[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? happy monday. monday, july 29. here we are, the "full court press." welcome to the program. we're just gearing up, getting ready to start here this monday morning to let you know what's happening in our nation's capital, around the country, around the globe. bring you the news of the day and giving you a chance to sound off about it. you can do so, of course, by giving us a phone call at 1-866-55-press.

by joining us on twitter at bpshow and on face bob at facebook.com/billpressshow. is president obama about to turn down the keystone pipeline and reject it? well, we don't know for sure but that would seem to be the case after an interview he gave to "the new york times" in which he said that republicans are dead wrong when they say the keystone pipeline will create thousands of new jobs and the president also said not only will it not create as many jobs as republicans say, it will also increase gas prices, not lower gas prices. president obama, by the way, continuing to talk economy and jobs this week with a big speech down in chattanooga, tennessee. this afternoon, he welcomes the san francisco giants to the white house. and in other news, anthony weiner says he's going to stay in the race even though his

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

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

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. they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience

gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: president obama hitting the road again this week, talking about jobs and the economy in chattanooga, tennessee. good morning, everybody. hey, what do you say? it's monday morning. how about it. another whole work week here. hope you had a great weekend and are ready to tackle the news of the day, the issues of the day. and get involved in our conversation this morning.

on the "full court press," right here on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv, good morning, good morning, good morning. great to have you with us this morning. as we head off and open up our little town hall of a monday morning with the news of the day from our nation's capital. that's where you'll find us right here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. we'll bring you up to date on what's happening here, what's happening around the country and around the globe, very troubling situation in egypt. where the military has shown their form of democracy is to fire on protestors, shooting them in the head and the chest and killing some 75 people in a protest yesterday. just one of the things we'll be talking about this morning. again, good have you with us. you know our toll free number is 1-866-55-press. get ready to give us a call. you can join us on twitter and

give us your comments at bpshow and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. what do you know? the whole team showed up this morning. peter ogborn, dan henning. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> happy monday. >> bill: alichia cruz there on the phones and cyprian bowlding as always on the video cams. thank you one and all. we're all feeling good? the nats bounce back big time yesterday. >> yeah, yeah. >> bill: the nats' bats, they showed it. i think they won two out of three. >> they got destroyed in the first game of the weekend with the mets but then they bounced back and won and they looked very strong yesterday. >> bill: all right. so we like that. we like that. i tell you, it doesn't look so strong today as anthony weiner, his campaign manager quit. but anthony weiner is still in the race, in it to win it, he says on the campaign trail. and now his latest spin is that

all of this scandal, about all of the additional sexting he's done since he left congress, it doesn't hurt him. it actually is going to help him and make him a stronger mayor. >> i argue this. i argue this. i'm going to be a successful mayor because of that. because it's going to give me a level of independence. look, people are saying well, this guy is not endorsing you this, this person is saying a nasty thing about you. so, i'm not constructing a campaign around the approval of my peers. i'm constructing a campaign around the aspirations of my neighbors. >> welcome to the spin room. >> bill: welcome to the spin room indeed. >> that great -- as he started saying that, what he started saying, i'll tell you this, i'll tell you this, he had that inflection like wait until you guys get a load of this b.s. i'm about to feed you. he didn't even believe what he was about to say. let's see if i can get away with

this crap. >> bill: there are still people in new york who believe it. a lot fewer now. look, it's into not going to wo. as david axelrod said, the former campaign manager, he said on "meet the press" yesterday, echoing something i said, second chance, yes. third chance, hmm. >> it's absurd. he won't be the next mayor of new york. he's wasting time and space and you asked at the beginning, you know, americans believe in second chance but not third chances. and you asked at the beginning when will voters say enough. i remember an old song from the 1970s that i loved called "how can i miss you when you won't go away." they think it's time for him to go away. >> bill: something tells me that was a country song. [ laughter ] >> sounds like one. >> bill: how can i miss you

when you won't go away. reid wilson from the hotline will be joining us later this hour. we'll talk to reporters in the next couple of hours from "buzzfeed" and politico and "huffington post" all coming in to bring us up to date -- help bring us up to date on the news of the day and for the wealthiest nation on the planet, you won't believe the latest numbers about poverty in the united states. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this monday, nbc is developing a mini series about hillary clinton. over the weekend, they confirmed green lighting a four hour television series which will star diane lane, her most recent movie "man of steel." she will star as. former secretary of state. it will begin in 1998 with clinton in the white house and go through her years as a senator and then secretary of state. no air date yet but nbc hoping to get it on the air before clinton announces a run for the

white house. >> bill: yeah, right. otherwise it could be a little awkward. >> pretty good commercial. >> pog tour star hunter may happen made it clear what's important in life. he was halfway through a tournament victory saturday at the rbc canadian open where he quit while holding the lead because his wife went into labor. had he held the lead through yesterday, he would have won a million dollar paycheck but he was in the delivery room instead and became dad to a healthy baby girl. he thanked all of his sponsors for appreciating what's important in life and supporting his decision to leave the tournament. >> bill: good for him. you wouldn't have done it. >> i didn't say that. >> bill: i see that grin on your face. >> a million dollars he walked away from. >> bill: million dollar baby. million dollar baby girl. >> independent bookstores may have a new weapon to use in the battle for sales against big

book retailers, chocolate. a new study in belgium finds customers spend more time in bookstores that smell like chocolate. in fact, they were twice as likely to look at more than one book when the store smelled like the candy. sales increased especially sales of romance and food-related books. those were up 40%. >> bill: i could see it. you could sell chocolate in the bookstore. offer chocolate in the bookstore. >> not to take anything away from nice, independent bookstores, i'll spend more time anywhere that smells like chocolate. the dentist smells more like chocolate. i'll be happy to spend time there. >> they're talking about infusing the air conditioning with chocolate scent. not just selling it at the counter. they're talking about pumping it into the air. >> bill: i like that idea. get me to hershey, pennsylvania.

>> exactly. >> bill: haven't been there in a long time. >> neither have i. >> next press family vacation. >> bill: sounds like it. you know, study about poverty that came out over the weekend, we wanted to start there this weekend because it all fits together. on the one hand, president obama with three big speeches last week and another one this week, trying to get the focus back on jobs and the economy and get off all of the distractions, distraction over benghazi and the i.r.s. and get back on what's really, really important. he's focusing on jobs and the economy. then you've got the pope down in brazil, you know, pope francis becoming named as -- known as the poverty pope because he talks about that's what the mission of the church ought to be to help lift people out of poverty and to reach out like jesus did to the poor and

helping the poor. the mission of the church. and then "the associated press" put out some numbers over the weekend on the rate of poverty in the united states. just kind of focus on that. i found them stunning. i'm sure you will, too, if you haven't already seen them. here we are, the wealthiest nation on the planet by far. and a country where the wealthy are getting wealthier and wealthier and wealthier by the year. we've seen that, you know. the obscene amount of money that ceos are making and they're making more and more and all of the wealth in this country seem to be shifting up to the very top and of course, they're the people -- the only ones that republicans care about and think that they -- deserve continued tax breaks in every area. in every way.

well, in light of that, these numbers by the -- two things that have come out of this study -- not study but they're numbers released by "the associated press." pretty shocking, again. number one, 46.2 million people in this country, 15% of the population live at or below the pot of line. and get this, the poverty line today right, here's what we're talking about, $23,021 for a family of four. per year. i mean you try to figure out how to eke out a living supporting a family of four, you know, groceries and clothing and what's left, any money for gas? any money for rent? $23,021 for a family of four.

46.2% -- 46.2 million. 15% of americans live at or below that poverty line. and get this. this, according to "associated press," 41% of them, of those living in poverty are white. you know, there's a huge number of blacks and hispanics living in poverty as well. 41% of them, 19 million are white, living in appalachia and then some of the states of the heartland, missouri, arkansas, oklahoma, the top three with high levels of poverty. number one, 46.2 million americans. that's just shocking. and the other thing that really got the headline is that this is not that unusual.

according to this "associated press" report, four out of five americans, 80% of americans, 80% of americans experience near poverty, some kind of economic insecurity is the phrase that they use, at some point in their lives. so it doesn't mean they're poor today or always been poor. but only one out of five americans have never experienced anything close to poverty. and what we're talking about, of course, is people who get to a point where they lose their job. they're out of a job. therefore, they're on unemployment or they're on food stamps or they're on some form of welfare. some form of economic security experienced by four out of five americans. that is stunning. 80% of americans.

i want to know what this says to you and what we ought to be doing about it. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. but certainly seems to me that this ought to be our focus and that's why i think the president is right to shift the conversation back to jobs and the economy. the focus ought to be what can we do about this widening gap between two americas, one america which is extremely wealthy. never been that many wealthy people with so much wealth in history. and the shocking gap between that and the rest of the population and the middle class which has seen no increase in their economic security or their level of income. so i think the focus has got to be what are some of the solutions. let's talk about those. certainly the effort to raise the minimum wage, even above where the president wants to go. he wants to go to $9.25, tom

harkin said ought to start at $10 and then go up from $10. minimum wage is important. i think this whole effort on cutting spending, cutting the deficit is the wrong effort. instead, we ought to be talking about another stimulus and pumping money out there just like franklin roosevelt did to create jobs and put people to work. that's the best way to lift people up. give them a good job with a good paycheck and good benefits and if the private sector is not spending today, then the government's got to do it. if it increases the deficit, so what. increases the national debt, so what. put more people to work, we'll make more money and we'll eventually pay off debt or pay down that debt. and i think we ought to be look at something we talked about not so long ago, executive pay. i would favor a limit saying executives can't make more than -- pick a number. maybe 40% more or 40 times more

than the average employee but today, we saw this a couple of weeks ago. it was something like 225 times the average employee that ceos are making in this country. but that certainly contributes to this widening gap. but just think about this. 46.2 million americans. 15% of the population giving in poverty. and 80% of americans experiencing something close to poverty, economic insecurity at some point in their lives. this is really shocking and troubling news. we ought to be talking about it this morning on the "full court press" at 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." for true stories. with award winning documentaries

that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

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

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

>> announcer: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. talking about the stunning numbers of poverty just released in this country. by the way, the poverty rate for hispanics, 26.6% for blacks. 27.4% and for whites, but just because there are more whites than -- at least for now. there are 19 million whites below the poverty line here in this country. again, that line being $23,o 21 for a family of four. before we go to the phones, peter. >> join our conversation on

twitter at bpshow. >> bill: what we should do about it is the question. >> sam local on twitter says won't be long until the 1% build walls bigger than the wall on the border. 99% will not be able to storm the walls. and jim says poverty is why the top 1% thinks there's no racism left in this country. they don't care what color are you if you're poor. >> bill: again, it is stunning to me in light of these numbers that, the priority for the republicans is still to give the wealthiest of americans another tax break to make matters worse rather than doing anything about these people who are really hurting. down in sebring, florida, hi, laura. >> caller: good morning, bill. good morning, peter. >> hey, hey. >> caller: you just hit it on the head. i was just going to say that. of the tax breaks, trickle down, what was that all about? there's nothing trickling down. >> bill: no. we get the down, not the trickle. >> caller: president obama said he wants to give these oil

companies and the big corporations -- he wants to stop them from getting the tax breaks, loopholes. but see, the republicans are twisting it. they're saying oh, you're raising taxes, because you're giving them a tax break. you're doing away with the tax breaks. they're calling that raising taxes. >> bill: i know. i know. they're just playing with words on that thing. and letting the oil companies off the hook is another way of giving the wealthiest people in this country another tax break. thanks, laura. joey out in chicago. >> caller: i'm going to say the republican party is a terrible organization. listen, their priorities are how can you be a patriot and a good citizen if you move your money overseas? how can you be an american patriot and care about american citizens when you move your factories overseas for profit? the rich have abandoned the citizens of this country. >> bill: that's what it's all about, joey, i appreciate it. poverty this country. worse than we thought.

what should we be doing about it? >> 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: it is national chicken wing day. we found that out over the break. get some wings in here. celebrate that! order out. >> try to think of anyone that would have chicken wings this early in the morning. i don't think i can think of one. >> bill: that pizza place next door wouldn't?

popeye's down the street. >> i wonder how early they open up. >> bill: we'll find out. >> speaking of popeye's, today is the day for fat food lovers like me. popeye's is rolling out their new chicken tenders except they're coated in waffle batter. like chicken and waffles. they dunk them in waffle batter and serve them with like a honey syrup. >> bill: are they giving away free saxes -- samples to get people in? >> i don't think so. >> bill: "full court press" on a monday morning. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. brought to you by the national education association, the great nea under president dennis van roekel. you can find out more about their work at nea.org. back to your calls and comments about the poverty levels in this country which are stunning when

you think about the wealthiest planet on earth and yet 15% of the population living in poverty. and four out of five, 80% of americans experiencing some kind of poverty, economic insecurity during their lives. back to your comments again in a second. here's something you really ought to think about. imagine if you were in an accident. you were unconscious. paramedics arrive. they can't find out from you all of the vital information they need. to get you the treatment that you need. what you can do about it and should think about doing is joining up with emergency link i.d. that's a small tag that you attach to your key ring. or you put it in your wallet or purse that will tell emergency responders everything they might need to know. your medical history, meds, allergies, doctor's contact info and most importantly, whom to notify. sign up now. take advantage of this limited

offer at emergencylink.com. you'll get -- it is only $10 a year and you'll get your i.d. kit free. sign up, go to emergencylink.com and enter press at emergency emergencylink.com. emergencylink.com and enter press. peter? more comments there? >> one quick story i wanted to throw out because this is not going to make a lot of progressives happy. the president was very transparent on his web site about promises he was going to make as president. one of those promises that he had up on his web site was that they were going to protect whistle-blowers. and so -- >> bill: yeah. >> over that weekend, they quietly took that whole section down on the president's web site. they no longer have anything up protecting whistle-blowers which is curious. >> bill: we could find out from edward snowden how much

protection he's been given. on the poverty numbers, what should we be doing about it. john is down in bradenton, florida. >> caller: bradenton, florida, mr. press. >> bill: i got it now. hey, john. >> caller: if i had that emergency tag, i would put two things on it right now. where the hell am i going to find you in a few weeks, you and stephanie miller? >> bill: we're going to tell you. we've got a really good plan. we're going to continue to be on your local progressive talk radio station and on television as well. stay tuned. >> caller: comments about poverty. let me give you a couple of statistics. one of which still stuns me and i've heard this in a number of venues and i heard it from senator bernie sanders, that the six walmart heirs, there are six walmart heirs to the walmart fortune, have more wealth than the bottom 30% of people in the united states of america.

stunning statistic to me. >> bill: unbelievable. if anything shows the gap, right, between the haves and the have nots or the two americas, that does, john. >> caller: the second thing i want to say about minimum wages have not gone up in 30 years is that my biggest -- my biggest problem and complaint with president obama and this is how he got his 2010 congress is that he never, ever insistently sells a message. still, nobody knows what the healthcare thing is about. still, nobody understands what his economic program is. he should be -- he should be the kind of president where they said, mr. president, what did you have for breakfast? he should say we need to rescue the middle class. we're losing the middle class. he never sells the message consistently over a period of time. >> bill: i think that's an excellent point. you know what -- i've made this comment before is that during

his campaign in 2008, we've never seen anybody who was better on message, better in articulating exactly who he was and what he would do and for some reason, we haven't seen that clarity of message and that consistently of message from the obama white house. the fact that they have to pivot to -- and i say this in support of president obama and i know, john, you do, too. they have to pivot back to the economy means that they got off message. they should never have gotten off that. middle class jobs, economy, that's the most important issue. and covers -- and impacts everything else that's going on. while we're in florida, let's stay down there and say hello to mel in port st. lucie. what do you think about the poverty numbers? >> caller: hey, bill press and

crew, get you some chicken and waffles this morning. my comment is -- i'm with the president most of the time but like john says, communication means a lot. and what i would like to see is to let the people know like harry truman did, i don't know what word you can put on this congress. you've got to vote to get rid of these guys. the reason the country is in a mess, one point, jobs, infrastructure, if the president don't tell and i agree with john, don't tell, have charts and showing american people where he has put bills up there and they've been there since '11 and boner is sitting on them of them -- >> bill: hasn't passed one single jobs bill. not one single jobs bill, john boehner. mel, absolute good point. i love it. by the way, you alluded to this. harry truman won re-election by

running against a do-nothing congress back in '48. the last congress, 112th, is the most do-nothing, most ineffective congress ever and this president, 113th, under john boehner, is worse. even john boehner admits that. he said last week, don't judge us by how many bills we pass, judge us by how many bills we repealed. they haven't done either one. they haven't passed anything or repealed anything. they're a do-nothing bunch of slugs that are sucking up our tax dollars and wasting them. i'm talking about, of course, the republican leadership. the two years under nancy pelosi, everything that president obama accomplished, he accomplished in the two years under nancy pelosi. that was a kick ass congress. john boehner, nothing. you know why? because they really are anti-government. they want to shut the government down. again, president obama's gotta

make sure the american people know that. donna is in atlanta, georgia. hey, donna. >> caller: hi, bill. first i want to thank you and your staff for your service in getting information out to us because a lot of us wouldn't know without you. so first of all -- >> bill: well, i appreciate that. thank you. we're happy to be here to do it. >> caller: i think what we need to do is get the congress -- those republicans, strip them of everything. put them in these areas and give them the same amount of money that poor people have and see if they can't eat. if they can't pay rent. if they can't take care of their children. i think we should do that to them for at least six months so they can actually see what people are going through. because they don't comprehend nor do they care. if you put a person in that predicament, they'll either sink or swim. i think they need to know what we're going through. >> bill: you figure, donna,

they make, members of congress make $175,000 a year. >> caller: wow. >> bill: think about that. for the little bit of work that they do. and again, the poverty level down to $23,000 for a family of four for a whole year. you talk about the income gap. right? that proves it right then and there. >> caller: that's right. we need to put them in these areas and give them the same amount of money and just see -- go back to their areas. >> bill: put them out there for six months. how did that work out? how did you like that? you want to live there the rest of your life? maybe we can get -- i think we can get some different results out of congress. good idea, donna. reid wilson, our good friend from the "national journal" joins us to get his take on big events of the day. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

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. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 13 minutes now before the top of the hour on this monday morning. lots going on here in our nation's capital. it's hard to keep track of all of us by ourselves so we need the help of our friend, no better friend than reid wilson who is still editor-in-chief of the "national journal" but soon headed to "the washington post." reid, good morning and congratulations. >> hey, bill, thanks. that's real nice of you. >> bill: very excited about

that. are you going to be publisher in chief over there? >> no, not so much. maybe some day soon but not just yet. we'll be covering state politics and policy and sort of figuring out how folks in state capitals around the country are getting something done which doesn't happen very often. >> bill: or not getting something done. >> still going to be calling on you early in the morning, reid. >> no worries, no worries, i may be a little groggier though. >> bill: so, where do we start today? there is an unusual race going on. we talk a lot about politics, that very seldom have we ever seen a race for chair of the fed, right? or the new head of the fed. and yet, this is sort of a public debate between larry summers and janet yellin', right? >> it looks like there's not much substantive policy between the two of them. >> bill: it is style, isn't

it? >> style and appearance. apparently one of the things the obama administration is considering as they have in a few other appointments is just who the president actually appoints and is he going to appoint another white male or could he be the first president to appoint a female chair? >> bill: also, larry has a reputation for being -- >> testy. >> bill: testy, let's say the least. and you know, affecting people the wrong way. not a pleasant person to be around, right? >> one of the very early feuds within the obama administration, even before they got into office was the feud between the members of the economic team. peter arizona aquas a very strong personality, christine romer was a pretty strong personality then you had larry summers who would effectively start all of the fights. they played a big role in crafting the stimulus bill and

crafting the administration's response to the recession and he didn't make a lot of friends while he did it. there were constant tensions. remember, by the way, he was also in the running to be the treasury secretary. very much wanted the job but president obama went with tim geithner in the beginning. at least a part of that decision was also based on personalities. >> bill: you've seen nancy pelosi lined up behind janet yellon. i've never seen this before with the appointment of the fed. >> the public campaigning is a bit unusual. i think senator schumer is also behind janet yellon, at least i thought i saw a statement from him last week. this is unusual that people are being so overt about their choices. and i suppose this is the -- a symptom of the increased politicization -- oh, god, how do you say that word?

>> bill: i avoid it because i can't say it. >> we're all getting more politicized. the fed chair is the latest public office to field that. >> bill: speaking of being politicized, you've written it out. i'm just working on a column on mark leibovitz's book "this town." i was at the book party last week when the book was launched. doesn't paint a pretty picture of washington, d.c. >> well, you know, i loved it. >> bill: i did, too. still not a very pretty picture. >> that's true. i read the entire thing yesterday. i can't remember the last time i've taken down a book in a single day. but i think it tells a really important story about d.c. and about what we're -- what we're sort of experiencing right now. there are three parties in washington. there's the -- there's the democratic party, the republican party and the professional party, the party that's here no matter who wins or loses.

the only impact an election has is who gets to take a job in the administration and who gets to sit out and an lobbyist for four years until you have the next shot at getting an administration job. it was a real interesting story of sort of the culture of d.c. that celebrates itsself as, by the way, as out of touch with the rest of the country. i thought it was great. it goes through the entire book talking about the great, fancy parties then he will mention what the unemployment rate was that month. i think that's an interesting look at just how out of touch d.c. has been over the last several years. >> bill: one thing i found stunning was that it used to be that maybe 2% of former members of congress would stay around town. the rest of them, when their term was up, they went back home and either lived the rest of their life on their farm or something or went back to work.

now, a full 50% of former members of congressmen, senators, stay in washington and become lobbyists, right? >> they become lobbyists or more troubling, they become the sort of senior advisers. don't actually have to register. by the way, a lot of former members who lost -- the democrats who lost in 2010 did not become registered lobbyists, at least in part because -- >> bill: strategic advisers. >> some of them may want to run for office again in the funeral and it is real hard to run if you've got the dreaded "l" word after your name. >> bill: that idea that that presence here just shows how -- how lobbying corporate money, as we say, this professional class really dominates the city. >> yeah. it is a fascinating part of d.c. and you can always get somebody like byron dorgan or bob bennett, the former senator from utah on the phone and hey, they're just right down the

street. >> bill: reid, it is up to you and me and mark leibovitz, right, to tell people what's going on. >> there you go. >> bill: you'll do it at the post. we'll be back in touch with you. always good to talk with you. thanks for your time. >> thanks, bill. >> bill: reid wilson, at the "national journal," editor-in-chief. nationaljournal.com. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

this show is about analyzing, criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right?

vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern 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. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv.

>> bill: well, about anthony weiner here, by the way, in the next hour, we'll start at the top of the hour. talking about anthony weiner with chris smith from "new york" magazine and paul says there may be a silver lining of anthony pushing forward. we're always depressed by what cowards the dems are. republicans have worse scandals and won't quit. i hope he wins. all right. that's one way of looking at it. on poverty, you should always make it a point that the rich keep getting richer, not because they deserve that much but because they rigged the system. good point. and another, bill says he's -- i think head of our fan club says you are really stupid and your show is a joke. why not educate yourself instead of being a fool. listen to mark levine. if i wanted to educate myself, yeah, he's the last person i

would listen to. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hey, good morning, friends and neighbors. it is monday, july 29. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv. and on your local progressive talk radio station. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. bringing you the news of the day. and as we start this new week, i'm giving you a chance to sound off about it, of course. hope you had a good weekend and

are ready to jump into things this morning. you can do intoi giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. we'll look forward to getting your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. yes, here's a big question this morning, people are buzzing about. is president obama ready to turn down the keystone pipeline? we don't know for sure but it sure looks like it. after the president told "the new york times" in an interview that republicans are dead wrong in talking about how many thousands of jobs the pipeline will create. he said it will not contribute to lowering gas prices in this country. the president, meanwhile, will continue to talk about jobs and the economy this week, a big speech down in chattanooga,

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

and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

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. >>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: president obama says hey, the keystone pipeline, that's not going to create that many jobs. does that mean he's going to turn it down? we'll find out. good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is monday. monday, july 29. and here we are on the "full court press" coming to you live on this monday morning from washington, d.c.

our nation's capital. last time we checked. good to have you with us today as we bring you up to date on the news of the day. wherever it's happening here in our nation's capital, around the country or around the globe, we'll let you know what's going on and give you a chance to get involved in the conversation. we love hearing from you on the phone at 1-866-55-press. we love getting your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook, all of our friends on facebook, at facebook.com/billpressshow. it has been a busy weekend. hope you had a good one and congress comes back here for one more week before they take off on their extended august break. as if they -- that's right, they've worked so hard. they deserve a whole month vacation. yeah, sure. here we go with the team. peter ogborn and dan henning.

>> good morning. >> hi, there. >> bill: how about it. phone calls coming in, alichia cruz has the phones covered and cyprian bowlding keeps us looking good on current tv, our videographer extraordinaire. how were the boys this weekend? >> they're good. i actually went and saw "the wolverine," not quite as thought-provoking as "fruitvale station." if anybody likes comic book movies and anybody likes wolverine, who is the greatest book comic character of all-time -- hear cyprian freaking out. the first movie was so bad. it was so bad. and they really stepped it up. very, very good movie. very good movie. >> bill: i have a friend who saw it friday night and liked it. >> i really enjoyed it. >> bill: see "fruitvale station." >> we're still going to see that. >> bill: good news on the nsa

front. big story in "the washington post" this morning. i'm sorry, front page of "the new york times," above the fold this morning, i -- i know -- i felt like a voice crying in the wilderness when this edward snowden story first broke and i kept saying this is good because it's good for us to know what the nsa is up to and this is going way, way, way too far. it really does violate our privacy. and at first, a lot of people said you know, people like me, who are defending edward snowden, were wrong. this is terrible. true patriots had to allow the nsa to do whatever they wanted to do. more and more voices now coming out saying we've gotta rein this in. republicans and democrats. senator dick durbin on "face the nation" yesterday with bob schieffer saying -- no?

i'm sorry, it was on "this week" on abc, saying again, nsa is just going too far. we need to put limits on this. here he is, senator durbin from illinois. >> i believe we should limit the meta data collection. the motion we'll collect all of the phone records of everyone living in an area ked on the offiance someone in the area code may be a suspect at a later time goes way too far. >> bill: you may remember that senator durbin told us the same thing two or three weeks ago here on the "full court press." they say we didn't do this ourselves. get to the court and the court oks it. the fisa court and as dick durbin points out, the fisa court is a joke. it is a rubber stamp, really, for the nsa. we need to reform fisa as well. dick durbin talking about the fisa court.

>> these fisa courts, there should be a real court proceeding. in this case, it's fixed in a way. it's loaded. only one case coming before the fisa court, the government's case. let's have an advocate for someone standing up for civil liberties. >> bill: good for him. dick durbin -- mark udall, senator from colorado, over the weekend said he thinks -- he said very near unconstitutional what the nsa is doing. so more and more voices on that, very, very good to hear. we're going to be talking with a whole bunch of reporters in the next couple of hours. helping us bring you the news of the day from politico, "buzzfeed" and "huffington post." but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this monday. barbara bush is a fan of her husband's new hairstyle. in an interview with on abcsh the former first lady said president h.w. bush's completely shaved head looks beautiful and

makes him look a lot younger than his 89 years. he went bald in support of one of the sons of his secret service agents. he was not asked to shave his head. he saw all of the agents doing it, so he said why not me, too? >> bill: barbara's comment, that means he may never let his hair yo back. >> that's right. why would you? hang on one second. >> all right. >> bill: live radio and live tv here. >> a couple of phone issues. i'm sorry. we're getting more details about the coming punishment from major league baseball on the players connected to the doping scandal. "usa today" is reporting there will be as many as 15 players who will be suspended for a

minimum of 50 games and those suspensions will be announced in the next 10 days. some of the players that are linked, ryan braun of course already suspended. a-rod, we've talked about. now nelson cruz of the texas rangers. bartolo colon of the athletics and cabrera of the toronto blue jays. now could be hearing about these this week. >> bill: i didn't realize all of these people coming up. >> 15. much bigger story. my favorite story of the day, quite the jewelry theft in cannes, france, over the weekend. an armed robber stole jewelry on display at a gem show yesterday worth $53 million. according to the bbc, the robber did it in broad daylight using a gun and a briefcase. it is the third major jewelry heist in cannes in the last three months. the earlier thefts were broke only about $3 million each. >> bill: great movie with

grace kelly. >> yeah. >> bill: at any rate, the identical heist from that movie. at the same hotel. in cannes. all right. so now, i just have to ask a very simple question as the host of the "full court press" -- >> go ahead. >> bill: what the hell is going on? >> here's what's going on. >> bill: we're supposedly talking with chris smith who is the contributing editor at "new york" magazine. and i know we're having phone issues but i'm not sure -- somebody tells me do we have him? >> dan would know. he'll let him know. what's happening is, pull back the curtain. we've made contact with him. he's having an issue hearing us on the phone. he'll pick up the phone and say hello but then he can't hear us. >> hey, chris! hey!

so i don't know why his phone is doing that. but apparently he can't hear. it is tough to do an interview. >> bill: is it his phone or our phone? >> it is his phone. our phones are perfect. >> bill: so we don't have chris smith. >> we do not. >> bill: but we've got lots to talk about. >> we do. >> bill: we almost don't need him to talk about it. >> bye, chris! >> bill: if we get him, we'll celebrate and bring him back. we'll talk to chris smith. contributing editor at "new york" magazine, about the anthony weiner campaign which is really on the rocks and everybody knows that except anthony weiner. by the way, it is sort of a stereo phonic picture as you probably heard because anthony weiner on the east coast and bob filner on the west coast. and, of course, as a lot of people pointed out, both of them are democrats.

but of course, we remind people about david vitter and larry craig and mark sanford and so the only thing all of these people have in common is this is not funny. but they're all men which is not -- on anthony weiner, so you know, the latest, as we talked about last week, what is the number up to? 10 maybe? women he has admitted sexting to. it seems every day is there a new one who comes forward. and anthony weiner sending out the very graphic pictures. wait a minute now. i can't keep up with it. >> we have chris. we have him and he can hear us! >> bill: i do not believe that we have chris smith, the contributing editor of "new york" magazine on the line until i hear his voice. good morning, chris. >> good morning! thanks. i'm not going to talk about the

cell companies but here we go. >> bill: glad we finally connected. there is hope. so anthony weiner has lost his campaign manager now, right? he's lost who knows how many people who had endorsed him. and he's gone down in the polls but he stubbornly is sticking in. do you think he'll go all the way? >> so many double untawn -- entawn ders. he was out campaigning, former congressman weiner on staten island yesterday and you almost had him word for word. he said "you're stuck with me." so, yeah. >> bill: when is this election, chris, by the way. remind us. >> it is going to be two parts. the democratic primary is september 10. we're almost guaranteed a runoff. then two weeks later, september

24th will be the runoff. then the general election in november. but in the city for all practical purposes, it looks like the democratic primary will decide it. so he's gotta hang on for another six weeks or so. i think he will. yeah, he lost his campaign manager and you always want to have some help but weiner has been running the show anyway and that's not going to change. >> bill: who benefits -- is it possible, do we know yet, who is benefitting the most from weiner's troubles? >> well, two people in the quickie poll that came out last week, christine quinn re-established a pretty solid lead. bill de blasio who had been in the low double digits, picked up four or five points. is essentially tied for second place now. so they -- you know, de blasio has this sort of left liberal credentials and quinn has very much been trying to establish herself as the experienced adult in the race. and contrasting her, you know,

maturity with weiner has been pretty easy for the past two weeks. >> bill: "the new york times" reporting this morning that bill thompson seems to be appealing to some of the african-americans now who were -- african americans who were previously supporting anthony weiner. is thompson up there among the top three now? >> sure. yeah. he and de blasio are essentially tied for second with weiner, thompson, yes. the only -- black candidate in the race. and he's had a tough votes all along and is clearly concerned about that, clearly as genuine -- has general win feels, yesterday he was giving a speech about stopping frisk policies with what happened to trayvon martin. he's got some genuine, emotional feeling about that. but yeah, he's had a whole lot

more competition for black and hispanic votes which are just as important in this primary electorate from quinn, from de blasio, from weiner. so yeah, hoping for him, too, to try to solidify the base. >> bill: chris smith is contributing editor of "new york" magazine. chris, you and i have cover politics a long time. we've heard a lot of political spin. i don't think i've heard a worse or better exam than spin than anthony weiner gave yesterday on staten island when he was asked whether or not this big scandal is hurting his chances. he spins it around like this. >> i argue this. i'm going to be a successful mayor because of it. because it's going to give me a level -- look, people are saying this guy is not enendorsing you, this guy isn't endorsing you, that person is saying a nasty thing about you. well, i'm not destructing a

campaign around the approval of my peers. i'm constructing a campaign around the aspirations of my neighbors. >> bill: this is a real plus, chris, right? >> everyone should try it with their campaign, right? [ laughter ] you know, you gotta give him, i guess, credit, that's kind of a good line. i'm not looking for the approval of my peers. i'm look for the aspirations of my neighbors. on a less flawed, less crazy candidate, it might actually work. you know, crazy enough to go through this and want to be mayor, i guess that's the slogan. you know. crazy enough to fight for you. look, there's a lot of people repulsed by his behavior. it is a weakish field which has given him a chance. but how this is anything but devastating to -- is already small chances to be mayor, i don't see how any rational voter

thinks this is a plus. >> bill: yesterday was her birthday but no sign of huma abedin. we haven't seen her since the very awkward news conference the two of them gave together. what's the rating on how this is impacting her? >> you know, it's gotta be incredibly painful given the history of the past couple of years. it is a very real possibility that weiner was lying to her all along about the extent -- graphicness of these messages and whatever therapy or soul bearing they've been through, you know, a lot of it seemed to come to a -- as a shock to her, as well. and she never wanted to be a particularly prominent or public part of this campaign. she was forced to last week and now yeah, it looks like for all sorts of personal reasons, is

going to retreat again. >> bill: she stood by him and he double crossed her again. pretty ugly situation. chris, glad we got the phone straightened out for you. thanks so much for your time this morning. thanks for your good work covering this campaign as well. >> thanks for having me. >> contributing editor of "new york" magazine, nymag.com. >> this is the "bill press show." for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

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

i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right? >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: katie glick from politico joins us in studio in the next half hour. help us get through the news of the day. one important bit of news, good for the people of maryland. we told you a week or so ago

that new york state announced that thanks to obamacare, starting in october, people will be able to buy health insurance at a remarkably low premium rates. now, california has also announced the same and now the state of maryland says that their insurance rates again because of obamacare, starting this october will be among the cheapest in the country. a 21-year-old nonsmoker will be able to buy health insurance in the state of maryland for as little as $93 a month. california, new york, maryland, states that have embraced obamacare will be offering lower insurance rates that just proves than ever before, proves that obamacare is here to stay. all of this talk about repealing obamacare by house republicans is a total waste of time.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> no, they said "make us a turkey and make it fast". >> 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.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: oh, boy. 33 minutes after the hour on a monday. monday, july 29. what do you say? it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live coast-to-coast. from our nation's capital and brought to you today by the international association of sheet metal, air, rail and transportation workers. the big merger there, they now call themselves the smart union and the good men and women of the smart union giving a fair

day's work for a fair day's pay. you can find out more about their good work under president joseph nigro at their web site, smart-union.org. and with congress coming back in town, they've got one more week before they head off for a -- i can't say well-deserved august vacation because they haven't done a damn thing to deserve a month's vacation but on that and on the political front, we're please to the welcome in studio for this half hour, katie glick covers -- she's a political reporter for politico and katie, nice to see you. >> nice to be with you. >> bill: welcome for the first time here to the "full court press" in studio. let's start with steve king because you've written about steve king. >> sure. >> bill: dan do we have that? here's steve king. he's been a monumental embarrassment for a long time.

here he is. at a time when republicans are saying we've got to do something about immigration reform. we have to show a new face and show some outreach, particularly to the hispanic community and you had so many republican senators who joined the effort in the senate. comes over to the house and even john boehner, while he hasn't scheduled a vote yet on immigration reform says we have to do something about this. in light of all of that, feel goodness, right, steve king says here's what his view on immigration is. >> we have to do something about the 11 million and some of them are valedictorians. my answer to that is and by the way, their parents brought them in. it wasn't their fault. it is true in some cases but they aren't valedictorian and weren't all brought in by their parents. for one who is a valedictorian, there are another 100 who weigh 130 pounds and have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of

marijuana across the desert. they would be affected by the same act. >> bill: calves with the size of cantaloupes. >> he likened the children of immigrants to drug mules. he's been receiving criticism within his own party. house speaker boehner has been pretty tough in issuing stinging criticism of that comment last week, of course, congressman paul ryan was very critical of that. at the same time, congressman king has said that he's hearing from other members within the republican caucus that you know, there's some support for what he's been saying and people are happy. the public statements from some of the people in leadership has been pretty critical. >> bill: he didn't back down. at all. he said i'm just telling the truth. this is what i heard from border patrol. border agents. >> he's double downed in a

number of interviews and some other republicans say that's not helpful to the broader immigration debate. >> bill: hardly. but does he care? i mean, is he in the kind of district where he can say whatever the hell he wants and just get away with it? >> it will be interesting to see. actually last week, we saw some people come to his office carrying cantaloupes, people saying they were dreamers and seizing on to that comment. so you know, it is a pretty controversial statement to make. you know, from a more conservative place but at the same time, you know, he's been generating criticism from others. >> bill: he has said outrageous things in the past. he just seems to be able to right through, right? i don't know what the registration numbers are in his district but it seems to have a very safe distance, in iowa, of all states. >> sure. i think the bigger concern among some republicans in washington

is not even necessarily how this plays for steve king in his district but how -- what this says about the republican party as a whole and their commitment to immigration because certainly counter to some of the messages we're seeing from the john mccains and the marco rubios of the world as well as the john boehners and paul ryans. >> bill: the bigger question is, whether there will, in fact, be an immigration bill. boehner says they won't vote on anything until september. >> sure. >> bill: he's also said, i believe, that they will not just take the senate bill and put that up for a vote. they kind of want to do their own thing. >> that's right. >> bill: so when you have the steve kings of this world working against them and boehner not so enthusiastic in the first place, what do you think the prospects are for immigration reform getting out of the congress at all? >> well, it's certainly a tough and complicated issue. of course, all eyes for such a long time were on the senate. and when that was finally achieved, then we looked to the house and the house republicans,

as you pointed out, met leadership and said we want to work on this issue but at the same time, we want to come together sort of on our own terms on this. also, beyond that, congress is barely in session. even in september. so it is going to be an interesting kind of timeline. they're on recess in august and in and out in september. so it is going to be an interesting timeline to see exactly when this happens but leadership is saying they hope that we'll see things this fall. >> bill: i want to run for congress. [ laughter ] >> good luck. >> bill: you know, i mean what the hell, right? get the entire month of august off and get a couple of days in september. >> they don't have to run for re-election this year. >> that's true. >> this is the year they ought to be working. >> i hear that from lots of people. they've recessed. we're still going to are recess. >> bill: katie gluek from

politico.com. you can follow her and many of her colleagues, many of whom you hear regularly on our program. i'm a little envious of the fact that last saturday you went down to the big debate in virginia between terry mcauliffe and ken cuccinelli. the first debate. i'm sure they'll have many more. >> that's right. >> bill: and this was in front of a group of business leaders, right? homestead. >> yes. at the homestead. so yeah, it was -- it was a debate -- it was their first kind of face-off down in southwestern virginia. in front of -- a pretty small audience but yeah, at that resort, the first time the two of them went toe to toe. >> bill: out how they do? were they talking about policy issues or were they -- getting into personal attacks or what was the tone of the debate?

>> it was a combination. they both were careful to kind of get their shots and terry mcauliffe, the democrat has been working to paint ken cuccinelli as kind of a radical conservative republican on some of the social issues and of course, he does have quite a conservative record on a number of these issues. >> bill: i'll say. >> so that was certainly something that mcauliffe kept coming back to. you know, his record on issues like abortion, birth control, that kind of thing. ken cuccinelli was trying to paint terry mcauliffe, the former dnc chair as out of touch with everyday virginians, not knowing the geography of the state. there was a back and forth with regard to that. also mcauliffe was careful to continue invoking an issue that has plagued governor bob mcdonnell, the star scientific scandal which we've seen further unfold since the debate. >> bill: cuccinelli defending

mcmcdonnell or distance himself? does he distance himself from johnny williams, the star of -- the head of star scientific. >> it came on the day that anthony weiner news broke. that's kind of where that stands but as for mr. cuccinelli, he didn't really want to talk too much about governor mcdonough. >> i wonder why. >> one thing i said is that caught the attention of some reporters is that it is fair to ask questions of him. it is fair to ask whether he will be considering resigning over this. he wouldn't go so far as to make any sweeping comments about that. >> bill: i don't think mcauliffe himself did not call for mcdonough to step aside. >> neither did. it wasn't exactly their place to be doing that. mcauliffe was trying hard to tie cuccinelli to that incident and cuccinelli was of course

trying to distance himself from that and the broader issues there. >> bill: and then the other big race we just talked a little bit about at the top of the hour you have been involved -- you have been up in new york covering the anthony -- the new york mayor's race. >> that's right. >> bill: anthony weiner is not the only candidate. sometimes we forget that. we'll get into how that stands and who may benefit from anthony weiner's troubles when we come back with katie glick from politico. your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. your comments always welcome on twitter at bpshow on a monday morning. here, july 29. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv.

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

>> announcer: like politics, then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. katie glick in studio with us from politico. in the next hour, we'll be joined by kate nocera from "buzzfeed" and jenn bendery from "huffington post." everyone gets their turn at-bat this morning here on the "full court press." good to have you with us today. again, you're invited to join the conversation at any time at 1-866-55-press. peter? >> over the weekend, pope francis took one step forward and one step back in regards to homosexuality. >> bill: three million people. >> he pulled quite the crowd. he was on a flight back and one

of the -- a reporter asked him about gay people joining the church and pope francis said if a person is gay and seeks god and has good will, who am i to judge him. welcoming gay people into the catholic church. however, at the same time, the pope said about female priests, said the church has spoken on this and says no. that door is closed. so not so -- >> allow female priests but he will allow gay people in his church. >> one strike in the good column, one strike in the bad column. >> bill: i guess there's no such thing as a gay priest. >> that would never happen. >> bill: that would never happen. it is too bad. look, i like this new pope. but he's still -- he's still toeing the vatican line on many issues and we'll see how he does on the marriage equality, too.

katie glick, anthony weiner, you went up to new york. you followed the campaign on the road up there. did you see him like in front of crowds, in front of groups? what kind of response does he get? >> yeah, i did. he is really going all over the place in new york. i can tell you that on wednesday, he was appearing, this is, of course, a day after he had quite the press conference with his wife. and he appeared at a housing assembly in kind of lower manhattan. when he first got up there, he was booed actually by a pretty sizable crowd. but he started talking and by the end, he was getting some amens, some cheers and you know, so he was -- you know, he's very good at speaking to his audience and speaking to the issues at hand. you know, definitely try to push the sense of confidence and talking with reporters to

reiterate he's not going anywhere. >> bill: that is his strength. he showed that when he was in congress. there was nobody better on policy both the positions he took and in articulating the positions he took. so is it possible, do you believe, i mean that if he can ride out this week or so, this is all people are talking about is the scandal and really get people again focused on issues that he can win the primary or get in the runoff? >> as i was told, several times last week, anything can happen in new york. but still, if you take a look at some of the polls that have come out in the wake of some of the most recent developments, he's really taken a hit in those numbers but that said, you know, i certainly don't think it is safe to rule him out of at least making a runoff and he's committed to not going anywhere.

but also, you look at reports over the weekend. his campaign manager stepped down. it has been a tough week for him. that's fair to say. >> bill: are you going back up to new york? >> i'm not sure about that yet. we'll have to see what all happens. >> bill: up to your boss. i'm sure. president obama last week giving two major speeches on the economy. three actually. he's going again tomorrow to chattanooga, tennessee. to continue that. a lot of talk, what the president is all about is getting the high ground in preparation for the big budget battles that will come up this fall. and even the possibility that republicans may want to shut the government down if they can't get more spending cuts. how do you read those? >> sure, it's interesting. you know, now that he's given the speeches you referred to

last weekend, he's promised us several more going forward. he's promised to keep the issues to the economy and middle class on the table. so he's very much staking out a position to kind of know where he stands in terms of what he will be asking for and when it comes to look ahead at some of the budget battles. you know, we're certainly going to see several of them coming up over the budget, perhaps over the debt ceiling as well. >> bill: the republicans -- they extracted their price the last time and what -- insiders are saying that if -- also have the sequester, right. if on top of the sequester, the republicans want cuts deeper than that, that the obama administration -- president obama is logical to say no -- is willing to say no. do you think he would go so far as to shut the government down like bill clinton, hopefully republicans get the blame for it? >> the politics of this are

certainly interesting. when it comes to calculation of who would take the fall for that if there was a government shutdown. it seems that people on both sides are certainly pretty cognizant of that. we haven't had -- it is rare to have a full-on government shutdown. so that would be a pretty significant step. so i think everyone is hoping it doesn't have to come to that. >> bill: it will be armageddon for sure. i'm telling you. lots going on. katie glueck, thanks for coming by, keeping us up to date on politico. you can follow katie. all of the good people at politico at politico.com. speaking of the president, he's got a very fun-filled day at the white house today. we'll tell you about the big event when we come back here on the "full court press." >> announcer: go mobile with bill press. download podcast at billpressshow.com and listen any time, anywhere. this is the "bill press show." ç]

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. >> 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.

>> bill: we'll have kate nocera from "buzzfeed" to cover the political front and what we can expect from the congress in this last week as they come back to town before they take off for the entire month of august. president obama back at the white house today with a very interesting schedule.

first of all, he'll get the daily briefing this morning as he always does. that comes this morning at 10:15. after which he will be meeting with senior advisers until he has a very special lunch at the white house today. former secretary of state, former senator from new york, former fest lady, hillary clinton coming down to have lunch with the president today. >> very nice. i was waiting for you to say three different people there. >> bill: she has all of those jobs. at 2:15 this afternoon, he will be welcoming the world series champion san francisco giants to the east room -- no, out on the south lawn he will do it today actually. huge crowd from san francisco. lot of friends of mine i'm sure. then at 2:45, the president meets with civil rights leaders to talk about what we're going to do to secure voting rights in this country. 12:30 briefing briefing with des

secretary.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, good morning. it's monday morning, july 29. great to see you this morning. welcome to the "full court press" coming to you live on current tv, all across this great land of ours. on this beautiful monday morning. good to have you with us today and we look forward to not only bringing you up to date on what's happening around the world, around the country, around the globe. but also getting your comments. you can do so by giving us a phone call at 1-866-55-press.

at any time. send your comments on twitter at bpshow or on facebook where, if you're not already our friend, you should be. on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. well, buzzing around washington today is the question, is president obama about to turn down the keystone pipeline? boy, that seems to be the message he sent in an interview with "the new york times" where he said the republicans are dead wrong when they say the pipeline will create thousands and thousands of jobs. president said it might only be 150 jobs that might be -- at least in the hundreds, not thousands of jobs. the president will continue, by the way, to talk economy and jobs tomorrow. at chattanooga, tennessee after the big three speeches she gave on that issue last week. in other news, in new york,

anthony weiner's campaign manager quit but weiner said he will stay in the race. find out more right here on current tv. 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.

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

minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right? >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio on current tv. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: latest numbers show four out of five americans, 80%, have experienced some form of poverty in their lifetime. that is stunning. four out of five americans. hey, good morning, everybody. talk about this gap between those who have and those who don't have so much. it is monday morning, july 2k-9.

on that sad note, we start off the last hour together here on the "full court press." good to have you with us on your local progressive talk radio station and good to have you with us on current tv. whether you're listening or watching, we'll bring you up to date on what's happening today. here in our nation's capital around the country, around the globe and give you a chance to comment and let us know what you think about it all. our toll free number on twitter. you can follow us at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. our entire team assembled here this morning. peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding on the video cams. we talk to her so much and she's in studio so often that we consider her part of our team, jenn bendery covers the white house and the congress for

politico -- whoa! that was the last half hour. for "huffington post." oh, man. i'll never live that down. for huff poe. good morning, jenn. have a good weekend? >> did i, i did. i saw sharknado. >> did you really? >> i didn't even know what it meant, the title until i saw the movie. it is a tornado of sharks. that fly all over -- giant sharks that fly through the air and can breathe in air and latch on to cars and helicopters. >> they're putting it in the movie theatres for one night only. >> they're already making sharknado 2. sci-fi network. >> another movie called sharktopus starring julia roberts' brother. >> bill: was it scary?

sharknado? >> what do you think? it was something. it was -- it was so horrible. is what it was. so bad. >> bill: peter saw wolverine. >> i saw "the wolverine" over the weekend. >> best superhero of all time. >> he is the best comic book character of all-time, yes. there goes cyprian. i tweak him every time i say that. >> bill: well, we'll be along with jenn for this half hour. jenn bendery. then kate nocera from "buzzfeed" will be joining us later. by the way, we tried this very -- tried very hard this morning to get our guest carlos danger. he's very busy in new york. however, jimmy fallon brought him to us friday night. the new candidate for mayor of new york. >> hola! [ laughter ] i amicar lows danger.

today i would like to officially announce my candidacy for mayor of the new york city. anthony weiner may not be running anymore but do not fear, carlos danger never pulls out. >> bill: there are so many weiner jokes, right? one more. >> no! >> this city is facing at crisis. take it from me, a man who's been in and out of many heady situations, if elected, i will turn new york city around and give it exactly what it needs. i'm not afraid to do the dirty work. >> bill: little emy even for jimmy fallon, huh? >> i feel like all of the anthony weiner jokes there are to tell have been told. >> bill: i thought so until this morning. no more. >> please, no more. >> how many accidental ways you can give a double entawn der

when talking about anthony weiner. >> bill: i think at some point -- i want to be careful with my choice of words because i keep -- i think this whole thing is going to play out in the next couple of days and people are going to get tired of talking about it and he's going to continue and he'll be talking about issues. he could still get in the runoff. >> bill: unbelievable but he's smart. >> he is smart. but i don't see him getting in the runoff at this point. he's at strike two now. >> bill: strike two? >> in terms of public waves of outcry. >> bill: three, four, five, six. >> he's up to seven the number of women publicly talking. >> bill: we'll get right to the issues of the day and what the president is facing these days. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this monday, nbc is

developing a mini series about hillary clinton. over the weekend, the network confirmed they had green lit a four hour tv series that will star diane lane from man of steel as the former secretary of state. the story line will begin in 1998 with hillary in the white house with president bill and then it will go through her years as senator and secretary of state. no air date yet. they hope to get it on the air obviously before she announces her run for the white house. >> aren't they calling it sharknado 2? >> bill: this will be a nice run-up to her. let this thing play out. last day of that -- >> barbara bush is a big fan of her husband's new hairstyle. she sat down on "the today show" on friday, the former first lady saying president h.w. bush's completely shaved head looks beautiful and makes him look younger than his 89 years. he went bald in support of a son of one of his secret service agents who has leukemia. turns out he was not asked to

shave his head. he saw all of his agents doing it so he said why not me as well. >> bill: great gesture on his part. when barbara says i like it this way -- >> i don't know if his hair is coming back. >> bill: i'll bet his hair won't come back. >> once your significant other starts to tell you, i like your haircut -- >> in sports, pga tour star hunter mahan made it clear what's important in life. the golfer was halfway to a tournament victory saturday at the rbc canadian open where he quit while holding the lead because his wife went into labor. had he held it through sunday, he would have walked away with a $1 million prize. but he went to the delivery room instead. became a dad to a healthy baby girl. he thanked his sponsors for appreciating what's important in life and supporting his decision to quit. >> bill: you know that phrase, million dollar baby. >> you can always make another baby. you might not ever get a

chance -- >> bill: oh, get out of here. he did the right thing. >> i'm just saying. i'm not saying did he the wrong thing. you miss one, you just make another with that million dollars that you have. you can sort of -- >> spoken like a true american. >> you know what i mean. >> bill: true male chauvinist pig. >> no, not at all. never mind. >> bill: yeah, shut up. 14 minutes after the hour. jenn, you and i have a lot of fun covering the white house and sitting in on those -- we don't have a lot of fun sitting in on the briefings. sometimes we learn something. sometimes we don't. i was surprised to hear the president's comments over the weekend. i'll start there, on the keystone pipeline. i was convinced that just, you know, watching the president now for the last five years, he would end up supporting the keystone pipeline for sure and yet in an interview with "the

new york times," he said -- when they asked him about republicans say this is going to create thousands and thousands of jobs, the president says no, it's not. they're wrong. so he sort of gave some indication he's thinking the other way. >> i could see him going either way on this. he's in a second term now. all of the dust up from before was in the midst of a presidential election. you think about it practically speaking, why would building a giant pipeline create thousands of jobs? he said what? the actual construction of the pipeline would create a few thousand jobs maybe. and then you know, once it's built between 50 to 100 people working on maintenance. it is a pipeline. keeping it clean, making sure it is not leaking. >> bill: there are 150 million americans working. it is not a huge contributor. job contributor. >> absolutely not. it is hard to tell though, given that he said this during a "new york times" interview.

if he is signaling something bigger. trying to let this thing through or if they just asked him about it and he was just candidly responding to the job creation bill. >> bill: he also said it would not, in and of itself, lower the price of gas which republicans have been saying this is important to keep fuel prices down. >> building a pipeline from -- to mexico -- why would that lower the cost of gas? that is a republican talking point. it's not true. >> bill: you're absolutely right. we can't read too much into it. at the same time, as we have seen, they're pretty careful before they say put anything out there, right? jay carney and the president both have ways -- >> we'll cut joe biden out of this conversation. jay carney and president obama are very careful. you're right. this town is all about nuance. so when the president says anything slightly off message or off of what you would expect him to say, it is worth noting.

>> bill: the president for last week, out to illinois to missouri and down to jacksonville, florida. tomorrow, he's going to chattanooga, tennessee. all part of the effort to get the focus back on jobs and the economy. is that the right issue and is he succeeding, do you think in changing the focus? >> it's always the right issue. everybody in this town would agree to that. everybody says it all the time. my number one focus is jobs and the economy says congressperson blank from blank of this party. that's the issue. that's always the issue. if you look at what obama's actually doing, there is not a whole lot of there to be honest. he's putting more attention on the issue. it is the issue that people constantly say they're focused on. >> bill: number one to most americans. >> absolutely. that's why people in congress will talk about it.

they know this is what people across the country care about. i have yet to see anything new here. i don't know what they're doing except for rolling out a series of speeches, talking about the need to strengthen the economy. he's going to touch on some of the same things he's talked about before. not necessarily a bad thing to rehash the old talking points but i was in the white house briefing, background briefing on what he's doing and you know, i asked, is there anything new here? any news? any new job initiatives? and the short of it is no. it is kind of re-upping the priorities of the president which again, he has the prerogative to do. it is the most important issue to people. there's not something new to latch on to. particularly as a reporter. how are you going to write about it? obama re-ups his 2012 stumping speeches on the economy. >> bill: yeah. no. at least in one briefing, where

i was, jay carney admitted don't look for any new policies here but look for a new reemphasis on the economy. and on jobs. >> it is a return to what we've heard before. there's not a whole lot of new stuff there. >> bill: meanwhile in terms of speaking about nothing new, the house of representatives has one more week to go before they take their one-month recess in august. and their focus this week is going to be on obamacare. >> well, that's the last -- as far as i understand, that will be the last vote, i think, of the week in the house where they, for the 40th time, vote to repeal obamacare. that was 40th. 40. >> bill: 4-0. >> yes. i suspect they're doing this as the last vote to make a big statement before going home for a month. like you know, here, we're going to vote to repeal obamacare.

vote passes and the republican-run house. drops the mic. peace out, we're gone for a month. that's the last thing we're leaving you with. >> bill: if it didn't work, the other 39 times -- >> 40th is the charm. >> it will work this time. which comes on the very day that the state of maryland joining new york -- state of new york and the state of california saying that starting october 1 when people can buy their own health insurance, those who are not covered by their employer, the rates will be lowest of anywhere in the country. $93 a month if you're a nonsmoker, you can buy your own health insurance for the state of maryland. you know, you've got a this one thing in congress here where they keep voting to repeal and what's happening in the states, more and more states who have embraced obamacare which means it is not going away, right? >> obamacare is not going away. in case it wasn't clear in the

first 39 votes, that went nowhere, it is not going away. it is a law. it is so big and complicated, it has been rolled out in so many stages, more stages to come. never mind the practical matter of rolling out a lot like this and then attempting to unroll it. never mind that. there's piece of this law that even die hard republicans would -- conservative republicans i should say, would have a very hard time arguing against. the things we've all heard. the pre-existing conditions piece of it that you can't ban -- prevent it from getting health insurance if you have a pre-existing condition or the 25 years old and younger or 26 years old and younger. who's going to think that's a great idea to get rid of? >> bill: even more so once people are able to buy into this and get their own health insurance, yeah. it is not going -- should not go anywhere. we said that it's kind of a third leg of the stool, right? >> they know it's not going

anywhere. that's the thing. they know it's not going anywhere. they're voting against it over and over so they can go back home to their districts and say look, we're fighting the good fight. this is what we want less government. we're going to get rid of obamacare. we're doing this for you. vote for me in 2014. that's what this is. >> bill: jenn bendery here from "the huffington post." you know, huffingtonpost.com. your calls, your questions, your comments, our conversation continues after the break here on the "full court press". >> announcer: go mobile with bill press. download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time, anywhere. this is the "bill press show." for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current.

documentaries... on current tv.

>> did anyone tell the pilgrims 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? >> 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.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you bet it is. 26 minutes after the hour here on the "full court press." general bendery from -- jenn bendery from "huffington post," here in studio with us. good to have you here, jenn. peter? >> we're on twitter at bpshow talking about the keystone pipeline. jennifer says the keystone pipeline jobs will come from the constant cleanup from spills and disasters, factor that into the whole job. >> bill: hadn't thought about that. >> hadn't thought about that. >> bill: that stuff is standing by. you know damn well, there is an issue. alan is calling on the pipeline from battle creek, michigan. >> caller: hi, bill. i'm a union ironworker, retired and they're invoking murphy's

law. something can go wrong sooner or later. talking about the toxicity, all he's talking about is these jobssh the nonpermanent jobs. you can have a few jobs for maintaining this thing. the alaska pipeline, that thing has its problems and this thing is going to be pumping sand tar from the coast -- from one border to the other, north to south and it's going to be pushing abrasive liquid at high temperatures and high pressure through this thing so it's going to pop. >> bill: you know it. you know it. i think -- the comment and the call both make that point, right? i'm starting to feel like the president's going to say -- >> if i had to make a bet on it, i think he might tank it. >> bill: all right. >> i wouldn't have said that six months ago. >> bill: i wouldn't have either. i thought it was speeding through. jenn bendery, thank you so much for coming in. see you down at the white house next time.

kate nocera from "buzzfeed" is coming up next. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." (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. >>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: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it is 33 minutes after the hour now here on the "full court press." coming to you live from our nation's capital this monday morning, july 29. brought to you today by the international association of machinists. good men and women of the machinists union under president tom buffenbarger, sharpening america's edge on the the global

economy. for more information about their good work, the machinist's union, go to their web site, goiam.org. we talked about one end of pennsylvania avenue with jenn bendery from "the huffington post." the white house, that is. let's bounce up here closer to home. this end of pennsylvania avenue. the united states congress. in town for one more week starting later today. before they go off on their entire month of august break. kate nocera covers the congress for "buzzfeed." hello, kate. >> hi. how are you? >> bill: they're making a lot of buzz these days. >> it is a good thing. >> very important post about trey gotti's hair on friday. he has some pretty wild hair. >> bill: and "buzzfeed" is the only site i think that has put

out the full and complete unedited anthony weiner. i don't know whether that's something to brag about or not. it was dirty.com. >> we picked up on it. sure. >> i want to know who at "buzzfeed" has anthony weiner nasty pics on a news alert. i think it might be dorsey. >> probably. >> bill: i don't know that. what i want to ask you is -- here we go. above the fold in "the new york times" this morning, which means big story, headline, momentum builds against nsa surveillance. so in the senate, the first reaction to edward snowden's revelations about the nsa, the first reaction, at least in the senate was, of course, this is what we ought to be doing and% from the white house. this is a good program. we have to do this.

the tide is now shifting a little bit, right? >> i think that the focus really shifted last week, we saw with the justin amash amendment from michigan, that vote was super close. >> bill: yep. 217-205. >> right. he needed seven more votes to have the amendment passed. you heard some people speak out in support of that amendment, that you wouldn't really expect to, right? sensenbrenner notes it in "the new york times" article, came to the floor. and said i'm supporting this amendment and you know, we need to start talking about this. he was an original author of the patriot act. he said this is not what it was intended to do. and he's going to write a bill to try and rein it in to some extent. i think that this conversation is not going away as much as congressional -- it was one of the first moments i've seen in a long time where john boehner and

nancy pelosi were both whipping for no votes. they were on the same page about this. >> bill: if you look at the other side, it was justin amash from michigan but also from michigan, john conyers, the dean of the liberal progressive caucus, you know -- >> brought together all of the liberals then all of the conservative libertarians types, raoul labrador referred to as the wing nut caucus. >> you got the wacko birds then the wing nuts. >> he was referring to himself in that as well. but he did bring along guys like sensenbrenner and fair number of moderate democrats and people that think that you know, this government surveillance thing -- bless you -- >> bill: pardon me. i've never sneezed on camera before. >> it has gone too far, right. >> bill: we heard more voices yesterday. senator dick durbin on our show

a month or so ago, said he thought nsa had gone too far. he repeated that yesterday on "this week" with george stephanopoulos. senator mark udall from colorado also spoke out, one of the shows yesterday. talking about what nsa was doing and how wrong it was. >> i would much rather have that data held by the phone companies if we need to get access to it, the fisa court can issue a warrant. that's how the police operate. that's how the fbi operate. that's how we've operated in america in the past. we don't need the nsa to be collecting in bulk all of these records of innocent americans. it is not effective. i would argue that it comes close to being unconstitutional. >> bill: pretty strong stuff. >> it is. i think that as much as people would like -- people that support what the nsa is doing would like this conversation to go away, people that serve on

the intelligence committees have really come out very strongly in support but they also know stuff that we don't know. so maybe the answer is a little more transparency in what the fisa court is doing. because they say, you know, this is really protecting us. it has stopped terrorist attacks in the past. but no one really knows -- >> bill: that's what they say. this conversation, too, in light of the fact i forget which polling company that we talked about the poll last week on the show, 75% of americans say that this nsa program has eroded our right of privacy. in this country. so i think you've got more and more questions being asked now on the part of the public. more and more doubts about the importance and the necessity of this widespread gathering of information on the part of the american public and on part of republicans and democrats in congress that we've been talking

about. so sensenbrenner reported in "the new york times" this morning is if this amendment didn't pass, they'll have legislation to rein in the nsa which probably would not be until next year, right? >> we'll see when he introduces it -- i doubt it will be this week. >> bill: meaning any action. >> probably into the fall sometime. if leadership allows any action to take place. that's the other question. i'm really interested to see how much this comes up over the august recess. august recess is an important month because members go home and they see what their constituents are talking about. so of all of their constituents, they're saying this is outrageous what the nsa is doing is crazy. you're going to see a lot more people come back to washington in september saying all right, time to do something about this% the same goes for immigration and the same goes for you know,

a number of issues. that's the moment where they all have town halls and get yelled at. >> bill: all right. >> i'm looking forward to the videos because it always happens. somebody from the audience and there is a member of congress who is getting heckled by the crowd. i'm look forward to that. that will be good. >> bill: do you think that when house republicans go home, this month of august, that they'll hear any voices saying stop trying to repeal obamacare because they're going to vote -- jenn bendery was saying they're going to vote against this week to repeal it for the 39th or 40th time. what's the point? >> i'm interested to see how many people say just stop it. but i think for a lot of the guys, they have really conservative districts. they have put themselves in districts where their base is

there. people are really aligned with their views. i think that as a whole, maybe america is a little tired of seeing repeal votes that are going nowhere fast. but i think that the more interesting question to see is there's this push in the senate right now to attach defunding obamacare to debt increase. and i think even republicans have been starting to talk about tom coburn, john mccain, has started to say this is actually an insane idea. and really can't do that and it would be crazy for us to keep trying this push. there are enough guys in the house that feel like this is what their base wants, this is what their constituents want. that's something that -- >> bill: it is like a parallel universe, right? because we talked earlier today about the state of maryland now has announced, the third state,

maybe more, but i know third state that i know of where they've said our new premiums -- we're going to start selling health insurance to people who don't have it through their workplace. california has done this. new york has done this. now, state of maryland. the premiums are going to be lower than you've ever been able to buy health insurance for. $93 a month in the state of maryland. and more and more people than are taking advantage of obamacare at the same time, republicans in the house just continue and now some in the senate to think they can repeal it. it's not going to happen. >> i think that it depends a lot on the state that you're from. the state you just mentioned, progressive, liberal states. new york is a very interesting case because they have long had a lot of mandates in their own state. so they have had very expensive health insurance so when the

costs come down, what exactly that means is, you know, we'll see how affordable it ends up being. i think that -- i think that you are going to see republicans from california, from new york, you're going to see guys on the more moderate end start to say, you know what, let's -- this is working in my state. >> bill: right. >> we should maybe just slow down a minute here. >> bill: all right. kate nocera keeping her eye on what's happening in the congress for all of us at "buzzfeed." so with one week left, what action can we expect, if any from the congress this week? anything on immigration? that and other questions coming up for kate nocera. your questions welcome at 1-866-55-press. your questions, your comments, we'll be right back here on this monday edition of the "full

court press." >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. current tv is the place for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines.

real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> bill: "buzzfeed," check it out, buzzfeed.com. they cover everything including politics but not just politics by far. in a very sometimes outrageous, provocative way.

depending on who's writing that particular story. kate nocera is here. she covers stuff in washington, d.c. here particularly in the congress. >> only very serious stuff. >> bill: only very serious stuff. exactly. peter, what's going on? >> if you're planning on eating fast food today, you may have a problem if you're in the following cities. new york city, chicago, detroit, milwaukee, st. louis, kansas city and flint, michigan. workers at those locations are planning to walk off the job today to protest the low wages in the fast food industry. like, for example, in new york, the minimum wage is $7.25. which is what a lot of the folks get paid. they're calling for wages of $15 per hour, demanding a pay raise and they're walking off the job today. as a form of protest. good luck getting your -- >> bill: mcds --

>> mcdonald's, burger king, wendy's, kfc -- it has spilled over into some value stores, dollar tree, macy's, some of them are saying they're going to walk off. it is sort of around the country. especially the fast food workers in those cities are going to be walking off the job today. >> bill: i wonder if -- are they une members? >> yes, they are. the sciu has joined forces with them. they have a twitter account where it's -- the group is called fast food forward and they're slogan is no one can survive on $7.25 which is the minimum wage. >> bill: i like that. you know, there are more and more people that that's the only job they can get, right? >> they talked to one person in particular, robert wilson working in a mcdonald's for seven years. he's currently making $8.60. per hour. >> bill: figure that out.

he's living in poverty. right? he's working. >> tough to do the math. >> bill: i'm telling you, we talked about it earlier. the level of poverty is $23,021 a year. >> he has a family. forget it. >> bill: absolutely. so kate, i want to ask you about john boehner's comments last week where he said because this 113th congress is already being called the do nothing congress even though the 112th congress was called the do nothing -- this one may be worse. >> staying consistent. >> bill: boehner says you're judging us by the wrong standard. you shouldn't judge us by how many bills we've passed but by how many bills we repeal. by his test, how are they doing? >> not very well. they haven't repealed -- nothing has been repealed to go to the president's desk.

>> bill: right. they haven't repealed anything. >> they obviously have been working hard against the administration at this moment. >> successfully repealing all the way. >> i don't think you can name one bill that is no longer in effect because the house of representatives voted to repeal it. >> in the last congress, there were a few pieces of the healthcare law that were obviously going to be unsuccessful. that did pass both the house and the senate and were signed into law by the president. it was the -- totally blanking on the name of it now. but there was one program in obamacare that was not going to -- it was just not going to function well. and that did end up getting repealed. >> bill: any action this week on immigration before they leave? >> action, no.

>> bill: talk? >> yes. there a lot of talk on immigration. i think that you know, the political action committee, the house majority pac are going hard after steve king, continuing -- seeing it bubble up over this weekend. they were calling for him to resign from the -- or have boehner kick king off the judiciary committee on immigration for the comments he made last week and i don't know if you remember them. >> bill: oh, yes. we played them early this morning. >> he's been working out. calves the size of cantaloupes. >> exactly. so i think that's going to -- that's going to continue to be a thing. for sure. >> bill: and the more people are calling steve king to shut up, the more outrageous things he will say, probably. >> he doesn't like it when you tell him to be quiet. >> bill: that's it for today, kate. we'll let you get back to the congress. short walk from here.

>> sure. >> bill: thank you so much for stopping by. >> thank you for having me. >> bill: i'll be back with a quick parting shot about all of the male politicians getting in trouble. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." this show is about analyzing, criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border.

the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people, but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

(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?

anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time! >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. you know, i don't know about the rest of the country but here in washington, d.c. these days, only one topic of conversation. we had some friends over for dinner friday night. what the they want to talk about? anthony weiner and bob filner. my brother and his wife came down to d.c. with friends of

theirs over the weekend. we went out to dinner saturday night. what did we talk about? anthony weiner and bob filner. i joined friends for brunch yesterday, what did we chew on? anthony weiner and bob filner. you can't escape it. anthony weiner of course reminds us of eliot spitzer and then he reminds us of bill to which democrats say hey, don't forget david vitter, mark sanford and larry craig to which republicans say don't forget about gary hart or john f. kennedy. notice, filner, bill clinton, vitter, sanford, craig, hart, kennedy, what do all of the sexually challenged politicians have in common? they're all men. why is it that male politicians can't keep their pants up? but female politicians can? seems to me the obvious answer is throw the men out and elect more women! igor volsky joins us tomorrow as well as the makers of the american had been made movie. have a great monday. see you back here again tuesday

morning.

[ ♪ theme ] >> stephanie: happy monday morning. oh, thank god jacki schechner is back in the current news center. we had to fill three minutes at the top of every hour last week and we were reduced to things like this. ladies and gentlemen, we'll demonstrate once again jim and i the bob filner headlock. the sexually harassing mayor of san diego. >> get off me! >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen. thank you. >> it is like our own version of masterpiece theatre. well done. a little