[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, good morning, friends and neighbors. what do you say? it is wednesday, the last day of july. july 31, 2013. this is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from washington, d.c. our nation's capital. welcome to the program. good to see you this morning. and thank you for climbing on board the "full court press" as we take off to find out what's happening here just down the street at the united states capitol or a little further down

pennsylvania avenue at the white house. we'll take a look at the rest of the country and the rest of the globe. john kerry announcing yesterday that the initial round of peace talks here in washington were successful and the representatives of the palestinian territories and israel will meet again in a couple of weeks somewhere in the middle east. more on that and a whole lot more. you'll want to talk about it at 1-866-55-press, that's our toll free number. on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. well, the government failed to find bradley manning guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy but he was found guilty of 19 lesser counts. the sentencing phase of that trial begins today. he will definitely spend some time in prison. president obama has offered republicans what he called a grand bargain. he said i will give you tax -- lower taxes for corporations if you give me money to create more

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

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

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

and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: yeah, he's still in it. anthony weiner says new yorkers don't quit. yeah. new yorkers don't send themselves pictures to women they've never met either. what a crazy world we live in. but it's fun. and it's fun to talk about it all with you. good morning, good morning. great to see you this morning.

here we go on the "full court press." this wednesday morning. middle of the week. the last day of july. july 31. great to see you today. hope you're off to a good start. we are in our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill. reaching out to you on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv this wednesday morning. inviting you to join the conversation here, during our town hall and talk about the issues of the day wherever it's happening, we've got it covered. we'll give you a chance to tell us what it means to you. what do you think about it all. 1-866-55-press. you know the toll free number. should be on your speed dial. that's our toll free -- way to reach us by phone. on twitter at bpshow. more and more of you signing up on twitter and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. good morning, good morning, to

you and to our team, peter ogborn and dan henning. >> good morning. you mention twitter. we are very close to a new plateau on twitter. >> bill: all right! >> a 15,000 followers. >> bill: is that right? >> we're only like 50 people away. >> bill: come on, sign up. >> go follow us. do what you have to do. it would be great to do that by the end of the show. >> bill: 15,000 in the next three hours. we ought to have 150. >> let's do it. >> bill: 150 instead of 50 in the next three hours. you go to at bpshow. on twitter. follow us there. >> bill: and by the way, so those 15,000, they're like real, committed, solid followers. >> that's right. >> bill: we have not gone out and bought any names. >> no. >> bill: these are all legit. >> that's right. >> bill: good morning, dan. >> good morning. alichia cruz has the phones covered. cyprian bowlding gets a big

wave, too. gotta be good to cyprian or he'll turn the cameras o remember that one morning, he turned the lights off and walked out. >> oh, no, there he goes. cyprian, come back! cyprian, we didn't mean it! >> bill: here is my advice if you're thinking of becoming the next anthony weiner. choose your girlfriends carefully, okay? president clinton learned that -- learned that lesson with monica lewinsky, right? i remember several women at the time, one of whom supposedly had a dalliance with the president. who said you know, there are a lot of mature women out there who don't blab that he easily could have had sex with. instead, chooses this teenybopper monica lewinsky. well, anthony weiner chose sidney leathers.

that's her real name, folks. sidney leathers. yesterday, she goes on one of the more respectful media outlets in the country to tell her story. she goes on the howard stern show. she says oh, man, he started flirting with me right away. >> you say you know what, representative weiner, i'm really disappointed in you. you don't hear back. >> no, not for about a year actually. then he had mentioned me saying i'm really sorry i let you down. i was like is he really this dumb? like really? >> did you know right away he was flirting with you or did it take some time? >> it didn't take long at all. almost immediately. he doesn't really have a good segue, he just goes right into it. >> bill: you don't need a segue. >> i guess not. >> bill: no. when you're sexting, gotta get right to it. >> sure. >> bill: here's where she gets on her little pedestal, her moral platform. >> i think i am a little bit

angry with him just because i feel like he lured me into this situation and he didn't want to own up to it. what pissed me up was him on the campaign trail saying i've changed and trying to act like he has this perfect marriage and everything is peachy. >> the hypocrisy got to you. >> i said bull [ bleep ] i'm proof you have not changed. >> bill: what does she expect him to say? i'm an old horn dog. i'm still sexting but i'm running for mayor. both of them are so low-life, right? >> they both kind of deserve each other. not to take away from what anthony weiner did. >> bill: don't feel sorry for her at all. neil king from the "wall street journal" will be here as a "friend of bill." margaret talbot from bloomberg. melanie sloan will be here. they're going out after general clapper for lying to congress.

bradley manning not guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> republicans want to name something else after ronald reagan. darrell issa and members of the natural resource committee are now pushing a bill that would rename the 3.4 million square miles of ocean that extends 200 miles off the u.s. coastline after the late president as the ronald wilson reagan exclusive economic zone according to the hill. [ laughter ] >> of course they do! >> back in 1983 -- >> bill: this is so crazy. if they do this, i'm leaving this country! damn it, leave the ocean alone! >> 1983, what happened was reagan proclaimed that the u.s. had the rights to all of the water off the u.s. coast for exploring, exploiting and conserving offshore resources including energy out there. and they just want to honor that >> bill: we have too damn much named after ronald reagan.

he was a lousy president. >> al roker -- >> bill: start with national airport in washington, d.c. and take the name off and rip the statue down. then how about the ronald reagan building downtown? take the name off of that building. don't get me started. i'm done. >> are you? >> probably not. >> al roker yesterday invited the vice president to fill in as host of "the today show" one morning when talking about him having breakfast with hillary clinton noting he's a big fan of joe biden's. biden took to twitter later to accept roker's offer but saying watch out, he wants to come in and host "the today show" with hillary at the anchor desk beside him. >> bill: that would be so great! if nbc were smart, they would just say any day, mr. president. >> that will never happen. >> bill: wouldn't that be great? >> rumors are swirling that apple will be ready to release

its next iphone in september. it will likely be called the iphone 5s. abc reporting the new smart phone may have a unique feature of fingerprint scanner for added security. also, they may be releasing a second, cheaper plastic iphone to appeal to more consumers. >> bill: i'm ready for the upgrade. >> i'm not so sure about the fingerprint b.s. i'm not sure how i feel about that yet. if it works -- >> bill: it works in airports. i mean they're using it more and more. here we go. the big news -- the big story of the day, of course is bradley manning. private bradley manning, the judge yesterday issuing her verdict in the case and long, long case. three years ago, he was arrested. he's been held in prison ever since. charged, of course, with leaking national security documents, breaking the law.

the government actually charged him with deliberately intending to aid and abet the enemy. the government tried to make the case. that bradley manning knew that al-qaeda would be among those who would see the documents if he gave them to wikileaks. that, therefore, he gave them to wikileaks in order to help al-qaeda, the enemy of the united states. the judge said you're full of crap. you can't prove that. he didn't do that and she acquitted bradley manning of that most serious charge. nonetheless, she found him guilty, as you know, of 19 other charges, lesser charges. serious charges but lesser charges. by the way, he had already admitted to ten of them. the government could have ended its case right there when he pleaded guilty to ten of them but no, they've tried to get him on this aid and abet the enemy deal. so the question remains is bradley manning a hero or a

traitor? kind of the same question people have been asking about edward snowden. he definitely leaked these documents, 700,000 of them. so he is definitely -- no doubt about the fact that he did it to wikileaks. is he a classic whistle-blower who told us things that we have a right to know? logically taking the risks, knowing that he broke the law but for a higher -- but believed he did it for a higher cause or is he someone the government has tried to paint him, someone who hates this country, wants to bring down this country and use his position in the military to try to undermine the united states of america and aid the enemy. hero or traitor, you tell me. 1-866-55-press. this is the lead story of the day for sure. everywhere front page "washington post," front page "new york times," led all of the network news last night, of

course. 1-866-55-press. we heard different voices say that yesterday. outside the courtroom at fort meade here in maryland, nearby washington, a group called veterans for peace were gathered, protesting this trial. they said clearly he did the right thing. >> supporting bradley manning since the day he was arrested. we consider him a hero for doing the right thing. even under the uniform code of military justice to reveal evidence of war crimes that the army was covering up. >> bill: general michael hayden, former head of the c.i.a. says he's the most dangerous guy he we've ever known. >> this is the most significant leak of classified information in the history of the republic. he put real people at real risk. >> bill: what do you say? hero or traitor?

i hate to give you a political answer on this where i'm coming from. i don't consider him a traitor. not at all. nor do i consider him necessarily a hero. i think he's a classic whistle-blower who knew what he was doing, was logical to take the chances and i think we're better off because -- and know more than we should because of what bradley manning did. he did release 700,000 documents. they dealt with the war in iraq which was basically already over by the time he released them and they dealt with the war in afghanistan, the conduct -- and then some dealings with the state department with other countries. but i think the critical question here to me is what harm did bradley manning do? what damage did he do to this country? i can't think of anything. i don't think there is, in any way, did he undermine our national security. at least the government hasn't proven that. they keep saying it but they haven't shown in any way.

and let's talk about some of the things bradley manning said. he's sent to iraq and he starts seeing stuff over there that repulses him, stuff that we should not be proud of. he wanted to get the word out. that included an attack by u.s. apache helicopter where u.s. marines are firing down on two vans and they kill nine civilians in those vans. nothing happened to any of those soldiers. that included an attack in 2005 in had etha where u.s. marines slaughtered 24 unarmed civilians. information on that incident, only one of those marines was convicted or charged with anything, brought to trial and

his punishment was he got a reduction in pay. >> gee. >> bill: lost a promotion and got a reduction in pay. that was his punishment. bradley manning could face up to -- i mean total charges, 136 years in prison. so he tells us about actions that we really ought to be ashamed of, stuff that our military was doing which they should not have been doing and nothing happens to them and bradley manning is going to face, you know, you name it, 20, 30, 40, 50 years in prison. there's something wrong with this picture. i think the other thing we have to put in context is -- and boy, edward snowden is finding this out. this really reflects this obama administration's obsession with leaks and with whistle-blowers. there have been seven people charged with leaking information and brought to trial under the obama administration, in all

previous administrations, back to george washington, all the way through george w. bush, there were only three others. only three under all previous presidents, seven under this president. so maybe this is a case of a little excessive prosecution on leakers and whistle-blowers. in the end, i think we've got to be grateful for because there are some things classified as secret that should not be secret that we ought to know about. the judge begins the sentencing phase of the trial today. but as we go into it, what do you say about bradley manning? hero or traitor, you tell me. 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." on current tv. 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? >> 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." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey, 25 minutes after the hour. yes, indeed, "new york times" points out this morning, by the way, that americans accept that some material must be classified. in the interest of national security but here's the problem. our government today classifies more than 92 million documents a year. and you know not all of that is national security. a lot of that is just stuff they don't want us to know about, right? >> yeah. >> bill: like this apache helicopter attack and bradley manning said this is sickening, this disgusts me and put it out there. >> we're on twitter at bpshow where jim says manning exposed

the truth of our actions in wars that bush and cheney lied us into. image gets prison. bush/cheney gets retirement. leave your comment at bpshow on twitter. >> bill: bush gets the library. bradley manning gets a prison cell. rafael is calling from cleveland heights, ohio. good morning. >> caller: good morning, bill. >> bill: what do you think? >> caller: i think bradley manning will probably get about 30 years. >> bill: that's probably about right. >> caller: i really feel like he did wrong because when i was in the military, it was my way, your way, the right way and the military way, simple as that. you did not deviate from that. when you took that oath to defend this country, he took an oath to everybody. you're going to defend the secrets and that's the way it is. that's the way it always will be. >> bill: do you think that's the way it always should be? >> caller: that's the way it is going to be. >> bill: if you're in the military and you see that -- you

know, we know shouldn't have to say it, that 99.9% of the military are doing a phenomenal job and we're eternally grateful to them. if you see the 1% committing crimes and killing people, unarmed civilian like they did number vietnam and some did in iraq, you don't think they ought to blow the whistle on that? >> that is being selective. that's what he should have been but he wasn't. he across the board revealed too much information. >> bill: you say too much information, economy back to -- rafael, i appreciate your point of view but i come back to exactly what did he reveal that should not have been revealed. he didn't say to the enemy, here's where our troops are, here's what our battle plans are. here's what we're going to attack tomorrow. for that, he ought to be shot at sunrise. he talked about some of the horrific things that happened in iraq and afghanistan that should not have happened. i think we're better off knowing about it.

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

minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them right?

>> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show". >> bill: bradley manning not guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy. the government lost its main case against bradley manning but he still faces charges -- prison time on 19 counts on which he was found guilty. could add up to 136 years in prison. the sentencing part of the trial begins today. by the way, i didn't realize this. i just thought the judge would announce how she was going to sentence him today but it's not

that. there's actually now a second trial which will take up to three weeks they estimate. and all kinds of witnesses will come in to say he ought to get this much time or that much time. it is time for you to weigh in here. do you consider bradley manning a hero or traitor. back to your calls and comments in just a second. but first, something that you might want to think about, imagine you were driving, had an accident, you're knocked unconscious, paramedics arrive and they can't communicate with you so can't find out any of that vital information. they need from you. because are you out of it. one way to avoid that horrible possibility is emergency link i.d. what it is, a small tag that you attach to your key ring or put in your wallet or purse that tells emergency responders everything they might need to know. your medical history, your meds, allergies, doctor's contact information and most importantly, whom to notify.

the information could literally make the -- mean the difference between life and death. so sign up now for emergency link's emergency response service for only $10 a year and you'll receive your i.d. kit free. but you gotta hurry to emergencylink.com now to take advantage of the limited offer. enter press at emergencylink.com. just one sentence from the lead editorial in "the new york times" which i think puts this in perspective. and this is -- it is this. lurking just behind a military court's conviction of private bradley manning on charges that included multiple violations of the espionage act is -- here's the important part, a national security apparatus. that has metastasized into a vast and largely unchecked

exercise of government seek cresse and the overzealous film prosecution of those who breach it. i think we have to see this in context. peter? >> bill, you can follow us on twitter at bpshow, at bpshow. please go do that. we're close to 15,000 followers. diana carlson on bradley manning says the government sounds like a whiny brat complaining because their ill deeds were exposed. shame on the government. bradley manning is a hero. fred says the u.s. government wants to hide its criminal behavior from its citizens, not from our enemies. it always has and always will. find us at bpshow. one other quick comment to throw in from gary who says unfortunately bradley is going to get what he has coming for standing up to the only folks in the world who allows secrets, the united states government. >> bill: what do i know today -- what do we know today

thanks to bradley manning or as a result of his leaks? what do we know today that we should not know? what was in those documents that we do not have a right to know. i ask that about bradley manning and about edward snowden. and i have not heard -- i don't know about you. i really follow this stuff. it is my life, right? i've not heard one thing, maybe stuff that we're not proud of. but i haven't heard one thing that's really dangerous to our national security. that's the difference. you know, you can define national security so broadly that anything we do that's not really on the up and up, right, we just define it national security then nobody ever knows about it. pretty convenient way. dale is out in roseville, california. good morning. >> caller: good morning. you weren't be happy with me either. >> bill: that's all right. you can disagree.

>> caller: he's a traitor. i'm your first caller ever by the way on your show but this guy -- >> bill: wait, wait, wait? >> caller: i was the first person to ever call bill press when you came on the air. >> bill: oh, my god! >> caller: i listen to you every morning. i'm in california and i get up at 3:00 to watch you. >> bill: thank you, dale. >> caller: absolutely. i watched you long before. >> bill: we go way back. >> caller: absolutely. you would recognize me anywhere, bill. so what i have problems with this is that he did not know what he released. and he did not do due diligence. if you're going to leak information, you have an obligation to know what you leaked. he saw a few things that he didn't like and he handed it over to wikileaks. he then released it in volume, right. and he had war logs.

so he did not know, as a private, what was dangerous or not. and certainly wikileaks did not. and my parents, both of them, male and female, were in the military in world war ii and there is a way to leak secrets and a way not to. >> bill: so you're saying -- at least alleging he didn't even read the stuff he turned over to wikileaks. >> caller: most of it, he did not. >> bill: how do you know that? >> caller: it has been reported. i've heard this on msnbc, other shows. i've followed "the times" on this. >> bill: i follow, too, i must say i've never heard that before. i've heard the opposite that he released stuff that he -- he kind of picked and chose what he wanted to say -- edward snowden said he did that. what he wanted to release and what he didn't. to release. i ask you, dale, what do we know

today as a result of bradley manning that we should not know? don't have a right to know? >> caller: that we have -- that we kill people that we're not supposed to. we did that in vietnam. we did that -- >> bill: we're not supposed -- we're not supposed to know that? >> caller: we knew it back then. >> bill: we should not know that? >> caller: we should know that but i have a knee-jerk reaction to people handing over volumes of documents. >> bill: okay. >> caller: you want to know -- if you want the people to know about those incidents, then you hand over those incidents. you don't hand over 100,000 pages of documents. >> bill: i got you, dale. we disagree on this one, obviously. here's to dale. here's to another 30 years together. all right. or however long it's been. ray is in chicago. what do you say, ray? hero or traitor? >> caller: hero. >> bill: because?

>> caller: because he divulged information that i think we should know. i think we should know if we're killing people we shouldn't be killing. i respect the people that are in the military but let's keep in mind the president talked about how we should be transparent. we got caught with our pants down, with our hands in the cookie jar. we messed up. >> bill: mm-hmm. i think the reason that the government is going after -- and this whole national security apparatus is going after bradley manning with such -- almost obsession is that they know they got caught and they don't like being caught and therapiesed about being caught. again, i think he was careful -- he was releasing stuff he thought was not appropriate, was not proper and should not have been happening. from what we've seen, that stuff

should not be happening. we ought to know about it if it is. rae, good to hear from you. chris, good morning from chicago. >> caller: bill, unless this kid is a speed-reader, i don't know that he read 700,000 pages of information that he released. this is the problem that i have with this quote-unquote whistle-blower theory. we use that word very carelessly. bradley manning and edward snowden are careless. >> bill: how so? you mean just because they're indiscriminate? >> caller: i love your show. you say i haven't seen anything that shows that they're harming our national security. you and i, bill, aren't experts in national security. we don't know. >> bill: chris, but i also just don't believe the people that say that -- that cry every time something is leaked.

this is terrible. this puts us at great risk. they have never shown yet any one thing that has harmed our national security. you know, 92 million documents classified every year, national security, a lot of that is b.s., chris, you know that. >> caller: americans, we're so hypocritical. we want to live in this great country that gives us all of these rights and freedoms and unlimited oil yet we want to complain about, you know, hey, we were wrong entering war. once you enter war, the war is ugly. manning saw things that repulsed him. then you're not meant to be in the military. >> bill: boy, do i disagree with that, chris. uh-huh. we have something called the military code of justice and our military, there are certain rules and standard of conduct that we expect and we demand of our military and again, 99.9% of our military observed those rules in the highest standards.

those who don't, we ought to know about it and they out to be punished. again, i come back to the marines that fired in ha dee that killing 24 unarmed civilians, nothing happened to them. nothing happened to them! and yet bradley manning told us about it and so we're going to throw him in a prison cell for 50, 60 years or god knows what. the government wanted to kill him. there's something screwed up here, folks. don't be in a big rush to just fall for this national security b.s. we'll see what happens if bradley manning -- we'll talk more about it on the "full court press." the effort is still underway to expand medicare and go to single payer healthcare policy. dave from public citizen will tell us all about it. >> announcer: 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 commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

>> bill: to move toward a single payer system, some people have not given up on that. today, actually yesterday, i didn't realize this, was the 48th anniversary of when medicare was signed into law. and today, outside the house office, outside the capitol, rather, representative john conyers, senator bernie sanders and the president of public citizen are going to be there to talk about the expansion of medicare and to advocate that. dave is the healthcare counsel for public citizen joining us on our news line this morning. dave, good to have you with us. >> nice to be here, bill, thank you.

>> bill: what are you guys calling for today? a new legislation, new proposal, what? >> it is a bill senator conyers has introduced called hr, 676 and it is improved medicare for all act. >> bill: improved medicare for all. some people said that's what they should have called obamacare in the first place, right? might have been easier to sell. >> it probably would have, actually, if you poll the term medicare, people love medicare. the coverage is really good. and you're able to provide the care very reasonably. >> bill: would this expand on obamacare or replace it? >> it would actually expand on medicare. you know, in its simplest form, it would say basically, similar benefits that people get under medicare would be extended to everyone. the government would be the

payer instead of private insurance companies. >> bill: so what you're saying is that anybody of any age, right, could qualify for medicare. >> that's exactly right. >> bill: and that is what we really refer to, have always referred to as single payer, correct? >> that is correct. when you think about that single payer, it is really just having people pay money to the government and the government pays hospitals and doctors instead of having people pay a wide variety of different people. could be private insurance or government or state government. it is a fractured system and there is a lot of inefficiency in having thousands of different payers. >> bill: public citizen, publiccitizen.org squarely behind the legislation to expand medicare to all americans. dave sterrett, healthcare counsel for public citizen on the line with us. dave, i've always been a single payer guy, 100%.

i think it's the way to go. i have lived in -- i lived in switzerland for a couple of years. i've traveled a lot in france. i've taken advantage of single payer systems in other countries. but what do you say about the fact that when he started this conversation about healthcare policy, president obama took single payer off the table. so what do you think the chances are of getting this through congress, number one and number two, getting it signed by the president? >> well, it's not going to happen this session. it is fair to say that. but it's interesting. when you look at president obama's former statements as a senator, he said that single payer is what he wants to see and he thinks it is the best answer. but we know it is going to take some time. but that's why public citizen and congressman conyers and senator sanders are doing this rally in front of the capitol today to remind people that single payer covers everyone. it provide the better health outcomes and it does it much

less expensively than any other system. >> bill: how do you counter -- we always hear the story about the long lines in canada and people in canada who really want good healthcare come across the border into the united states to get it because the canadian system is so bad. what's the truth? >> the truth is when you look at the polls of how canadians feel about their healthcare system, it is overwhelmingly positive. they absolutely love it. and so our seniors are going up to canada, to buy their prescription drugs. i think we can look at the facts. canadians have a great system. it provides great coverage for everyone. it is very inexpensive and their health outcomes are better. they live a lot longer up there than we do. >> bill: i gotta tell you, i'm happy you're keeping this issue alive. i know it's going to take a long time. i think we're going to eventually get there. dave sterrett, thank you for joining us from public citizen.

that's publiccitizen.org. the way to start, i think, is to add a public plan option to obamacare. hope we can at least get that. congressman john conyers who will be -- the sparkplug behind expansion of medicare, will be here in studio with us tomorrow on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned great leadership so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things happen.

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>> bill: yesterday, jim wallis was here, reverend jim wallis talking about the faith community behind immigration reform. tom bead says it is entraining to see evangelicals finally embracing the undocumented. how long until they embrace the lgbt community as well? good point. president obama went to an amazon fulfillment center in chattanooga, tennessee yesterday. russell says i have nothing good to say for amazon. i worked for them a few years ago in a distribution warehouse near chicago. they're nonunion and a sweatshop. okay. >> bill: and on eric holder, i've been critical of him and this says bill, at age 80, i'm proud to say i wake up with you every morning. what a lucky old broad i am. she's a big fan of eric holder and says i am wrong to criticize him for not doing enough about enforcing the voting rights act. >> bill: ann, on that issue,

he's been pretty good. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: the city of san diego is now suingity mayor, bob filner because they say they don't want to pay all of his legal bills. why doesn't filner quit and go home? hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is the "full court press" here on current tv. we're glad to see you this morning. and look forward to taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. and to getting your comments on twitter at bpshow and on

facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. big story of the day. the federal government failed yesterday to convict private bradley manning of aiding and abetting the enemy but he was found guilty on 19 other charges. definitely is going to face some time in prison. the sentencing face of that trial begins today. president obama offered a grand bargain to republicans. he said i will give you lower taxes, lower corporate taxes if you give me more money for jobs. that's the deal. we'll see if republicans take that deal. and chris christie and rand paul continue to attack each other while democrats just sit back and smile up in new york city. you will not be surprised to learn that anthony weiner is still in the race. and sidney leathers, the woman he was sexting with, is talking

about maybe doing a photo spread for you know whom. that and more 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

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>> 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? >> 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: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: for the latest, the city of san diego says they're going to sue their mayor because he's costing them too much money. why doesn't filner just quit? why doesn't anthony weiner just quit? good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is the "full court press" here coast-to-coast. democrats shamefully hanging in there. good to see you today. and thank you for joining us. coming to you live on your local progressive talk radio station.

nationwide. and also on current tv. good to have you with us this morning and so good to welcome back to the program one of our favorite friends of bill. he lives next door. you just roll out of bed and roll over here. neil king, political reporter for the "wall street journal." good to see you. >> i've still got my pajama bottoms on. >> bill: you come in dressed in some pretty -- >> those are running clothes. >> bill: you look very good. >> good to be a fob. isn't that what you call it? "friend of bill"? >> bill: you join the team of fobs, peter ogborn and dan henning. new term here. with alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding keeping us look good on the video cam. in the bill clinton days which is when this started, is that what they called them, fobs, friends of bill? >> it predates the bill clinton

stuff, it is alcoholics anonymous term. >> bill: it is? >> yeah, friends of bill. >> my name is neil king and i am a "friend of bill." >> it was started by a guy, bill. that was their code. you're a "friend of bill." >> bill: i didn't know that. >> without saying oh, are you an alcoholic, too? >> bill: are you? >> i'm going to be. [ laughter ] >> plan on it. >> bill: wouldn't you know the circus in new york continues. yesterday in the main ring, anthony weiner thought he had answered back to these people who say you know, you don't even live in new york. people are telling him to quit the race. he says -- he put out a video. this is the most shameless video i think i've ever heard of any politician. you would expect it from anthony weiner. here he is. >> i know that there are newspaper editors and other politicians who say i wish that guy weiner would quit. you don't know new york.

you certainly don't know me. >> bill: did you think in the background it sounds like "oh beautiful, for spacious skies." >> i don't know how much new york can take. new york can take a lot for a long time. >> we've seen it. >> bill: he will be using that. he said we are new yorkers. >> we survived 9-11. we can survive anthony weiner. >> bill: here it is. he says we're new yorkers. we don't quit. >> quit isn't the way we roll in new york city. we fight through tough times. we're a tough city. there are people all around new york city who get up in the morning with a pretty tough day ahead of them and they don't quit. >> quit sexting. >> bill: they get on that subway, man. >> it will be interesting to see how he actually walks around the city today with balls that big to put that video out. that's impressive. i almost respect that level of just committing to it. >> bill: look, there are six weeks to go.

i'll say it again. it is not impossible he still ends up in the runoff. >> maybe there's just a comic sort of voting thing that goes on. are people still falling for the gritty anthony weiner is going to turn the city around? >> bill: who knows. it is not a strong field. >> it is not. bloomberg must just be -- must maximum cringe state. he was trying to lure in hillary clinton to take over allegedly. >> bill: yeah. so, we've got a lot to cover here with neil king. we will this whole hour as a "friend of bill." we'll be joined by juana summers from politico. she'll join us at the half. margaret from bloomberg news in the next hour. but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this wednesday, it was movie night for several members of congress last night. california democrat barbara lee

taking several colleagues out to see "fruitvale station" at the theatre here in washington. politico reporting bobby stout of virginia, ted of massachusetts and eleanor holmes norton of d.c. were among those -- wanda grant, a mother of oscar grant was also at the screening. he was the man shot by police. he's played by michael b. jordan in the film. >> bill: have you seen the movie? >> i have not. >> bill: it is phenomenal. it is trayvon martin magnified. barbara lee, the true "fruitvale station" is in oakland. incredible. >> a shake-up in the evening network news ratings this week. "new york times" reporting for the first time since november of 2008, abc's "world news" with diane sawyer beat nbc nightly news with brian williams last night in the coveted 25 to 54

demographic only by 38,000 viewers. nbc still won in total viewers but still, a significant milestone for abc. >> it is good to be in the coveted bracket. just barely. [ laughter ] >> bill: i still can't believe that young people would turn to diane sawyer rather than -- >> i'm surprised young people are watching at all. >> bill: that's right. frightening. >> you want to expand? >> bill: no. >> we'll talk about it later. >> the royal baby is barely a week old and he's already got his nickname. prince charles has been toying around great britain accepting gifts on behalf of the family. they're starting to call the baby georgey and that he's very loud and very wonderful. >> bill: don't call him

georgey. >> give him a chance. less than a week, find an original name. >> bill: where do we start? neil, let's start with the fact that president obama down in chattanooga yesterday at an amazon plant and this phrase -- i don't know where this phrase grand bargain came from but he came up with -- it was last year. >> we've been talking about the need for one for a long time. >> bill: supposedly, he and john boehner had agreed on one and boehner couldn't sell it to his caucus. the president said i've got another grand bargain for you, republicans. here's his one sentence. >> obama: here's the bottom line. i'm willing to work with republicans on reforming our corporate tax code as long as we use the money from transitioning to a tax system for a significant investment in creating middle class jobs. that's the deal. >> bill: so i'll lower corporate taxes if you put that

money into creating jobs. particularly he said rebuilding bridges and stuff. is this going anywhere? >> it seems not. i mean immediately, mitch mcconnell slapped it down under no uncertain terms. in some ways, he's offering to bring the corporate tax rate down. >> bill: which is what republicans have always wanted, right? >> as far as i understand it, the main money that would then be used on other programs is the money -- the fee that -- something like $2 trillion kept overseas that if they were repatriated the money, they would pay the government in a taxation. they're talking about $50 billion going into jobs programs. didn't we spend $70 billion on sandy rebuilding? it is not a monstrous amount of money. so it is just a sign of how totally foul things are that you can put forward something.

it wasn't a brand new idea. he repackaged it, he put it out there. i think in good faith, right. i would bet it doesn't go anywhere. >> bill: it's almost like is there anything that the president could offer republicans that they would accept? other than resignation. >> yeah, i know. i'm sure you've talked on the show, john boehner, sunday before last when he talked about repeal legislation. they have become, for the time being, just about obstruction and about standing in the way. but doing it proudly and making that their cause. we did a poll that came out last week and congressional approval, all-time low. in our polling going back decades. republicans are all being held in low regard. this kind of thing, when the president puts forward something

that feels like some kind of a bargain, grand or otherwise -- >> bill: doesn't this point toward some real ugly days ahead in the fall when we get to debt ceiling? >> the scary foulness of august of 2011 when they tried to do the last brinksmanship on that. what happened to the market and all of that kind of stuff. this could be worse than that. there are so many things coming together. even more playing into this. they're not even -- this is their last week before they go out on recess. they're not doing anything. >> bill: they are going to vote to repeal -- in the house, to repeal obamacare again. >> would that be the 39th time? >> bill: someone told me the 40th. i have literally -- >> i hope you're not counting. >> bill: back to the debt ceiling and whatever crisis that lies ahead because it looks like

republicans are just saying we're not going to give up. we're willing to shut down the government and from what i hear from the white house, we're not going to cave in again. they want to shut down the government. let them go. god forbid, we could be heading for that. it worked so well the last time for republicans. >> last time around it was basically about you know, under what circumstances will we raise the debt ceiling and what sort of deal do we need to make that happen, this dollars and cents trade-off deal. in this case, we're putting obamacare funding gun to your forehead. that's our price this time. that's obviously not going anywhere. >> bill: maybe we should put up -- appoint a new committee, a super committee and say to make sure the super committee does its job, we'll put a sequester thread on top of it that nobody could ever go for. that worked so well. the other thing the president said yesterday which i was surprised to hear him say but we

know that this keystone pipeline decision is looming at the state department. they've been reviewing it forever, it seems. and the president -- until the last week or so, has remained aloof from this. at the briefings, we keep asking jay carney trying to get a hint about this. check with the state department. we're not going to say anything until we hear what they say. here is the president yesterday. >> obama: they keep on talking about this -- an oil pipeline coming down from canada that's estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs. that's not a jobs plan. >> bill: how can he approve this pipeline after he's badmouthing it everywhere he goes. >> he said some very negative things about it when he talked to the "new york times" last week. you're like wow, maybe -- >> bill: he said it won't lower gas prices and will only create 50 jobs in a working population of 150 million americans. he called it a blip on the screen. doesn't that sort of indicate -- >> i know.

all of a sudden, it seems that way. before, there was uncertainty on which way he was going to go. it is an unusual project, you know. >> bill: right. >> bringing a kind of -- somewhat dubious fuel taken out of the ground under really difficult circumstances all the way to the gulf coast from canada by a -- >> bill: then ship it overseas. >> part of the reason is the project exists to bring it all the way to the gulf coast is because disputes in canada haven't allowed it to go west to vancouver for doing whatever there. >> bill: so we refine it then we ship it out because they won't or can't. >> in some ways, we inherited their logistical and political -- >> bill: politically, do you think the president could approve the pipeline now after all of the things -- it would be awkward to say the least, right? >> it would be awkward. certainly not teeing it up. it wouldn't seem that way. it would trade a big -- backlash from within his own caucus, more

so maybe than the backlash on the other side. which he probably doesn't care that much about. >> bill: neil, we'll take a quick break. the when we come back, democrats are famous for forming the circular firing squad, right? republicans usually chuckle and point the finger. well, today, it seems roles have reversed. we have chris christie and rand paul firing at each other. which democrats are enjoying. we'll get into that and more with neil king here and you're welcome to join the conversation at 1-866-55-press. as we hopscotch over the news of the day 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." for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv.

we have a big, big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit.

>> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on! the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

>> announcer: like politics, then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you got it. 25 minutes after the hour. it is the last day of july. my god. where has summer gone? wednesday, july 31. neil king is in studio with us as a bob. "wall street journal," wall street, wsj.com is where you can find his good work. peter, what's going on? >> in england, we have unleashed our burger restaurants on the people of london. we shipped out a shake shack and a five guys to london. >> bill: a five guys? >> a five guys and a shake shack. >> five blokes. >> exactly.

here's the thing. they don't like it. they don't like it in london. they said it is not very good. they say it is too greasy. >> bill: they eat their fish and chips. >> they say it is greasy. the independent, their food critic says the overall effect of the cheeseburger of salt and grease and yielding mushiness sets all of the pleasure receptors buzzing but the flavor never arrives. >> we'll see if they're still there a year from now. if they are, that means people are eating there and like it. >> i think the problem is we don't boil our cheeseburgers like they do in england. >> bill: i don't know but look, mcdonald's has had huge success in france, for example, which drives me crazy, every time i see the mcdonald's in paris. five guys, once they taste five guys, they'll be -- >> in france, you get a nice bordeaux to go with your big mac. >> they call it le big mac.

>> bill: how is this for a segue? speaking of big macs, let's talk about chris christie. >> let's! >> bill: i love this civil war in the republican party. and it started when chris christie last weekend, giving a talk in front of a republican group says you know, there are republicans that are doing dangerous stuff right now, not naming any names, rand paul because he's criticizing nsa and undermining our national security, not to mention what he said about drones. rand paul fires back at chris christie. look at all of the money you spent on hurricane sandy. is this the beginning of 2016? >> it is a big theme that will go into 2016. there's no doubt that rand paul is running for president. i don't think there will be a lot of suspense about whether chris christie does either. this is the moment, right? i just look at this and i think rand paul got the longer end of the stick or the longer stick. he has more to play with in this

debate. i think rand paul rightly criticized christie for saying kind of how dare you talk about rolling back the nsa. why don't you come to new jersey and meet with some 9-11 widows. i don't know. that's sort of low to bring out the widows and 9-11 thing. it is a legitimate debate. >> bill: right. >> the idea that the debate is really what kind of damage did we do to our country as a civic place. that's the debate rand paul wants, not to shut down the debate by saying you have to talk to the widows. >> bill: no. i think rand paul is echoing a lot of americans saying hey, maybe this national security apparatus has gotten a little bit too big. which brings us to bradley manning and the next half hour, tbhawn summers will -- juana summers will join us from politico. we'll get into this with neil king and juana summers and all

of you. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes now after the hour. the "full court press" on this wednesday, july 31. lead story on the network news last night. front page of every newspaper in the country today. here's the headline in "the new york times," manning as in private bradley manning found not guilty of aiding the enemy. the sentencing phase of that trial begins today. here in studio with us, neil king is here as a "friend of bill" this entire hour.

senior political reporter for the "wall street journal." and we're joined by juana summers who covers defense issues for politico pro. welcome back to the studio. >> thanks for having me back. >> bill: nice to see you. bradley manning, not guilty on the most serious charge. but guilty on what? 19 others? >> absolutely. he was found guilty on a variety of other lesser charges. while aiding the enemy does carry a life sentence that he will avoid, he could still in jail for as many as several hundred years depending on how the sentencing phase goes. that's expected to be a very lengthy process. >> bill: so that was news to me, by the way. i thought the judge today was just going to say okay, here's how much time you get, dude. but no. this is another whole trial, right? >> it is. it is a very long process. appeals by bradley manning and his lawyers could go on for years. one of those things that shows and underlies the different between military court-martial and the civilian system you and i are used to dealing with.

>> bill: they'll bring in witnesses from both sides? >> that's the case. >> bill: they'll argue for 10 years or 20 years or no time? >> absolutely. the process is expected to go on for weeks before there is a determination. the judge will then, of course, have to figure out how to sentence bradley manning without duplicate -- giving him a duplicate sentence for two things with the same underlying root cause. it is a complicated process. >> would that have been changed if they had done the aiding and abetting enemy? >> i think there's no question that that certainly would have changed the construct of the proceedings, changed how that process is expected to go. again, did he avoid that most serious charge. it will be interesting to see how this proceeds. >> bill: my question is related to that is if they -- when he admitted to ten counts, which i understand he did, right? what if the government had just like accepted that and applied whatever punishment would have

been appropriate. did they make a mistake in pursuing this aiding and abetting the enemy? did the government make a mistake in pursuing and aiding and abetting the enemy? >> i'm not a lawyer. legal experts will be look at this case. it has certainly changed the tone of what aiding the enemy means. i think how that could be applied in the future. obviously there were a lot of parallels being drawn between the case that bradley manning faced and what snowden could face. >> bill: neil, a lot of people are saying if he had been found guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy, people who leaked to people like you and me, you know, and you, right, would never, ever do it again. >> yeah, i know. definitely have a chilling effect. it seems to me that multiple counts of violating the espionage act is no small thing. >> bill: that would have a chilling effect. >> big case here when you're talking about whistle-blowers and the kind of people who might provide these kind of leaks to the press. the more and more you leak, the

more in danger are you going to face the big charges. i think between this case and the snowden case over the next couple of years, people are going to be more reluctant or hesitant to come forward with the types of information you see that's at play here. >> bill: the question i keep asking, talking about this, right before you got here is what do we know today as a result of bradley manning that we should not know? okay. one thing we know is there were u.s. soldiers who fired from an apache helicopter on two vans and killed nine civilians and nothing happened to any of those soldiers. we know in 2005, at haditha, there was a massacre of 24 unarmed civilians by u.s. marines. one soldier was charged and he got a reduction in his pay and was demoted in rank and got reduction in his pay. so that's all that happened.

bradley manning will go to prison for 60 years? so i keep coming back -- >> what's the damage? what's the damage to our national security? not to put you on the spot. you followed it more closely than i did. what's the government's answer to that? >> they think there is the argument, of course, that those are things that should be -- the government believes that information was not supposed to be out there. and the question is what else did bradley manning know or a bradley manning-type person know. you have to look forward to the funeral and say if this precedent is okay, if this information can get out, the government thinks what else could get out that could be damaging information. you're seeing that play out with the disclosures on nsa surveillance. >> bill: i'm not happy about it, i'm not proud of it but i think we're better off knowing what happened with that apache helicopter at haditha. this is like the massacre in vietnam. not that we're ever -- we're

ashamed of it. the american people know these things can happen in wartime. people who do those crimes ought to be prosecuted. >> obviously the government wants there to be a chilling effect. that's part of the point is even if you put aside what we're talking about which is all right, what dam was done. there is an overclassification, if nothing else, the whole leak of these things, you say why was this classified? why didn't we know? but on the other hand, do we really want to encourage or can we even sustain a system where privates in the army just willy nilly go through whatever they can get access to and release volumes now amounts of information and claim to be a whistle-blower when they might have been seeking a certain entertainment or attention or whatever. it is a delicate balance. >> bill: it is. "the new york times" on your point, "the new york times" reporting this morning that the

government said we all accept some stuff has to be classified. nobody debates that. that acceptance in "the new york times" is severely tested when the government classifies more than 92 million documents every year. now, we know a lot of that stuff, not really national security stuff. it is just stuff they don't want us to know. >> people have written about it lately about what information should come out about the bay of pigs, right? they think that there's damaging classified information about something that happened in 1962, in i got the date right. is that really possible there's something that's so secret from that long ago? they keep stuff classified. that probably shouldn't have been classified in the first place. still classified for decades. >> bill: it is the same thing -- at least i believe with edward snowden. the fact that nsa is keeping a record of every single phone

call made by every single individual in the united states of america. i'm not happy about that. but i'm happy to know it. i think we should have been told that. why was that -- that fact kept a secret? >> absolutely. now you're seeing the nsa is -- according to reports, we'll get more information about it. so i think a lot of people are asking the question, if you can declassify it now and talk about it openly after what edward snowden did and go into the details, why not just do it in the first place. >> bill: this bradley manning trial, there is a lot hinging on it. >> it was never -- or did you see any indication of people -- there were some on the left who rallied obviously for. there were those on the right. a few that were saying the same thing, you know. but it was hard to identify like a firm base of like support for the guy. what do you think? >> i felt the same way.

when we're kind of look at this and tracking the reaction to this case, there wasn't an easy easy -- this is the prototype of a bradley manning supporter. the argument his lawyers made, he was a naive guy. he thought he was doing the right thing. drilling down who the people are that believe that was very tough. >> bill: you have to look at this, too, in the context of the obama administration and its obsession with leaks. again, i keep referring to "the new york times" because i read that early this morning. but there have been seven people charged with leaking information under this administration. taken all the way to court, right? and that's why they're so eager to get edward snowden, i guess. in previous administrations, all previous presidents, there were three. now, have we gotten like too uptight? >> i think there is probably a mix of one, there is a real

zealousness on the part of the administration to lookers. we haven't seen a lot of leaks like this in the past. >> bill: massive leaks. >> yeah. part of it -- i remember when david brooks wrote what i thought was an interesting column after the snowden thing where he was basically making the case that snowden represented that kind of new prototype of a new type of loner, internet base guy. sort of new species in a way. i think there is some truth in that. the culture is changing. i think the ties that a lot of people have to this -- the country, that kind of patriotic thing has loosened a lot. people see themselves as lone operators. ed snowden has become the symbol of the lone operator. >> bill: from what i've read about bradley manning's life -- >> pretty lone operator. >> bill: a real lone operator and a very troubled youth. went into the army. basically couldn't do anything.

he was good at computers. that's where they assigned him in iraq with access to all of this information which is another part of the problem that four and a half million people have top security clearance in this country. you have four and a half million people who have access to all of our secrets, of course something was going to leak out. >> that's one of the big things you heard at the security conference. dod officials saying that is the root of this problem. we need to be more judicious with who has access. i would expect to see in the months ahead, the dod taking a hard look at how they get people that clearance and how people have access. >> bill: there are so many questions raised by this bradley manning trial that we're discussing here. this morning with neil king from the "wall street journal." and juana summers from politico pro. invite you to join the conversation. the ultimate question everybody is asking today about bradley manning. is he a hero or a traitor. how much time should he get some

he will be serving some time in prison. 1-866-55-press is the toll free number. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show."

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision.

the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 12 minutes now before the top of the hour. margaret covers the white house for bloomberg. she will be here in studio at the top of the next hour talking about -- more about the president's grand bargains they've offered republicans yesterday. right now, we're talking about

various aspects of the bradley manning trial yesterday with neil king here as a "friend of bill" from the "wall street journal." juana summers covers defense issues the hill at politico pro. let's take a quick call here before i want to ask you about the big vote on nsa and the house. which i found very interesting. bipartisan. interesting bipartisan line-up there. yvette is calling from pensacola, florida. navy town. hello, yvette. >> caller: good morning, hi. i hope that bradley manning and edward snowden, if he's caught, get the maximum. i think that releasing information about our country while we have people out in various countries fighting, if they wanted to do something, they should have joined this country in helping us fight

for -- excuse me, fight for -- fight with our soldiers that are on the ground. instead of leaking information to various countries about our privacy -- what really irks me is people in america act as if we're the only country that's doing it. that in itself irks me because if you don't know what gathering information is then they should have never been in the decisions to do that. >> bill: i got it, yvette. thank you. a lot of americans feel that way. we spent the first hour talking about this. our callers, this is liberal central, right. we're split on edward snowden. half say he's a hero. half say he's a traitor. >> that makes sense to me. a lot of people have had that reaction, kind of who are you to think that you are the one that can do this and you know, expose -- possibly expose others. it has opened up -- i liked her last point about this kind of -- there's been a little naivete.

the nsa is gathering information. it is like they're gathering information even on people that are friends of ours. they're trying to gather information at eu gatherings. that's what countries do. the eu countries are doing the same thing. if it they're not, it would be remarkable. >> bill: i wouldn't call bradley manning a hero. i wouldn't call edward snowden a hero. i come back to the fact that so far, i'm pleased to know -- i'm happy i know now what they did reveal. i think we're better off because we know what they did reveal and i haven't yet seen any harm done to this country by what they leaked. but juana, this gets to the issue of what nsa is up to and whether the funding should continue and in the house, it was an unusual coalition of the far left and the far right who got together and almost -- almost defunded this phone collection program by the nsa.

has that -- is that over now or do you think it will continue? >> i don't think that's over. we saw representative justin amash did get a vote on his amendment that would have -- defunded the nsa's programs and it only failed by a narrow marnen. >> bill: justin amash and john conyers. >> strange bedfellows, certainly. that does not mean this issue is dead. while it did not go on and the defense funding bill in the house, senate lawmakers are now working through their version of this bill. we're starting to hear that amash and others who support his amendment might try to again force a vote in the senate on that bill and the senate is now considering its defense appropriations. >> bill: so neil, on this issue, john boehner and nancy pelosi were both within eight votes of this amendment. we haven't seen that on anything else, have we? >> not that i can think of. >> bill: the white house, also. >> there's obviously a real undercurrent of unease about this, if not more than just unease. the most interesting

undercurrent with the one on the right. that goes back to what we were talking about about rand paul and chris christie debate. and you know, it is a libertarian sentiment about the government is being too involved in people's lives. and the fact that a lot of republicans are now reacting even if it's an invasion in people's lives on a national security front. usually an area where republicans have been steadfast. >> bill: what i find that's most interesting here is james sensenbrenner, author of the patriot act, says that they are abusing the act. they're taking section 215 too far and that he is introducing -- he's writing his own legislation, not this amendment of justin amash but his own legislation to correct that problem. and to prevent looking at so much information or gathering so much information. sensenbrenner could maybe get this passed. >> interesting to see what happens. i think the republicans have made a great point.

this needs to be looked at in a piecemeal amendment. >> bill: we haven't heard the last of bradley manning and we haven't seen the last of juana summers and neil king. i'll be back and tell you what the president is up to today. cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the 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!

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. 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. >> bill: margaret from

bloomberg news with us in the next hour. so is melanie sloan. both in studio. president obama coming up to capitol hill today, look for the motorcade, guys, coming by any time. he'll be coming up to meet with the house democratic caucus at 10:00 this morning. and then at 11:25, he will go over to the senate side and meet with the senate democratic caucus. very rare for the president to come up to the capitol building. doing so today. he goes back to the white house doing one of the things that he loves best. welcoming another sports team, the san francisco giants on monday. today, it is the champion u-conn huskies. women's basketball championship at the white house. back at the white house, i should say. then the president and the vice president meet with treasury secretary jack lew this afternoon. jay carney will hold his briefing at 12:45 and i will be

here to tell you all about it tomorrow.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, everybody. what do you say? good to see you today on wednesday, july 31. this is the "full court press" coming to you live on current tv from our studio on capitol hill in washington d.c. bringing you the news of the day. most importantly, giving you a chance to talk about it. we know there's lot going on this morning that you'll want to weigh in on. bradley manning, the government failing to convict private bradley manning of aiding and

abetting the enemy. but he was found guilty on 19 lesser charges. he will definitely face some time in prison and the sentencing phase of that trial begins today. bradley manning to consider him a hero or a traitor. let us know. by phone at 1-866-55-press. you can give us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. we're trying to get up to 15,000 followers on twitter by the end of our show this morning. so if you haven't already done so, sign up, sign up, sign up at bpshow. president obama offering a grand bargain to republicans yesterday saying i will lower taxes for corporations. i'll give you lower corporate taxes if you give me some more money for jobs in this country. that's the deal. we'll see if republicans accept the deal and chris christie and

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

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

>> 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? >> 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: the city of san diego saying they're going to sue their mayor, bob filner because of his issues. why doesn't he just quit? why doesn't anthony weiner just quit? good morning. what do you say? july 31. wednesday. this is the "full court press." it is great to see you today. have you part of the program.

thanks for joining us. and really, join the discussion by phone at 1-866-55-press. at any time. on the topics we're talking about or become our follower on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama coming up to capitol hill today and then jay carney will be assembling the white house press crew at 12:45 for his daily briefing where i show up often and end up sharing that experience with margaret talev who covers the white house for bloomberg news in studio this morning. hey, margaret, good to see you. >> good morning. >> bill: we're both off to an early start. >> i'm off to a better start. i'm drinking my coffee and my croissant. i see you eating your yogurt. >> bill: my chobani. and ice tea. >> ice tea is his code word for

gin. >> bill: peter ogborn and dan henning. hey, guys. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: with alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding has the video cam covered. margaret, we know anthony weiner -- six weeks to go, he's not going to drop out of the race. he's determined he's going to stay. but it is pretty bad when eliot spitzer says -- >> not for me. hands off. >> bill: i won't vote for him because he's morally decayed or whatever. pretty bad when even donald trump of all people says it. >> he could change his mind, bill. that's the thing you need to -- >> bill: he could. jimmy fallon had some fun with the fact that trump is dumping him. >> trump said that there's something mentally wrong with anthony weiner. [ laughter ] he said that guy's dangerous. he's unstable and disgusting. so look for him next season on

celebrity apprentice. [ laughter ] >> bill: you know he probably will, right? >> cold to it, too. >> bill: of course he would. somehow they deserve each other. all right. president obama again coming up to the hill. we'll find out what that's about. and about his grand bargain and that and more with margaret talev. at the half, melanie sloan will be joining us from crew. they filed a lawsuit yesterday against james clapper, head of the nsa for committing perjury. more about that. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this wednesday. bill, powerball jackpot has soared to a big number again. tonight's drawing up to $235 million. if you match all six numbers. no one has done that since june 2nd. the last person to win big was a woman from florida. she won $590 million back in

may. she just collected that check last week. it was $278 million after taxes. >> as you do that, both bill and margaret both write notes. buy powerball. >> all you need is a dollar and a dream. >> bill: no, it is $2 for powerball. >> the star of the hit cbs show "the good wife" -- >> bill: should we go into this together? >> only if i get half if you win. >> bill: employees who -- >> think that's fantastic. >> bill: they always make fun of it, we're leaving them out of it. >> can't win if you don't play. >> the star of the hit cbs show "the good wife" which centers around the wife of a politician caught in a sex scandal says the real anthony weiner scandal has been a big -- >> like that's believable. >> the real anthony weiner scandal has been a big boost for the drama series and its writing team, julianna margulies

telling enews, even know she doesn't want to benefit from somebody else's pain, it is a gift that keeps on giving film and the real life events will have an influence in this season 's story line. >> if there was a show that said there is a politician who used anthony weener who used the fake name of carlos danger and had a girlfriend named sidney leathers -- it would be canceled. the show will be canceled. >> al roker yesterday invited vice president to fill in as a host on "the today show" one morning. when talking about him having breakfast with hillary clinton and noting he's a big fan of joe and thinks he would do a good job, biden took to twitter and accepted al al roker's offer but said he not only wants to host the show but he wants hillary clinton on the anchor desk next to him as well.

>> the white house is going to put him in an undisclosed location. >> yeah. >> you put the words biden and twitter in a sentence together, that's music to my ears because you know something good is going to come out of that. >> bill: that's right. so margaret, president obama -- very unusual for a president to come up to capitol hill. he's coming up this morning and he's going to meet with the democrats in the house at about 10:00 this morning and then walking the other side of the capital and meeting with the senate democratic caucus again. why? what's up today? >> so today is july 31st which means tomorrow is august 1st, the dog days of summer. the worst month ever for the obama administration every year since he's been president. and what the president is trying to do right now is a combination of reassuring and strategizing and kind of getting the ducks in a row among his party. and it is unclear how much of this is actually going to be like hard core tactical development and how much of it is just checking the temperature

and making sure he doesn't have problems inside his own caucus before they go and sort of do battle with the republicans over the summer. democrats often feel like he's not consulting with them. look, it shouldn't be that rare for a president to go talk to members of his party. he's trying to do what he should do. >> bill: a lot of it may be just schmoozing and showing some respect for them by showing up on their turf and i'm sure he'll take questions, right? people can get up and say you ought to be doing this, you ought to be doing that. >> as soon as congress goes home for the august break, there are town hall meetings and they're very often lawmakers themselves lose control of the process. this summer has been taken over by well-organized outside groups. what the democrats and republicans both want to do is use this to their advantage in terms of gearing up for debates over the budget. the deficit, the cr, the sequester, all of this sort of fiscal stuff that's going to come to a head at the end of

august. september is when immigration happens, the formative period for the debate that takes place when they return. >> bill: this probably anticipates that when they come back, right, there will be some pretty ugly budget battles and debt ceiling battles. so maybe getting his troops -- right, getting his troops. ready for that. >> both sides are trying to do it. he doesn't want to be caught off-guard. he doesn't want democrats to be caught off-guard. they want to know what he's prepared to do. how much he's prepared to fight. this is a lot about public messaging and the signal it sends and to some extent about internal messaging and everybody talking to each other. >> bill: last week, we know the president gave three speeches on jobs. jacksonville, illinois, out in missouri, yesterday he was down in chattanooga. he took a little different direction. but so this -- he wants to refocus on jobs and the economy. pivot back to, we're told, jobs and the economy.

is this working? >> the focus is always on the economy and so when they say they want to pivot back to it. what they mean is they want to get it back on their terms so they're playing offense instead of defense. the focus is never off the economy. every time there is a jobs report, to analyze what it means, the legacy will be written largely on what he was able to do in terms of helping the u.s. recover from the 2008 crash. so it is such a weird misnomer because when they talk about refocusing on the economy, is the focus ever off the economy, no. >> bill: the other question is okay, we're going to go out and we're talking about jobs in the economy. what are you proposing? basically, the white house submitted nothing new, right? >> we want what we wanted before. we'll ask for it in a different way, knowing you the republicans will probably say no but we have to get you to say no first so we can say you always say no-no matter what. it is like about the upper hand, right? i guess sort of a hail mary. if they proposed it and said why

not, we'll lower your corporate tax rates. you give us money for job creation. if republicans were to say yes, it is a win-win. what are the prospects republicans will say yes? zero, which is what happened. >> bill: there you're talking about yesterday, he went in a little different direction with what he called -- so we're back to the grand bargain again. >> the new demi bargain grand bargain. >> bill: because the last grand bargain never got off the ground. the president in chattanooga, dan, if we can play that. he said republicans, you always wanted lower taxes. you want us to cut taxes for everybody but particularly for corporations. i'm logical to do it. here's my deal. >> obama: here's the bottom line. i'm logical to work with republicans on are he forming our corporate tax code as long as we use the money from transitioning to a simpler tax system for a significant investment in creating middle class jobs. that's the deal. >> bill: you give me money for jobs, i'll give you lower

corporate taxes. >> what republicans hear is unions,. [ buzzer ] , stimulus. [ buzzer ] , raise tax on the wealthy. [ buzzer ] they read it as if he gets what he wants, he wins. we don't want him to win. we're heading into the fall. we need to have the upper hand. >> bill: in fact, lower corporate taxes has been on the republican agenda forever, i guess. a long time. >> absolutely. also, i think it is interesting with congressman camp, you see couple of republican lawmakers who don't want to dismiss president obama's bid out of hand are interested in a tax reform process to take place between parties over the coming year, by the end of 2014 to do something substantive. there is not there is a broad desire to dismiss the idea of tax reform. it is more the timing and the rhetorical gambit of how yesterday got off the ground. that there was sort of an initial reaction of.

the fiscally interested folks in both parties in both chambers to do some real tax reform. >> bill: the president also alluded yesterday for the second time in a week to a project that's been hanging out there for a couple of years and that's the keystone pipeline. and until this point, we've been there when jay carney, how many times, has said this is -- in the state department's hands. we are not going to comment. they are doing their investigation as they should. and the president won't even get into it until the state department makes its recommendation. it doesn't seem to be the case anymore. yesterday, the president in front of the same crowd in chattanooga. >> obama: they keep on talking about this -- an oil pipeline coming down from canada that's estimated to create about 250 -- 50 permanent jobs. that's not a jobs plan. >> bill: is this a man who doesn't made up his mind yet?

>> so interesting. if you're reading the tea leaves which is always dangerous. for months, it has seemed like president obama has been laying the ground work to approve the pipeline. >> bill: that's the way i read it. first of all, he did approve the -- he went down to texas and approved that. >> he said this is -- in the state department's hands. he said his aides, he made sure his aides said things like this is a distraction. emissions are the real issue. he talked about the job benefits that have to be considered. the diplomatic ties to canada. energy independence. still talking about some of that. but this sort of like out of nowhere in "the new york times" interview about a week ago, he was asked a question about keystone and answer it. yesterday's was gratuitous. but it is unclear at this point still what is he doing? is he signaling he's changing his mind and he's poised to kill it? is this sort of -- are they going to approve it?

is he trying to make the last blast argument i'm a good guy, considering all sides and the environmentalists don't just jump on him when he signs off on it? >> bill: by telling "the new york times" it will not lower gas prices as republicans -- some -- supporters claim. because there are democrats who support it, too. and in telling "the new york times" that the claim of 2,000 jobs at the most will be 2,000 construction jobs be and end up with 150 jobs, if it is not somebody who is poised to kill it, it is certainly somebody who's been exposed to the arguments against it. >> is there a third option which is that there's some concessions the u.s. wants from canada. he's not willing to spell them out publicly. behind the scenes, the canadians understand what he's asking for. he's hinted in the last -- in "the new york times" interview as well, he was asked is there anything a candidate can do? he said something like i think there's more.

but then doesn't specify what. there may be some sort of negotiations going on here but fascinating issue. he's never promoted this on the basis of job creation. i think the administration doesn't believe this is the main benefit to this. the foreign policy factor, the diplomacy factor, this is such an important thing to canada. if the u.s. says no, it will chafe relations. >> bill: after what he said yesterday, it would be hard for him to approve this thing. >> i don't know. >> bill: i was wrong before. could be wrong again. it is bloomberg.com. you're welcome to join the conversation at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back on this wednesday edition of the "full court press." >> announcer: like politics, then like the "bill press show." this is the "bill press show."

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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: 26 minutes after the hour. crew, citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington say hey, wait a minute. the head of the nsa committed perjury in front of congress and he ought to be held accountable for that. melanie sloan will tell us all about it in the next half hour here on the "full court press." right now, we're talking presidential politics. what's happening at the white house with margaret talev who covers the white house for bloomberg news at bloomberg.com. peter? >> one quick thing to mention about twitter because we're at bpshow on twitter. you can follow us, join in the conversation there. you can expect some big news from us in the next couple of days about where you can find

the "bill press show." twitter would be a great place to find that information out. make sure you follow us at bpshow and on the keystone pipeline -- >> bill: because, a footnote on that. current tv is going away. soon. and we will no longer be on -- there won't be a current but we will be somewhere else. not on al jazeera. somewhere else. we'll tell you all about it. >> stay tuned. one person weighing in on the keystone pipeline says no reason to expect barack obama to do the right thing for the right reason on keystone. let's watch his actions, not his words. so someone not totally convinced. >> bill: margaret, big news event this week in washington. the president was part of this. and that is for the first time in what, years and years, representatives on the palestinian territories got together to start the very beginning of peace talks. they met for like a day and a

half here and then they went back to the middle east. john kerry said here's their agenda. >> our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months. the party has also agreed the two sides will keep the content of the negotiations confidential. >> bill: right. how much is at stake for president obama on this? just about 30 seconds? >> he's trying to measure how much he gets tagged with its failure or success. right now, he's keeping a careful distance. both because he doesn't want to get in there and muck it up until he can be a closer and also because this is such an uphill climb that he doesn't want to invest too much in it until he can tell if it will work and it is not clear yet. >> bill: pretty significant john kerry has been able to get the parties to the table. >> it is. but it only matters if it matters so to be determined. >> bill: exactly. it is not yet the new camp david. margaret talev, see you later at the white house.

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>> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, what about it. 33 minutes after the hour. that's what it is here on the "full court press." a lot happening in our nation's capital today. and around the country, around the globe. we're covering it all. one very interesting thing. we've been talking a lot this morning about edward -- i'm sorry, bradley manning. and edward snowden and this whole national conversation we're now having about the

proper balance between the necessary government seek secrey film and our constitutional freedoms. another aspect of that is what the nsa has been up to and what we have known about what the nsa is doing. when senator ron wyden asked the director of intelligence james clapper whether the nsa was collecting information on millions of americans and their phone calls, he denied it. the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington was watching that very carefully and said hey, wait a minute. didn't he just commit perjury in front of congress? yesterday, they filed a lawsuit against general clapper for, in fact, committing perjury, right? >> well, we actually filed -- >> bill: melanie sloan, director of crew. she's a frequent guest on our show. in studio with us, melanie. >> so nice to be with you again. we actually sent a letter to the

department of justice asking for a criminal investigation into director clapper. >> bill: sorry. >> it is completely impermissible for anybody to lie to congress and director clapper very clearly, when asked this question by ron wyden, senator ron wyden, if the government was collect being this kind of data, he said no sir, not wittingly. he was very clear in his denial. in fact, it is interesting that ron wyden had given him the question in advance. mr. clapper had plenty of opportunity to think about how he was going to respond to that or tell senator wyden in advance, you just can't ask me that because it is classified. he chooses to lie to congress and he's not under oath so i watched the whole hearing. they didn't put him under oath. did he make a false statement to congress and obstruct a congressional inquiry. >> bill: why wasn't he under oath? >> i don't know. maybe in the senate intelligence committee they don't routinely put high level government officials under oath. >> bill: because they'll lie.

>> maybe that's why. it doesn't matter because you can't -- there is a specific crime for making a false statement. you don't get the perjury charge. >> bill: i just want to be sure people hear the question. this question submitted to director clapper ahead of time "does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans"? director clapper "no, sir, not wittingly." he knew that was not the truth. >> he absolutely flew that was not the truth. >> bill: he tried congress. >> he lied to congress then a couple of days after -- so that's back in march. then the snowden revelations come out. we learn all about what the government is really doing and just as an aside, the obama administration welcomes the public conversation. we wouldn't be having this public debate if we hadn't had the leakers of image. nobody really welcomed this debate. then in june, this comes out and we see as general director clapper goes on nbc news and he

tells andrea mitchell it was the least untruthful response he could make. so he actually just admits that he lied. he says it was the least untruthful response he could make. senator wyden puts out a statement saying that he's upset about it and that he believes that director clapper lied to him but then a few days after that, it turns out director clapper clearly getting the advice of counsel sends a letter to dianne feinstein, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee and says i didn't really understand the question and it was -- while my answer was erroneous, i thought it was because we were talking about a different part of the patriot act, not this one. which is clearly another lie. >> bill: i have raised this issue at a white house briefing with press secretary james carney who is annoyed at me that i would ask the question. and he basically dismissed it. said director clapper is already -- has already apologized for that in effect.

so the administration is really kind of brushing this off. he lied to congress but so what. >> how can that be? in a democratic form of government, we can't have our top government officials coming in and lying to congress and the american people. we would not know that clapper had lied if not for snowden's revelations and it is completely intolerable for that to happen. >> bill: so you say -- you're asking the department of justice to investigate. isn't this the responsibility of congress? >> well, congress -- dianne feinstein, by the way, has already accepted director clapper's explanation and has said that he's a fine man and she's not going anywhere with it. so what the senate intelligence committee could have done, had she been concerned enough, she could have referred it. >> bill: it is up to the justice to prosecute. >> because no one else has. right. >> bill: you know they're just going to circle the wagons,

right? he is part of the administration. appointed by president obama. they'll find some way to protect him. >> it does seem to be the case but the rest of us can't just go along with that. >> bill: that's why you're there. citizens for responsibility and ethnics washington. >> it goes back to a case in the '70s when the former c.i.a. director, richard helms lied to congress about the c.i.a.'s involvement in chile and he said no, there was no covert operations by the c.i.a. in chile. two years later, it comes out that he directly lied and the c.i.a. spent a long time worrying should we refer to justice. this is a problem. eventually justice, because it was leaked to a newspaper that this happened by the church committee which, at that time, like our time now, was getting increasingly concerned about the use of -- expansion of intelligence operations. and eventually the director -- former director of the c.i.a.

was prosecuted for lying to congress. he was excoriated by a federal judge in an answer that i just think -- he said something that i think is so important now. i just want to read it to you. it was so prescient. >> bill: this was against director helms. >> if public officials embark on a cures to disobey and ignore the laws of our land because of some misguide and ill conceived notion and belief there are earlier commitments they must first observe the future of our country is in jeopardy. those who are employed in the intelligence security community who feel they have a license to operate freely outside the dictates of the law and orchestrate as they see fit. public officials at every level, any other person must respect and honor the constitution and laws of the united states. >> bill: is this judge still alive? >> i don't know if he's still alive. because it is just -- he's certainly not a sitting judge anymore. i've actually heard the c.i.a. counsel give the same

explanations. he had the duty to protect classified information. that somehow trump his duty to tell the truth and he had an option. he could at first told senator wyden please don't ask me that question or he could have turned the question around in a question he wanted to answer. he could have said well, you know, if you're asking me x, then here's the answer to x. so he had options. lying to congress was not the only option. we can't tolerate that as a democratic government. >> bill: if he's found guilty of lying to congress, what could happen to him? >> he could go to jail but that's incredibly unlikely. it is more the symbolism of him being prosecuted and having to take a plea in saying he lied to congress and so the other public officials know they can't do that. if we don't prosecute clapper for lying to congress, what's to stop any public official or anybody from going to congress and lying and let me say we prosecute other people for lying to congress. look at roger clemens, the baseball player who was prosecuted for lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. he was ultimately acquitted of

that conduct but the justice department spent millions to prosecute this guy for something that basically affects very few americans and isn't of national significance like lying about the collection of data on hundreds of millions of americans. >> bill: when you were looking into this case, it is not a case but into this action and into director clapper's testimony, my understanding is that he's not the only official of the nsa or of our intelligence community to actually either mislead or deliver a lie to congress. >> i only was looking into this particular issue but you know, i think in light of what snowden has revealed, probably it would be worth going back and checking lots of intelligence committee hearings. so few of them are open, by the way. >> bill: that's the problem. >> yeah. >> bill: of getting to the heart of this. so much is classified or so much is kept secret that we wouldn't

know -- we wouldn't know about this at all. this would not have happened without edward snowden. >> no, we would not know that james clapper lied to congress. >> bill: are we better off because of what edward snowden revealed? >> it is so hard to say. in some respects, we certainly are. suddenly, we have high-level government officials like dianne feinstein who wrote a column by the way in "the washington post" this morning about how she does see the need to change the rules regarding the nsa and the collection of data. the reason we see senator feinstein saying that is because of the snowden revelations and last week, the house vote which was so much closer than anyone anticipated when they were going to shut down this program and that we saw both liberal, democrats and very conservative republicans come together, come very close to passing a bill that would have dramatically changed the landscape for this data collection. in light of that and in light of public outrage, suddenly congress is saying well -- and the administration, we do need

to change the program. in some ways, we're better off because our privacy will end up protected more than it has been. >> bill: crew is on the case. they're way out in front here. ask the department of justice to investigate whether or not director clapper, director of national intelligence lied to congress. it looks like he did. citizensforethics.org is the web site. 1-866-55-press is the phone number to join the conversation. melanie, you're not only out after the director but the fbi as well. they've got a new director. what's that about? stay with us 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."

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

>> bill: okay. 12 minutes before the top of the hour with citizens for responsibility in ethics in washington. executive director melanie sloan in studio with us. citizensforethics.org. our watch dog here. making sure that democrats and republicans and administration officials are toeing the line here and they have asked the justice department to look into whether or not director clapper, in fact, lied to congress. it sure looks like he did. peter, before we move on. >> we're on twitter at bpshow.

we're on twitter at bpshow on the issue be of clapper. and lying to congress. dale in georgia asks do laws protect clapper from being prosecuted for lying to congress? legally, it might not be a lie. he's just keeping secrets secret. so someone sort of helping make the case for the administration there. >> the answer is no. he can't lie to congress. you're protecting classified information is not an exception to the laws prohibiting lying to congress. >> and irish boy, one of our favorite tweeters says a federal offense to lie to congress. when can we expect clapper to be held accountable? >> that's my question. >> i wouldn't hold your breath. but yeah, you're right. >> bill: couldn't he have just said, senator, i cannot answer that question? >> you know, i think the reason he wouldn't have wanted to say that in an open hearing because that suggests an answer in and of itself. he had two choices.

tell wyden in advance. don't ask me that. you can always turn the question around. this is what officials do all the time when they're being asked something they don't like. if you're asking me x, y and z, here's the answer to that. he had options against outright lying to congress and the american people. >> was one option telling the truth? >> i think probably not at that point since they had classified the program. so telling the truth wouldn't have been a strong option for him but you know, the truth is always an option but you think it would be a top option rather than the last possibility to consider. >> bill: i don't understand that. this is my big problem with what nsa is doing. they were collecting all of this phone information. i think that's totally excessive and goes way beyond what the patriot act intended or what the constitution should allow. if they were doing it, they should have told us about it.

i think sadly, maybe, most americans would probably say okay, i guess after 9-11, this is what we -- this is what we have to expect. they're keeping track of all of our phone records. but to do it without telling the american people that we're doing it. >> representative jim sensenbrenner, conservative from wisconsin and very sensible man, been in congress a very long time, he wrote an op-ed in politico talking about this. this is never what he authorized in the patriot act. he doesn't understand the interpretation that has allowed the nsa to do this and believes the patriot act does not allow this. he thinks all of our privacy is being infringed. that's why i think we'll see movement on this. you can see so many people saying you know what? this is not reasonable and not acceptable to be collecting so much data. >> bill: after last week, the house of representatives with sensenbrenner's support, almost passed an amendment, came seven votes short of passing an

amendment which would have defunded this nsa program. sensenbrenner is now writing his own legislation which he will introduce soon which will do the same thing except in a more comprehensive way. >> it was really his voice that i think changed the direction of that conversation in the house so much. >> bill: okay. now you're going after the afbi, too. >> i love it. >> the fbi. nobody is sacred. >> so many issues of privacy of americans that we need to be concerned about. so everybody knows about the use of drones in afghanistan and you know, the war on terror. i don't know how many people know the fbi is starting to use drones in domestic surveillance. >> bill: we do. we talked about it. >> this is on the cover of "washington lawyer" this month about the increased use of drones. we thought what are the rules about the use of drones? when can the fbi use the drones? does the fbi own the drones? who's flying the drones? who's trained the people? what are the limitations. we sent out a freedom of information act request to the

fbi asking these are reasonable things. maybe there are ways you can use drones reasonably and it doesn't infringe on privacy that you can imagine a drone passing by your window and considering what else they're willing to do, it is hard to know what they might say that they can do with a drone but they should tell us. let's be transparent. have everybody understand what the policy is about the use of drones. does the fbi respond to that? no, they do not. they're not giving us anything regarding the drones so we sued them yesterday. we'll be in federal court trying to find out and tell the american people exactly how much drones are being used to spy in your backyard. >> bill: good for you. good for you! good for crew. here is the team. rand paul, melanie sloan and bill press. we're on the case. seriously about the drones. >> wow. >> bill: thanks, melanie. thanks for all that you're doing and thanks for coming in. i'll be back with a quick parting shot on the bradley

manning verdict yesterday. 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!

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>> bill: good news and bad news about the bradley manning verdict. he was excused from the charge that al-qaeda would knew anything he sent wikileaks. the bad news is he was found guilty of 19 lesser charges, ten of which he admitted to by the

way and can still face the rest of his life in prison. the zeal with which a government pursued bradley manning reflects this administration's obsession with leaks as edward snowden is also discoven after the trial, the central question remains. exactly what harm did bradley manning do? and the answer is, as far as i can see it, none. all he did was tell us, through wikileaks, some of the dirty secrets our government was keeping about conduct of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, including news of the 2005 haditha killings where 24 unarmed civilians were killed by u.s. marines. and after that massacre, only one soldier was punished with a pay cut. but for telling us about it, bradley manning could spend the rest of his life in prison. something's wrong with that picture. that's my parting shot for today, folks. congressman john conyers from michigan joins us tomorrow. don't miss it!

[ ♪ theme ] >> stephanie: well, you are correct, chris. i cannot read any of this story about the former weiner communications director. did you read any of this, jacki? >> oh, yeah. she had some choice words. >> yes! >> stephanie: they don't seem so female friendly at that weiner campaign. >> have a little conversation with that staff. coming a little unhinged. >> stephanie: i wonder what could be going wrong? >>