plan. plus going rogue. sarah palin co-hosts the "today" show, chiming in on the presidential race and proving that she's got some jokes. >> nicest lady in the world. she stopped me, asked me where i was headed. i said, 30 rock. she said, oh, honey, come here. i told you tina fey is here. it's her. >> running into us outside of 30 rock. hello, everyone. i'm thomas roberts. nice to have you with us. developing news tops the agenda this morning. new details surfacing in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in california. police say the alleged gunman, a 43-year-old former nursing student was expelled after a history of behavioral problems and was angry with a female school administrator at the time this rampage began. >> we know that he came here with the intent of locating an administrator not in a position right now to provide you with that person's name. she was not here. he then went through the entire building systematically, randomly shooting victims.

>> at least seven people died in that massacre, the deadliest that the country has seen in five years. it all happened at oikos, a small christian university in oakland. kristen dunn fi is there with the latest. >> reporter: police won't say what they believe the exact motive in this case to be, but they continue to interview the suspect, 43-year-old one goh, being held in the santa clarita jail at this point. they say they believe he used a handgun though they haven't recovered a weapon yet. that's going to be part of their investigation is looking for that weapon that was used to kill seven people here in oakland yesterday. we're also learning more about the victims. there were six women and one man killed. one of them a secretary at oikos university. the others were students there. their ages range between 21 and 40. police have not yet released their names, but we're beginning to get a little better picture

of who they were. we're also told that the wounded who remain here in this hospital are in stable condition. a memorial is being planned for later on today. obviously, this is a community in a lot of pain today. this is one of the worst school shootings in california history. thomas? >> nbc's kristen dahlgren. kristen, thank you. we are keeping track of breaking news out of maryland. at least seven schools in the kent county district have been evacuated because of a bomb threat. a note was found at the door of a middle school warning of bombs in each of those schools. bomb sniffing dogs are searching those schools, and students have been dismissed for the day. primary voting in the county has not been affected. rick santorum apparently on the ropes in wisconsin with front-runner mitt romney hoping to deliver a crushing political blow that will send his opponent reeling and open up a clear path to the 1,144 delegates needed. here is what's at stake tonight. 39 delegates in the badger state, but also a campaign

statement on the victor on the march to tampa. also casting votes in maryland and washington, d.c. two primaries where governor romney is expecting to cruise. santorum is trying to close the gap. there's a new message popping up on the trail. santorum is fighting the calls to step aside, calling on grass roots conservatives to lead the charge at the polls. >> let me ask you, small town maryland. rural america and rural wisconsin to come out and speak loudly. >> while the numbers come in from pennsylvania, mitt romney will be in milwaukee, hoping suburban voters will come out and deliver a resounding win. >> i need you to get out and vote it get your friends to do the same thing. get me the support we need to keep america, the america we know and love. >> nbc's peter alexander live for us this morning in

milwaukee. peter, the romney camp hasn't been shy about their hopes for this evening. what's the message they wanted to deliver and how crucial is wisconsin to rick santorum and continuing his campaign. >> good questions, thomas. a senior adviser for the romney campaign telling me today they expect to have a good night. they say they'll do well in maryland. they'll do well in washington, d.c. they also say wisconsin will be in their eyes closer than the polls show. they're trying to build up in their eyes expectations for rick santorum. he has spent more time than the romney campaign has. romney is hered too. rick santorum raising money in texas before heading to his home state of pennsylvania this evening. they've put the pressure on santorum, going ahead to the next state. april 24th, one of the next states to vote, pennsylvania. they made the point the romney campaign won with more than 70% of the vote in his home state of massachusetts. gingrich won in his home state of georgia. they say santorum should win in pennsylvania. here's what the latest figures from quinnipiac show.

they show that santorum leads there by just six percentage points there now, 41%-35% according to the latest figures. they're confident an upset could put the nail in the coffin for the santorum campaign. nonetheless, here in wisconsin, a state that's not used to having much of a say during the primary process voting so late in the season -- i spoke today to a tea party board member outside of milwaukee about an hour and a half away, she tells me, we will have to be satisfied with mitt romney if he becomes the republican nominee and says, we'll be forced to vote for him this fall. thomas? >> nbc's peter alexander for us in milwaukee. peter, thank you. joining me now is hogan, the national campaign director for the santorum campaign. it's great for you to make time for us this morning. i know you guys are hoping for big results. as we talk about senator santorum vowing to stay in the race no matter what happens today, does he just continue to be a roadblock to mitt romney

reaching that magic number of 1,144 before tampa? as we look at it, no matter how you slice it, your candidate ends up with a major delegate disadvantage. how will you say your candidate will represent the republican party for president when he doesn't represent the sum of republicans? >> first, as you mentioned, this is a march to tampa. you don't wake up in tampa and you're the nominee. you've got to get to 1,144 if you want to be the nominee. mitt romney is a long way off from that. we have a long way to go. we're at the halfway point. this starts the second half today. obviously, wisconsin is going to be a close race. we're not sure about maryland or washington, d.c. we expect romney to do well in the d.c. area, no shock there. it might be unanimous. i don't know if we'll pick up a single vote because of the vitriol they have for someone like rick santorum in wanting to shake up the process. we have a long way to go,

though. pennsylvania will play a huge role in that, not just in the primary, but also in the general. we think rick santorum has the ability to win pennsylvania. we think he has the ability to have the conservatives coalesce behind him, but at this point, we're still halfway through the proce process, and two-thirds of republicans don't want mitt romney to be the nominee. i'm sure he thought it was going to be a coronation, but it's not. it's an election process, and he takes a long time. mitt romney's staff said we'd go ahead and win pennsylvania. fine, if they want to see pennsylvania and pull out every dollar they spent and pull out for the next states, we're happy to do that. >> we know this is a fight. >> as you say, mitt romney being a long way off, if that's the way you describe him and his campaign, then the santorum campaign will be a long, long way off, delegate count of 1,144. as you say, the senator wants to push on to pennsylvania, but as we take a look at the numbers in his home state, a march quinnipiac poll had rick

santorum up 14 points on mitt romney, now it's down to 6. shouldn't you be crushing mitt romney in pennsylvania right now? >> pennsylvania is a diverse and large state, but it also reflects the fact that mitt romney has already spent a ton of money on robocalls. i talked to ten people in the state who already said they received 11 robocalls from mitt romney alone. he really is playing for keeps, and that's fine. we need to do well in pennsylvania. it's his home state. they know him best, and he's got a relationship with people. he's been able to deliver many things for that state and represent them very well in washington. we think that's going to help us in the eventual turnout and the eventual outcome. make no mistake, mitt romney's doing the same thing he's done everywhere else, and that is spend a ton of money tearing down his opponents, refusing to talk about his own record, and pennsylvania is no different. >> hogan, thank you from the santorum campaign, making time for us this morning. we appreciate t with voting already under way in wisconsin, it's time to take a closer look at how the

primary will shake out with the man who knows better than anybody else. nbc political director chuck todd is the host of the daily rundown on msnbc. chuck, we've seen these trends from nearby states. the rural areas supporting rick santorum. suburban republicans being a stronghold gop rich for mitt romney. where are they going to get their votes today? >> the question is right. demographics, destiny here. geographically, let's look here. milwaukee is hung out in the media market. that's down here. that's where some half of the congressional district delegates are going to be available. he'll do well here tonight. dane county is madison. this could be more competitive than people think. usually in a more progressive, liberal college town, you actually have a lot more hard-core conservative voters as well, sort of as, quote, the anecdote or whatever. santorum could do well there. the biggest place he'll do well, santorum, is green bay. that's brown county. and then, of course, all of this area. and this is where he could win

three or four congressional districts. the vote is going to be about what are romney's margins in these media markets? the question is, of course, demographics. is it destiny? let's talk about illinois, michigan, and ohio, and where does wisconsin fit on this scale? according to our marist numbers, 35% of wisconsin republicans are college garage the watts. that's lower than illinois, michigan, and ohio. looks more like those deep south states. on this demographic, you would say advantage santorum. he has done well with non-college graduates. let's look at two other places we go. religion. wherever evangelicals have made up less than 50% of the republican vote, mitt romney has run won. according to our polling, 39% of the vote is evangelical. compare that to illinois, where romney won by 12, 43%. michigan, where romney won by 3%, 3.5%. 42% in ohio. that one-point victory, 49%.

so here, advantage romney. let's go to income. we made the cut at 75,000. lower income is 65%. higher income 35% split. 100,000 is the exit poll split. look where wisconsin slots in, in between illinois and michigan again, not quite as low income as ohio. what does that mean? here are the margins. romney won by a point, most evangelical, lower income, less college educated. illinois, a lot higher income, a lot less evangelical. romney won by double digits. what's the wisconsin number going to be? if you were to do this like spreads, thomas, you would make romney a five-point favorite, and you would say, i wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere in this range, five to ten points, if demographics are destiny. but turnout is a whole other

story. >> nbc political director chuck todd. always a reminder, you can catch chuck every morning on the "the daily rundown" at 9:00 a.m. on msnbc. breaking news from washington, where former vice president dick cheney was just released from the fairfax hospital heart and vascular institute, ten days after heart transplant surgery. he was on the waiting list ten months before the surgery took place. he express the deep gratitude to the donor and the donor's family. i'm pretty confident this court will recognize that and not take that step. >> president obama doubling down on his health care law, warn the supreme court not to overturn it. plus sarah palin prepares for her co-hosting duties on today "today" with an awful lot of newspapers and apparently taking notes too. also, talk about a dangerous rescue. a tow truck plunges 200 feet off a snow covered cliff.

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president obama talks health care for the first time since his signature legislation effort went before the supreme court for the first time. the president expressed confident the affordable care act would be upheld and then delivered a warning straight to the heart of the supreme court. >> ultimately, i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> joining me this morning is former white house

communications director. michelle bernard, the director of public politics and public policy. and msnbc political analyst richard wolfe. great to have all of you with us this morning. i want you to listen to this from the president yesterday, going one step further on the supreme court. >> i would just remind conservative commentators that for years what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. >> janice, is he trying to send the court a message, don't overstep? but in that message, does the president go too far? >> look, i think what the president -- you heard from the president yesterday a reminder to the american people about what's at stake here. not only is he confident in the legality of the affordable care act, but he believes this is an economic and a moral issue for millions of people across this country because of what's at stake. he had the opportunity to lay out that argument yesterday, and that's exactly what he did. >> michelle, mitt romney took a

shot at the president's comments and had this to say. take a listen. >> the president complains about a supreme court that follows the constitution. he's come fing from a very different world than the world that the founders, and frankly the judicial history, has described for america. >> so, michelle, mitt romney seems a little gleeful, smiling when he makes that comment. but isn't a supreme court referendum on the president's health care law also a referendum on mitt romney's health care law in massachusetts? >> absolutely. this is an issue that the governor should probably stay away from because the obama administration has -- and as we see them going into general election mode, we're going to continue to hear that statement. the obama health care legislation was modeled on what the former governor did in the state of massachusetts. >> richard, even some on the left, though, have been a bit uncomfortable with what the president had to zaysay yesterd. in a washington post-op-ed, it

said, "for the president to imply that the only explanation for a constitutional conclusion contrary to his own would be out of control conservative justices does the court a disservice." is this going to be talked about in the press until the supreme court makes that decision? so is making a preemptive strike the right strategy, being unapologetic about this or could it backfire? >> people have to talk about the court forever. there's so little that comes out of the court, they've got to fill up the discussion with something. i think it's extraordinary to see the president trying to weigh in so early in the process. it does tell you he's trying to frame the political debate. but people who get pressured about how the justices should not be influenced, they've got to understand these people are not going to be influenced by anything the president says, any of the discussions around their conversations, in "the washington post" or anywhere else. they are quite competent to make

the decisions themselves away from chattering classes. what does matter is the political success or failure for the president given when this debate will be resolved, and that means, in the election campaign, is he acting to expand government, or is this a human right that he's fulfilling? >> i want to get you guys on the record about super tuesday today. michelle, all eyes on wisconsin. if mitt romney pulls off another trifecta -- and we're talking about the trifecta of wisconsin, maryland, d.c. -- does mitt become the rominee? >> i believe that mitt believes he's the rominee already. as he continues to rack up delegate, you begin to ask yourself is it mathematically possible for any of the other people running for the republican nomination to actually get enough delegates to become the republican nominee? that being said, the animosity and venom we see by rick santorum, for example, and newt gingrich, would lead one to believe that it doesn't matter what happens today, they are in it to win it, and they are going to be a part of the primary

campaign season for quite some time. >> any chance of a santorum upset today, a santorum surprise? >> it's hard to say at this point. i'm sure there will be other surprises down the road when we all jump up and down and say mitt romney looks weak once again. this one does seem to be winding down. the question is can the party unite around him even if he gets the nomination earlier than people may have expected? >> let's talk about this with jen, though. i saved the best for last. sarah palin going rogue, co-hosting "today" this morning. the former governor poked a bit of fun at herself, reading newspapers in teases, making notes on her hands. she gave tina fey a run for her money. here's how she responded when matt lauer asked her about mitt romney becoming the nominee. >> anything is still possible. there can still be a bit of a shake-up, but the numbers are what the numbers are. he does seem to be obviously the front-runner. >> you didn't answer the question. are you happy with that?

it doesn't sound like you're happy with mitt romney as the party's nominee. >> anybody but obama. i honestly believe that anybody running on that gop ticket would be infinitely better than what we have today. >> not a very enthusiastic endorsement right there. anybody but president obama. but does that sum up how the gop feels about mitt romney? obviously, there, sarah palin not going for a cabinet role in romney's presidency. >> i think that she speaks for many people from the conservative base of the party. another thing to look out for tonight is the turnout from wisconsin. are people excited, enthusiastic, energetic about voting for mitt romney? i will bet you the answer tomorrow morning is no, and you saw that in her answer this morning on the "today" show. >> i'm going to ask you, is there this enthusiasm gap? does it continue? i'm going to use my father as an example? he's voting in maryland. the other day, he told me he's going to go out to the polls, and he's definitely voting for

matt rooney. dad, i don't know if you're paying attention to what's going on here. >> thomas, i vote in maryland. i went to vote this morning. the election judges were so happy just to have anyone show up at a polling place. they were literally saying, thank you for coming. there were more election judges there than there were people that were out to cast their ballots in maryland. i would guess it's going to be the same in d.c. and maybe even in wisconsin. there is an enormous enthusiasm gap. if we look at these endorsements for romney, they're so tepid he's got a long way to go. >> thank you all so much for joining me. i appreciate it. new investigation of the trayvon martin shooting. now the fbi is stepping in. plus what happens in vegas doesn't always stay in vegas. the head of the government agency resigning after living it up in sin city on the government's dime. we're going to talk more about this. the dollar amount, over $800,000

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and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. as mitt romney and rick santorum stage their final rallies in wisconsin, they face an important element in the state's house. the recall of scott walker. if ousted, walker would be the third to be recalled. the only two ousted would be in iowa and gray davis from california in 2003. they could care less about the primary today, and the walker recall is more important, obviously bigger in the news cycle for them. is there this residual fallout

for romney and santorum because of that? >> it's been a fascinating phenomenon. romney and santorum have had to retool their speeches, their robocalls, their television ads, all in order to tap into the passions regarding the recall. there's not been a day that either romney or santorum have been in the state where they haven't devoted at least some portion of each of their speeches to talking about governor walker and the recall. they're obviously trying to get some portion of the very energized conservative base, the republican base that does like governor walker, but by the same token, they're not talking to a very large portion of people on the other side who really would like to get rid of the governor. >> does coming out as a friend of walker damage either candidate's chances at the polls? scott walker has not come out and given an endorsement of any of the candidates. is this wise at this stage to be aligned with the guy who's essentially seen as the union

buster and an enemy of the working man? >> it is in the republican primary. evidence suggests that the overwhelming majority of republicans are quite energized in favor of scott walker. so in that kind of narrow base coming out as a walker man, which certainly mitt romney has done incredibly aggressively. he's actually appeared at walker call centers and made calls on behalf of the governor. that's probably beneficial in the primary setting, but it has the threat of coming back to haunt you. can you imagine having put all this energy into how great scott walker is, having to deal with the reality that the guy might be removed from office before the general election. >> people are lining up to take his place in the june recall. milwaukee mayor ed barrett plans to run in place of walker. he appeared on "the ed show" last night. >> we need a governor that will fight for jobs. i was with scott walker. i went toe to toe with him time and time again, and i heard him

talk about how he was going to create jobs, but in 2011, under the leadership of scott walker, the state of wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in this country. >> john, as we look down the line at the general election fight, has the walker recall controversy taken the state off the electoral map for republican at this point? >> i think it has. the polling suggests that wisconsin is leaning very strongly toward barack obama, and there's also something else. what has happened as regards governor walker, this fight over labor rights has moved a substantial portion of union members who tended to vote against their union endorsement and back republicans more deeply do the democratic camp. i think that's helped president obama a good deal. >> john, great to see you this morning. thank you, sir. >> pleasure. at least one government agency is likely wishing what happened in vegas had actually stayed in vegas. the general services

administration, the very agency that's supposed to make the government more efficient, spent just under $1 million for a conference at a posh vegas area resort. a final head spinning price tag, $823,000. joining me this morning is nbc news senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. lisa, this has people seething in washington at that price tag. >> you got it, thomas. keep in mind that this conference occurred in october 2010, when the economy was in even worse shape than it is today, and when many taxpayers were really struggling. yet gsa spent, as you said, almost $1 million of their money for what investigators now call excessive and wasteful spending. such as $3,200 for a mind reader. $6,200 for commemorative coins. and $75,000 for a team building xw exercise, which involved constructing a bicycle. so far this has cost the top three officials at the general services administration their jobs.

the administrator, martha johnson, said in resigning that this was a significant misstep and that taxpayer dollars were squandered. thomas? >> quite a boondoggle. nbc's lisa myers. thank you. here's some of the other stories topping the news. starting with the kentucky wildcats have clawed their way to the top of the ncaa championship, edging out kansas 67-59 to clinch uk's eighth title. the celebrations in lexington, kentucky, turned violent with two shootings and 65 small fires set early this morning because of people celebrating. media mogul jam murdoch stepping down amid pressure in his role for the uk phone hacking scandal. in a statement, his father, rupert murdoch said, "we are grateful for james murdoch's successful leadership of sky b. he has played a major role in propelling the company into the market leading position that it enjoys today." a maryland woman who claims

she holds that state's mega million dollar winning lottery ticket still hasn't proven it. she's a 37-year-old merland wilson, a mcdonald's employee. when a reporter from our nbc affiliate in washington went to her home last night, she wouldn't show him the winning ticket. lottery officials question her claim of winning, saying they believe the winner was a man. we all still wait to see. talk about a roadside shocker. take a look at this video. a big rig driver leaping for his life out of that tow truck as that big rig plunges with the tow truck attached almost 200 feet off an icy cliff in norway. it dragged with this that 18-wheeler. the driver of the second truck inside. amazingly, he survived that, but it's incredible to watch. i'm freaking out man, he's on my back

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welcome back. this just in by lynn cheney, tweeting a picture of her home after just ten days after having a successful heart transplant. the obama re-election campaign is defending their candida candidate's record and pushing back against attack ads on the air waves. here's the latest response to the ads panning the president's energy policy. >> under president obama, domestic oil production is at an eight-year high. so why is big oil attacking him? because he's fighting to end their tax breaks. mitt romney stood with big oil for their tax breaks, attacking higher mileage standards and renewables. when you see this ad, remember who paid for it and what they want. >> joining me this morning is ben la bolt, the press secretary for the obama re-election campaign. nice to see you. we know the attack ads from republicans are going to be coming fast and furious, but the fact is gas prices are high.

americans feel it in their pockets, especially with spring fever, the summer driving season coming, and this constant reminder, daily for some, as they go to the pumps to fill up. how serious of a political problem will this be for the president if the right can pin gas prices on president obama? >> what makes this election different is not only do you have republicans attacking the president, but we have oil and gas executives spending millions on the air, trying to maintain their subsidies. they're currently charging taxpayers $4 billion a year for subsidies. mitt romney and the republican party wants that continue, and we're not going to sit on our hands when they try to distort the president's record. domestic oil and gas production has gone up. we're on an eight-year high with the president, and our reliance on foreign oil imports is at a 16-year low. we saw this as a chance to highlight the president's all of the above energy strategy. >> is it the right's way to attach the president to high gas prices? is it the left's way to attach

the republicans to big oil? >> i don't think the president's team believes these attacks are credible. we're in a global oil market, and we need to do more than just drilling to reduce gas prices. if just drilling was the answer, we've opened up millions of acres across the country, across the gulf, across the arctic, and the problem would already have been solve. we need an all of the above strategy, and that's what we're pursuing. on the other side, you want mitt romney, who wants to continue the $4 billion subsidies for the oil and gas companies. he opposed the increased fuel economy standards that will save consumers $8,000 on the typical vehicle, and he wants to repeal wall street reform, which could allow for the return of enron style manipulation of the energy markets. >> let's get to what's coming up on the next hour, ben. the president has this big speech planned. he's going to come out swinging, we expect, against the paul ryan budget plan, calling it in excerpts nothing but thinly veiled social darwinism, a

trojan horse. these are really strong words. why was it important for the president to make this speech and do so now. >> mitt romney called the ryan budget -- he's introduced a similar version -- marvelous. he said it's a return to fiscal sanity. the truth is it's one flew over the cuckoo's nest fiscal insanity that led us to the economic crisis in the first place -- massive tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, maintaining subsidies for oil and gas companies, maintaining tax breaks for hedge fund managers, and then it's the middle class and seniors who are saddled with all of those costs. we're going to see if this budget passes. the end of medicare, as we know it, it turns it into a voucher program, and force seniors to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket. it was very important to highlight that contrast because this is going to be a discussion throughout the campaign.

budgets are about choices, but they're also about values, and the president is fighting for an economy that promotes hard work and responsibility, where everybody does their fair share, and everybody plays by the same set of rules. >> ben, thank you, sir. appreciate it. i just want to pass along to everybody they can hear the president's rebuttal to the ryan budget plan less than an hour from now right here on msnbc. ben, thanks again. today, going rogue. that tops today's poly-sci. take a look. >> how's it going so far, governor? >> it's going great. thanks for letting me crash your dressing room. now that i have your hair products in here, thank you. because, you know, you need hair products. >> former alaska governor sarah palin had a little fun at matt lauer's expense while co-hosting "today." she even talked about that hbo movie about her vp run. >> i didn't see the movie. >> you didn't see it? >> you never saw "game change"?

>> no. i don't waste my time on false scenarios, on lies. >> the tag tells amc's "mad men" to lay off my grandpa. >> romney's a clown, and i don't want him standing next to him. >> that's what all the fuss is about on this episode of "mad men." mitt romney's son tweeted, "dad is fair game. grandpa isn't." >> the house minority leader made comments on sunday, adding that clinton has been a magnificent secretary of state. british boy band. one direction says thanks but no thanks to the white house. the first lady invooted the group to perform at this year's easter egg roll. one direction already had a prior obligation in australia.

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the fbi has launched its own investigation into the shooting that ended with a florida teen dead and a neighborhood watch volunteer at the center of a racial firestorm. yesterday fbi agents went door to door in the gated community where 17-year-old trayvon martin was shot and killed in february by george zimmerman. the fbi confirmed to nbc news that it's conducting a parallel investigation that focuses on whether zimmerman violated martin's civil rights and whether the shooting was racially motivated. joining me this morning from miami is florida congresswoman federica wilson. it's great to have you with us. the fbi investigating whether george zimmerman violated trayvon martin's civil rights. is this finally bringing more eyes to what really happened that night? >> thomas, this is just great.

this is wonderful. this is the day that we've all been praying for and hoping for. it's taken a long time, but, yes, it is a step in the right direction. >> as we talk about what's going on in the case from the investigation standpoint, yesterday trayvon martin's parents asked the department of justice to review norm wolfinger. he is the original prosecutor in the case saying he met with the chief, chief bell that night their son died, and overruled the request by one of the detectives to arrest zimmerman. wolfinger denies this. you've met with trayvon's parents over the last several weeks. have you heard anything about the possible meeting, the fact that the police chief met with wolfinger? >> that was all in the news. it was in the news, and it really was a lot of political in-fighting or political influence in this whole case. zimmerman's father is a retired jud

judge. so i think that, in that particular city, there's a lot of corruption. there's a lot of in-fighting. i think there's a lot of politics, and i think even the police chief was hired to clean up some of the corruption. and before he could do that, something else happened. but i truly believe that trayvon was killed because of racial profiling by mr. zimmerman. it's very prevalent in america, as we speak. there's so many phone calls that he's made, that he's watching young black boys, and he said it on the 911 tape. these black boys have to fear so much for their lives, and people fear now. when you're walking down the street, and a black boy approaches a woman, she clutches her purse, thinking he's going to snatch it. when you're approaching a crowd, people will cross the street and then try to hail down a cab. the cab never stops. he's shopping in a store, and

someone is following him around. so this racial profiling causes these young men in our communities across this nation to sometimes cry themselves to sleep because they don't know how to really deal with it. i can imagine on the ground crying out for help and no one came. with this man who is 100 pounds larger than he is, and he says that trayvon was beating him up? give me a break. >> again, the fbi is opening its own parallel investigation. great to have you on this morning. thank you. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them,

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i could -- you have a question

i'll be happy to answer your question. >> do you believe it's a sin for a white man to marry and -- >> no. mitt romney taking questions. lgbt under attack and critics say balts distract from jobs and the economy. some church leaders trying to rise above the fray. joining me, pastor jay bake somewhere troy perry. religion has taken a dominant part of the conversation on the campaign trail. we hear that question, mitt romney questioned about his faith, and he believes in interracial marriage. do you think we're reaching a tipping point when it comes to the conversation of the lgbt community and whether their marriages are valid in the eyes of people who hide behind their faith? >> absolutely we're that tipping point. i believe the wind is behind us.

used to be in front of us, but now it's behind us. my partner and i, were married in canada, came home, sued state of california, won in the supreme court. we were the first male couple with two female friends of ours who did that. i'm a person, a faith person. i believe, you know that all of us can make a difference. but i have to explain to people marriage isn't about religion, it's about the state. the state decide whose i can marry, who i can't. i don't have to marry everybody in my church, they do tell me that, but they have to appoint me as a representative of state for me to perform a ceremony. and getting pastors to do that, more and more are coming to the forefront, churches are now performing same-sex and same-gender weddings. >> pastor baker, i want to point out, you were honored by pflag, their straight-free quality dinner. the religious background, i want

to remain your parents are jim and tammy faye bakker. >> yeah, they are. >> yeah. it's strange. first, i've been doing this for 5 and a half years, first it was a fallout. every speaking engagement i had got canceled. over time i've seen such a change in the church and people are being more open, embracing things, able to look at the bible in a different way, realizing the word homosexual wasn't originally in the bible and those type of things are starting to become common knowledge. so i think we're moving forward. i think when i started it seemed like everybody kept saying 20, 30 years and now i feel like 5 or 10. >> do you think we are reaching that tipping point? like i said about the conversation where years ago people would come on, talking about the fact they didn't believe in interracial marriage, segregation. those voices, you don't hear those today. bigoted voices may exist but they aren't showcased on television. do you think we're reaching a tipping point in our media

culture? >> i do, people are starting to realize religion is not an excuse to be a bigot. i think -- we are definitely reaching a tipping point. >> thank you so much. congratulations, both honored last night at pflag? >> new yorko i presented the aw jay. i gave him the straight for equality award. >> our emcee was chris hayes host of "up," a great guy. gentlemen, thank you. that's going to wrap things up for me. we'll check in with alex wagner. she's got a tease coming up for "now." you have a big guest on your show, don't you? >> i do. a television host named rachel maddow will be joining us. it is primary day for the gop and president obama is coming out swinging in a speech we'll carry live. the president offering a sharp takedown of paul ryan's budget, how will republicans react? rachel mod dow joins the panel.

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