxes are going to go up on people like him. he would have to quit playing golf because wealthy athletes would have to -- >> bill: did he really? >> yes indeed. >> bill: it was wrong. just pointing that out. on trayvon martin, jean says trayvon martin would be old enough to vote by now.

let's occupy the voting booths to fire the lawmakers who wrote these stupid laws. you can find us on twitter at bpshow. >> bill: john mccain, all critical of john mccain, yesterday on "face the nation" with bob schieffer he said he thought it was important to re-examine the stand-your-ground laws including in his own home state of arizona. ron is calling from elgin illinois. ron, good morning. >> good morning bill. two quick points, no matter how us white folks are i think we still don't know what it is like to be a black family in america. >> bill: i totally agree. that's the point the president was making. it is just a fact, right? >> caller: absolutely. the second point is our white liberal church here in el-in is reaching out to a black african-american church in for example gin and we're going to start that dialogue. hopefully that will come to

fruition. >> bill: that's great to hear. it's got to happen ot that level. faith-based community can show and should -- great leadership. but you start -- in that community of elgin and you start that dialogue between families, that will be very, very powerful. very helpful. jeff in culver city, california. what do you say? >> caller: how you doing, bill press? you mentioned how president obama said that when, you know, he was in an elevator or whatever with white women and they were scared of him and holding their breath while they couldn't wait to get off but if anybody who ever seen any of those intimate films you know, with older white women who were enimaged with black men those kind of films, they showed -- they never showed any kind of apprehension about being around black men. so i can't understand it. >> bill: i didn't say that. president obama said that.

that's the experience he's had. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." they should self-deport? >> no, they said "make us a turkey and make it fast". >> (laughter). >> she gets the comedians laughing. >> that's the best! >> that's hilarious. >> ... and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there is wiggle room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> ya, i consider you jew-talian. >> okay, whatever you want. >> who plays kafka? >> who saw kafka? >> who ever saw kafka? >> (laughter). >> asking the tough questions. >> chris brown, i mean you wouldn't let one of your daughters go out with him. >> absolutely not. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me? >> absolutely! >> (singing) >> i take lipitor, thats it. >> are you improving your lips? >> (laughter). >> when she's talking, you never know where the conversation is going to go. >> it looks like anthony wiener is throwing his hat in the ring. >> his what in the ring? >> his hat. >> always outspoken, joy behar.

>> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

>> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. we're talking about president obama's comments on the trayvon martin case friday. he has stirred up a lot of talk and a lot of conversation with his powerful comments about what happened and asking that pertinent question, what if roles had been reversed in that case. do you really think trayvon

martin young african-american male would have gotten off the way george zimmerman did if he is the one who had fired the shots and killed george zimmerman? 1-866-55-press. back to your calls, back to your comments in just a second. but first here's something very important you ought to pay attention to. let's put it this way. imagine you had an accident, you're unconscious. medical personnel arrive. paramedics arrive and they can't find out from you because you can't talk to them all that information that they might need to know to save your life. well, you can do something about it. it is called emergency link i.d. it is a small tag you attach to your key ring or put in your wallet or purse that tells emergency responders everything they might need to know. your allergies your doctor's contact information and most importantly, whom to notify. could save your life. sign up for that today. for emergency -- sign up for

emergency link's emergency response service only costs $10 a year and you receive your i.d. kit free. just $10 a year. but to get that, you've got to go to emergencylink.com now and enter press for this limited time offer. enter press again at emergencylink.com. emergencylink.com. enter press at emergencylink.com. so, before we get back to your calls on this, just have to tell you, this whole story came home to me in the most powerful way saturday night. carol and i went out with a couple of friends to see this new movie fruitvale station. i gotta tell you if you really, on top of what the president said, if you really want to understand what this is all about, see this movie. it is a blockbuster. it is so powerful. it is so beautifully filmed. and it will tear your heart out.

because it's a story of a young african-american male, four years ago new year's eve 2008. december 31, shot and killed by a police officer at the fruitvale station bart station in oakland california. he died the next day. in 2009. oscar grant. and the story of him and his struggles and his family and what happened and what happened to that police officer who shot and killed him. i gotta tell you it will tear you apart. here's just a little clip of some of the sounds from that movie. >> shots fired. [ gunfire ] >> what is going on? >> next stop, fruitvale station.

>> meet up with the fellas, head out to the city. >> whywhy don't you take the train? then you can hang out and not have to worry about anything. >> bill: he was going to drive. his mother suggested why don't you take the train instead. they did stopped at fruitvale station on the way home. this is one of the best movies i've ever seen. the timing of it could not be better. nobody planned it that way but the movie came out the day the george zimmerman verdict was announced. >> talk about the conversation we're having about the comments that the president made on friday, no better place to join the conversation than on twitter where we're tweeting at bpshow. one person whose twitter handle is rick scott go away. florida stand-your-ground law florida stand-your-ground law was unfortunately signed into law by then g.o.p. governor charlie crist.

>> bill: i don't think so. i think it was signed into law by jeb bush. stand your ground. i'll double check that. >> we'll definitely double check on that. "this was my biggest concern when they picked an all white female jury, they could not put themselves in the shoes of a black man." >> bill: whoever signed it into law, it is a bad law. we'll double check. let's jump out to grass valley, california. hey, kurt. >> caller: good morning. bit place of ambassador chris stevens. i don't think trayvon martin was the type of kid to carry a gun. he was a good kid and not into guns and i think it was a horrible situation. the prosecution did a terrible job. >> bill: they did. >> caller: i don't know what they were thinking. i think they prepped michelle and changed the playbook. i think what looked like disrespect and disinterest was

frustration. i don't think anybody's -- sir that's retarded unless you're totally to the point of man this is so frustrating. bill, as a right wing conservative, i really enjoy the show and i wouldn't end my day any other way. >> bill: hey spent many good days up in grass valley area when we lived in sacramento, kurt. good to hear from you. here she is. haven't heard from her in awhile. kathleen out in chicago. how are you? >> caller: okay. two quick things. first of all george zimmerman was an area patrolman. he has seen trayvon martin before. he had been living out there with his father and fiancee. this isn't the first time zimmerman walked up on trayvon martin. he came out in the daytime too going to the store because he's a kid. okay. >> bill: that's an interesting comment. i hadn't heard anybody make that comment. >> caller: people act like they're scared to go there.

george zimmerman seen him before. that guy living with his father. this man patrol the area every day, every night, never seen this guy? oh yes he's seen him. the main thing i want to get to, make it reverse roles if trayvon martin hadn't been in his car and called the police with a gun and the police told him to stand down, we don't need you to do that. we don't need you to do that, mr. martin, he got out and did it anyway and trayvon martin had a gun. i don't believe he bashed his head 25 times and i don't believe he hit him 25 times because if he had like george zimmerman said, george zimmerman wouldn't have been here. when the police got here and they would have told trayvon martin, we told you not to get out of your car! we told you not to get out of the car! you got out anyway, you have to be charged with disobeying the law. >> bill: absolutely, kathleen. i agree with you.

trayvon martin, if the roles had been reversed, trayvon martin would already be on the death row. >> caller: yes, sir. i really need people to talk about it. right is right and right don't wrong nobody, mr. press. this was an unprovoked killing. if that boy did fight him, he had a right to fight him because he had no business trailing him. he had as much right in that area. his father was paying taxes there. >> bill: kathleen, god bless you. >> kathleen, my queen. >> bill: you were right on. kathleen, go out and see that movie, fruitvale station. i'm telling you you will cry like i did at the end of it. but boy, it's a powerful statement. jay is calling from atlanta georgia. >> caller: good morning. remember the central park jogger and those five or six kids that were picked up in the park and they were all put in prison for like what, 13, 14 years before

they found they were innocent? they were profiled by the police and even though there was no evidence of them raping that jogger she survived the attack, it was later found the attacker was in jail. he saw these kids in there and he confessed to it before they were finally released. you remember that? >> bill: i remember vaguely. i didn't remember that the kids went to jail. i remember they were wrongly accused. i know that the rapist finally did come out yeah. but we could go down the list of cases of racial profiling or cases where the justice system has unfairly and wrongly accused a black person of a crime simply because of the color of their skin, you know? >> caller: the reason i brought up that case is because the people who don't understand is they did live a life what you just brought up earlier which i was so glad. when you say you never

experienced that, being followed and as a person of color is because you live a life of white privilege. you get the benefit of the doubt that you are credible, law-abiding citizen even if you're near or around an incident of crime. you're not considered the first suspect. >> bill: absolutely. you're absolutely right jay. i didn't realize that as much until this all happened. the president made that -- i just hope people heard that from the president. he wasn't accusatory. he was stating what the fact is. what the perspective is. what the experience is. what the history is. and gotta understand that he was saying why african-americans will look at this case differently than a lot of other people. very very powerful, again i encourage everybody -- if you didn't see it friday, if you weren't there read the president's statement.

and reflect on it. and absorb it and two go out and see fruitvale station. reid wilson joins us from the "national journal" hotline when we come back.

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?

current tv is the place for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

>> bill: monday morning, july 22. the entire international press corps standing by, breathless waiting for news out of st. mary's hospital in london. on the front joining the troops in front of st. mary's hospital, hotline editor-in-chief reid wilson on the line with us this morning. hey, reid, why aren't you in london? >> you know, my flight leaves momentarily. i'm sitting here at the airport -- well, not really. >> bill: it is amazing isn't it? all three cable channels, that's what they led with. >> i woke up this morning. i saw the breaking news alert from "the washington post" at 3:30, i thought well, news is canceled today. >> bill: that's right. that's what people will be talking about. reid, i gotta start, as a member of the white house press corps sad to lose helen thomas, a real trailblazer over the years. inspiration to men and women.

>> the first president -- the first female president of the white house press association the first female member of the gridiron club. man. >> bill: and the national press club. >> i saw a photo of helen thomas in the late '70s and it did something like here's helen thomas 30 years into her career with upi. 30 years of a career by the 1970s, that tells you how long she was around. >> bill: i was there a couple of years ago when president obama came in on her birthday with cupcakes. >> they share a birthday. >> bill: he walked in, started the briefing bringing the cupcakes in and we all sang happy birthday to both of them. she got under their skin but she was well respected. >> she did. she was asked once what the difference was between a rude question and a probing question and she said i don't believe there's such a thing as a rude question. >> bill: i love that quote.

that's a good way to sum up her career, i think. >> bill: president obama back in the briefing room on friday for a very powerful, very unusual stand for the president talking about the trayvon martin case. >> it was. it was one of these moments we're going to remember for a long time. you know, there are no harsher critics than of president obama than folks like tom joyner and steve harvey and tavis smiley, major african-american talk radio folks around the country. it says something about our segregated media. not only are we sort of segregated by partisanship and whether we watch msnbc or fox. but there's also sort of subculture of racial divide within the media. african-americans have talk show hosts that they listen to and hispanics watch telemundo and

tell vison and it is fascinating to hear what african-american talking heads say about the president. they aren't thrilled with him. they don't think he's represented himself as the first african-american president as much as he could have. this is a moment where he did. i think it is something important to realize because he gets to talk to a significant percentage of the american population that's never had anybody to be able to talk to them directly in the way that he can. i think it is an important moment in society really to be able to say look, you as well, oppressed people, can become president of the united states of america and here, i'm going to talk about my experience as an african-american. it was a fascinating moment and i think an important one that will play a bigger role in his legacy over the long run than i think a lot of people realize at

the moment. >> bill: the president this week is going on the road. wednesday he goes to illinois and missouri, two speeches back to back. trying to get the focus back on the economy. and jobs. >> well, and we've -- they've tried this before. this is always the -- fascinating thick to national republicans, they don't -- this notion of pivoting to jobs. the number of times this white house is pivoting back to jobs. we're getting close to two dozen times now. the rnc has a list they keep. they sent it over to me. they were pivoting to jobs. one of the frustrating things for them, i'm sure is the fact that just as the white house mentioned, the president is headed off on the tours there will be no new policy, they say. so the white house said that. not republicans. so great okay. we're talking about a couple more speeches where he's going to say the same things that he said before. so i'm not entirely clear as to

why or what new is going to come out of this aside from just another couple of speeches. >> bill: you have written though the president somewhat of a new venture has told house democrats that he's willing to jump in and help them get the house back in 2014. >> historically speaking, presidents always have a bit of a problem with their own party up on capitol hill. the party doesn't think that the white house does enough to help them and that has been just as true for president obama. there's a lot of frustration among house and senate democratic leaders who don't think he's actually working doing what he can to help them politically. well, now he's actually doing it. right after the election, he sent jim messina his campaign manager and alyssa, one of his deputy chiefs of staff up to capitol hill to hear what house and senate democrats needed and effectively, what they needed was first of all, money and second of all access to his data list, not only the number

of volunteers that he had but also the extra data that helped him target so well. the white house has promised them both. the president's already done a number of fund-raisers for the house and senate democrats. he's going to do as many as 14. here is a real effort by the white house to reach out to some folks who are frustrated within his own party. >> bill: unusual because very often, more often presidents remain aloof from all of that. reid wilson, good to catch up with the homefront here this morning. thank you so much. >> thanks a lot bill. >> bill: "national journal" editor-in-chief of the hotline reid wilson. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: take your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey travis waldron is the head of think progress sports in studio with us at the top of the next hour. joe tells me that i'm correct. jeb bush is the one who signed the stand-your-ground law into law in florida. got that right. jim says hey bill, you keep me sane on my two hour commute to work every morning from madison 92.1 the mic. hey, thanks, jim. greetings to all of our good friends in madison. and greg farmer says why do you call it obamacare? it is the affordable care act. >> bill: president obama calls

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. what do you say? it is the "full court press" here on monday, july 22. great to see you this morning and welcome to the "full court press." we're coming to you live on current tv, of course, all across this great land of ours. here in -- here to take your comments by phone at 1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow and on

facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow here in washington, d.c., everybody is still buzzing about president obama's comments friday afternoon on the verdict in the trayvon martin case. for the first time, he spoke as an african-american to white america, explaining how because of their personal experience, african-americans will always see this case differently than white americans. meanwhile, the president goes back on the road this week trying to get the focus back on jobs and the economy. traveling on wednesday to illinois and to missouri. terry mcauliffe and ken cuccinelli squared off in their first debate in the virginia governor's race. fireworks on saturday between the two of them. in religious news, pope francis is on his way to brazil for his first international trip. we members of the white house

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>> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: breaking news. the world is watching. kate middleton has checked in at st. mary's hospital. no word yet. apparently though prince william is at her bedside and will keep you up to date. they have decided we do know this, they're going to wait until the baby is born to know whether they have a prince or princess. all right. so exciting. >> cable news is going to be

horrible today. >> bill: all day. you might as well check out there. will be no news today except this baby. >> you've been through this a couple of times. birthing a baby can take a long time. >> bill: for carol, it was 26 hours. cable news may have a lot of time to fill this morning. >> they're not going to make any comment on if. as soon as it happens, they'll send a statement out. >> that's it. so between then and now, there's a lot of tap dancing going on. >> bill: well, we'll try not to get too sucked into that here on the "full court press" on this monday morning july 22nd. we're coming to you live coast-to-coast on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. great to see you, coming to you from our nation's capital of course, with our regular team in place here, peter ogborn spouting off with -- >> that's what i do.

>> bill: dan henning here as well. alichia cruz has the phones covered. and cyprian bowlding as always making us -- keeping us looking good on current tv. our videographer. you know, every tuesday we are joined by igor volsky who is the managing editor of think progress and they got something new going on over at think progress. they now have a full time sports desk and a sports reporter, travis waldron who joins us in studio this morning. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: you come highly recommended here. very exciting adventure. can't wait to hear about that. something that didn't go so well, detroit, we know last week filing for bankruptcy. the mayor of detroit mayor bing on the -- with candy crowley wasn't he?

no, abc this week yet saying you look at one way we're going down. another way as this is just a way to get a new start with detroit. >> i'm certainly hoping this will be a new start. detroiters are veriry silient people. >> bill: the mayor says we may have filed for bankruptcy today. we won't be the last one. >> we're not the only city that's going to struggle through what we're going through. there are over 100 major urban cities having the same problems that we're having. we may be one of the first. we are the largest but we absolutely will not be the last. >> bill: yeah, sad to see detroit have to file bankruptcy but i do hope they bounce back out of this because it is a great city, great people there. with a great history. and played a major major role in the history of this country for sure. both in the manufacturing sector and in the music sector. >> yeah, so much culture and history that's been given to

this country from detroit. they rock. >> bill: we'll find out what think progress has to say about the sports world. with travis waldron and we'll get right to that. >> as you just mentioned the royal baby watch kicked into high gear as kate middleton was admitted to st. mary's hospital in central london at dawn london time this morning. duchess kate is in the same private wing of the hospital where princess diana gave birth to prince william 31 years ago. also gave birth to prince harry in the same wing as well. we may not know for up to ten days what this baby's name will be once it's born. >> bill: they don't have names picked out? >> no. we don't know what the palace is thinking. >> bill: i would think they would have thought about that. >> i'm sure they have. they just haven't made it public. >> another day another gay

wedding. actor jesse ferguson tying the knot with his long-time boyfriend in new york city. even though they're california residents, they wanted to tie the knot where it was legal. they told abc -- >> bill: it is legal in california now. >> they say weddings are expensive and when they had planned out it wasn't legal yet. they said weddings are expensive and they wanted to give their money to businesses in a state where they were accepted as equals. about.200 people attended saturday's wedding. >> bill: i think this is why states -- more and more states will be allowing same-sex marriage. >> because of the money. >> if for no other reason, like seriously -- >> bill: it is pretty sad. >> the business behind weddings, oh, come on. so much money. >> bill: next to bar mitzvahs. big deal. >> the u.s. coast guard had quite the weekend. cbs news reports that crews off

the coast of miami chased down a drug-running boat in a situation that was described as being straight out of a movie. high-speed on the water with boats and helicopters lots of guns and guns fired and lots of cocaine. 2300 pounds of it. $35 million worth of cocaine is what they seized and will not hit american streets. >> bill: were they shooting miami vice? >> no, this was real. >> bill: imagine being on the beach and seeing that? >> wild. >> bill: so travis, why is think progress branching out into sports? isn't that sort of like espn covering a presidential race or something? >> well, you know, we think there are a lot of real substantive issues in the sports world. so much about sports gets talked about even when it's not on the field. tmz has talked about the gossip

around these athletes. there are actual substantive issues about public financing around stadiums or lgbt issues and racial issues and gender issues and all of these things we need to talk about, good for society to talk about and actually play a major role in what our society looks like. >> bill: and maybe violence in the sports world mr. hernandez the patriot. boy. turned out to be -- trouble. >> there are two sides to that. one is -- is there too much violence in sports. the other is the aclu came out a couple of weeks ago and asked why he's in solitary confinement. used it to highlight the number of americans who spend 20 hours a day by themselves in a 7 by 10 cell or smaller. it is a -- sports offers a good lens into so many issues in society. it is something we shouldn't

ignore. >> bill: well, we try not -- you know, a sports show but we do get into sports every once in awhile here on the "full court press." so we wanted to talk to you about it today. and one of our former colleagues from current tv, keith olbermann, who has had many lives in the media world started at espn, and is going back there right? >> right. starting in august. >> bill: what will his role be? what are the expectations? he really knows his stuff. >> he does. he's a great sports mind. i was arguing with a few people the other day. i think his politics -- he spent so long in politics that people forget how sharp he was in sports. >> yeah. >> you know, he still has his own baseball blog now. really interesting. >> it is very interesting. >> so he's going to have an hour-long show each night on espn2 and basically is going to cover -- i think they're giving

him free reign. they said no politics. whether he will actually push the envelope and go into politics is unclear. >> bill: you can count on him to push the envelope. you can count on him. whatever his bosses tell him not to do, he'll be doing it. >> it is a really interesting time for a show like that because as you guys are doing there is a real intersection of sports and politics. and it's not just box scores and i think people have learned that it goes a lot deeper than that. it goes a lot deeper than statistics. i think he's sort of got his finger right on that. >> bill: some people do that, often guests on the show from center for the nation. and peter for "huff post" is it in new york, we have on? >> jordan schultz is very good. >> bill: right. so there are others who have blazed this trail here that

you're following, i guess. >> i think a lot of people look at think progress or they look at keith olbermann and they think republicans and democrats. that's not necessarily what we're looking at. we're looking at real substantive policy issues in sports. a lot of those branch partisan divides. if you look at a lot of the cities where city councils and state legislatures are handing over large sums of money public money to build stadiums and arenas, a lot of the opposition from that is actually kind of a coalition of community groups that come from the left and the right. that are against kind of the corporate welfare and the major subsidies that are going to these billionaire sports franchise owners to build a stadium. >> bill: you've written recently about situation like this in kentucky, right? where you're from. >> yes. >> bill: what's the scandal there? >> so in kentucky, the university of kentucky

basketball team is a religion there. it is as big a thing in kentucky as you can possibly have. the only other thing that's possibly as big is the coal industry. so the arena where kentucky plays in downtown lexington, they need to renovate it. it is has been -- it is 30 years old. 35 years old. and it needs a face-lift. and they have a plan to renovate it and the convention center it's attached to but the design phase, the planning and design phase, they're actually taking about $2.5 million out of a fund paid for by coal severance taxes. what the coal severance tax is in coal counties, when they produce coal, they levy -- the state of kentucky levies a tax on all of the coal that's produced. what it is meant to do is to be

reinvested into the counties for development that is absent the coal industry. once coal's gone, what are we going to do in these counties? >> bill: i'm sure these are impoverished counties, too. >> they don't have a lot other than the coal industry. >> bill: they're taking the money from those counties and pumping it into the stadium, is that the plan? >> exactly. you know, fayette county, where lexington is not coal country its only connection to coal really is the state of kentucky and the fact there are coal companies based there. it is not a coal county. it is a small sum of money compared to i think it is more than $100 million a year that goes into eastern kentucky from these funds but still that $2.5 million can be used to do valuable things in these counties and now it is going to an arena. >> bill: one other thing if they're taking $2.5 million they'll be taking a hell of a lot more tomorrow. >> that type of thing happens

all over the country. >> oh, yeah. >> completely screw over the rest of the state to make sure they have a good sports program in college. >> bill: the m.o. always is the public funds are used to build the stadium on the theory this will bring in so much revenue for the city. basically, we're giving -- you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to the sports teams and to the owners. >> they're sold as economic development engines and basically, what they tell people is don't worry this will pay for itself. we're going to talk a little bit of tax -- sales tax revenue and put it toward it or we're going to -- put it toward gambling revenues from slot machines or something. that's what they're doing in minneapolis. and then the rest of it will kind of be covered by all of the new economic growth that it creates. it just doesn't work. we've seen over and over and over again that these proms end up -- that these projects end up

underfunded then cuts to public service have to be made to make up for the difference. >> bill: back to keith olbermann. we learned over the weekend that nate silver who -- i guess was in sports before but made his reputation at the "new york times" by calling absolutely dead on, the presidential race, is going to espn. is he giving up politics or is he carrying politics with him to espn? >> i think his deal is he will be at espn mainly and he's also going to do some politics for abc news. especially in election year. he's still going to be doing the election forecasting so we don't have to worry about losing that. >> bill: at espn, he will be what calling games? >> i think he's going to -- his blog is moving to espn which is kind of -- the direction espn's been going with grant land, with the magazine, they've been taking risks on the print side. they've been doing more substantive coverage.

not just here's what happened in the game last night. he will be contribute being to olbermann's show which is great because they're both huge baseball nerds. >> that's something a lot of people didn't realize you know, all throughout the election cycle when silver was getting so much press is he started out in sports. >> baseball perspective. he was back there doing all of the number crunching way before that was cool. [ laughter ] >> bill: think progress. thinkprogress.org has a sports desk and sports reporter here with us, travis waldron. your comments, sports fans, always welcome at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back. for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries...

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cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's

unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. clinton yates from "the washington post" joins us in our next segment. right now we're talking sports and politics with travis waldron, the sports reporter for think progress. yes, think progress now covers sports. at thinkprogress.org. we're talking all things sports except we won't talk about the nationals and the tough time they had with the dodgers. >> let's please not talk about the nationals. >> bill: the last three days. but big sports news yesterday with phil mickelson winning the british open, huh? bringing it home for america. >> it was a nice win for him. i'm a tad partial to tiger

woods, i admit but i was glad to see phil win. he's a great golfer. he put together a great stretch. >> bill: tiger had a great run-in until he fell apart. >> he didn't bring it home. >> i was pulling for tiger too. i would like to see him win a big one. you used to count on tiger woods having a monster last day and it was the exact opposite. he just completely fell apart yesterday. he's a total head case. >> it was sort of a role reversal. used to be tiger finished strong and phil fell apart. it is kind of opposite. >> bill: a little flap among the ncaa from some of the players not happy with compensation they're getting. tell us about that. >> this weekend we now have two major cases against the ncaa. one, the ed o'bannon lawsuit a basketball player for ucla back in the '90s, won a national title. went on to the nba. his likens and image are still

used by the ncaa and so are lots of other players and they're used without compensation. they're suing saying you -- the ncaa ea sports which produces a lot of video games and the collegiate licensing company which sells the licenses to companies like ea sports and broadcast companies they're saying you conspired to fix our value, you violated antitrust law. we can't get compensation for our likens. this is a problem. they're waiting for a class certification. if it becomes a class action, then every former college athlete could join the case. >> that's a big story. that's something we could spend time on if we had more time. >> bill: i think they have a good agent and a good attorney because they're right. they have to be compensated for that. congratulations, travis. look forward to following you on think progress. thinkprogress.org. thanks for coming into the studio this morning. >> thanks for having me.

>> 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: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 333 minutes after the hour on a big monday morning. july 22nd. it is the "full court press" and we are brought to you today by the utility worker's union of america. the good men and women of the utility worker's union under president michael langford delivering brighter services and a brighter future. for more information about their good work, you can go to their

web site uwua.net. president obama in a very powerful statement at the white house on friday saying -- i once told you that if i had a son, he would look like trayvon martin. the president friday said another way of putting that is trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago. very powerful statement starting a conversation about race for sure. clinton yates, good friend, columnist for "the washington post" has been writing about this. joins us on our news line this morning. hey, clinton, good to talk to you. >> you too bill. how are things? >> bill: everything is good. we miss having you in studio this morning but we understand, you've got a lot on your plate this morning. >> i do. i'm actually going to be writing a column about the weekend reaction to what's said on friday because in my very personal work inbox on my voice

mail i got quite a rage of calls. >> bill: it was the first time, would you agree that we've seen president obama step into that role of speaking as an african-american man to the rest of america. he usually hasn't done that. has shied away from doing that. >> let's be honest. yes, the fact that he, as a man of color addressed what it is like to simply live life outside of sort of the case specifically and outside of the politics of what he does, just the human element there i thought was very very important if not one of the most important things he's ever said in his time in office. >> bill: i would like to hear again for our listeners and our viewers, what he said about his experience with racial profiling. >> obama: there are very few african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed

when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me. there are very few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. there are very few african-americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. that happens often. >> bill: has that happened to you, clayton? >> it has happened to me. i want to make something else clear is what he was saying, he specifically referred to african-american males. i think it needs to be widened this is something that happens to people of color in a lot of different scenarios not just black men. people who are the other as

they're viewed by whoever it may be. as much as it might happen to me as a black man it is not singularly our own experience even if it happens disproportionately more. >> bill: the other thing i thought was stunning with the president is he actually asked the question that i think a pertinent question which some people are afraid to ask what if the roles had been reversed, right? >> right. >> bill: what if trayvon martin had been the one who had the gun who was told tho stay in the car. got out confronted the other guy and shot and killed him? >> people would have understood their inherent look at the criminalization of black men in general in society would have probably changed their views about who was in the right and who was willing to defend themselves within the law in that context. that question, specifically made that point. if you change things around, just because of what you may think of what black males should and should not be doing, do you think you interpret the law the same way. it is an important question. i think it is key to that entire

discussion. not the talk about the discussion but the actual discussion. what do you feel about yourself that we can address and change? that is crucial to the entirety of the matter. >> the west place to be on friday afternoon was to be on twitter because as soon as he spoke, i saw some of the most outrageous things being said by -- for the most part, most of the ones i saw were from conservative white men calling him a race baiter and drumming up -- dragging this up and i just kept thinking to myself, you know, maybe the president wasn't really talking to them. but who was the president talking to when he spoke on friday? >> well, here's the thing. who the president was talking to was the nation and the world. who chose to listen is a different matter. that's the unfortunate part. if you choose to act as if there is no remote racial disparity issue in this country, will you see everything is race baiting. if you choose to understand

there is progress to be made for the betterment of everyone and not just for the betterment of one particular group then yeah, i can understand. that's what's so unfortunate is people elect to be closed-minded and point fingers then wonder why we can't seem to get past anything in this country. >> bill: i wrote a column about this and in response to my column, if you read the e-mails i'm amazed at how many people out there in this country know exactly what trayvon martin said to george zimmerman. you know. what trayvon martin did. it is just amazing, all of the stuff that they know, right? and why they find him guilty or feel that zimmerman was justified in shooting him. the projections are unbelievable. >> unbelievable. >> again, you gotta look at yourself before you can understand how we're going to get over it. >> bill: the president also said we've got to look at these -- by the way, he was very honest, right, about the level of violence and the number of

african-american people who are involved in violence against others and against themselves but they also said the system you gotta admit is fundamentally unfair to african-american males in particular and you have to look at the stand-your-ground laws and self-defense laws and see whether maybe they're just not encouraging people. >> i would agree with that. let's be clear about something. the system was by in large written for and for the protection of white landowning males and we still see the ves tinges of that in every day life. that's not something to blame anybody for. that's what we -- let's not act as if it doesn't benefit other groups. >> bill: can we get beyond that clinton? >> we can all look at each other and say hey look, just because you feel some way about somebody else doesn't mean i will caust out as a racist.

we want to understand the fears people have so we can bridge the actual gaps. i think we can begin to see some level of harmony. if we're afraid to address how we feel to one another for fear of being labeled, it will never ever ever get better. >> bill: i have to tell you, i had a very profound experience saturday night. coming out of a week of writing about talking about the trayvon martin case and the verdict, i went to see this movie fruitvale station. have you seen it? >> i have not seen it but i have heard -- quick plug for a colleague, kirby wrote a column about that in friday's express in which she said seeing that movie made her address every fear she's ever had as a white woman. she never considered herself to be biased until she saw that movie. >> bill: i want to make a plug for the movie. it is one of the most powerful i've ever seen. the timing, you know, could not be better or worse whatever your perspective is. it just happened to come out last weekend the weekend of the

verdict. and this story of this young 22-year-old african-american young man oscar grant you know, shot and killed by a police officer at the bart station, fruitvale station in oakland, four years ago, it is so powerful. and it's the exact same story of racial profiling and the system, you know, stacked against him. >> racial profiling is not just a matter of fact. it is a necessity in order to keep everybody safe. it is dangerous and it is harmful and it is often a deadly analysis. >> bill: what did you think of the protests on saturday? did they -- were they -- did anything come out of it? do you think they were appropriate? >> i think the efforts of protest are very difficult to see in the short term. historically, protests have taken time, you know, if you think about the sit-ins four

college students that snowballed into an entire nation of protests that led to the way they serve people. it is not just about the immediate days after a process. it is what people look at and feel the need they can do themselves wherever they live. so i'm glad things went off without any very specific hitches. we did see some violence in different scenarios. it is oldest form of discussion that we have is peaceful protests and again you know, the days after aren't necessarily the time we should look to see whether or not they're affected. >> bill: the president -- i don't think -- seldom seen a more powerful moment on the part of any american president than his words on friday. >> tremendous. >> bill: i just hope every -- i said it earlier i hope every american liberal conservative, i don't care, read the 17 minutes of comments. he summed it up better than anybody else could. that's, of course, before you had written your column for it, clinton. that's what we're look forward

to. we'll let you get back to work. >> no problem. see you guys soon. >> bill: clinton yates columnist for "the washington post." follow him at washingtonpost.com. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv.

>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

current tv is the place with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 13 minutes now before the top of the hour on a monday. monday, july 22nd.

back to the news of the day. just a second. another story caught my attention about identity theft. down in mississippi this one, i told you was everywhere. a man is impersonating -- one of the oldest tricks in the book. a telephone scam, a man impersonating a sheriff's deputy to call people up and ask him for their social security number and driver's licenses over the telephone and of course, some poor dumb suckers think oh, the sheriff's deputy's got to know what he's doing. give out that information and bingo, identity theft important to be protected against it. i am with lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available even monitors your bank accounts. you ought to check it out as well because lifelock services can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. visit lifelock.com or call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10% off your lifelock ultimate membership.

1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. we know that congress has the lowest polling numbers probably ever. and that this particular congress, the 113th under john boehner looks like it will be even less effective and get less done than the most do nothing congress of all-time which was the 112th congress under john boehner, the last two years. but john boehner yesterday appearing with bob schieffer on "face the nation" said hey we're doing just great. >> you have presided over what is perhaps the least productive and certainly one of the least popular congresses in history. how do you feel about that? >> well, bob, we should not be

judged on how many new laws we create. we ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal. we've got more laws than the administration could ever enforce. >> bill: now first that is total b.s. but secondly, they may have voted 38 times to repeal obamacare but how many laws have they repealed, actually? i would like to take boehner up, call his bluff and say okay, we will judge you by how many laws you have actually repealed. not pretended to repeal, you know. not just having to vote on it. how many laws have you actually repealed? you know what the number is? zero. zero. biggest loser, the most do nothing congress ever and i quote, republican walter jones member of congressman from north carolina here, the worst speaker ever in history of the

house of representatives. john boehner. they got nothing done. they don't pass laws and they don't repeal laws. they're wasting their time and wasting your money and mine. gotta mention the passing over the weekend of good friend of mine and a real leader in the white house press corps. she was our leader for years and years and of course i'm talking about helen thomas. think about -- she shouldn't have said what she said at the very end of her career. about all jews ought to get out of the middle east and go back to poland or germany. you cannot judge her career by that one careless remark she made. on the white house grounds. she had an incredible career and did great great good. was an inspiration to men and women journalists. she was the first woman member of the white house press corps. she was the first president

woman president of the correspondents' association. she was the first woman allowed in the national press club. at first women had to sit -- once they were allowed in, they had to sit on the balcony and couldn't even ask questions. she pressed for that and got full rights on the floor. she was the first woman member of the gridiron club. she was still at the white house when i started there. front and center on the middle seat in the front row. she asked tough questions of every president. covered ten presidents, drove them crazy! here she is with george bush and the iraq war. >> to assume i wanted war is just flat wrong helen. all due respect. hold on for a second, please. excuse me. no president wants war. everything you may have heard is that but it is simply not true. >> bill: hillary came in once, as secretary of state.

helen gives her a hard time. >> do we know of any country in the middle east that has nuclear weapons? >> helen, i missed you. [ laughter ] >> bill: that's the question a lot of people would ask. who in the middle east has nuclear weapons? we know what country does. i was there when president obama brought cupcakes in for helen's birthday. they share the same birthday. three years ago. helen also asked tough questions about president obama when it came to afghanistan. >> obama: helen thomas -- >> mr. president, when are you going to get out of afghanistan? why are we continuing to kill and die there? don't give us this bushism if we don't go there -- >> bill: some people may have said that's a rude question. she was asked once what's the difference between a tough question and a rude question and

helen thomas' answer was there's no such thing as a rude question. god love her. i'm glad to have known her. helen thomas. we'll tell you what the president's up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

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. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is

going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern nounce on yird radio and on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. in the next hour, at the very top of the next hour a priest from austria who has shaken up the catholic church by suggesting we should allow women

to be ordained priests and allow priests to get married. he's been banned in boston but he will be here in studio with us and also be joined by dr. ivory tolson from the root. president gets a briefing at 10:45. at 3:00 p.m., he meets with secretary of state john kerry. and then this evening at 7:25, he will be speaking over at the mandarin oriental hotel here in washington at an ofa event organizing for america event. and taking some questions afterwards. jay carney has called his regular press briefing today at 1:00 p.m. today's briefing will not be as exciting as friday's briefing when president obama himself came into the briefing room.

we'll come back for one more hour of the "full court press."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning friends and neighbors. great to see you this morning. it is monday, july 22. as we get started with your day thank you for joining us here on the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill right here in washington, d.c. bringing you up to date on the news of the day from washington. from our -- around the country and from around the globe and most importantly giving. >> chance to sound off about what it all means to you what

it means to you and to your family. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. give us your comments and send us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. washington still buzzing today and will be for some while over president obama's comments friday afternoon about the verdict in the trayvon martin case. the president for the first time speaking as a black man to white america, explaining how because of their own personal experience and history african-americans will always see this case differently than white americans do. meanwhile, the president will go on the road this week traveling out to illinois and missouri on wednesday to jacksonville on thursday. to try to shift the focus back to jobs and the economy.

virginia terry mcauliffe and ken cuccinelli, the first debate at the virginia governor's race. all of that and a whole lot more coming up on current tv. chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened 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) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

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

the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. breaking news this morning breathlessly anticipating the arrival but not yet. kate middleton has checked in to st. mary's hospital. prince william is at her side and we're waiting for news whether it's a prince or princess. so far no announcement from buckingham palace. good morning everybody. that's not the biggest news story of the day. it is biggest news story of the

century it seems like, the way people are covering it. great to see you this morning. monday morning, july 22nd. this is the "full court press". coming to you live. coast-to-coast on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. everywhere in america. so whether you're listening or watching, we welcome you to the program and look forward to hearing from you. your calls and your comments welcome. your phone calls first of all at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. your comments welcome on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. the team this morning all here and eager to get into this last hour together as always, peter ogborn and dan henning. >> good morning. >> alichia cruz has the phones covered. cyprian bowlding has the video cams going and keeping us

looking good on current tv. we've talked a lot -- a subject of great interest to me. about reforms of the catholic church and the need of reform in the catholic church and i say that as someone who once studied for the -- raised catholic and once studied for the catholic priesthood and we have with us in studio this hour, very excited to meet and to talk to father helmut schuler a priest from austria who is shaking up the catholic church with his calls for reform and he's on a tour of 15 cities in the towns bring that message here. father, good to see you. welcome. >> thank you very much. >> bill: the united states being good to you so far? >> yes. very warm, meetings are very touching with those engaged in reform of church in this country. >> bill: you're traveling coast-to-coast to 15 different cities.

>> yes. it will be a good program i think. >> bill: now the pope's going to brazil so he's going to brazil and you're coming up here. going in different directions. >> in some sense yes. >> he's just avoiding you. [ laughter ] >> bill: we'll get to some of the things that you have recommended. i'm very excited about. first, we can't lose sight of american politics because we talk about that so much and yesterday on abc, john karl had a chance to talk to a lot of speculation about 2016. and john karl had a chance to talk to senator ted cruz, tea partier, of course from texas. about what he plans to do in 2016 and ted cruz just says you know typical politician, i'm not thinking about that. >> we're having a national debate about which direction the country should go. >> understand the national debate. >> what i'm doing now is trying to participate in that national debate. i'm not focused on the politics.

>> is it fair to say you're not -- >> i've been in the senate all of seven months. the last office i was elected to was student council so this has been a bit of a whirlwind. >> bill: yeah, right. he's not thinking about 2016. oh, yes he is. he's already been out to iowa. i hate to drag you into this presidential race here, father. but we're excited about the fact he might run because he would be such a great target for democrats. but look, peter, rand paul, ted cruz maybe sarah palin. >> maybe sarah palin. marco rubio. >> bill: they're lining up. could be as much fun in 2016 as we had in 2012. so, father you have issueed what you call an appeal to disobedience.

why? >> we -- a group of priests in austria who are in deep sorrow about the future of the church, especially about the future of the base of the church meaning the parish communities at the base of the church and of society. out of the lack of priests the bishops are starting to cluster. the parishes start to create megaparishes. >> bill: and close a lot of them down. >> close a lot of them down. that means we're losing ground with the people. we're losing possibilities to develop church in the prospective of the second council. and we have -- since movements have tried to bring some change forward. and they were sidelined. now we started as priests as part of the hierarchy to speak out openly and clearly and to call on our colleagues in

priesthood to come with us not to cooperate with such a strategy. and the one -- the other reason is that we're realizing that we're leaving the church in an absolute -- without control of those who are in power. and to be obedient in such a system is almost dangerous because the bishops are waiting that we're functioning and we don't want to function. we want to go with the people and open discussion and dialogue. >> bill: so how many priests in austria are involved in this? >> up to now, we are 430. >> bill: priests? >> priests yes. >> bill: whoa. >> about 15% of the priests in austria. i think we're qualified minority. >> bill: yeah. >> the greatest part of the priest in austria also not being member in our association

agreeing with us with almost -- each content and the majority of the faithful also. >> bill: have you ad a priest, by speaking out for some of these changes i want to get to some of the specific changes you recommended in just a second. but has there been any attempt in austria to silence you or to punish you or to take your ability to administer the sacraments away? >> no. i'm parish priest in good standing. i'm sitting in the priest's parish council. i'm writing for the diocesan weekly, commentaries to the gospel. we have meetings with our bishop. it is a very complex relation but this is existing. and the only thing i have felt was that there was strict of the

monsignor title by the vatican. but it is not a tragedy. >> bill: are there any american priests who have openly joined your call for changes? >> yes we are in good relation with the association of catholic priests of the united states. we are cooperating with them. they have themselves spoke up in the last three four, five years so on a platform, we have the irish association. >> bill: what is this association called in america? >> association of united states catholic priests. >> bill: this is different from the catholic bishops of the united states. >> i think so. must be some difference. [ laughter ] >> bill: trust me. there are big differences. now some of the changes you're calling for, that are the answers to the lack of priests would include what?

>> we want to be included to married men. it should be a question of choice to be priest as a married man or celibacy and also women also because we think they're very gifted for this service and for this ministry. and at the moment, we're losing this gift for our communities. therefore, we're asking a strong -- to include them to open priesthood for them and let's see how successful we will be. >> bill: so what do you say -- we hear it from the catholic bishops and from the vatican that priests have this -- their job to do and they can't be distracted by a wife or their family. jesus never got married and if it is good enough for jesus it should be good enough forepriests today. >> jesus had amostel --

apostles. i think it's not a question of being married or not because there are a lot of professionals who have to be busy to the people and for their family. there is experience for the pastors who have families to know the problems, the crisis of families and of being married. and i think that would be also a contribution to our be experience and to the mixture of the -- those who are married those who are not married. >> bill: a lot of people don't realize when you look at the catholic church, it is only the roman catholic church that has this tradition of celibacy among trieces. the orthodox churches, the greek churches, the russian churches and on and on -- >> it is very interesting to

know that also in the roman catholic church, there is a part of the church which has officially the choice of celibacy the greek catholic church. it is official. on the other hand, if a pastor of the protestant church is coming to the catholic church and wants to become priest there, he's allowed to stay as a married man to come in with his family. >> bill: if he's already married and has a family, and wants to convert to catholicism -- >> there is no real reason for excluding married man of priesthood in the roman catholic church. >> bill: what is the -- i never understood other than women in the catholic church, for a long time, were always -- just treated as second class citizens, maybe because of st. paul, i don't know where that started but what is the argument against ordaining women as priests? not only because as you point

out, they're more than qualified and can certainly do the job as well as men. and there is a majority. but also, there's a big lack of priests and this is one way of filling -- >> we're seeing them in a more principle way. in our bible and message man and women are together the image of god. they're totally equal. that message should be represented in the ministry structure of this church. and the real argument brought forward by the church leaders is tradition. >> bill: right. >> but if the church will only do what jesus has done and not do what jesus has not done would be quite another church that means we have to develop church and the bishop hours are not --

there are circumstances and we have, in the early time of church, we had -- i'm sure we had women as leaders of communities and therefore this tradition is what is shaky. >> bill: look at the people who remain closest to jesus. and right to the very end where women and not men. in terms of the leadership of the church, you know, i was so excited as were many, john paul 23 because vatican two and he opened up the windows to the church for reform then we started going backwards with john paul ii and with benedict xvi. what do you think about this new pope? pope francis? are you hopeful he will be open to some of your ideas? >> there is a lot of hope in the air because he showed a lot of

interesting signals and gestures. but the question is will he be able to change over to systemic changes because -- i think he could because he has invited the bishops to share with him the covenance of the church. he wants the church to be nearer to the people. he wants church with the simple and he tries to address the people directly in a common language. and therefore, there is a lot of hope. let's see if he will change from personal gestures to systemic changes and to make the space free for the bishops coming in, governing within the church for the faithful coming in, make their discussions for the future of the church. >> bill: so, how can people -- do you -- does your organization

have a web site? is there a way our listeners our viewers can sign up and send some support? or at least find out follow what you're doing? >> we have a web site, www.-- [ speaking foreign language ] >> bill: if you give it to us, we'll put it up on our web site. >> yes we have a web site. we are communicating with other associations and we are open for communication with everybody because there are arguments against our opinion and we are calling for a church with transparency which opens the dialogue so we have to accept it. >> bill: when you -- your visit to the united states was announced and the cities you wanted to visit, the cardinal of boston said not on my watch right? banned in boston.

you're not allowed to appear. >> i think that's a very poor reaction. because it is not only forbidding -- forbidding for me to speak but forbidding of listening. i think that's no respect for the faithful. because to have to listen for themselves, their conscience. they have to make their decisions and it's an old-fashioned reaction of an old-fashioned system i think. >> bill: are you a voice crying in the wilderness but a welcome voice father helmut schuler. thank you for joining us. thank you for your leadership. and coming into this country and you give us your web site, we'll try to get support for you. thanks father. >> great to see you. >> bill: we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey here we go. president obama making a very powerful statement on friday. his take as an african-american man on the trayvon martin case and the verdict. we'll be talking about that in the next hour with dr. ivory tullson from howard university who writes for the root. on the political front boy big debate saturday down at the homestead resort between terry mcauliffe and the virginia governor's race between terry mcauliffe, democratic candidate and the attorney general of virginia, ken cuccinelli. which turned into a real

fireworks and this is the first time they had met in debate. i'm sure there will be many more debates. terry mcauliffe pointing out that ken cuccinelli is an extreme right-winger. wants to bring back and enforce and keep the anti-sodomy laws in virginia. ken cuccinelli who has said that gays and lesbians, members of the lgbt community are soulless. good job of unveiling cuccinelli as the extreme right-winger that he is. >> he didn't back down off of his soulless comments. >> bill: he said my beliefs about homosexuality are well-known. i stick to them and cuccinelli trying to make a big deal with the fact that terry mcauliffe opened an automobile plant in mississippi rather than virginia. i think he's going to need more than that. terry mcauliffe could be the

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>> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: how about it. 33 minutes after the hour now on monday morning july 22. great to see you today. the "full court press" coming to you live on your local progressive talk radio station. and on current tv. from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. brought to you today by ullico incorporated. good men and women of ullico under president ed smith proudly serving the union

workplace for more than 85 years now.% providing specialty insurance risk solutions investment products and services. you can find out more about the good stuff that they offer at their web site at ullico.com. president obama in a surprise appearance at the briefing room at the white house on friday talking about the verdict in the trayvon martin case saying and i'm paraphrasing here. very, very close at one time, the president said i made the remark that if i had a son, he would look like trayvon martin. another way of saying that, the president said was 35 years ago trayvon martin, that could have been me. very powerful comments. that have created -- that have generated a lot of comment around the country and around the world. here to talk with us about that today, dr. ivory toldson a

professor at howard university and a contributor to "the root." nice to see you this morning. may i call you ivory? >> sure. good to be here. >> bill: thank you. so the president -- this is the first time i remember that we've seen president obama who is our first african-american president, really speak to the country as african-american. specifically about the african-american experience. >> yeah. you know, he approached that, during his comments about a year ago when he said his son could look like trayvon martin when they had the henry lewis gates situation at harvard. this time, it has a different feel to it. a little bit more comprehensive and i thought he did a good job balancing his position as being

president and really having to focus on policy. and tap into the personal mood of the country. >> bill: i thought it was very powerful is when he did say look basically i want to explain to you why african-americans may see this case a little differently than the rest of you might because of our personal experience and he's talked about racial profiling. that almost every african-american man has had the experience of being followed in a department store when he's shopping and he said that's happened to me. has it happened to you? >> yeah. when i was a teenager, i used to be routinely stopped by police officers and it was just -- it kind of seemed like a way of life. i didn't really look at it as a racial thing because i grew up in a predominantly black community so i didn't really know what other kids were experiencing.

in louisiana i had my full driver's license at 15. 16, i was driving a car and i would always see police officers following me, telling me -- check my license plates and things like that. i would make odd turns to see if they were following me. that was just a way of life. when i was in graduate school, i remember being in a class full of white women and talked about how i remembered the first time a police officer came to my window. after stopping me because when police officers will stop me, they would always call out from their speaker for me to come out. they were all like oh, my gosh. i remember the first time a police officer came to my window. i had been stopped many times. i was in glad school when the police officer first came to my window. i must be be look older now. >> bill: yeah.

earned a little respect. at that point. >> just a little. >> bill: does the president ask a question which a lot of people have asked. almost surprised he raised this on friday. and that was what if the roles had been reversed. here's president obama. >> obama: i just ask people to consider if trayvon martin was of age and armed could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened. >> bill: the reaction, would the verdict have been the same if trayvon martin had been the one who stood his ground and shot and killed george zimmerman? >> absolutely not. trayvon martin would be in jail. and you know --

>> bill: is that because the system is so stacked against african-americans? >> it is. it is. and you know, it is complicated. the president was very astute in his comments when he looked at the entire system and looked at the fact that there is -- there is an overrepresentation in crime among african-americans in certain communities. nationwide, there are certain communities where the vast majority of the crime is perpetuated by white people. but in a lot of urban areas most of the criminal acts, we see are committed by african-americans. and you know, that does seep into the psyche of a lot of people. >> bill: the president was honest about that. >> yeah, he was honest about it. but i think one of the key differences between the black community and the white community is in the black community, we tend to know who

the criminals are a lot more -- a lot easier than those in the white community. so a lot of people in the white community look at every young black male as someone who is potentially violent. but if you are black you know, if you're an older black man or older black woman, you can look at the teenagers and you can see a kid walking down the street bouncing the basketball and you know that they're not up to no good because they have the basketball in their hand. you could see a kid with a backpack or you can see a kid with a bag coming from a store or something like that. a kid with purpose you know, typically those kids tend to not be the ones that are going after us. but it seems harder for some white people to make these distinctions within our race. they just look at everybody in our race as someone who can potentially do something wrong. >> bill: so do we ever bridge

this divide? >> i think so. >> bill: the president pointed out we made a lot of progress which i think is important for all of us to recognize. he said every generation, you know his kids have more advantages and see things better or differently than his generation. >> yeah, yeah. and that's certainly a positive way to look at it. and i agree with that. i think that one of the things that's frustrating to a lot of black people are -- is the outpouring of support that george zimmerman has gotten. and a lot of us don't really know how to perceive that. the fact that this guy killed 17-year-old boy but yet he has supporters all over the nation. he has people putting money into his defense and different things like that. >> bill: oh, yeah. >> you start to question, you

know, of all of the people out there for them to support maybe they don't have to support trayvon martin but why support someone who's on trial for murder, you know. why is that so important to you? >> that, to me, that was just mind-boggling. i couldn't wrap my head around these people who were making him out to be some kind of a hero. and you know, there was some back and forth over whether or not he was able to get his gun back. turns out he won't get hick gun back. he was going to but then they -- they overturned that. but now there is a conservative pundit out there who wants to buy him another gun. we want to buy you a gun. so like best-case scenario, this guy was negligent with his gun. and you want to -- and that's best-case scenario and you want to make him out to be a hero? i don't get it. find a new hero. >> bill: so we have a long way

to go. it is a place to start which the president suggested. re-examining the stand-your-ground laws and the self-defense laws to make sure that they're just not there to give people an excuse, something to hide behind. actually to encourage use of these guns. >> well, i think that that's something that the federal government could definitely look into. as far as a place to start to bring about any type of racial healing, i'm not sure how far that would go. but as far as putting certain restrictions in the law to prevent something like this from happening again, i think that's an important step. >> bill: the president's comments on friday on the trayvon martin case. he waited all week to speak out. and he did so in a very, very powerful moment. your thoughts and your suggestions, your comments here welcome at 1-866-55-press. talk to ivory toldson here from howard university.

when we come back, a powerful movie that bears the same message that i saw over the weekend. we'll talk about that when we come back here on the full "full court press" this monday morning. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv.

(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. (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." >> shots fired. [ sirens ] >> we were trying to get home. >> what is going on? >> next stop, fruitvale station.

>> you guys have plans for the night? >> meet up with the fellas, head out to the city. >> why don't you take the train. that way you guys can hang out and not have to worry about anything. >> bill: there it is. that's a clip from the movie fruitvale station. i saw it saturday night. it really bears home the whole message of racial profiling and the trayvon martin case. this fruitvale station is about the case of a young african-american man 22-year-old oscar grant shot and killed by a bart police officer out in oakland california out at fruitvale station on new year's eve. just early in the morning actually of january 1 2009. dr. ivory toldson from howard university is here in studio with us. talking about the president's

comments on the trayvon martin case. >> a break news story. breaking news at the u.s. botanic gardens they have been hosting the titan -- the corpse flower, i went down and saw it with the kids on friday. overnight, it bloomed. >> bill: supposedly, the stink -- surprised we can't smell it from here. >> that's the thing. it is one of the largest flowers in the world. when it blooms, what pollinates the flowers are dung beetles. when it blooms it naturally smells as the person who i talked to at the botanic garden on friday says, it smells like a mix of rotting fish and onions or like a bag of trash that's been sitting out in the sun for weeks. >> bill: why would you go see this? >> we're going today. they say today is peak smell and it is just -- it is a giant flower. it is a really cool thing to look at but now that it's bloomed -- and as you know, it

is right next to the capitol. while congress usually smells like crap, it is going to smell even worse today. >> bill: i think it is appropriately placed. >> there you go. >> bill: right next to the capitol. most people may not notice the smell. those politicians are back in town. dr. toldson, where do you think we go, you know, i was a little discouraged last week thinking everybody said after newtown we need a conversation on gun safety. sort of didn't happen. after edward snowden and the nsa, everybody said now we need a conversation about the right of privacy and security and what's the right balance. that didn't happen. and now we're saying we need a conversation on race. are we going to have one? >> we're having that conversation. and i think that there's a lot of different people who are looking at this case from different lenses. and one of the good things that's coming out of the case is

giving everybody the opportunity to evaluate certain issues more deeply and to see how they're playing out in our society. for instance, i'm working with a group who are trying to reduce disproportionality andes minute because black kids are subject to much harsher discipline in school than white kids are. one of the aspects of this case relevant to the work we're doing was the fact that trayvon martin was on a ten-day suspension, that's the reason why he was staying with his father during that time. he had been suspended for having a plastic bag in his backpack that had marijuana residue in it. and so, it's interesting that study after study shows that white kids do lots more drug experimentation than black kids do but because of the way black schools are set up, schools that educate the larger potential of

black kids where you have dogs sniffing in the hallways, metal-detectors, full time security officers, they're being searched so much more. and you know, me personally, i don't believe that a kid who is experimenting with marijuana should be subject to a ten-day suspension. i don't think one thing has anything to do with the other. i think there are some supports and things you can do to try to educate a kid and advise them on the right thing to do when it comes to that type of behavior but to penalize their education because they have chose to experiment with marijuana which research shows is a pretty common thing. there's no way to structure our society. so just like one layer of it. one small player of it. there are many, many layers to this. we need to try to really look, delve into how black kids versus white kids are treated in this society.

>> bill: the president really launched that conversation on friday, didn't he? as only he could do. >> and you know, he focused on the stand your ground and the gun laws which i think is a good place for him to be. i think that, you know, we also need to look at the educational issues because you know, the way the schools are structured and these different ways based on race in florida and that's something i wrote about in the last article for "the root," that's something that needs to be re-examined because as long as we have a system in florida where black kids are getting treated one way at school, a certain type of education versus white kids, then you're going to have a lot of young black males who are lost in that system. >> bill: so many dimensions to this. so many aspects. such an important conversation. it starts right here on the "full court press" with

dr. ivory toldson. thank you for coming in today. >> thank you. thanks forbe viting me. >> bill: you can follow him at toldson.com and i'll be back with today's parting shot. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> and the best part is that& current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

(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. >> 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: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago with that chilling identification, president obama as we've been discussing, throughout the show this morning he began his remarks on the trayvon martin case last friday. he had been strangely silent all week. thinking that the question might have come up in an interview but it did not. so the president decided to come out on his own and when he did oh my, what a powerful statement. yes, we accept the jury's

verdict, said the president but it is fair to question the verdict. as only he could do, president obama explained that white people could never see this verdict the same way black people do because with them, it's personal. when it comes to racial profiling, for example the president pointed out there are very few african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store and that includes me. the president ended with that challenge, urging us to channel our ang near a re-examination of today's self-defense and stand-your-ground laws. they must not be used as an excuse for murder. well said and thank you mr. president.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> stephanie: all right everybody. everybody look alive. we're on royal baby watch and the president mentioned being black. [ ♪ dramatic ♪ ] also, i have balls today. >> what? >> excuse me. >> stephanie: i brought meatballs. jacki schechner had some. she was at my little party saturday night. >> i have a question for you. as drunk as you got as discombobulated you are ever felt a need to post a naked picture of yourself on twitter