[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: good morning, good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is a big tuesday. tuesday, august 13 here on the "full court press." good to see you today. we welcome you to the program. thank you for joining the program and look forward to spending the next three hours together to hopscotch across the big news of the day. such as it is. in the summer doldrums and in this ghost town called washington, d.c. our nation's capital where everybody has fled the coop

except us. president's out of town. vice president's out of town. the house and the senate are all out of town as are most lobbyists and staffers and anybody with any sense, obviously we don't have any. big news today on the law enforcement area in the law enforcement area on three different fronts. first of all, attorney general eric holder says correctly that too many people are in prison for too long for offenses which don't deserve any prison time and he calls for changing our sentencing laws so prison is only reserved for the most serious offenses. a new york judge has said that new york city's stop, question and frisk policy or practices of the new york city police is wrong. it amounts to racial profiling and she says that they've got to stop it. stop and question people based on reasonable suspicion. in boston, a jury has found whitey bulger, surprise,

surprise, guilty of racketeering and 11 counts of murder. all of that and more coming up right here on current tv. if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned great leadership so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

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

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>> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: surprise, surprise. a jury finds whitey bulger guilty. even he expected that. hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? what do you say? great to see you today. here we go. another edition of the "full court press." so good to see you today. on a tuesday. tuesday, august 13. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital.

and our little home away from home here, our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. just down the street from the united states capitol building. but everything is quiet on the homefront. today, again, the house and the senate offer their long easter break five weeks, if you can believe it. president obama and the first lady, daughters up on martha's vineyard for a little extended honeymoon. the daughters come back later in the week. we're here to bring you up to date on what's going on here such as it is in our nation's capital, around the country and around the globe, there is news. we've got it for you. we're on top of it. we'll tell you about it and give you a chance to talk about it at 1-866-55-press. join us on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. peter ogborn still off today. he will be back tomorrow. dan henning -- >> good morning.

>> bill: who never gets a day off. oh, yeah, right. >> whoa! what's that supposed to mean? >> bill: you're here. >> i will not be here on friday. >> bill: see, i know. hard keeping the whole gang together. that's all right. i won't be here next week. alichia cruz is here on phones. cyprian bowlding is here. so, you know, some people -- abraham lincoln once famously said there are some fleas that a dog can't catch, okay? so there's some people that you're just never going to convince there is such a thing as global warming. unfortunately, too many of those kind of people are in the united states congress. there is, for example, senator james inhofe from oklahoma who may be the biggest skeptic about global warming despite

unbelievable incontrovertible evidence everywhere you look about global warming. james inhofe says it is a big fraud. he is matched in the house of representatives by congressman dana rohrabacher, republican from orange county, california. he gives all of california a bad name. he gives orange county a bad name. there are a lot of great people that live in orange county. i know well. orange county is not the right wing -- you know, stronghold that a lot of people think that it is. but dana rohrabacher -- he was at a town hall meeting yesterday, asked about global warming, there ain't nothing to it, he says. >> just so you know, global warming is a total fraud and it is being designed because what you've got is you've got liberals who get elected at the local level, want the state government to do the work and let them make the decisions. then at the state level, they

want the federal government to do it. and at the federal level, they want to create global government to control all of our lives. that's what their game plan is. it is step by step by step, more and bigger control over our lives by higher levels of government. >> bill: that is such horse you know what. it is just like yeah, people who want to safety planet, all they want is global government. honest to god. you can hear the people -- you can see he's maying to the crowd there of looney tunes in orange county. coming up, got a whole big line-up of guests today from politico, from "national journal." from buzzfeed, from think progress, from "the boston globe." lots of good stuff going on here today. and some big news on the law enforcement front. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday, the president was not going to let a little rain stop him from playing golf on vacation.

president obama heading out to the vineyard golf club on martha's vineyard with a new foursome. he played with ron kirk, the u.s. trade representative, the chicago friend allison davis and former clinton adviser jordan. obama is still working. got the full briefing on the day's news from the national security adviser susan rice before he played golf yesterday. belle i ran into -- into the white house yesterday, the deputy press secretary on his way to the vineyard this morning to take over duty from jay carney. >> okay. >> bill: and josh ernest. josh admitted to me that the goal of this week is not to make any news. on the part of the president or the press secretary. >> we might see anthony weiner on the big screen soon. the new york city mayoral candidate has been followed around by a documentary filmmaker for mtv and pbs on the

campaign trail recently. he's been seen wearing a microphone. "the hill" newspaper reported the campaign is being tight-lipped about what the prom is. only saying they're filming for possible tv commercials for the campaign but some say they think it is something more. >> bill: anthony weiner appearing at a "buzzfeed" brews event in new york city. i'm sorry i wasn't able to be there myself but john stanton, the "buzzfeed" washington bureau chief for buzzfeed is going to be here later in the program in studio to tell us all about it. >> if you're looking to move to a great town, consider sharon, massachusetts. the town is number one on "money" magazine's new best small towns in america list for weathering the recession well and having a big lake and being close to both boston and providence. so close that you can commute to work in either city. it is also diverse. nine churches, seven synagogues and one of the largest mosques in new england.

louisville, colorado, and vienna, virginia, round out the top three. >> bill: never heard of that city in massachusetts. nine churches in a town of 17,000? congregations are rather small, i would say because some people do not go to church at any rate. what we have -- very significant yesterday. there are two unrelated decisions regarding -- related to law enforcement that really were related. they weren't planned that way but they really do fit together and say something very important, i think, about law enforcement in this country. a lot of us have said for a long time that we went way overboard, you know. 10, 20 years ago. the last -- the previous generation about -- gotta be tough on crime. tough on law enforcement. crack down on crime. throw everybody in prison. it was this -- lock them up.

throw the book at them. throw the key away which you heard from republicans, of course. you also heard from a lot of democrats. i can remember when i worked for jerry brown, a couple of us liberals in the office used to battle with him over some of the tough law enforcement bills he would relish signing. we went way overboard. in many cases, the laws were wrong. they have had -- they've backfired. they've had the reverse effect. they've made things worse rather than better. and there was a sign -- important signs again yesterday that maybe we're starting to see the light. maybe -- i mean some people have been saying this again for a long time. but the voices have been in the minority. maybe now they're starting to kind of leak through and get to decision makers who can really make a difference. that certainly was obvious yesterday in san francisco,

first of all. in a speech to the american bar association, by attorney general eric holder. now, you know me and eric holder, i'm not a big holder fan. i don't think he did a good job, not a very aggressive job, missed a lot of chances in the first four years. i was disappointed that president obama reappointed him or asked him to stay. and i wish eric holder had just stepped down, particularly after all of the stuff came out about his pursuing reporters in these leak investigations. but give the man credit where it's due. yesterday, i thought he made a very important and a very bold step in talking about the so-called mandatory minimum sentencing laws in california, called the three strikes and you're out. these ridiculous laws where the legislatures -- again, proving they're tough on crime, they passed these laws saying that for -- any little offense or for

no matter how small the third offense was, you had a mandatory prison time which even a judge, no matter who you were, the judge could in no way reduce it. they took the power away from the judge. so you have these ridiculous cases where so many people are in prison for so long a time for offenses that really don't amount to a hill of beans and nonviolent offenses. as eric holder put it yesterday and he summed that up, almost word for word, speaking to the aba. >> too many americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason. >> bill: too many people in prison for far too long for no good reason. and it's true. i saw the numbers last night. california is one of the worst states in this regard. federal judges have told california, california has to do something about its prison population. they have space for 80,000 people.

by the way, 80,000 people. they've got 120,000 people jammed into the space for 80,000. imagine the problems that that creates as eric holder said yesterday. the mandatory minimum sentencing don't resolve the problem at all. in fact, their impact on communities, they make matters worse. >> vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many americans and weakens too many communities. in many aspects of our criminal justice system, it exacerbates the problems rather than alleviate them. >> bill: making matters worse. so the attorney general says from now on, it is going to take time to work this through. but at the federal level from now on, what he wants to do is change the practice so that they will only -- they will not -- not enforce and not prosecute these low-level crimes and safe the most serious penalties for the most serious crimes.

>> by reserving the most severe penalties for serious, high-level or violent drug traffickers, we can better promote public safety, deterrent and rehabilitation while making our expenditures smarter and more productive. >> bill: it will save money, make our communities safer and the rate of recidivism is like 65%, i think in california prisons today. so this throw them in prison for long, long periods of time is not rehabilitating people, not at all. now, that's the attorney general. unrelated it just so happened yesterday, a judge in new york city, judge shira scheindlin, after four-month trial, she shocked the city officials in new york city by finding that new york -- the practice of the new york city police department, mayor michael bloomberg's pride and joy, the so-called stop, question and frisk policy is dead wrong and she said the new york city police have to

change that. she if say they have to end it but they have to change the policy because right now, she said it is pure racial profiling. she pointed out her decision was based on a review of 4.3 million stops. went through all of the paperwork the police department had for 4.3 million stops between 2004 and 2012. and what she found, of course, is that the practice is without a search warrant, police stop people, frisk them for guns and then search them for any other contraband, drugs or whatever, without any search warrant, without any legal warrant or justification for doing so, no legal grounds for doing so and not only that, the people they're stopping are based on the color of their skin. 83 -- during those 4.3 million

stops, 83% of them were young, black men or young latinos even though the population of new york is only 50%. she said there's no reason that they should be anymore suspect of blacks and latinos except for racism. than young white males. michael bloomberg, the mayor michael bloomberg, very unhappy. vows he's going to appeal it because he said it is a raw deal. >> throughout the case, we didn't believe that we were getting a fair trial and this decision confirms that suspicion. and we will be presenting evidence of that unfairness to the appeals court. >> bill: yeah, well, rots of ruck. on two big decisions, eric holder saying we're going to just ignore these -- and no longer enforcement the mandatory minimum sentences for low-level nonviolent drug crimes, doing

the right thing? i think so. 1-866-55-press. and in new york city, stop, question and frisk shot down by a judge in new york city. did she do the right thing? i think absolutely right. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it right here on the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

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: the "bill press show" is joining free speech tv starting september 3rd. find out how to watch at billpressshow.com. >> bill: this is the last week for current tv.

all of you listening on the progressive radio network and the stations around the country, nothing changes there but on tv, thursday is the last day for current. we pop up on free speech tv on september 3rd. be sure you're able to stay with us on television as well as on radio. check out freespeech.org. 26 minutes after the hour now. talking about major changes on a couple of fronts on the law enforcement area and the mandatory -- so-called mandatory minimum sentencing. eric holder says we're not going to follow up with that anymore. and stop, question and frisk in new york city, judge says it is wrong. police have to change their ways. >> we're on twitter at bpshow and at facebook.com/billpressshow, where susan curtis says it's about time. and clint notestein says finally, some lonnic on the holder decision and roger chang says a good start but the holder

plan needs good implementation. the bureau of prisons drug program is full of waste, abuse and fraud, making the alternative ineffective. >> bill: that's a good point. this doesn't happen automatically. it's not going to be overnight. the attorney general pointed that out. but he has directed department of justice officials to change their ways and now they're going to have to come up with some new rules. let's jump out to chicago. say good morning to my good friend, kathleen. what's up? >> caller: good morning. how you doing? >> bill: i'm good. >> caller: first of all, i'm going to miss you because i don't have that kind of tv where i can watch you anymore. >> bill: do you have a computer? >> caller: no, just the plain old phone. that's why i was sure to get in on the last week. >> bill: we don't want to lose you, kathleen. >> caller: you sent somebody a book and you didn't send me one. my feelings was hurt. >> bill: you hold on here because you're going to get one

today. when you get on the phone with alicia, we'll figure out a way to get you one. >> caller: tell me i'm your best friend. >> bill: you are. you know that. >> caller: but anyway, i watched how george zimmerman was stopped a couple of weeks ago. you see how polite that policeman was to him? he didn't snatch him out of the car. he didn't make him get out of car. i see it every day, bill. they snatch these boys, walking down the street, throw them up against the wall. throw them up against the car. make them laid out on the dirty, nasty streets, frisk them. stand there with them and don't find anything on them and tell them to have a good day. people get tired of that. >> bill: that will happen to them three or four times a year. that's what happened up in new york. same thing. and maybe we ought to change it in chicago, too. kathleen, seriously, hold on. let me get your name and address and we'll get a book out to you and find a way to keep you on

board. we can't lose 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: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you got it! 33 minutes after the hour on a tuesday, august 13. the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital. brought to you today by the international association of ironworkers. the good men and women of the ironworkers union doing great work under president walter weiss. the sky is the limit for them. you can find out more about their good work at their web site, www.ironworkers.org.

we don't want to talk too much about 2016 but sometimes they make it impossible not to. especially when the vice president of the united states says he doesn't have to do this kind of stuff anymore, right? right? but he's gone out to iowa september 15 to be the star attraction at senator tom harkin's steak fry, a famous event he holds every year. the vice president is going, which, of course, raises questions about what is joe up to? rebecca sinderbrand is the deputy white house editor for politico, joining us in studio this morning. good to see you again. >> good to see you. >> bill: i gotta tell you, you get extra points for coming in this early in the morning. >> i'm an early riser. >> bill: only our very special friends. i want to move that microphone closer to you. >> how does that work? >> bill: that's great. is this the declaration of candidacy for joe biden or what?

>> you see joe biden kind of like standing there, waving his arms, remember me, don't forget about me. you have hillary clinton out there pulling a lot of oxygen, even this early, you're hearing people talking about her foundation, her policy speeches, all of these -- extremely visible. and biden has to kind of take pain to remind people i'm still out here. this thing is far from decided. >> bill: he doesn't have to make a decision but he wants to keep himself in the public -- >> he wants to make sure the decision doesn't get made for him. and that's really what everyone is doing right now. it is this waiting game circling. everyone is in a holding pattern at the moment. >> bill: meanwhile, you mentioned the former secretary of state, former first lady, she gave a first -- big speech in san francisco yesterday about the voting rights act in front of the american bar association. her office announced this is going to be one of a series of speeching that she gives on major policy issues. so you know, i'm on the speaking

circuit myself. doesn't make as much money as she does for speeches. but usually people go out, they don't try to make news when these paid speeches -- they're just like hum dumb, okay, here's what's going on. >> policy speeches usually don't get the blood boiling. >> bill: she says she's going to hit the big policies and so is that her way? >> well, of course. it is one of a couple of different pieces. everything she does makes news obviously. one of the biggest headlines to make news this summer was the news that ready for hillary, the pac which of course she's not connected to, raised more than a million dollars. a real eye-catching figure, kind of reminding people she is top of the field at the moment. and she's making all of the right moves for someone who wants to trun for president -- wants to run for president. she doesn't have to say anything. she's making policy speeches. she's out there this, the work

she's doing is exactly the kind of work you want to be doing if you're someone who is not currently holding office, not currently in a real high profile position. but you want to stay in the public eye. the clinton foundation and the work she's doing with them is exactly the kind of thing you want to be doing. >> bill: well, i think she and joe biden have to get out there early because the republicans are certainly not waiting to get out to iowa and donald trump was there this weekend. this past weekend. you know, when you look and there is your competition, donald trump, you gotta work hard. >> yeah. you can't kind of like -- >> bill: everybody really believe that donald trump is -- how many times can he kind of fool people into -- i'm going to run and i'm going to spend every dime i have to run for president. he never does. >> it is kind of amazing. >> bill: he never does. he never will. he's just such a blow hard. >> even if he did -- >> bill: even if he did. the reason he doesn't is because

he knows that. >> it is hard to say exactly what is in donald trump's head. the only person that can say that is donald trump. must be an interesting place to be. >> bill: we don't expect much news out of the white house this week. we're not going to get any. i ran into deputy press secretary josh ernest yesterday. just outside the white house. and he was on his way to martha's vineyard to week to relieve jay carney. he's going to take a couple of days off. >> from hardship duty. >> bill: he said don't expect anything out of martha's vineyard. they're making a serious effort not to make any news this week. they don't want anything to happen. they don't want to make any news. >> i don't think anyone wants anything to happen on either side. >> bill: let's take this week off. but the white house did announce yesterday, just to remind us there is an agenda here. >> that's right. >> bill: next week, the president's going to be back on the road on the jobs tour. >> that's right. he's going to be making stops in new york, appearing with andrew

cuomo, new york state and also making stops in pennsylvania, of course, another kind of critical battleground. you know, this is, again, one more stop and they're reframing for the fall. we're look ahead to the budget battles. that's what the past few weeks before martha's vineyard were about. his economic policy tour on the road where he's kind of framing the message looking ahead to the big budget fights coming up. >> bill: this will be a bus tour in those two states. this next thursday and friday. so this is a part of what he started a couple of weeks ago. when he went out to illinois and missouri. >> tennessee. >> bill: and florida, down to jacksonville. >> that's right. >> bill: what happened last week at the news conference? i was there. hardly talked about jobs. >> this happens every single time. the white house comes out with a

big economic pivot, a new frame, a new message. >> bill: jobs, jobs, jobs. >> of course, the morning of the press conference, we hear the topic of the day is surveillance. of course, clearly, that's something they would like to get out of the way. you know, a summer friday right before a week-long vacation is the perfect time to get that out there. if you're really pushing your economic message, it is a great way to step on that message. it had to be kind of a balance. how much do we want to bury and push this off? get this out of the way at a time when it doesn't dominate the conversation and how much do we want to stick with our current messages. >> bill: i guess to be fair, right, i mean none of us and certainly the president of the united states can ever get away with doing only one thing at any one time. >> you gotta know how to walk and chew gum at the same time. >> bill: he does have to deal with immigration reform, healthcare, global warming. the economy. and jobs.

and by the way, nsa and spying and intelligence. and they're all, in a way, they're all also related. they're all part of the same agenda of how we move forward in a way that's best for the country. i don't think we can be -- i'm not saying you are. >> no, no. the interesting thing is, of course, that's what this economic thing is about. you had a lot of -- on the face of it, disparate issues tied up. you had immigration, healthcare and job security and student loans all kind together in this. >> bill: so on the nsa, the president's message, the way i read it friday, sitting there was this program is -- the nsa, they're doing a good job. they're doing a necessary job. they're not violating anybody's constitutional rights. it is not being abused in any way. you just don't understand it.

and if you understood it better and if we explained it better, then everything would be hunky-dory. right? he didn't say he was going to change it in any way which i expected from the buzz ahead of time. that we were going to see some major changes. >> you know someone who's been watching this debate closely from the start, the buzz from the white house, the spin from the white house has been this is not a problem of execution. this is a problem of messaging and what we really have to do is fix the messaging so people feel like they're aware and informed and once they're as informed as we are, they won't be as uncomfortable as they have been and so that's how it's been from the start. so you know, out of the bullets that we heard out of the president that changes -- make to the program, only one of them, the advocate at the -- >> bill: inside the core -- >> only one went to a substantive change in the way the programs are operated. the rest of them were about framing and presenting it to the

public and to congress in a way that people feel more comfortable with. they were more about messaging than execution. >> bill: perception. >> that's right. >> bill: so then the question remains because the voices in congress on the left and the right from rand paul to dick durbin and from james sensenbrenner to john conyers have been very critical, demanding changes, not just saying you have to explain this better, right? do you think that that approach of we're going to be more transparent. we're going to -- for example, he asked the department of justice to lay out the legal ground work for collecting all of this meta data. is that going to be enough to satisfy the critics in congress? >> we've seen this before. it might be enough to satisfy just enough critics in congress. you don't have to satisfy the loudest voices. you don't have to satisfy the toughest critics. you do have to satisfy a critical mass of you know, just

enough people who have concerns. they kind of represent the public in that way. the public is easy about these programs, they're not necessarily opposed out of principle to the ideas of the programs. if you can convince enough people there's nothing to see here, move along. you have nothing to worry about. that's kind of enough to remove the threat of kind of real change and real reform to the program. >> bill: issues of the day, the politics of the day. the challenges facing this president and the white house, even while he's on martha's vineyard. talking about those with rebecca sinderbrand with politico, deputy white house editor. join the conversation. we'll continue here on the other side at 1-866-55-press. today's "full court press." >> announcer: follow us on twitter at bpshow. this is the "bill press show."

alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> bill: we're a radio show first and foremost importantly. we're proud to be on your local progressive talk radio station where we'll continue to be without any change. no interruption at all. just a little hiccup on the tv side. current tv of course goes away on thursday. and we'll be taking a break on television and popping back up on television on september 3rd

on free speech tv. very proud of that. and you can watch that if you have a satellite dish. not cable. satellite dish on the dish network or directv. and both of them carry free speech. or you can screen us online and the way to find out how to find us there is go to freespeech.org. we're talking politics, second term agenda here with rebecca sinderbrand from politico. back to our conversation and your comments in just a second. but first, here's something that could very well make the difference between life and death for you. if you were ever, god forbid, in an accident, knocked unconscious, emergency team arrives and they can't communicate with you and find out what you might need, one way to protect yourself against that, emergency link i.d., a small i.d. tag, very simple. they do attach to your key ring or you put your wallet or purse that will tell emergency

responders everything they might need to know. your medical history, your meds, allergies, doctor's contact info and most importantly, whom to notify. so sign up now for emergency link's emergency response service. only costs $10 a year and you receive your i.d. kit free. that's just $10 a year. your i.d. kit free. you have to hurry to get to emergencylink.com to sign up and enter press. let's go to emergencylink.com and enter press. emergencylink.com. dan, you got -- >> we're on twitter at bpshow where a couple of people are reminding us that we haven't talked about it this morning yet but last night at the "buzzfeed" brews event, anthony weiner was talking about hillary clinton, alluding to the fact that his wife, huma, has a role in a potential hillary 2016 campaign but he wouldn't say what it is. >> bill: we can play that clip

from anthony weiner here for rebecca. >> we can. >> bill: so she is still very much part of the program. >> is huma still working on the campaign? >> she's helping out every day. >> do you know what her role in hillary's 2016 campaign is going to be? >> i do. >> what will it be? >> i'm not telling you. [ laughter ] >> do you feel like you've dammed her place in that world? >> i feel that what i've done has hurt her. it has hurt her professionally. it has hurt her personally. >> bill: pretty candid comments there on the part of anthony weiner. right now, as we've seen, the clintons -- >> just a touch. they've made that pretty clear. >> bill: bill clinton said we're 100 miles from that campaign. he said that when he was in africa. >> he was more than 100 miles. >> bill: 8,000 miles. >> continental separation. that's probably about the distance they would like between themselves and anthony weiner at this moment but still a huge

amount of -- a huge bond in clinton world for huma abedin. tough spot for her. >> bill: i hope she survives this storm at any rate. i want to go back to -- the president -- i was sitting there thinking this is a critical time for president obama. >> that's right. >> bill: second term. hard to get anything done in the second term. it is usually done in the first two years of the second term. he's got to be thinking legacy. he's got to be thinking here's how people will remember me. what do you think are his primary objectives or -- he wants to leave behind having accomplished? >> you talk about the first two years of the second term. they wrote about the rapidly aging obama presidency that a lot of the kind of traditional things that are available start to disappear. he recognized this, even before the start of his second term.

even during the campaign. he was speaking about, you know, maybe the fever is going to break in washington after my re-election. we now know even at that time, he and his team were strategize ing, laying plans for what would happen after he was re-elected and they didn't expect it to break. looking for ways to use the tools that are available to presidents where they don't have to work with congress in order to get their agenda through. >> bill: but i notice like with the nsa thing, he said now here's -- i propose this and i propose this. i look forward to working with congress to achieve this. i look forward to working with congress to achieve this. i was just thinking not this congress! good for you. great goals but not this congress. >> this is a traditional mantra. we heard this on the economic tour. he always talks about these kind of three or four prongs, what the private sector can do. what i can do on my own and what i'm hoping to see from congress.

he's not necessarily planning to see much of that from congress. there are certain areas like the budget where he has to work with congress. so that's still on the agenda but on the issues like nsa surveillance and others, he's hoping to find congress moving. he's not necessarily planning on it. >> bill: meanwhile, probably will do as much as he can through executive orders. >> oh, that's right. and become much, much more active recently as well. >> bill: rebecca, so good to see you. thanks so much for coming in. politico.com. check it out several times a day. we do here at the "full court press." thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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?

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. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war, you must be high. >> only on current tv.

>> announcer: taking your e males on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show." life on your radio and current tv. >> bill: oh boy, looking ahead at 2016, robert says run hillary for p.o.t.u.s. and joe for v p.o.t.u.s. unless i've missed something in the constitution, there's no law against it. well, that is really true. no law against it. i'm not sure joe wants another eight years as v.p. i think he would rather be on top. 2016. rhyme way says why not elizabeth warren. absolutely! why not elizabeth warren. on food stamps, farmers grow food, food stamps, farm subsidies, people on food stamp buy is food. it all fits together.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hey, good morning, good morning, everybody. what do you say? tuesday august 13. can you believe it? good to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv where we come to you live all the way across this great land of ours bringing you the news of the day. and taking your calls and your comments on the phone. at 1-866-55-press. on twitter at bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow.

lots of news on three different fronts actually about law enforcement today. first of all, attorney general eric holder out in san francisco, speech before the american bar association yesterday said that our so-called mandatory minimum sentencing laws are doing more harm than good. there are too many people in prison for too long for low-level crimes and we ought to change that and save serious prison time for those convicted of the most serious crimes. in new york city, a judge has ruled out new york city police department's stop, question and frisk policy, saying it is nothing but racial profiling. and has to change. mayor bloomberg says he's going to appeal that decision. up in boston, surprise, surprise, a jury has found whitey bulger guilty on racketeering charges and 11 counts of murder.

and in other news, anthony weiner goes to a big grilling by "buzzfeed" last night in new york. find out all about it right here on current tv. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. way inside. (christoff) we're patrolling the area looking for guns, drugs, bodies ... (adam) we're going to places where few others are going. [lady] you have to get out now. >> lots of terrible things happen to people growing marijuana. >> this crop to me is my livelihood. >> i'm being violated by the health care system. (christoff) we go and spend a considerable amount of time getting to know the people and the characters that are actually living these stories. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

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

and i think the audience 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: hey, surprise, surprise. a jury finds whitey bulger guilty. even he expected that one, i think. no surprise at all. good morning, everybody. great to see you this morning. it is tuesday, august 13. here we are on the "full court press" in our nation's capital. kind of a ghost town these days with the president, the vice president, the house, the senate, all out of town.

most of the lobbyists out of town. but a few of us are still here keeping our eye on what's going on. what's going on here in washington, d.c., all across this great united states. or around the globe. we'll tell you about it and give you a chance to comment at 1-866-55-press. of course, that's our toll free number. and on social media, you can join us on twitter at bpshow or on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. the team is more or less here this morning except for peter ogborn. he's got another day off. he will be back tomorrow. but dan henning is here, flying the 747. >> good morning. >> bill: good morning, good morning, dan. and alichia cruz of course has the phones covered. we look good on current tv only because of cyprian bowlding, our videographer. thank you, cyprian. and don't forget, we're coming to you on not just on current but mainly on your local progressive talk radio station

all throughout the country and welcome you to the program. as we welcome nicole flato who is the justice editor -- deputy editor for justice at think progress. we're very fond of think progress around here. we have a lot of people in from think progress. we've never had a chance to talk about law enforcement or justice issues until today. welcome to the program. nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: there's lot in your area to talk about today for sure. >> yeah. big day yesterday. >> bill: with eric holder making his speech in san francisco, about mandatory minimum sentencing. and not to mention the verdict in the whitey bulger trial. but also a judge ruling in new york city that the stop, question and frisk policy is basically unconstitutional. it is wrong and she says it's got to change. we'll get into all of those with nicole but you know, susan

page -- did i get that right? susan page, the washington bureau chief for "usa today" who generally joins us on friday morning, had a good interview yesterday with the white house chef, sam cass, who also plays golf regularly with the president. and she asked him about are they really as into their veggies as we are led to believe? here's a little bit of that interview. >> have you ever fixed something for the first family like i'm thinking kale or brussels sprouts and they've said i don't care if it is healthy, don't fix that again. >> i can't say they've ever said that to me. i'm sure the kids would have liked to say that with some of the things that are made but what they're served, according to mom. >> bill: according to mom, the kids eat what they're served. of course, when you're talking to the chef, what about this broccoli?

>> does he really like broccoli? >> broccoli is a go-to staple. he'll eat any kind of green vegetable. there is nothing that's not in play. >> i like broccoli if it is smothered with that cheese sauce. >> i blanch it, saute in a little olive oil. nothing fancy. >> i believe that. >> bill: that's the best way to cook broccoli. >> oh, sure. >> bill: i'm not a big broccoli fan. >> i'm a fellow broccoli fan. i eat it several times a week. i love it. >> bill: really? >> here's the deal. >> bill: i can't believe anybody would eat broccoli several times a week. >> it is one of my favorite vegetables. >> the president said it was his favorite food. he said it is broccoli. still not sure i buy that. >> bill: i don't think those little kids he was talking to bought that at all. more important, lots more important issues to get into which we will in a second here. but first...

dan? >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> quick check of headlines making news on this tuesday. even senators have to report for jury duty. john mccain showing up to superior court in phoenix, arizona, yesterday to answer the call for civic duty. "the hill" reports he spent all of the day at the courthouse and tweeted while he was there. mostly though listened to music on his phone and read a newspaper. he was selected for consideration for a trial but at the end of the day, ended up being let go. >> bill: there's no way they're going to let john mccain on that trial. >> probably not. he was selected like six or seven years ago and also didn't make it on a trial as well. >> bill: good for him for showing up. >> kanye west and kim kardashian have turned down several high offers from magazines for the first photos of their baby, north west. tmz reports one over was near the $3 million mark. many celebrities do get paid for baby's photos but then donate

the money to charity while others like jay-z and beyoncé released photo on their own time to their own social media account the and skip the magazine. >> bill: you know, i have a problem for charging for your baby's photos, kind of tacky, don't you think? >> yeah, you know, it is certainly not something everybody would do. a lot of people put their baby photos on facebook. >> if they give it to charity, i've got no problem with it. >> bill: still tacky, i think. better than pocketing the money. >> log on to facebook later this week and you'll be able to make restaurant reservations when visiting an eatery's facebook page instead of having to open a separate app on your smart phone to get to the restaurant's web site. the social media has partnered with opentable to make it an easy one-step process. also, you will be able to get tv listings through your facebook page as well. won't have to open up a separate app for that either.

>> bill: open table is a great app. i use it a lot. you get points. >> bill: nicole, you covered the justice department and those kind of issues there at think progress. and i mentioned again, igor volsky is usually hear from think progress. deputy editor every tuesday morning. he is on his honeymoon this week and judd legum has been in many times, your boss. he's off on vacation this week. glad you're there. because we want to talk to you. eric holder's comment -- his proposal yesterday was fairly significant. really is a major change in particularly federal prosecution and again, we're talking about mainly nonviolent drug crimes, right? what was he recommending and what would the changes be? >> so, what's so significant about this announcement is that

eric holder is in a position to use the power of prosecutors in a way they haven't done before. what he really started out talking about was this serious problem we have of overincarcerating people. as he pointed out, we have 5% of the world's population. almost 25% of the prisoners, it is eclipses that of any other developed nation in the world. we have many more people in prison for low-level offenses, particularly for drug offenses, as a relic of the war on drugs. what happened is we passed this law in the war on drugs that gave everybody involved a harsh sentence starting at five years and ten years and racking up pretty quickly from there. you have anybody who is in any way convicted of being involved in the crimes is getting this minimum regardless of their role because of the amount of drugs that were involved in the crime so every time a prosecutor

charged somebody with one of these crimes, a judge has absolutely no discretion in their sentencing. typically when you go before a judge, you get convicted then the judge decides how long they'll stay in jail. because of the mandatory minimum sentences, they get what they get. so many times over the course of this policy, particular recently, judges has said this is so unjust. i don't want to sentence you to ten years in jail. prosecutors could use the discretion you have and charge them with something else, that would make my job easier and that would relieve our prisons, the costs are overwhelming. the populations have been exploding. the federal prison population has exploded almost 800% since about 1980. so it has been remarkable. what eric holder said yesterday was look, i recognize this is a serious problem. i recognize it is a racial problem. there are a lot of ways in which there is disproportionate

sentencing for drug crimes. it is targeted low minority communities and he said look, what we can do is we cannot prosecute people for these mandatory minimums and i'm going to order all of my prosecutors, when there are certain types of low-level offenders not violent and not targeting minorities, not involved in major gangs, not to include the amount of the drug when they charge them and therefore avoid the mandatory minimum. and this will have a more huge impact than you know, any judge has the power to do anything at this point. congress is sort of in the midst of trying to change this but we know how things go in congress. it really will have some immediate impact and make a major statement about the issue. >> bill: here is how eric holder explained it, summed it up well to the american bar association yesterday. about the problem. >> too many americans go to too many prisons for far too long

and for no truly good law enforcement reason. >> bill: too many people in too many prisons for far too long and what this does, it's not -- really making things better, is it? >> oh, absolutely not. i think anyone who's ever seen a tv show like the wire, for example, has a concept of what's happening. there are these communities in which drug trade is sort of part of the community and you have young teens getting involved in some way early on. there has to be a courier. there has to be a go-between and they get involved in this low level and ensnared in the system. then you have them spending five or ten years in jail. now they've become a much more hardened criminal and now they have a criminal record and they've sort of been introduced to the system. so in that way, you know, if nothing else, it makes things worse. not to mention the serious budgetary consequences which we also talked about. >> bill: the rate of

recidivism is very high so then they're back in. >> yep. >> bill: these are the people who are not out, contributing to this economy or to building a better america or whatever, right? but what i'm curious about is where these laws came from. this was really an overreaction, right, to the war on drugs. on the part of state legislatures and the congress. >> i think in retrospect, it certainly looks like an overreaction. i think at the time, you know, people were very serious about the war on drugs but this was this anti-drug abuse act that sort of was passed in the wake of some very prominent abuse of drugs led by us in particular. there was this sort of decision made that the way for us to target drug abuse was to target drug distributors and to take down the war on drugs. there was a decision made in order to take down the drug

distributors, every single person in the chain had to be targeted equally, right? so the idea is that whatever you're being charged with, wherever you're at, you get the same charge for the same crime. but actually, if you ask a lot of the judges, they'll say these sentences were really intended to take down the kingpins, right. what we're having to do now because of the way the law is written is sentence these low-level people. >> bill: that's key is the legislators, right, said we don't trust the judges. we want this. we want this to stick, man. so we're going to take any decision making authority away from the judges. the judges really -- so you've got a kid who has zero criminal record coming from a good family and just happens to make a dumb mistake. he's in for five years, right? >> right. >> bill: or ten years, whatever it is. it is insane. >> it is really unbelievable. i think a lot of judges have

talked about sort of like over time, the toll that it takes on them -- >> bill: totally, across the board in terms of bailiffs and courts and so much public funds and resources are going on to this stupid war on drugs. so eric holder is doing this at the federal level but state -- california where i come from has this three strikes and you're out law. most states have laws like this, right? >> they do. >> bill: if eric holder can only go so far is what i'm saying. >> as you mention, there is the federal government and the federal prisons have only about 10% of the criminal. although a lot of them are in there for drug crimes. it is a serious federal problem. it is almost half of the federal prisoners are in for drug crimes. it is a high proportion. but yeah, the state laws vary tremendously. california, as you point out, did have a really horrible three strikes law which actually was

taken down by a ballot initiative this year. they're starting to roll that back to some degree. but there are actually a lot of conservative red states that have started to make reforms that are out ahead of the federal government. that was something eric holder touched down during his remarks as well. a lot of conservatives are coming around because it is getting very expensive. that's really i think the primary motivating factor. but they've gone from this sort of tough on crime mentality that used to have to have to get elected, sort of fear -- >> bill: maybe we can start being like smart on crime instead of tough on crime. >> that's exactly what it is. >> bill: we'll take a quick break. we'll come back. >> sure. >> bill: nicole flatow is with us from center of american progress, think progress. she covers justice issues. join us. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

this show is about analyzing, criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal, or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i'm given to doing anyway, by staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. not only does senator rubio just 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: all right. major, major announcement by eric holder, attorney general yesterday. and you know, i've been a big critic of eric holder's suggesting the best thing for the country would be for him to step down as attorney general. so i haven't changed my mind about him but i have to say give credit where credit is due. i believe he made a very important -- very positive move yesterday on this mandatory minimum sentencing. nicole flatow is here from think progress to talk about that.

dan, comments before we move on. >> we're at facebook.com/billpressshow. and at bpshow on twitter. we were talking about the white house chef sam cass saying the president eats his vegetables. one of our frequent tweeters aria says it is true. i ran into then senator obama in hawaii at a grocery store and he was standing in the vegetable section. he likes his vegetables. and in fact, on topic, on the mandatory minimum sentencing at rsn for life says if tricky dicky didn't wage a war on drugs in the '70s, we wouldn't have overcrowded prisons with nonviolent drug use cases today. >> bill: i think it was more -- tricky dicky did a little bit. but it really started with ronald reagan, didn't it? the whole war on drugs and nancy reagan? >> i think it sort of escalated between the two of them. >> bill: just have about a minute left. so new york, judge says the stop, question and frisk policy,

not fair, right? and racial profiling. >> yes. absolutely. so yesterday, there was this decision from a federal judge on a class action that was filed by a number of people in new york city who were stopped and frisked by the nypd as some people may know, they have this very aggressive policy of stopping people on the street and in many cases, subsequently frisking them for -- supposed to be for weapons but oftentimes looking for drugs. it has been about five million people since bloomberg has been in office so this has been a huge escalation of the policy, primarily targeting young black men and young hispanic men. so the allegation was that this had been racial profiling and the judge ruled absolutely this is racial profiling. huge blow to mayor bloomberg and he's maintained it is important law enforcement policy. >> bill: he says he will appeal it. but i think the judge was right on that, too. nicole, important stuff. thanks so much for coming in this morning. >> thanks for having me.

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

nounce connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show". >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour here on a tuesday morning. it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. our studio on capitol hill. yeah, it is a ghost town around here these days. house is out. the senate is out. the president's out of town. the vice president's out of town. but few of us chickens left here keeping our eye on what's

happening in the news. we're doing that today and brought to you by ullico, incorporated, the good men and women of ullico under president ed smith. proudly serving the union workplace for more than 85 years now providing specialty insurance, risk solutions, investment products and services and more and to find out all about their good work, go to their web site at ullico.com. solutions for the union workplace. lots going on here on the big picture in washington as well. even though they may be out of town. their work doesn't go away. the issues don't go away. keeping on top of those for the "national journal," national correspondent jill lawrence joining us in studio. good friend for a long time. hi, jill. nice to see you. >> good to be here, bill. >> bill: where do we start? let's start with marco rubio. okay? >> okay. >> bill: because you've got

joe biden saying he's going to iowa september 15th. hillary giving a big speech in san francisco yesterday. and we'll talk about hillary in just a minute. but on the republican side, there is some movement. rand paul is moving around. donald trump shows up in iowa. and marco rubio out in front on immigration reform. but if he seemed to be going toward the middle, maybe on immigration reform, on obamacare, he's far to the right, right? >> it has been a head-spinning transformation. he was a pillar of the establishment of the gang of 8 in the senate on immigration and he was -- kind of the voice of reason, you know, sort of the centrist middle reasonable, this is the future of our party and our country. we've got to get this path to citizenship and then he kind of did this 180, not in terms of opposing obamacare and the affordable care act which he always has but tactically

throwing in with rand paul and ted cruz, saying we want to defund this law and if we can't, we're going to shut the government down. so that's -- you know, a lot further to the right than other opponents have gone. so some of the same people full of praise for his role on immigration are now saying what is he thinking? >> bill: i think this is on the floor where he's talking about this is the only way in effect to stop obamacare. marco rubio. >> you want to delay implementation, don't fund it. if we have a six-month continuing resolution, we should defund obamacare by those six months but we should not pass a continuing resolution. i will not vote for a continuing resolution unless it defunds obamacare. >> bill: is he living in the real world? i mean they're not going to -- isn't it pretty clear? the house has voted 40 times to repeal it. now he's on to this ted cruz kick about we're going to defund it. therefore, in effect, repeal it.

>> in a way, it is a free pass because i don't think they'll ever get the votes to actually do it. so he can take the stand, hope for some tea party support to come back his way. i personally don't think that he has a problem with immigration. by the time the 2016 primaries roll around. the positions of the major contenders. they're close to his or by the time they get to 2016, everybody will be moving in that direction because that's the future of the party. so i don't think that's a problem. but in the short term, yeah, he's had a falling away of some conservative support and you know, he'll tell you and his people will tell you that he's always been an opponent of obamacare and this is nothing different for him. but strategically, tactically, it is different because it is a real storm the barricades type of approach. >> bill: i think the -- maybe what is hurting him, tell me if i'm wrong, you know who rand paul is and what he stands for.

you know who chris christie is and what he stands for. even ted cruz. marco rubio now seems to be like waffling. he's trying to decide who he is and what he stands for. >> i think that's exactly right. >> bill: which is not good. i think people like to know -- you know, that you've got -- you know who you are and you've got enough self-confidence to be who you are. >> and that you're not -- are you a risktaker? are you a daredevil? are you somebody who is kind of -- who would depict themselves as a responsible decision-maker? these are all kind of slots that get filled in the republican primary field and in the democratic one as well. and so you know, people are going to be looking for some definition and i think he's confused the issue at least for now. who is he? >> bill: jill lawrence is with us, nationaljournal.com. we get so -- we talk so much

about understandably so, hillary clinton and joe biden particularly hillary suck all of the oxygen out of the room. but there are a lot of other outstanding democrats who would like to be seriously considered. a neighbor of ours, right, martin o'malley, governor of maryland who i'm very high on martin o'malley. he's done a great job as governor of maryland. and you have written critically about him. why? >> i've also written positively about him. >> bill: okay. >> the positive story -- it wasn't positive, it was an examination of his life and his philosophy and decision to start his career in baltimore which was not an easy way to start. >> bill: baltimore. irish rock band. >> he's done a lot. he has a lot of charisma on stage with his band. he's still kind of short in that category when it comes to politics. but i mean he probably has the

potential to do it since he can do it in the music context. the critical thing that i wrote was when he was recently, i think it was milwaukee, the national governor's association conference, he told reporters, he's pretty open about considering a run for president and he went into a shtick about we have a crisis of confidence in our country and it was a real kind of downer and it reminded me of jimmy carter. when i went back to look at the malaise speech, in fact, it was called the crisis of confidence. and you know, people associate carter with a very downbeat time in our nation's history. he was a one had been term president. he was not popular. the hostages were taken in iran. i'm not sure -- >> bill: the speech was a real downer. >> it was a downer. there were some indicators it was greeted fairly well until a couple of days later when he fired the whole cabinet and you

know, there was just -- it is not just not a good association in democratic politics. nor is pessimism or what some might call it realism. but it is optimism that always carries the day in these presidential elections. so i thought -- i was very puzzled by it. i mean i understand he did something like that in baltimore. the believe campaign when he first ran. but i'm not sure -- there's just -- the country is too big. not everybody is having a hard time. not everybody is down and pessimistic and you know, there is kind of a can do attitude that people like to see. >> bill: it is also true that not everybody is booming these days, either. in this economy. far too many americans out of work. tar too many who haven't seen any increase in their salary. far too many living in a minimum wage or less. >> that's true. >> bill: i take your point and i agree with you point that people don't like to hear the bad news. they like to hear the optimism.

>> right. >> bill: that we're still great and things can get better. >> the other thing i would say is that in maryland, he's only been dealing with democrats. he has very small and insequential republican opposition. >> bill: good point. >> who knows how he would do under those circumstances. >> bill: what i find strange about that message is particularly like that was the message of donald trump over the weekend to the extent that anybody takes him seriously. worst possible time for this country, things are so bad and people have lost all respect for us all around the world. just b.s., i think. so you might expect that from a republican but from a democrat to follow barack obama to say that we have a crisis of confidence is a little disconcerting. a little strange. >> it is a preview of what the candidates, the democrats may have to do in 2016 depending on

how -- >> bill: i hope they don't run against obama. >> i think it depends. what shape is the country in. what shape are his approval ratings in. but it seems to strike me as premature to be doing that because we don't know what will be happening in the next couple of years. >> bill: then the women of the senate, cover story on that recently. there are more than ever before, how effective are they? and what are the plans for some of those women in the senate or some women who used to be in the senate. you know who i'm talking about. jill lawrence is here from the "national journal." nationaljournal.com. join the conversation. your questions and your comments welcome at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back. >> announcer: the "bill press show." is joining free speech tv starting september 3rd. stay up to date by following us on twitter at bpshow. this is the "bill press show."

we have a big big hour and the iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. this show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. we're talking national issues, national politics with jill lawrence from the "national journal." right back to our conversation and to your comments in just a second here. but this story caught my attention. keep looking for stories about identity theft. this one out of connecticut. two connecticut women, they answered an ad, job posting, for a man who claimed to be hiring for a national company. they paid a $40 fee.

filled out their job applications with their private information, social security number, bank account number, home address and there they are victims again of identity theft. the guy was an identity thief. they are everywhere. and you do smart thick by being protected against it by lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection available. even monitors your bank accounts but of course, lifelock services can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. so here's what i suggest. visit lifelock.com or call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10 first off your lifelock ultimate membership. give them a call at 1-800-3256-5967 for lifelock ultimate. 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. jill, how are women in the senate doing? how many are there now? >> 20.

>> 16 democrats, four republicans which is problematic for republicans but they're trying to fix that. >> bill: that's good. that's a good sign of progress, right? >> it has been very slow. >> bill: do they work together as a block? >> they're very self-congratulatory about their supposed consensus building skills and you know, how we're pragmatists, we can do this better than the guys. if fact, they are good at those things and they have been moving bill the out of the committees they chair. they do work together. every few weeks, they have a dinner and they're very cohesive as a group. but of course, there are men who are good at this, too. look at chuck schumer, john mccain, bob corker, lindsey graham, dick durbin, a lot of men in the senate who put a premium on compromises. so it is hard to say. the one place where they've absolutely had an impact is the issue agenda. they're taught -- there are seven women on the armed services committee now and as we

all know, sexual assault in the military is a huge deal now. and that's in part because they're making it so. so there's a lot of impact on the agenda. >> bill: that's particularly the case of kiersten gillibrand, right? >> she's in the forefront of this. she is trying -- as everyone probably knows, to take the handling of the days out of the chain of command. she was shot down on a committee. she is getting close. she may actually succeed at this which would be a big acheesmght for her and something she could point to if she decides she wants to run for president. >> bill: who are the leaders of the women's block in this senate? >> the dean is barbara mikulski. she takes her responsibility almost as a den mother, very seriously. for instance, she calls meetings and briefings. she'll call a meeting of everybody to update them on what's going on, for instance,

on an issue like sexual assault in the military. she keeps the history of the senate, of the senate women in her hideaway. one more this year and two more -- two years later. steady and exorable rise of women in the senate. >> bill: she is chair of appropriations, right? first time a woman has chaired that committee. >> right. >> bill: the story out of that is she really cracks the whip. >> in a nice way. >> bill: no, but i mean she's really in charge. very much so. >> oh, yeah. patty murray, chairman of the budget committee. she got out the first budget in three years. they do range from manchin to bernie sanders so it is quite a range ideologically. so you know, they're doing well. >> bill: senator feinstein, chair of the intelligence committee. barbara boxer, chair of -- environment. >> public works. >> senator feinstein in

particular takes a lot of people under her wing. even when hillary clinton came, she'll just take them to lunch. this is how i run my office. here's what you do if you want to -- i can send you information if you want to do it like i do it. very helpful to new people of both parties. >> bill: she was very helpful to me when i moved here to washington. she's a good friend. and maybe we forget but i thought one of the most critical moments of the 2008 primary was remember when -- it was getting nasty between hillary clinton and barack obama. and dianne feinstein invited them both over to her house. >> i think i remember that. >> bill: remember that? and she welcomed them to her house and she said okay, you want a glass of wine? here it is. i'm leaving you alone. i'm going upstairs and you call me when its's over. and left the two of them down there to talk it out and say okay, we've got to cool the jets

on both sides. i don't know whether there was any one issue but the whole thing had gotten so intense. because i -- i talked to senator feinstein afterwards about that. that's what she said. she didn't want -- nobody else. just the two of them. no aides, nobody, not even diane. >> it is pretty amazing. >> bill: it is. she has that kind of respect for everyone. >> their relationship now, who the heck knows. >> bill: that's right. then there's amy klobuchar who is a real star. >> i know people hate to hear this, as the perfect vice presidential candidate. she's from a purple state. everybody likes her. she's got kind of a minnesota nice way about her. and you know, if you think about it, she's kind of a consumer champion. that's been her mark in the senate. not any of the big security issues or anything like that. but kind of chipping away to

help families and consumers. >> bill: i'm very high on -- she's very smart. she really works hard. she really does deliver and she has a wicked sense of humor. all right. jill, so much fun to talk about these things with you. you've got it all covered here. thanks for coming in today. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: nationaljournal.com. you don't have to wait until jill comes back to follow her good work. go to nationaljournal.com. i'll come back and tell you what the president is up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: live on free speech tv beginning september 3rd. visit freespeech.org to learn more. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. all i can tell you is that president obama yesterday played another round of golf and then he and the first lady, their daughters aren't there by the way. they don't come until the end of the week. they're at summer camp. but the first lady and the president went out to a cocktail party at a friend's house last night. that's the extent of the news from martha's vin yard. no schedule announced for today. maybe another round of golf. he played in the rain yesterday. we have a great hour coming up with john stanton here as a "friend of bill" from "buzzfeed" for the entire hour. going to be joined by campaign for america's future. robert borosage to talk to larry summers at the top of the hour. milton valencia from "the boston globe" about the whitey bulger trial.

three great reasons for sticking around.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: on a tuesday morning, august 13, good morning and welcome. welcome to the "full court press" right here on current tv. coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. our job is to bring you up to date on the news of the day and your job is to tell us what you think about it all. 1-866-55-press. our toll free number. you can join us on twitter at

bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. there is a lot of news on the law enforcement front on at least three different areas yesterday. starting off with attorney general eric holder out in san francisco telling the american bar association that there are too many people in too many prisons for too long for too little. and he wants to change the mandatory minimum sentencing laws to make sure that only people convicted of serious crimes spend serious time in prison. that's a welcome change up in new york. another welcome change, a judge has said that new york city police department stop, question and frisk policy is wrong. it's got to stop because it amounts really to nothing but racial profiling. mayor bloomberg said he's going to challenge that decision. and appeal it. and in boston, surprise, surprise, a jury has found whitey bulger guilty of

racketeering and 11 counts of murder. that and more. we'll bring you all up to date on current tv. minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical, the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air

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

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

the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: surprise, surprise. whitey bulger found guilty. even he expected that. good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday, august 13. this is the "full court press." coming to you live from this ghost town called washington, d.c. nobody's here but us. house is out, the senate is out. the vice president is out. the president is out. the first lady.

even the first kids are at summer camp. but a few of us left here. we'll tell you what's going on and give you a chance to join the conversation at 1-866-55-press. in studio, with us to tackle some of the big issues of the day, two good friends. here as a "friend of bill" the entire hour, john stanton, washington bureau chief for "buzzfeed" welcome back from new orleans. nice you came all the way up from the big easy for the show today. >> i try. >> bill: robert borosage, one of the great voices in progressive politics, liberal politics in irvs really. codirector of the campaign for america's future. bob borosage. robert, nice to see you. before we get into the big issue i want to talk to you about, "buzzfeed" had this big event last night in new york. robert, they have "buzzfeed" brews is the name of a series that they've started this year. and they started it here in --

in d.c. been to the first one. i know you've been there. >> i've done several. >> senator portman. senator gillibrand. senator mccaskill. >> bill: last night, up in new york with anthony weiner. >> no doubt. >> bill: ben smith did the interview. we'll talk more about it later. the first clip here, he sort of took a little whack at "buzzfeed" because we know one of the features of "buzzfeed," most people enjoy very much about it are certain videos. let's let anthony weiner say it. >> someone else who is hard on you, your old friend, old roommate, jon stuart. i wonder kind of what the state of your relationship is with him these days. >> he's a comedian. >> come on. he's your friend. >> oh, no. >> i'm going to start asking about -- soon. but i think this is something that's interesting. >> we can do this or show videos

of cats, whatever you it is you do at "buzzfeed." >> cat videos. that's all they do. >> it is an original joke. no one has ever made the cat video joke. you know. i said on twitter last night, you know, you would think that a guy named weiner would get that like if you're going to dissomebody, you should have some originality to it. i can do weiner jokes all day long and none of them will be new. >> bill: the only thing it showed to me is at least he knows the site. >> definitely. >> bill: he checked out the site or somebody told him if you want to get them back. talk about the cat videos. >> who doesn't love cat videos. even people who don't like cats like cat videos. that's not the only reasongy to the site. >> bill: so gentlemen, friends, i was at the news conference with president obama on friday and when major garrett

asked the question about okay, you've got a big appointment coming up here. chairman of the fed. and every time this comes up, you seem to be out there defending larry summers. does larry summers have an inside track for -- is that what this means? and the president basically said no. that's not what it means at all. let me tell what you a great guy larry summers is. what's up? >> he has an inside track. all of the old boys on the economic team who are bob reuben he can lights are pushing hard for larry summers. they've been running a p.r. campaign trying to resuscitate his reputation and get him ready for the appointment. clearly, the president -- was leaning that way. and now, the odds makers that are now starting to take odds on this are saying they're still on the inside track on this. there is a problem with it. which is this is really a question -- federal reserve does our monetary policy.

it regulates. it has a major role in regulating the big banks and the major financial institutions. and this is a question about whether wall street is going to control our politics or not. so summers is an acolyte of bob reuben, the former chair of goldman sachs. treasury secretary, left to make millions at citibank. he -- when he was in office under clinton, summers had really a catastrophic record of championing deregulation of the banks, supporting the repeal of glass-steagall which kept them from gambling with taxpayer's money. suppressing efforts even to begin asking about derivatives which eventually blew up the global economy. and he then went from there to -- unfortunate turn -- >> bill: i hate to interrupt you. bill clinton has said that larry summers is wrong. got it wrong on the derivatives

and advised him wrongly. so former president has dissed his treasury secretary. >> what's interesting about that -- >> bill: then he goes to harvard. >> what's interesting about this is the defenders of summers take the same information that the critics have and use that as part of his resume. so the critics say this was catastrophic, the decisions he made in the '90s that led directly to the bubble that blew up. they said yeah, but that was a learning experience. he knows his stuff. he's learned a lot from it. then the critics say then he left there and pocketed millionses of dollars from the banks he helped to deregulate. classic revolving door conflicts of interest. his critics -- his defenders say that's good experience. he really knows the financial community. inside and out. then he came back into the obama administration and he bailed out the banks without restructuring them. then left again and pocketed millions of dollars from the banks he helped to save and his

supporters say well, this is the kind of experience that we have. so then you finally say look, this led to all of the crises that increasing numbers of financial crises supporters say exactly. this is a guy who knows how to put out fires. we need him at the head of the fed. this is like saying we'll make the arsonist the fire chief because he's good at putting out the fires that he lights. clearly, they're pushing hard for this nomination. >> bill: john, when i look at this -- the other night, i went through his resume and just -- you started to mention harvard. he dose to harvard -- he goes to harvard, faculty of harvard. no confidence in the president of harvard. sexual harassment charge? >> he made -- the comment that women couldn't do advanced math and science because they were genetically -- >> bill: inferior to men. i'm wondering why he's even on obama's list.

what is it? loyalty factor, do you think? >> yeah, loyalty. i think the obama administration not only is very much in line with a lot of -- after larry summers has been long connected to. deregulation, wall street, that kind of thing. they have a nice -- they have this sort of exterior of more progressiveness but at the heart, they are sort of these traditional, democratic wall street capitalist types. and i think, you know, actually having this fight over this nomination in a way is smart politics for them because you know, if it was predetermined, there wasn't a fight within the party, was going to be larry summers, as a nomination, they could go into the fall with republicans trying to take a shot at him. this way, there is this fight on the democratic side, republicans don't get that involved, the blood letting happens then. it looks public. the public that cares much about this which is pretty small, frankly. there has been this sort of

vetting and they get the guy that they want. having this fight is not necessarily a bad thing from the white house's perspective. >> bill: i never remember having any public controversy or campaign over who's going to be the next chair of the fed. have we had that? >> only when bernanke was reappointed under obama where bernanke was, you know, present at the creation of the financial crisis. there was a right-left coalition that said how can you reappoint somebody who didn't see the housing bubble and denied it as greenspan's aide or number two. and then you know, watch the economy go over the cliff. so he got 30 votes against him. that's the first time there's been any significant -- significant is 30 out of 100 opposition to a fed chair. this is -- very few people understand what the federal reserve does. very few people know who the chair of the federal reserve is. although without any question, this is the second most powerful

official in u.s. government, i would say behind the president. >> bill: financial crisis, seems they've emerged as more and more powerful and more important because of buying the bonds and keeping the economy afloat. >> only thing moving to help the economy. congress has totally paralyzed the spending that's coming down in catastrophic rates. so the only thing keeping -- helping to keep the economy afloat -- >> bill: now, there are other candidates. >> yeah. the vice chair, ben bernanke is now the chair is a woman named janet yellen, a brilliant economist, was the head of the san francisco fed. warned about the housing bubble and the derivatives ahead of time. and has been under bernanke, really deeply involved in the quantitative easing in the buying of bonds to keep the economy going and in thinking about how to unravel that, how to bring it down. so she is eminently qualified. there has never been a woman who

is the head of the fed. the financial institutions tend to be white men from wall street or kind of a marinated by wall street. so you know, lots of people are saying she's the natural. and in the beginning of this process, most people assumed that she would get the nomination. until the old boys network started running the summers campaign. >> bill: who is this? john thorne? >> kohl? david cole. >> bill: i thought there was a -- >> former head. there is another wall street -- ferguson. >> bill: i haven't heard that name. it must have been cole. so do you think it is a lock for summers? >> yes. i do. at this point. look, you know, i think yellen has a lot of support in the senate. but if the president comes forward with summers, i think there are certainly the six or eight republican votes they'll need there. the fact that he made these sort

of sexist comments about women and the fact that you have -- who should be potentially be the first female head of the fed and that is not -- you know, been that big of a story -- it has not been the biggest part of this. the story has primarily been you know, the white house sort of just insisting on it being summers. it hasn't come to that. i think it says to me that this is pretty much a done deal at this point. not sure what you can do. >> there's over half of the democratic female legislators in the house signed a letter for yellen, for janet yellen. there is enormous kind of support for yellen in the senate. i think if you nominate summers, the president understands he's going to have a huge set of hearings with liberals going after summers for the deregulation and for the bailout of the banks without restructuring them and breaking them up. the big banks.

and with conservatives going after him for the obama stimulus policy which they hate which summers was at the counsel on economic advisers, at the head of the national economic counsel. i think you're going to get into a debate with summers. it is not useful for the president. >> bill: let's face it. i can't use the word on this show but he's got the reputation in this town that he's a royal a-hole, larry summers. anybody who's like dealt with him. he wouldn't be the only one in this town, right? but it is very unobama-like, his style. obama doesn't offend people. he likes to get along with people. larry summers is -- i don't know him well. >> he's made a bit of a practice of hiring people that offend people. he surrounds himself with people who are very much logical to poke you in the eye and ask you

if you want another one or shut up now. that's sort of how everybody who works for him frankly operates. >> bill: so he doesn't have to do it, right? >> although even he, you talk to republicans who have been in private meetings, he's not exactly friendly with them. he will look down his nose at eric cantor, some of the other republicans. >> bill: when does this play out? >> september, i think. he makes the appointment. bernanke's term ends in january so they've got to have the hearings. they won't be around very much. in sessions. he has to do it pretty soon. >> bill: then there's ron paul who still says we ought to get rid of the fed altogether. i think bernie sanders says that, too. >> bernie is for keeping it but he wants it under some constraints, audited, for example. >> bill: talking with robert borosage from the campaign for american future and john stanton. join the conversation at 1-866-55-press. we'll be right back.

>> announcer: like politics? then like the "bill press show" on facebook. this is the "bill press show." in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding.

>> 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: 25 minutes after the hour now. we are here with robert borosage from the campaign for america's future. you can check out their good work and find out more about this whole debate on the fed at their web site, ourfuture.org. from "buzzfeed," john stanton is

in studio with us as a "friend of bill" this entire hour. in the next segment, john and i will be talking with the next half hour, talking with milton valencia who has been in the courtroom every day with the whitey bulger trial. "boston globe." finally over. verdict yesterday. milton will give us a quick update on that. we've been talking about the big flap here in washington. unusual to have such a public campaign for who should be the next chairman of the fed. supporters of larry summers, very much waging aggressive campaign. so are the supporters of janet yellen. only one man makes a decision. president obama. should it be just one man who makes the decision or such an important board? is anybody talking about that? >> it is appointed by the president, confirmed by the senate. that's the way appointments are made. you could elect them but no one knows what the fed does so that would be a tough vote. >> i think, you know, bernanke

was sort of the first but this is really new. like a political fight as well. at all. normally it is a pretty standard -- everyone sort of agrees it will be the guide. the president -- everybody sort of comes to the same conclusion it seems like and this is -- certainly in my memory, the first time you've seen something like this. it is a bit more new territory. >> bill: bit more at play than just the chairman of the fed. >> i think this is an early skirmish over the future of the party in terms of its economic policy. will it continue to be dominated by wall street? by the bob reuben, his acolytes and proteges and wall street frame on policy, on trade, on banking, on investment. or will you see the beginnings of a much more populous politics which you see coming out of elizabeth warren and sherrod brown and jeff merkley and tammy baldwin and other very attractive leaders in the senate saying we've got to make this

economy work for working people. we can't have this kind of continued massive extreme inequality which the reuben policies arguably have contributed directly to. 6 so the fed has a big role in that and how it sets interest rates, whether it focuses on its full employment mandate or its inflation mandate. whether it cracks down on banks or lets them run. so this is the beginnings of that skirmish. it has real stakes. >> bill: where is hillary clinton on this equation? >> very quiet. [ laughter ] well, maybe not for long, right? >> bill: that is interesting. two wings of the democratic party fighting this out as the whole thing plays out. we'll be watching it. robert, these see you. we're coming in again. it is our future.org. campaign for america's future and john and i, we'll tell you more about the anthony weiner roast last night in new york coming up.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 33 minutes after the hour. it is tuesday, august 13. the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital. john stanton from "buzzfeed" here in studio with us as a "friend of bill" this hour. john will be back with the news of the day in just a second. first though a little reminder about something seriously you ought to consider. could mean the difference between life and death. if you are ever god forbid in an accident, you're unconscious, paramedics arrive.

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ben smith was doing the honors, interviewing former congressman, anthony weiner, candidate for mayor of new york. he's in this to stay. all of the pullout jokes and everything. but he's in it. he will go the distance, right? >> oh, yeah. to a certain degree, he has to if he hopes of having a future in politics, he's got to see this out. you know. i think it is pretty clear he won't win given where the polls are. but he could. >> bill: he could make the runoff, i think. it is unlikely. but he does -- the establishment is totally against him. no doubt about it. >> led by maybe "the new york times." he was asked by ben last night about -- "the new york times" is really sort of out to get you. here's his kind of defiant attitude. >> "the new york times," wait for it, doesn't want you to win.

>> why do you think that is? >> what's their problem problem? >> their heads explode over the idea. >> why do you think that is? >> wait a minute. the problem is i don't have -- i'm not treating "the new york times" endorsement as an end in and of itself. they write stories about the campaign dedicated to the color of my pants. >> it is very conservative. >> it is for me. so the idea is -- i don't care. the same people that brought. >> third term for mike bloomberg. i don't care and it makes them nuts. >> bill: i gotta say, this is the anthony weiner that i like. >> yeah. >> bill: when he was on the floor of the house, he would take on everybody, right? >> i think he's -- interesting to watch him fight with "the new york times." they don't like him. that's pretty clear. they have not been particularly big fans of him for awhile now. you know. i think in new york, this plays well. a lot of people -- a lot of new yorkers do not like "the

new york times." they are partisans to the daily news or "the post" or whatever. they think "the new york times" is this -- doesn't understand what it is like to live in queens or brooklyn. if you read "the new york times," there is a place called brooklyn over there. and every week, there is this random story like that. i can see how this is a smart sort of populous way for him to talk to the public. this is classic anthony weiner, you know. >> bill: did he make any news last night? >> well, yes. there was some stuff on stop and frisk obviously. i think the biggest most interesting part was talking about hillary clinton. and her campaign. do you know what role huma, your wife will be playing in hillary's campaign in 2016. he said i do. and he said i'm not going to tell you about that. >> bill: we've got that clip. it is very revealing.

>> huma helping on the campaign? >> she's helping out every day. >> do you know what her role in hillary's 2016 campaign is going to be? >> i do. >> what will it be? >> i'm not telling you. [ laughter ] >> do you feel like you've damaged her place in that world? >> i feel that what i've done has hurt her, yeah. it has hurt her professionally and personally. >> bill: the very candid on his part on the latter remark, i think. on hillary clinton, he confirms there is a hillary 2016 campaign and she has already talked to hillary about her role in it. >> these people afterwards were pretty quick to say he was joking. i certainly think the second half he was joking. i'm not sure i do know what her role will be in a 2016 campaign. it is news because you know, it is sort of a confirmation-ish kind of a deal. i don't think anyone has been laboring under the impression that hillary clinton wasn't going to run for president in

2016. lots of people that want her to run have pretended like they think she may not run or hasn't made up her behind -- her mind but that's people being loyal to her. is anyone going to be shocked? it will be front page news but only because it is obligatory front page news. if you were going to rank it on actual newsworthiness, it would be like page 10. >> bill: the problem with other people who might be be thinking about this, as long as it is a possibility that hillary might run, as long as she's out there giving policy speeches or whatever, nobody else is getting any news. which may be why vice president joe biden announced a couple of days ago i'm going to iowa on september 15 to appear at tom harkin's steak fry. >> this is classic joe biden. he's like "don't forget about me." part of this, i think is

definitely sort of him playing with the idea -- you know, i don't know that i think he will end up running but i do think he likes the idea of pretending to run but also part of it is he and tom harkin have known each other for 30 some odd years so you know, the idea that he would go to his fund-raiser thing that he does in iowa every year is not all that shocking. you know. but it plays dual purposes for joe biden. >> bill: unless he really sort of like george washington was at the end of eight years of the presidency and just wants to get back to his farm, unless joe biden wants nothing more it to do with public life, he's smart to keep his name out there. people don't assume that he just wants to go back to wilmington. >> what is he going to go back to? he's never had a real job other than being a politician. essentially. he's been an elected official pretty much his entire adult life. it is not like he has a farm to go back to. or he worked in some sector for

some number of years before he came in to public office. this is his -- i would not be shocked if he ran for the house or he ran for the senate or he ran -- you know, for governor or something like that. just because like what else is he going to do? dogcatcher of wilmington or something. >> bill: he wouldn't want to be vice president for another eight years. >> that seems pretty terrible. >> bill: the president -- we talked with robert borosage about the president and his comments on larry summers. the other thing that came up at the news conference friday, john, as you know was whether or not there's going to be a government shutdown. it looks like some senator, republicans are moving toward that. i mean really are serious about that. >> yeah. ted cruz has been sort of the leader of this argument that congress should fund everything in the government except for obamacare. which is actually not -- doesn't

appear totally possible but even let's say you are able to figure out a way to you know, separate out obamacare without totally undoing the entire federal spending process. that's not going to pass the senate. the president's not going to sign it. there are not enough votes in the senate to overturn a veto even if they could pass it. and the politics of this is that it's going to come down to being republican's fault. i think there are a lot of republicans in the senate and in the house, that understand that. >> bill: in the house, you've got -- possible, crazier than ted cruz, right? but in the house caucus, republican caucus, and that puts john boehner in a particularly tough spot. because they would love to -- some of the caucus members would love to shut down -- >> they're very powerful in that you know, when they start speaking, a lot of the rank and file guys get nervous. they don't want tea party activists to look to people like steve king or you know, folks

like that and then turn to their guy and say why aren't you doing what they're doing? and bob costa at national view had a great story this morning about boehner and cantor trying very quietly behind the scenes to -- as he put it, carefully pour cold water on members to get them to calm down and sort of agree that a government shutdown is not a great idea for the party. but that is a task that they have just barely been successful at over the last two years. repeatedly. just barely avoiding these things. and the idea that they're going to be able to avoid it any time before the end of september, in my mind is sort of silly. frankly. >> bill: when we come back, john stanton and i will be talking to milton valencia from "the boston globe" to get the details on how it came down in the courtroom yesterday, whitey bulger guilty on just about every count. we'll be right back on the "full court press."

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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 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: 13 minutes before the top of the hour. no surprise ending to this trial. it doesn't seem like it. whitey bulger found guilty up in boston. we've been checking in every

once in awhile with the progress in this trial with milton valencia. good friend from "the boston globe" who's been covering the trial from beginning to the very end. and milton joins -- john stanton is in studio with us. washington bureau chief from "buzzfeed" as a "friend of bill" this hour. and we're joined on the line, john, by milton valencia now from boston. milton, thanks for being with us again today. good morning. >> my pleasure. good morning. >> bill: how did this come down yesterday and what was the reaction of whitey bulger? >> it came down kind of swiftly when it finally came down. it was a sweeping verdict for the government. bulger was convicted of 32 of the 33 counts he faced. one was racketeering and predicate acts and he was convicted of most of those as well including 11 of the 19 murders. he stood there. kind of just stood there. i don't want to say nodding his head. he kind of acknowledged it.

gave him a thumbs up. >> bill: wow. now, first of all, i love the fact that his defense attorney, jay carney -- >> i know, right? >> bill: see jay carney at the white house every day. so i find that amusing. carney said that bulger really was happy with this verdict. happy with the outcome. what? >> buller was really trying to kind of paint his legacy more than actually win the trial. i think that kind of came out in the sense of what they were trying to do. in a way, they were putting the government on trial and in so many ways, the government looked ugly. this is the government that has fbi corruption but not only had it but enabled it. that came out. much more than it ever has before.

they weren't officially on the record when bulger put them on the record. even though he was convicted as he said his lawyer said he knew once he was arrested, he was either going to die in jail or the death penalty but he wants to get something across from the trial. even with the guilty verdicts, he felt he did. >> bill, what do you think is going to be his life in jail? what happens to whitey bulger when he goes, you know, to the penitentiary? does he get awesome treatment because he's whitey bulger or has his time passed for gangsters that are now in jail? >> i think if anything, he'll need protection because even in the plymouth county jail where he is now, he's thinking he's james bulger, this big mafioso. he's being heckled whenever he gets into the public. he's being called a rat. so it will be even worse in the federal prison. he will have some type of protection, you know. he will not be by any means this kind of -- if anything, he's

looked down upon by the criminal underworld at this point. >> bill: is anything going to happen to the fbi officers who were, in effect -- >> that's a great question because we had this discussion with the u.s. attorney's office yesterday. some of them were charged specifically bulger's handler serving pretty much a life sentence for murder in miami that he enabled. there was another agent paul rico who died before he went to prison. and another agent who looked just as bad as both of them. he was granted immunity for his cooperation, john morris. there are a lot of other agents who were mentioned though. as i said earlier, names were put on the record. one of them, steve flemmi, bulger's partner. where are those now? no one's been held accountable for or answered to that. so yeah, you know, there has been a lot of explanation that agents couldn't be charged because of the statute of limitations had expired.

there wasn't sufficient evidence beyond one person's testimony. you know, so that is their excuse in that sense as far as not charging them. but there hasn't been this total accounting of what was actually happening there. and i think bulger's trial, in a way, took a stab at that. >> did they understand that was what bulger was going to end up doing? there was a lot of talk about the stuff going on and it sort of seemed to die off, right? did they understand going into this trial that he was going to put them on trial as well? >> they knew. they knew the names. they knew everything that -- you have the two prosecutors. for the united states government. you had the two prosecutors who initiated the case. they very much are the good guys. they're the ones who went out there -- the fbi corruption. to give them credit, they're the investigators who have been there for the last 20 years. however, they have to answer for that at the same time. so they knew this case and they

know it better than anybody else. so they do have an answer for it. they will say, you know, right in the middle of the trial of the witnesses, always have a counter argument. they know the case. i don't think they like -- i don't think they like some of the corruption in the past. prosecutors, they were sitting in there when some of the families filed their civil judgments against the fbi. prosecutors were in the courtroom. so they don't like it just as much. but they've also -- they're the government. they've had to answer to it. >> bill: milton valencia, you've been a good friend throughout this trial. hard work and taking the time for us. we appreciate it very much. wrapping it up this morning. thanks, milton. talk to you again soon. he's a good reporter. "boston globe" is a good paper. really done some good reporting on the boston marathon bombing, this thing, extraordinary stuff lately. almost as good as "buzzfeed." hey. john, great to see you.

welcome back. welcome home. jumping right back into it. pretty quiet around town here. you can have an easy re-entry. good to see you. buzzfeed.com. check it out. we do several times a day and you should, too. i'll back become a quick parting shot. download podcasts at billpressshow.com and listen any time, anywhere.

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go time. you know what time it is. go time! it's go time. it's go time. what time is it rob? here comes the young turks go time! it's go time. oh is it? oh, then it's go time. anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time! >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you know, i'm not a

big fan of eric holder's but yesterday, he did something right. gotta give him credit for it. recognizing that our criminal justice system is out of whack. holder announced major reforms in the way we deal with persons accused of nonviolent drug crimes because mandatory minimum sentencing laws. the attorney general noted our prisons are too crowded with persons convicted of low-level nonviolent drug offenses, mainly young men of color and holder said from now on, we're going to change that. we're not going to enforce the mandatory minimum laws for people convicted of law-level crimes, nonviolent crimes and instead, they're going to reserve the severe penalties and long prison terms for those convicted of serious crimes only. good for eric holder. he's taken the lead in reforming our antiquated federal sentencing laws. now, it is up to every state to do the same. go out and have a great day,

folks. see you back here tomorrow.

[♪ theme music ] >> stephanie: all right. current tv, hour number 1. jacki schechner you know it has been a long night, when i come in and think there is a spider on my laptop, but it's my fake eyelashes from cnn last night. we have michael tomasky and