person anywhere who believes himself or herself threatened to use deadly force. even if they know they're not in imminent danger. the tampa bay times estimates that trayvon is one of at least 130 people who have been attacked understand your ground. most of those have ended in death and only a handful of cases ever made it to court. so who are and where are the other trayvons? we don't know their names. but you're likely to find them, not only in florida but also in any of the other 30 states with similar laws. as the investigation of trayvon's murder has unfolded over the last several days, numerous flaws have been found in the law. so maybe the question then is, it wasn't a question of when a tragedy like this would make us pay attention to these laws. but who would make us pay attention to these laws. when the law passed in florida in 2005, it was just the

beginning. >> it is common sense to allow people to defend themselves. and to have to, when you're in a position where you're being threatened, there is a life threatening situation to have to retreat and put yourself in a very precarious position, defies common sense. >> that was then governor jeb bush of florida. he and his fellow republicans were ecstatic when the law passed. and as typical, they use fear and rhetoric about personal freedom without balancing second amendment rights with the safety of our communities. one florida state attorney who opposed the law even said that they decided to fix something that wasn't broken. how do we go from one state to 30? who was the typhoid mary for this horrible outbreak? try not to be surprised. the usual suspects, the coke brothers, the nra, the american legislative campaign, and

remember this? these are the same people who stymied gun regulation at every point who funded and ghost write these laws and others that have become a core of the conservative agenda that is being implemented across our country. it's the same group that also wrote the voter i.d. laws which threaten to disenfranchise some 5 million american voters. many of them african-american. it's the same cast of characters and it's the same story. so we're going to get now to our panel. in sanford, we're joined by joy ann reid, managing editor and an msnbc contributor. in washington we're joined by a democratic strategist. and here with me, a professor at georgetown university and msmbc political analyst. thank you for being with me. i want to start with you.

you've been there on the ground. there was that incredible gathering last night. how are things shifting? has the mood shifted between last night and the announcement from governor scott that he is going to put together a task force to look at these laws? >> well, i don't know that governor scott is winning any thing with that. before the police chief announced he was stepping a side to a real sense of momentum. people don't necessarily feel that lee's stepping aside is closure but i think they feel like they're winning and they will keep pushing. the message we got last night, it was very peaceful. people are very unified. they're gratified by the support and the innational attention themselves want more. they want george zimmerman arrested and they want police chief lee to step down permanently. >> a little surprising every time i think of the fact that george zimmerman is still out there with his gun and we don't actually even know where. one other question for you, joy-ann.

the silence from gop marco rubio is kind of stunning. it seems like he cannot bring himself to say that these are bad laws or to weigh in. is anybody talking about that down there? >> well, not only him but think about allen west who is one of only two african-american republicans in the congress right now. and his district in palm beach is not that far from here. maybe an hour and a half to two hours south of here. we haven't heard him weigh in. the republican party in general seems to have been silent. this state has an african-american lieutenant governor. she has not made a statement. governor scott has only now waded into it. but yeah. marco rubio who has made the gop star throughout the country and looked at as a potential vice presidential candidate, he hasn't said anything. he is positioned very strangely. he wants to be the mainstream national figure but he is positioned as this tea party conservative republican and there seems to be a reticence for republicans to speak about this. >> it seems shocking that they feel this is something they can't even comment on.

i did note thattalen west did make some comments. did he call the shooting a tragedy but he also commented that he was not going to head down to florida and be a part of the circus. i don't know that that was his exact words, that may be mine. that was the tone of it. i want to come to you, michael. maybe they just shont say anything. that's at least what geraldo rivera said this morning on fox and friends. let's take a listen. >> i am urging the parents of black and latino youngsters, particularly, to not let their children go out wearing hoodes. i think it is as much responsible for trayvon martin's death as george zimmerman was. >> so my read is, it wasn't the gun. it wasn't george. it was the hoodie. it was trayvon's fashion choice that is to blame. >> sartorial selection has led to selective execution. how ludicrous is that? look, i've been on geraldo's

show in the past. i've enjoyed engaging him but that is the most ludicrous argument to justify cold-blooded murder of a young man without any ability to have him arrested. that is, mr. zimmerman to have just due process in the courts. and for this man to stand trial for the murder of a young man. this man had skittles in his hand. a hoodie. millions of white people wear hoodies every day. >> and it was raining. >> they make them not for people who are gang members them make hoodies for most americans who want to cover themselves up. to suggest that this hoodie was the source of this is to ignore the racial dynamics that involve themselves. when we talk about who is wearing a hoodie. when a young black man is wearing one, it is a problem. when a white man is wearing it, it is not noticed. >> i didn't want to interject but i think it is important to note when the 911 call was made

by george zimmerman. he didn't say i see a guy in a hoodie that looks suspicious. he didn't point that out. in his previous 46 calls, it didn't seem to be a hoodie that triggered his response that there was something wrong. but in six of those calls that had been released he did seem to find a black guy through his neighborhood alarming. >> incredibly ridiculous comment. >> they weren't all in hoodies. >> we're learning more and more about the involvement of alec, the nra, the koch brothers. we're now seeing it through the state legislatures and republican governors. were you surprised to hear that those groups were involved? >> no. i had very personal experience with it in 1999 and 2000 after the columbine shootings when the same group wanted to fight basic back ground checks for people buying gun at gun shows. these are terrible laws. they encourage shoot-outs them encourage conflict when conflict

avoidance makes sense. as bad as these laws, are i think you're likely to see zimmerman arrested. even under the florida statute, it requires that zimmerman had to have been attacked and he faced grave danger. even though some of the facts are sketchy, we know pretty convincingly that zimmerman was the pursuer in this case. he was told by the police to stop pursuing. he continued to pursue. the applausibility of zimmerman facing grave bodily harm is very, very implausible even under the statute. the likelihood is that you will see an arrest in coming weeks. secondly you will see a very strong possibility with the federal government getting more involved. under 241 of title 18, if there is racial animus, you give cause -- >> 241 of title 18 for those of us who don't know -- >> it's the federal civil rights criminal statute. it allows for the federal government to get involved. particularly if state

governments fail to prosecute a case. there was evidence at least in the case that there was some considerable racial animus. and i think as far as robert lee resigning or temporarily resigning, yong i don't understand the temporary part. you know they've had problems in the past but under the sister statute to 241, 242 allows for the federal government to investigate whether the local police department had some racial animus. the fact of the matter that the police department not only failed to arrest zimmerman when all of the evidence shows right now that he should, at a minimum be released, he can make the stand your ground offense in a court of law. the evidence shows that he should be arrested, rather, for murder. the fact that the police also administered a blood test only to trayvon martin and not to zimmerman really betrays, i think, a very, very questionable bias on the part of the police department. so i think it is not only -- i think the possibility of an investigation as well. >> i'll going to stop you there. i want to come back to dr. dyson for a minute.

the idea that zimmerman, and joy-ann, i want to get to you, is still out there. i don't hear a lot of people talking about that. we doengt what his mental state is. we know he has a gun. he may be seeing this attention coming his way. >> for his own safety. for your safety, mr. zimmerman, people may want to execute vigilante justice against you. we want to protect you and put you in jail and under cover of the law. nothing is reasonable here to suggest that mr. zimmerman should continue to go free. we don't know exactly where he is. he is out there with a gun. we don't know how much he is inclined to be self-destructive or to ultimately assault somebody else. it seems common sense to lock him up. >> hold on, hold on. >> quickly, we're running out of time i want to end with you. is anybody asking that question at these press konkconferences? we've talked about the police chief, we've talked about trayvon but i have not heard about the actual question, where

is this man? >> believe me, that's the question on the minds of everyone out here. everyone on the street is saying where is george zimmerman? that is question on the minds of people. what the police are saying, and they're not really, they can't hold him because they didn't charge him with a crime so he is a free man. he isn't charged with anything. the fact of where he is, he is free to go wherever he is and he has a legal gun permit. everyone here is asking that question. somewhere george zimmerman? >> thank you very much for being with me. coming up, mitt romney takes a swing and a miss on health care. and president obama is fired up. >> sir, i'm here to speak to these folks. you can hold your own rally. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began.

a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪

here's a chance to create jobs in america. oil sands projects, like kearl, and the keystone pipeline will provide secure and reliable energy to the united states. over the coming years, projects like these could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now.

two years ago today president obama signed into law the affordable health care law known to its detractors as own care. since it became the law of the land, no other issue has created the political firestorm this one has. complete with charges of socialized medicine and you guessed it, a governor takeover. today in louisiana, mitt romney had this message for those who might be concerned about the future of medicare. >> i go to events now and then and i see signs being held up by meks of the aarp and they say don't touch my medicare. i go up to them and say there's only one president in history who has cut $500 billion out of medicare. that's your guy. barack obama. >> joining me now, ben is national press secretary for the obama 2012 campaign and he is

joining us live from chicago. great to see you. >> nice to see you, karen. thanks for having me on. >> putting aside for just a moment the fact that mitt romney is kind of it a little bit easy for you guys. listening to that speech, is the guy lying? does he not understand the affordable health care act? what is he trying to convey to voters here? >> he is certainly compounding his credibility problem. what is incredible is how far governor romney has come in the six years since he passed health care law. when he was massachusetts governor, governor romney agreed with the president that we had a problem with rising health care costs. we needed to provide affordable health care coverage to all americans. he passed an individual mandate in the state requiring coverage. he said his plan should be a national model. now six years later, now that he is running for a different office, apparently he doesn't believe any of that. he wants to insurance companies going back to discriminating

against those with preexisting conditions. the 2.5 million young people to go without coverage. he has change his tune on this time and time again. >> here's what strikes me. i think we've seen this happening with romney on a number of different issues. planned parenthood is one of the more dramatic examples. he is having to run away from where he was in the senate. the similarities to the law passed by president obama. he is continuing to make the argument that eex state ought to be able to determine what is right for them. you know, isn't this a pattern that we've seen with mitt romney, again, kind of doubling down on the opposite end in order to try to distance himself from where he may have started. >> that's right. when he was running for office in massachusetts, he told women's groups that he would reinvent the republican party and one that accepted choice. he wrote a regional compact to

combat carbon emissions. now he doesn't believe that climate change is manmade anymore. he has reinvented himself time and time again. i think we've seen the republican party hasn't completely rallied behind them yet. those same questions, should he be the general election candidate will be out there among independents and democrats. the question is, who is mitt romney? does he have any core principles? >> i'm sure you're going to remind people that you can't shake away your record but i want to shift gears. leader pelosi wrote in an op-ed today, about one of the positive impacts of the affordable care act. you were talking about some of them. i'll be honest. i along with many others, i know you're familiar with this criticism. the rollout today did a disservice to all of those positive benefits. what i find surprising, despite the number that i'm sure you can recite for us. a "washington post" abc news poll still finds that 26% of americans want the supreme court to uphold the law.

25% want the individual mandate thrown out. and 42% want the entire law done away with. so it strikes me that regardless of what the court does, there is still something of a communications issue here in the campaign as people, i hope, learn more about the law and how it affects them. >> we're engaged in an effort to do just that. to focus people on what the cost of repeal would be. whether it is governor romney or speaker gingrich or senator santorum, they said the first thing they would do was repeal this law. there was a report that said insurance company are continuing to discriminate against women. women paid $1 billion more for their health insurance than men did. if you talk to americans about the individual provisions within the law, they're very supportive of them and they don't want to go to insurance company writing their own rules again what do you say to those, we're finding out the costs of the law will be, take your point about the cost of repeal. some are saying the cost of the

implementation is more than originally estimated. >> that was a distortion from the republicans this week. the report that came out did not use realistic baseline based on where the law is right now. it had positive news in it. it said the law would cost less. repealing the affordable care act would raise the deficit and put medicare on an accelerated path toward insolve yhency. >> they left out the good news. ben labolt, thank you for joining me. >> thanks for having me. stay with us. today's top lines are coming up. >> you don't think it affects y'all on a direct basis. you all. i'm not -- i'm not trying to pretend like i'm from louisiana. [ male announcer ] if you think tylenol

is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain. two pills can last all day. ♪ i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times.

the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. hey officer how's it going? [ horns honking ] not a talker. cool, i'm not either, most times. passport... yes. passport. passing them to you. driver's license... yup. here you go... past five years tax returns... high school report cards... and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you should have really provided us with a checklist of documents we were going to need... up front... who do you think i am, quicken loans? ♪ at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need...up front.

it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪ one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. there's another way litter box dust:e purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder on dust. and our improved formulas neutralize odors better than ever in multiple-cat homes. so it's easier to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

the supreme court will begin hearing on the affordable care act. a case that will likely be historic and have a ripple effect both for individual americans, for the economy and the presidential campaign. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins us live from washington. in a nut shell kurk give as you essential of how these three days of oral arguments will unfold? >> it begins with somewhat of an ann climax. the court asks about whether it even has the authority under federal law to hear this case. there is a longstanding federal law that says you can't challenge a tax before it goes into effect. there is a penalty if you don't get health care under the law. does that make it a tax law? does that mean the challengers have to come back in three years? then on tuesday, the court gets to the heart of the case. that's the individual mandate. that all americans buy health insurance. the question is, is that unconstitutional or does

congress have the power under the authority of the constitution give to it regulate come toers require that. opponents of the health care law say no. if you don't have insurance, you're not in commerce so you can't be regulated. the obama administration says it is not just regulating insurance. it is regulating the entire health care market and everybody is involved in that. then on wednesday, two questions. suppose the individual mandate is unconstitutional. can the rest law nonetheless survive. and then a claim from the states that the new medicaid requirements, the expand coverage, violates the state sovereignty. so six hours of argument over three days. >> it sounds like what the court is really ruling on is, some of which is already in place and some of which is scheduled to come into effect further down the road. am i hearing you right? >> the main focus of the court is the medicaid requirements which haven't fully kicked in yet. and the individual mandate which doesn't really come into play until 2014. so the question on the

severability, whether you can saw the individual mandate out and leave the rest intact, that's where the government will say, look. look how many parts of the health care law are already in effect. already working. so the rest of the law could survive even if the individual mandate came out. that's where that part of it will come into play on wednesday. >> i imagine that's part of why we're hearing from the campaign. this argument about the cost of repealing the law. nbc news justice correspondent pete rims. thanks so much for being with us. stay with us. a special "hunger games" i couldn't resist, sorry, guys, of top lines is coming up. >> did they explain about trying to get sponsors? >> yeah. but i'm not very good at making friends. >> i don't have a lot of billionaire friends. i didn't grow up in that area. i don't know those folks by and large. c'mon dad! i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy.

instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪

the passat is one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not that we'd ever brag about it. turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine 2012 iihs top safety picks. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $219 a month.

our very own gop "hunger games." who will be chosen? who will survive? the world is watching. >> the time has come to select one courageous young man. >> it is almost like an etch a sketch. >> my etch a sketch tour of america. >> how many of you ever used an etch a sketch? >> at the time we were drafting our constitution. >> my children had etch a sketches. >> did i give everybody the impression that i was getting out of this race? >> for a man who doesn't like pornography, he does like to fight dirty. >> 9 and 10-year-old boys ask me, have you been to roswell? i say if i told you, i would have to kill you. >> his pancake is bigger than rick's. >> we ought to be pay-per-view and we ought to charge $10 to watch the debate. >> if you make it to the nomination, i will pay $100 for that smackdown. >> they want a good show. that's all they want. >> 24 of us.

only one comes out. >> we worship god. >> i am a gun owner but my wife owns more guns than i do. >> rick is a great guy. he is completely supportive of women. >> john. >> he's not here so i'm calling you jonathan. >> if we're dumb enough to nominate him, we should expect he'll move back to the left. >> hello, mike, we're to you. >> i don't care what the unemployment rate will be. >> i do care. >> i believe the economy is coming back, by the way. >> i'm going to die, i want to still be me. >> you all. i'm not trying to pretend like i'm from louisiana. >> a chance to respond to a question. i didn't get a chance to respond. >> instead of taking a rick of what may be the etch a sketch candidate.

>> let's get right to our political panel. joining us from washington. msnbc contributor john capehart, opinion writer for the "washington post." you know i'm coming back to jonathan. and joining me in new york, the senior political writer for politico and msnbc contributor tow toure. i'm going to start with you. gingrich is down there in louisiana stumping hard this week. so is santorum. who will be the last guy standing come the end of saturday? >> well, it depends on whether we're doing the short game or the long game. for the short game, rick santorum is pretty well favored to come out of louisiana with a win. the republican policy polling survey showed, i think it was 12 to 14 points up. i think mitt romney's people know that he is not doing very well there. they're not building up expectations. i think that math is math and i think that mitt romney has a pretty big delegate lead. is it over until it's over? no. it does matter. he is up by about 300 delegates.

it is very hard to see a path. at the states. demographics have been the death lock in this primary. so in southern states, mitt romney has not had a real win. florida is the only state that counts as a southern state technically where he won. and rick santorum has not done well in these rust belt states. >> consistently i felt like, we saw this in 2008 as the process dragged on. it is a bad process. it had nothing to do with the candidates and obviously having been involved in redoing the process, the goal was really to make sure that more people could actually engage in the process which is supposed to be a good thing. i think it is in the constitution about people voting, right? so maggie, just, the point is, somebody cannot lock it up. right? that continues to be the problem. >> right. that will be the problem for a while. what you've had in this now, is that super pacs and the romney campaign has bemoaned this. the super pacs has kept them alive.

santorum did raise a lot of money. no question about that. essentially if you could get to a debate and buy a plane ticket and show up, you could keep your campaign going. i think there were truer words never spoken. i don't have an incentive to get out of this race. that's true. he definitely does not. >> unless he can create a financial incentive and rick santorum is relevant for the first time in six years. so to the point they can keep going when mitt romney is not yet at 1144, i don't see them getting out. >> to that point, it is interesting to hear mitt romney of all people bemoaning the role of the super pacs, right? >> right. come on. the reason why he has been able to come from behind in a lot of polls is because his super pac floods the airwaves with negative ads. commercials and things like that. and wipes the floor with his

opponent. it is a bit, pardon the pun, rich, to hear mitt romney complain about the super pacs. i'm here all week. >> we're actually going to switch gears. because one of the things that happened today is we've seen the candidates as well as the president, weighing in on trayvon martin. we saw ranging from the president's very empathetic remarks, i thought, to santorum sort of chastising the law enforcement, the comment that was made. i think he did a really good job pushing back on that. romney's paper statement. and i think even gingrich made a comment, sort of suggesting that what happened was bad but really defending the law. toure, you've been so strong on this. >> i'm glad the president came in. i'm glad there was a somewhat empathetic response from santorum. but romney is the guy we have to take as the presumptive, he is the leader.

right? probably going to be the nominee at this point. this is not a presidential response. it is not a human response. and it is sort of relating to this idea, that's not my purview. that's black people stuff. i don't want to touch it. i don't want to go there. i see a lot of white people are very engaged in this issue but then a lot of white people are like, i don't know what to say. i don't want to touch it. and that's black people stuff. that's disheartening. a person has been killed. this is a problem for all of manager. not just for black people. >> that's troofl i will say if you looked at the crowds that have been gathering, they're very diverse crowds. i feel like i have heard from a diverse range of people, frustration, anger, upset. a lot of questions. jonathan, something i want to ask you about. on this. the president has taken a lot of heat for, we've heard he's leading from behind and not enough leadership and all that. it struck me that what he said today, that was leadership. this was the right moment, i thought, for him to weigh in and i thought he did it in a really

graceful way. i wanted to get your reaction. >> i thought it was pitch perfect. in 2009 when president obama was asked in the east room, his reaction to the arrest of his friend, skip gates, in cambridge, he waded into that situation, to that messy situation skip gates is a friend of his and he uttered the phrase, that the police acted stupidly. he was bombarded with criticism for that. fast forward to i. the president is asked a question, a very specific question by mike viqueira and the president, rather than get into, and i thought properly so, get into the minuof the minute . a he floated above the clouds at 37,000 feet and spoke to trayvon martin's parents and to, speaking for himself as a parent, and all american, all parents as an american leader. i think that making that

statement, the president of the united states from the rose garden of the white house. you could not have asked for a more pitch perfect condolence message to trayvon martin's parents. >> i agree. i want to go back to this. a woman made a comment. i think we've got some sound on it. essentially, he had apparently head phones on and couldn't hear the comment. i think we've got the comment. we'll play it and talk about it on the other side. >> pretend it's obama. >> give santorum tremendous credit for how hard he pushed back. what i found disturbing was, the reaction from the crowd. it wasn't just that, it was the laughter. >> this is the support he's getting from, the base of the

party that is very, very anti-obama. you're seeing in different ways, he is not really been stoking that. he is talking about freedom on the campaign trail. newt gingrich, i would say, goes a lot further in stoking the anti-obama sentiment. he is today suggesting that the president does things that he acts in such a way that makes people question whether he is a muslim. not that voters are stupid. this is why this keeps coming up. i do think that trul santorum handled this as best as he could. but i think it is also a real indicator of sort of some sentiments that are still out there. and i think that's where the problem lies. i want to go back to one thing we were saying before about trayvon martin. gingrich was actually the only candidate to be fair to him who commented before president obama did. he commented last night. he and rick santorum have done their best to distance themselves from commenting specifically on the law. and the law is that in a lot of ways, the big controversial piece here beyond the obvious tragedy and what happened.

>> although actually, toure, i think gingrich did try to defend the law to say, some are the argument that the law in this case doesn't apply because -- >> he said the same thing. >> right. >> i hate to find myself perhaps agreeing with newt gingrich but i think if he make a good point, he makes a good point. i think the stand your ground law is a red herring. when somebody is a pursuer and initiating a conflict and in the 911 call, he is intellectually wanting to attack this person, then stand your ground cannot be part of this. we're sort of giving him this sort of, he is trying to invoke a way to get out of it by calling stand your ground. that doesn't really my here. >> santorum said the same thing. >> very, very quickly. >> the only thing i want to say, that's the argument that zimmerman used that allowed him to walk out of police station. so that's why, that's why this

is such a focal point of the discussion. >> all right. toure, maggie, jonathan -- jonathan. >> it's john. >> john capehart. thank you for being with us today. coming up, a preview of the president's trip to south korea. [ female announcer ] did mr. intern forget how his boss takes her coffee? just cover your bases. bring her the all-natural sugar in the raw and the all natural, zero calorie sweetener stevia in the raw. then learn that she doesn't drink coffee, just tea. it's only natural. oh! [ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing.

♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen i don't want a plunger anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard.

i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. a great clean doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna read one of these. i'm gonna read one of these! [ female announcer ] unlike sprays and dust rags, swiffer 360 duster's extender gets into hard-to-reach places without the hassle.

so you can get unbelievable dust pickup in less time without missing a thing. i love that book. can you believe the twin did it? ♪ swiffer. great clean in less time. or your money back. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. flanked by secretary clinton, the president picked the head of the world bank. mike viqueira joins us now from the white house. mike, before we get into talk b the announcement the president made this morning, i know you got a chance to ask him to weigh in on the trayvon martin case. >> reporter: that's right. the president came out. he was introducing his nominee to head the world bank.

his name is dr. jim ken. the president of dartmouth college. with people marching on the streets interesting president standing 20 feet away from me, did i what white house reporters often do. that is shout questions on a completely different topic, the news of the day at the president. he answered that. this come after jay carney, his press secretary during the course of the week said the white house wouldn't wade into it because it was a local investigation. the justice department is involved, it is not a local investigation. it is a civil rights investigation. the president clearly turned around. this is something he wanted to talk about. here's what he had to say. >> this is a tragedy. i can only imagine what these parents are going through. i think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out, how does something like this happen. that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident. if i had a son, he would like like trayvon.

>> i think we're all glad that you got that question. it was good to hear him weigh in. as you mentioned, the real reason that you were all in the rose garden was the announcement of dr. kim, who is of south korean descend. and as it happens, mr. obama is going to be visiting the demilitarized zone on the south korean bored order sunday. can you tell us a it will about the trip? >> there is some sort of symmetry there, although a coincidence. dr. kim was born in seoul in 1959 but came to this country. an unusual choice in that he is not known as an economist. he is a trained anthropologist and a physician. he has a lot on health issues with aids issues. he is the president of dartmouth college. the president usually gets to pick the head of the world bank. this pick was much more unusual. he is going to seoul, korea tonight. he leaves just before midnight.

on the privilegy of that, he will visit the demilitarized zone between seoul and north korea. obviously a state of war still technically exists between those two countries. other countries have done that. they have looked into the binoculars. the president will do that. >> this is really an issue for president obama. he made this an issue during the campaign and he has made this an important issue during his presidency, hasn't he? >> hee and no one needs to be reminded of the threat that the middle east is unwith iran's nascent nuclear program. a lot of dispute among experts and countries in particular. israel and others about how far along iran is in developing that uranium enrichment and what is their purpose for enriching uranium to begin with. and of course there is a north and south korea dispute. north korea still testing space launches. this is something they tested causing a great deal of

consternation. many critics accused north korea of yanking the chain of not only this administration but successive administrations. >> now, mike, before i let you go, i'm just going to say that it is lovely to be seeing you -- >> i know where you're going with this. >> and with you today. >> they didn't tell but the hazing ritual, did they? >> no, they didn't. i learned about that after the fact, actually. thanks for your participation in that. >> it's not easy sitting in that chair. you get all kinds of crazy producers sitting in your ear. you have a guy trying to do a cell phone live shot from a moving bus with a 20-second delay. you're trying to push the envelope a little bit. thanks a lot. isn't that ridiculous? i'm staring ought into the camera and not saying anything. >> you're staring at me and yet we can't communicate. mike viqueira. thank you so much. >> reporter: okay, karen. coming up -- the one word that is not in paul ryan's budget?

you're not going to believe it. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. devry university, proud to support the education

for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years.

there is one place where veterans, remarkably, are absent. congressman paul ryan's new budget. in the nearly 100-page document, the word veteran does not appear even once. but without saying that word or writing that word, this budget, if enacted, would cut $11 billion from veteran spending when compared to president obama's budget. someone who has taken this issue on is john salts, who is the chairman of vets.org. john, thank you for being with us. >> karen, it's great to see you

behind the table. >> thank you. >> any time. >> i thought the piece you wrote for the post was really spot on in terms of just looking at some of the impact these cuts would have on veterans that i think a lot of people don't realize. can you tell us about that? >> sure. obviously you mentioned the $11 billion. republicans have had a long history, even under george bush, where they underfunded the va and they had to crawl back to congress and ask for another billion dollars. they've always had a long history. when we were trying to pass the gi bill, six republicans even voted against the gi bill which everyone uses. when you start attacking social security or medicare, it cuts across the board. a lot of veterans are in rural communities. they can't use tri-care primary. that's always a secondary care for them after their va, so a lot of them rely on medicare as a second form of insurance. when you start slashing medicare you're hurting 70% veterans.

many come back in their own communities. they're not in the mitt romney tax bracket. they actually pay more taxes than he does. mitt romney sat 13% and most veterans are higher than that. when you cut it across the board, you're hurting veterans. >> we hear all this rhetoric about defense spending and not making those cuts, yet we're shortsightedly kind of cutting those folks on the other end. it seems to me that what we ought to be doing, in the same way that president obama, you know, said, all right, we've dwgot to have the costs of war on budget, that we ought to include in those costs the human costs. the american century foundation, it's like a trillion dollars for the kinds of health care and medical services that our vets need. what do you think about having all of that so we have that full picture? >> yeah, we just don't know what these cost. i think that's totally appropriate. it's like any other business in the world, you look at your projected cost and down the road

income and revenue streams. what the bush administration did was iraq and afghanistan. iraq was on a chinese credit card and you look at our national debt now of 15 trillion, and that was 1 trillion. when you add up the veteran benefits, and we have 30 to 40,000 wounded veterans in this war, one of three soldiers who died in vietnam were marines, we only have one of eight, so we have a lot of people that will come back and fall into the veterans administration system. we are a sole product of the federal government who was created by the federal government and we just do not predict what our long-term costs are going to be, so putting it in the budget projected is a huge, huge benefit that would help veterans down the road. >> john salts, thank you so much for being with me and sharing your insights. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. ♪

♪ ♪ you do ♪ something to me ♪ that nobody else could do ♪

i'm michael bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to consider layoffs as a result of that. closure of this plant will affect all of us. ♪

14 clubs. that's what they tell us a legal golf bag can hold. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org.

i'm karen finney. thanks so much for watching the last couple of days. it has been my honor to be with you and i want to say a big thank you to team bashir here. they are incredible. you made it very easy for me. i really appreciate your hard work and we're going to take it over to matt miller who is here for dylan ratigan. matt, what are you doing today? >> we have an inside look at ben bernanke's tenure at the fed, plus confused republican billionaire syndrome and how to cure it. sho the show starts right now. today's big story, supreme showdown. good friday afternoon to you. i'm matt miller wrapping up the week for dylan