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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  July 26, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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the debt ceiling with biptisan support. >> the president spent a lot of time talking about millionaires and billionaires and corporate jet owners and things that have nothing to do with the debate right now. >> and avoiding a convert in congress. and the switchboard is swamped in congress, did you hear that, mr. speaker? >> if you want a balanced budget, call your congressman. >> hang up the phone, mr. speaker. they are not listening. at this hour, the house has begun work on speaker boehner's new plan to deal with the nation's looming debt ceiling catastrophe. it is a plan that the speaker feels will pass both the house and the senate and a plan that he appears to be daring the president to veto. but will it get that far? already we see cracks in the speaker's anticipation of success, and congressman jim jordan like the speaker a conservative from ohio threw a
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monkey wrench into the speaker's plans. and representative jordan says this. i am con fi denlt as fident as morning that there were not 218 republicans in support of this plan. mr. jordan should know, because he chairs a republican committee with 178 members. great. today's table of course set by a prime time back and forth between the president and speaker boehner. first, the president addressing an increasingly weary and even angry nation repeating his message of a compromise that both sides must make to right the american economy. >> how can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries? this is no way to run the greatest kcountry on earth, and it is a dangerous game that we have never played before and we cannotf afford the play it now. >> then it was house speaker john boehner's turn and the distinguished gentleman from ohio offering a stern rebuke to
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the president's call accusing him of simply playing politics. >> and the sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. those decisions should be made based on how they are going to affect people who are struggling to get a job not how they will affect some politician's chances of getting re-elected. >> well, if the rhetoric between the president and the speaker is charged, it may be nothing compared to the outrage of many americans who crashed capitol hill servers on line and at this moment continue to flood the switchboards. and now the president awaits the work of congress with one plan put forward in the senate by senate majority leader harry reid and one in the house by speaker boehner. the house plan which could be voted on tomorrow might be called the boehner two-step, cut spending by $1.2 trillion over ten years and extend the debt ceiling for about six months bf a bipartisan committee hammers out another $1.7 trillion in
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spending cuts. majority leader eric cantor told the republicans behind closed doors this morning that quote, the debt limit vote sucks, but before cameras, encouraged the conservatives to rally behind the speaker. and still some republicans among the so-called tea party freshmen have quickly shown signs of resistance. congressman joe walsh is one of the freshmen and i'm absolutely delighted that he has come on yet again with us this afternoon. good afternoon, sir. >> good to be here, martin. >> well, congratulations are due first, because you are one of very few individuals on the planet who said they don't care if these negotiations go beyond the august 2nd deadline given the current gridlock, it looks like that will happen and the country will default and well done on the achievement, but do you think that speaker boehner's two-step plan will pass the house? >> well, a clarification, martin. i care about default, and
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everybody up here cares about default. we are not obsessed with august 2nd and based on what we are hearing this morning, the administration may not be as well. you know, sources say that reports say that they have been contacting privately bankers letting them know don't worry about default, you will be fine, you will be fine. i wish they would have that same message publicly to the american people, because it might help us to get to a solution a lot faster. >> okay. we well, let's focus on the politicians, because that is where you are at the moment. do you think that mr. boehner's proposed plan will come through the house? will be voted on and be a success through the house? >> i don't know. i give the speaker a lot of credit for continuing to try to craft something, put some solution together, but to me, we can do better, but it is just not good enough and we can do better. >> will you vote for it? >> no, i can't, martin. what i voted for was what ivo voted for last week. the house passed a historic
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piece of legislation that cut spending and would get us toward a balanced budget amendment which with republicans and democrats in some form support. that is what -- go ahead. >> mr. walsh, we can add your name then to the five republicans who have already said they won't vote, and that means that we are down to what, boehner can only afford to lose 22, so that's down to what? how's your math? >> i was never a strong math student, martin. so i'm not a head counter, but all i know is that we can do better, and we have to do better. and if it means that we go a day or two or three beyond august 2nd to get this right, that is what i think that we should do. >> you gave an interview recently to bloomberg news in which you said, and i'm quoting you, i don't know why we are talking to this president, the bolder republicans are these 16 months -- sorry, the bolder republicans during these 16 months would be better off politically implying obviously that it is the general election that the presidential election that you are focused on.
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>> no. i think that he's focused actually, martin on the election. >> no, you were, because you said it was not worth speaking to the president. >> well, the context was they don't know that it is worth speaking to him, because i just don't think that he gets it, and i don't think that he is serious, and the speech last night was again so disappointing. he continues to play this class warfare thing, and republicans and democrats i think that both parties up here are beyond that, and the american people are beyond that, and for him to continue to just give speeches, and he gives a great speech, martin, but the american people want a serious solution, and he is proving to be not capable of that. >> okay. mr. walsh, finally, harry reid speaking earlier today said that speaker boehner's short-term approach is no solution, because it will plunge us back into the untenable position in a few short months and give the markets no stability, and the american people no certainty, but it will hamper the president
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in an election year, and that is really what this is about, isn't it? >> well, i think that the markets have told us that the last day or so that, you know, they are not worked up. they understand what is going on. i don't think that they are getting worked up. look, we don't trust this president enough to just give him a blank check. and i think that he made clear in the news conference last week that that's what he wants. he wants this beyond the next election. i actually think it is a healthy debate for america and i wouldn't mind having this debate every single month up until the election. >> wow. never settle the debt ceiling issue, and congressman joe walsh as always, thank you for joining us. >> great to be with you, martin. and now to the other side of the aisle and the democratic controlled senate and how they will vote on the speaker boehner's plans, and their leader has a plan of their own and one that the president supports and one that does not include tax increases. under harry reid's plan the debt ceiling would be raised beyond 2012 with $1.2 trillion in
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discretionary cuts and much of it tied to defense spending and overall deficit reduction of $2.7 trillion over ten years. and while house speaker boehner called the reid plan gimmicky, this is how senator reid summed it up on the floor of the senate. >> someshort, every republicans have wrapped up in a bow and delivered to the door, but now they say that the demands that have been fulfilled are not enough. >> we are joined by maryland congressman chris van hollen, and first, what was the reaction to mr. walsh's considered contribution to the debate. he won't even vote for speaker boehner's plan. >> well, you see the exactly the dilemma we are facing which is a core of hard right tea party members in the house of representatives who don't think it is a problem if the united states doesn't pay the bills and every american family has to pay
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the mortgage and make the car payment and get up one day and say i'm not making the payments anymore, but that is what they are proposing but the single exception is that we will pay china and the bondholders, but it is okay not to pay the troops and not the pay social security and anything that is not in the form of a treasury bond obligation, they are willing to write off, and say, you are on your own. we think that is reckless and we also think that is in itself jack up interest rates and cost americans much more through their purchases of all of the goods and services throughout the economy when you have interest rates going up. >> mr. van hollen we understand that the white house has issued the threat of a veto and the president said last night in the televised statement that he believes he can reach a compromise, but where on earth do we go from here? >> well, the reason that the president made the statement, and this is important is we should not be playing russian roulette with the economy every six months.
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speaker boehner's proposal would put us in exactly the same fix six months from now that we are in today. why you would want to keep that economic instability and uncertainty going, is beyond me. we deserve better. where do we go from here? well, i do believe that senator reid's proposal is the right answer. it goes a long wayth criteria t republican colleagues have laid out. you talk about moving the goalpost. this has met all of the criteria they put out and then they say, we don't want to accept senator reid's plan because he is using the savings from winding down the u.s. presence overseas in afghanistan and iraq which the republicans did in their own budget presentation here in the house. >> it is as confusing as you say, and we are still waiting to see how this matter will be resolved. congressman chris van hollen, thank you for joining us.
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>> good the o be with you. and if anyone can make sense of the situation, it is our team in washington. stay tuned. ♪ operator can you help me ♪ help me if you please jeff, lunch! uh-huh. jeff! honey, i can't walk any faster. [ female announcer ] oscar mayer deli fresh turkey comes in a clear pack... [ cellphone beeps ] [ jeff ] ooh. thanks hun! [ female announcer ] ...so the freshness you see is what you taste. ♪ it doesn't get better than this ♪ helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea,
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. lawmakers in washington must turn away from the politics of the debt ceiling debate to the actual vote taking and already signs of cracking even within the parties and a conversation today charged by the outrage of constituents who continue to bombard capitol hill online and by telephone and moments ago we learned that the white house has officially issued a veto threat on the boehner debt deal. and kristen welker is at the white house and luke russert at capitol hill. kristen, we have learned of a veto threat against the boehner
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bill, and a major development after the president's talk of compromise yesterday, and was this expected? >> well, you know, martin, this was a bit of a preemptive strike, if you will. the president has been saying for weeks that he won't support a short-term bill like the one that speaker boehner has proposed under speaker boehner's proposal and increase the debt limit for six months and then lawmakers have to come back to the issue in the middle of an election year, and the president has said he won't support a plan like that, and he says it is unstable for the economy, and speaker boehner has accused him of politics for that reason. this is not exactly a surprise, but what is interesting is that last night when the president spoke, in the remarks to the nation, he didn't use the term veto. he did come out and say he does not support speaker boehner's plan, but he never used the term veto, so a lot of people were questioning today if that meant that the president might in fact sign that bill if it did come across his desk, and this is the white house's way of saying, no that is not going to happen, and they are putting pressure on the
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bill, and of course, there is speculation that speaker boehner's bill may not have the support the pass through the house, so it is a preemptive strike to put the pressure down and trying to support the plan he wants to see passed which is that which was proposed by reid, senate majority leader reid. >> luke, kristen makes the point, doesn't she, that there is a strong possibility that this bill won't pass through the house. we have calculated five already, and now we have added on our own broadcast joe walsh as the sixth republican who isn't going to vote for this legislation. >> absolutely, martin. it is definitely a difficult road to the ultimate road of the 217 in this case, but this is a very aggressive whip count implored by the house gop leadership and a team effort they are telling me and in fact, that eric cantor and kevin mccarthy are out there twisting arms, and kantor said in the gop meeting said that i know that the debt ceiling vote sucks, but stop whining and grumbling and
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support the speaker and the proposal and they are doing a full court press on it, but however, speaking to members of the speaker's lobby before i came over here and nobody likes the 100%, i'm leaning yes or no, and i don't know, and i have to look at it more, and it is not a proposal if you will that is garnering 110% support. that being said, when the speaker announced he was going to actually bring this to the floor and deeply embarrassing and he would lose a lot of leverage if he never got it out of the house which is why they have to get it passed at 217. but harry reid can sit back and see what happens in the house, and if for whatever reason this can't get out of it, boehner will come to the realization that he needs the democratic support to push forward any debt limit extension and that could be a huge story here in the coming few days. >> what a difference a day makes. kristen, the president has issued the threat of a veto, but it is the case now, isn't it, that he simply has to watch and wait, doesn't he to see what
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comes on to his desk? >> well, to some extent. i mean, the white house would argue that the president is in constant contact with the congressional leaders that he continues to put pressure on them, but the reality is that he -- >> but le canhe can't do anythin he, kristen? >> right. he has to wait to see what happens on capitol hill, and as luke said, speaker boehner's plan has to go through the house and we expect it to be voted on earliest tomorrow, and possibly thursday, and then, there will be a decision as to whether or not harry reid's plan could pass through the senate, so a lot of people are watching and waiting to see what will happen, but the white house is saying that the president is putting on the pressure points to try to support harry reid's plan. martin? >> well, martin, if you want to look at what is going to happen in the next few days, if boehner gets through the house with the gop leadership thinks it is going to happen, that is then going to become the vehicle with
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the agreement between the staffs of reid and boehner as to what the final package will be with the potential veto threat, and what can get through the house and the senate. this is going through the 11th hour, and expect intense negotiations through the weekend and pull up the chair and get the popcorn ready, because it is a long way to go. >> and it is fascinating. thank you, kristen welker, and luke russert. and before we go totally insane, let's find something funny in bickering. ♪ you don't have a smile to wear ♪ ♪ and you feel i don't care ♪ tears a clown ♪ tears of a clown ♪ [ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts.
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for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... there is one positive benefit of all of the debt talk bickering in washington. late night comics are getting fresh material to keep us all laugh laughing. >> after months of negotiations, a deal has been reached to end the nfl lockout. [ applause ]
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or as china put it, oh, great, got you got that deal worked out. any word on the $14 trillion? maybe you will get working on that one. >> even if we defaulted that would drop us from aaa to b-plus. i mean, b-plus is fine. who needs straight as? we would look like nerds. and aaa to b-plus is a drop of 13 levels putting us on far with zambia, and that could be good for us, because afterall zambia's life expectancy is 38 so that the social security and medicare -- solved! >> and because of this trouble, we may lose our aaa rating. and i say, yeah, well, why don't you tell the auto club to mind their own [ bleep ] business. >> so both sides switched and everybody caved and nobody agreed.
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democrat harry reid's new plan is now to the right of republican john boehner whose new plan says, this plan sucks so much, let's do it again in nine months, and the question to congress and many americans may be sharing, do you want out of this relationship so bad that you don't have the [ bleep ] to leave so you have decided to act like such giant [ bleep ]s that you have forced us to break up with you, so if so, get the [ bleep ] out. >> aaa ratings to all of the comics. next ezra klein helps us to do the math on boehner's new debt ceiling plan. ♪ you have got to carry a zero ♪ so benny, i'm proud of you. welcome to the 21st century.
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thank you very much. you're on e-trade. huntin' down stocks, bonds, etfs. oh i love etfs. look at you. why don't you show me your portfolio? i'd love to... i already logged out. oh no, it's easy, actually, to get back... see where it says history? there's a history? yeah, it'll take you right back to the site you were just on. well the last site... [ british vo ] and now, cycle complete. the male wildebeest returns to propagate the herd. [ animal grunts ] can you forward me this link? [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. the gop's fierce battle over the debt ceiling negotiations has turned the spotlight on majority leader eric cantor who is the voice of the house's conservative wing while speaker
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boehner has come to represent the old guard, so who is really running the show? our next guest has delved into the subject in a recent article in the "washington post" and we are joined by david who is a writer for the "washington post." and this morning eric cantor told people to quit grumbling and get on and vote, and he storms out of meetings, and tells others what to do, and he is more influential, isn't he? >> he is one of the most interesting characters in the whole drama, and he is someone a few weeks ago seemed to be stort s of putting forward a different opinion, and hostile to the compromises on the table and now in last couple of days you have seen cantor and boehner standing together and realizing the stakes they are up against and consequences of not passing some
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compromise and now they are on the same page of urging compromise. >> and mr. cantor had his eyes on the speaker's chair. >> you have heard the suggestion as well, but there is no suggestion of any campaign going on and certainly in the last couple of days they realize they need each other a lot, and have come together to say the same thing, and the republican party does have more of a history at least in the last couple of decades of unseating speakers, but i don't think that you are seeing anything actually moving in that way right now. >> and mr. cantor brought up abrupt ending to the talks when he stormed out with president biden and is that when he merged as a key figure and player in the whole process? >> no, he has been sort of an interesting figure for the last couple of years. the stakes have not been as high, and he had been sort of a interesting story about something within the republican conference, but the stakes for the republican agreement are not as high as right now, so you are seeing him playing an unusual ro
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role, and now you see him sort of coming back to the fold in the last couple of days. >> there is also some suggestion that his antagonism towards any suggestion of closing loopholes and taxing millionaires and billionaires is based on the facts that he receives large amounts of money from several hedge funds. >> well, you have certainly heard people talk about that, and his response has been that he believes that the kinds of tax increases and the closing of loopholes we are talking about has said that those things hurt business generally and the job creators and he says that it is something that the country does not need, and people say there is some private motivation there, and it is something he has tried to answer. >> but he must be holdtone the individuals, because he has received so much money from them. >> if you look across congress, few of the people are paying their own bills and a lot of the folks are getting some support from some sort of business interest, and that is something that comes up in every one of the debates. you can't look at cantor and say there is something particular
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about him that makes you suspect his motivations. >> how would you explain how quickly this little known virginian congressman has risen to the top? what do you attribute that to? >> well, he has riztone the top of the republican conference in washington, and you saw him as somebody who is really an ambitious person, and somebody who has been good at making and cultivating connections and people who follow him. you have probably heard of that he wrote a book with a couple of of other top republicans where they called themselves young guns an unusually brash move to write about yourself and how great your own politicals prospects are, but he has cultivated that image of somebody young and trying to shake up the old establishment and using the political skill and also campaign donations, and trying to cultivate others who then owe their political success in part to him. >> well, tomorrow, we will see real evidence of his effectiveness. do you think he can rally the troops in the house to vote through speaker boehner's plan? >> well, that is such an interesting vote tomorrow.
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because we will see then whether this is a case of cantor leading the sort of ultraconservative republicans, the freshmen, or whether he was speaking for them and they will go their own way, because obviously, he is now pushing for some compromise, and we will see tomorrow if they were beholden enough to him to follow them or whether they will do their own thing and defy cantor in the vote tomorrow. >> and david pharynhold from the "washington post." >> thank you. and now the vote is squarely on the shoulders of congress. boehner's plan called the officially budget control act is slated the go before the house tomorrow. it goes in two steps. one to raise the debt limit by $1 trillion through 2012 and cut $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending over ten years and then a bipartisan committee of 12 would be created to find an additional $1.7 trillion in cuts. president obama and the white
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house moments ago issued a veto threat against the boehner plan favoring instead a plan introduced by harry reid. his plan would cut the deficit by $2.7 trillion over the next decade. it proposes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, and would raise the debt ceiling through 2013. reid's plan also suggests a committee to find more spending cuts in the future. so which of these two ultimately presents the best option for the american people? ezra klein is an msnbc policy analyst and columnist for the "washington post" and clever man. ezra, this is up your alley, do the math. any similarities between the two proposals? >> huge. they are actually and always except in way they actually lift the debt ceiling, very, very similar. so reid cuts 2.7 trillion, he says, and boehner cuts 1.2 trillion or so, but what separates them is not what you think, but it is that reid announces more savings that
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boehner keeps hidden and keeps them hidden for a reason, and reid will draw down the wars to save him $1 trillion, and reid announced the savings on interest, and boehner will do it all but he keeps it hidden and keeps it hidden, because he wants to say he is only cutting $1 trillion and do a trillion increase in the debt ceiling, and if we can only do a $1 trillion in the debt ceiling then we have to come back and boehner can extract more concessions then, but on the actual specific cuts that the two are recommending is that they are very, very close and you could see them merged into a compromise down the road. >> i wanted to know, that ezra, could the two plans be conflated, distilled into something that might actually be agreeable to both sides? >> well, it shouldn't be that hard. so what boehner has in the plan are two different types of mechanisms to force later savings and one is that he has the caps on spending and if you go over the caps then automat cuts will happen across the board to get the savings back,
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and another is to raise the debt ceiling in 2012, you have to pass the recommendations of the sort of so-called super committee. reid has the super committee, too, and reid's committee will be putting out the recommendations and presumably similar, and if he took what boehner has as the cap of across the board cutting mechanism as the enforcement for that super committee's plan as opposed to d debt ceiling that would work out okay, so that the only difference there is instead of the enforcement to passing the super committee's plan being that we have a massive credit crisis in the country, then the enforcement mechanism is if we don't pass a deficit plan, we will get more deficit reduction through the spending cuts. it makes more sense if you are concerned about the deficit reduck slun, but if you want to crash the economy, bane noehner the better plan. >> well, you a clever man. >> and you, are too. >> no, i have read your copy.
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and isn't it that boehner should be forced to raise the debt ceiling in the election year, isn't that what he wants? >> well, it certainly seems to be the plan right now, and why he wants that is unclear. i don't think that he is so cynical to crash the economy, but perhaps cynical enough to think that the plan will rebound against the democrats effectively, and maybe not cynical enough to think it will give the republicans huge leverage to get the large cuts, because the democrats will be desperate even more so than now to prevent an economic collapse before the election, and some say he is looking hard in the poll, because he is so intransigent, and another thing is that he wants to vote against it, but boehner is facing pressure on the flank in this house and larger coalition saying that the plan does not go far enough, and if he does not get the democratic votes in the house, he is going to lose 23 of his own people, and he will lose more than 23 people of his own people. >> and the president said that
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we need to resolve this matter so that the nation can make plans in the future of infrastructure and education and so on, and are projects hanging in the air because of this deadlock? >> well, major projects are hanging in the air because of what we are not doing, and worrying about the deadlock. we have is a lot of infrastructure we need to do in the country, and we can't do it because we don't have a infrastructure bill, and a lot of energy investment, but we don't have the energy policy structure to incentivize the clean energy investment, and we are missing a lot of o opportunities, because we are dealing with the crises and as long as we are not able to agree with that going forward we will miss the opportunities. >> ezra klein, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. this is a fight that is sadly nowhere near the end. stay with us. ♪ everybody's talking at me
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welcome back. my colleague milissa rehberger is in the newsroom looking at stories developing right now. good afternoon, milissa. >> well, today, another congressman is resigning amid a sex accusation. representative wu said that the encounter with a younger woman has said that it is consensual, but he says he will step down after the debt ceiling crisis. and rod blagojevich will file a motion for a retrial. and it may be tougher to mail out a package or letter in your town. right now, 3600 post offices are under review to be closed. there is a place to replace them with so-called village post offices which are locations like general stores which would
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contract for postal services. and the major league soccer all-star game is tomorrow in new jersey as the manchester united will take on the all-stars. today, a guinness world record was set for penalty kicks. david beckham joined alex morgan and other youth soccer players to break the record. with 700 kicks to break the previous record of 525. it benefitted the hope and heroes children's cancer fund. >> too bad they could not do that against the japan team. >> yes, i guess they were off a little by. >> and amy winehouse laid to rest in a tragedy that really didn't need to happen. stay with us. so, what are we going to do with this? i don't know. the usual? [ blower whirring ] sometimes it pays to switch things up. my - what, my hair? no. car insurance.
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i'm brian sullivan of the cnbc market wrap and stocks are
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largely taking a hit as investors wait for d.c. to make a debt deal. here are how to averages look. dow down 91 points and led by the industrials and s&p is lower, and more bad news on the housing front. fewer people buying homes in june reminding us that the housing market is weak. the commerce department saying that the sales of new homes fell 1% in june. so, do you want apple slices with that? caving into pressure from the parent groups to offer healthier choices, mcdonald's adding apple slices to every meal, and they promise to cut saturated fats and sugar from the happy meals and varied portion sizes and information and innovations over the next decade. and with the sass, there is concern among psychologists that many people would rather tap away on the phones than engage in any social interaction. i have to go, because i'm getting a text message. that is it from cnbc, first in business worldwide, and back to
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you, lol. >> thank you very much. and now to the tragedy in norway and this afternoon the president and the vice president paid a visit to the norwegian ambassador's residence in washington to offer condolences following friday's massacre. we are learning more about anders behring breivik, the self-confessed killer of at least 76 people. he has come forward, his lawyer, and said of his client, he looks upon himself as a warrior and adding took drugs to be strong and alert during the rampage. with more, i'm joined by msnbc's jay gray in oslo, norway. >> good evening, martin. good to talk to you. a lot is going on in oslo, and start with the suspect in the case, anders breivik, and his attorney is speaking today, and he says that his client is doing this as part of a war. now, we talked to him a couple of days ago and he said that he was proud of what he had done during the attacks, and he expanded on that again today saying it is part of a war and that is why he should not be
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punished, and he should not go to jail for this crime. he wants to talk about the manifesto and the attorney refusing to do that, but he did reveal some interesting notes about that day. he says that first that the suspect was on some type of drug before the attack, and says he took that to stay alert, and active, during the afternoon, and he also said he did not believe he would ever make it to the island, and he didn't think he would get there to the shooting spree of the teenagers because he thought he would be stopped by police after the bombing here. so he says that it was a surprise that he made it to the island. on the other side of the story is the mourning that continues here. take a look at the behind me and you will see what is a sea of flowers and candles and poems and hundreds continue to come to the area around the main cathedral around the clock here in oslo and some staying for hours, and others for a few moments to stop and pray. you see a lot of of tears still at this point, and a lot of people hugging and consoling each other. they say they gain strength by
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being together here and being in number, and that is the only way they will get through this, but martin, they also are beginning to understand that the healing process will take a long time. that is the latest from oslo, i'm jay gray, martin, back to you. >> thanks so much. there is still looming concern about the existence of other cells in breivik's network, but also what concern those here in america may have had of his ideology. there is fear of what other groups or cells may be capable of directing. i'm joined by brian levine from university of california san bernardino center, and thank you for joining me. >> thank you, martin, for having me. >> mr. breivik's lawyer says he thinks of himself as a warrior and takes pride in his work and
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what is in his mind? >> well, this is a mission offender and a warrior for his cause. some of the folks are warriors for racial cause, national cause or religious cause, but thiscau. this is a fellow who defines himself by being engaged in active warfare, because he believes that his cultural identity, his national identity and indeed his history is at risk from what he sees as an islamic calm munization of europe. >> like a jihadist mind-set? >> i'm so glad you brought this up. one of the things i can tell you, this is the fanatic rather than the faith or the ideology. i'm saying to you, it's stunning to me. this is a fellow who is guilty of the very thing that he is accusing muslims are being involved in. this is a person who is a
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warrior, who's involved in a religious war. this is not something that's just political. where we can settle things through a political or democratic process as we do in europe and the united states. this is someone who's at war with islam, and if you read his manifesto, there is no such thing as a good muslim or a moderate muslim and that is why this is so horrendous. >> what are we to make of the knight's templar group he writes about in his 1,500 manifesto? >> if it in fact exists. it's a small cell from places like england, the netherlands, russia, france, who -- who involve people who not only are religious but people who are agnostic and atheist. it's a fear of islam. what i think is so interesting that he uses terminology that comes from the late crusades.
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this is a person whose goal is to be involved in a pushback religious war, and he bases the names and the dates right back to the crusades. he was very scary. >> apparently strongly influenced by right wing bloggers here in america, even plaguerizing the unabomber ted kaczynski and his actions compared to timothy mcveigh. influenced by radical american thinks. there's been discussion, you know, about whether these cells exist or are active in this country. what's your assessment of that? >> when you say the cells, are you referring to far right wing cell or referring to -- >> absolutely. no. just extreme right ideologues who exist in this country and pump out this kind of stuff on the web. >> yes. i'm making a presentation for federal law enforcement soon on this exact topic. what we probe have more
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commonly, long moles or small cell. joined together by an ideology of fear. different with regard to europe with they're putting in a graphic time bomb add well as economic fear. here the xenophobia is divided between anti-latino and anti-muslim. there it's all wrapped into one. >> you say you've been invited by federal authorities to give information about these kinds of groups. is this because there is now an emerging an ziosi anxiety in th country? >> i don't know about emerging anxiety. dhs told your network they don't see a ramp-up in this kind of activity, whereas my research and i think some of the other private monitors and other analysts diverge from them. we're all on the same team. bottom line, we've had significant growth in the anti-government, militia and hate group world and i think the spin-offs from this world, the moles and small cell pose the
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most meet danger as well as radicalists here in the united states as well. >> thank you very much indeed. breaking news in the dominique strauss-kahn assault case. postponed until august 23rd. this comes after the alleged victim has just complete add media blitz offering a series of detailed interviews about the night in question with what some are saying are conflicting accounts. in a statement from the former imf cheer's lawyer ben brofman, while the district attorney is continuing to investigate he hopes they'll have by the hearing date reach add decision to dismiss all the charges. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] find yourself sometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. it's super durable, and in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. even with just one sheet.
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it's time now to "clear the air." a few hours ago, laid to rest, the funeral service where amy winehouse took place in lorndened. amy spend about seven years as a
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professional musician but her contribution to popular music already places her near the top of the business. her two albums "frank "and "back to black "sold more than 4 million copies. she won a total of 23 music industry awards including five grammys. it's estimated over the last three years she made almosts 20ds million from recording and performing. and all in such a short space of time. i saw her twice, and she had a voice that harped back to previous eras somehow defining motown, soul and jazz all in a modern form. her tone was smoky, burnished with a scent of a single malt brought to fruition at an incredibly young age. it was a sound but also sadly became her life. a drinker by her own admission didn't know when to stop. her parents talked openly about her drug use and her father once claimed that smoking crack cocaine had given her emphysema.
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a debilitating condition for anyone. but imagine its impact upon a woman whose work relied upon her lungs and her voice. there had been helpful discussions about addictive behavior and how all of us need to understand many such people are not criminals but seriously ill but in need of care and is port, but if you listen carefully to the lyrics that amy winehouse wrote, there is a universal theme that almost proved too difficult for her to bear. that happiness never lasts. that love, as she put it so expertly, is a losing game. amy winehouse's music was profound, because she confronted some of the starkest truths of our existence. that sum contribution and all in such a short space of time. amy winehouse was just 27 years of age when she passed away on saturday. thanks very much