mitt romney's investments with the swiss. and occupy wall street and rupert murdoch are trying to make the same point, namely, they still got it. it's tuesday, may 1st, and this is "now." joining me today, msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart of "the washington post" and msnbc contributor steve kornacki of salon.com. full on laughs for that one. msnbc contributor and queen bee of thegrio.com, joy-ann reid and, the new yorker's ryan liza, one of the best in the business. so are you, jonathan. tired of the perception of her husband as a stiff ceo, ann romney tried to draw out mitt's relaxed side. it's proved elusive.

>> i love the opportunity of letting people see a side of mitt that often people have mischaracterized. >> what side is that? >> that as stiff. he's not. he's funny. there's a wild and crazy man inside of there. >> he kept -- the look on your face, jonathan, it's the -- he's not stiff. ha, ha, ha, ha. he's a while man, ha, ha, ha ha. let's talk about that a little bit. >> i understand that -- and i've seen it with my own eyes -- a poll significance on television and public sitting is is stiff, wooden, uninteresting, uncharismatic, the minute behind doors, the true person comes out. why can't you translate that from here to there? mitt romney, all i've ever seen is what i see on tv what i see on tv uninspiring, uncharismatic? do i think he has it went him to be a wild and crazy guy, sure?

i want to see a flicker, something that says he can be that person. >> it's not just that he's wooden. it's in combination with the policy that he's wrapped his arms around and this perception that he doesn't have sort of the humanity bone that makes one care about the struggles of the poor and the working class, and i want to draw everybody's attention to what mitt romney said yesterday at a fund-raiser at a -- the papa john founder's house. what a home this is, he said. what grounds these are. the pool, the golf course. you know, if a democrat were here, he'd look around and say, no one should live like this. republicans come here and say, everyone should live like this. this is a real tribute to america, to entrepreneurship. >> what democrat is saying that? we saw the president having fund-raisers at spike lee's house, george clooney raising money for the president. there are plenty of wealthy democrats. i never heard a democrat say how dare you live in this beautiful home. never happened. >> the funny thing, when you

look at the sort of the poll number on this, obama's support disproportionately comes from the people who live in those houses, the top %. obama's doing very well among the superaffluent. romney, the republicans are doing better among the working class voters who, according to romney, you know, resentments are being stoked by but more favorable than the republicans. >> one thing, i followed him on the campaign trail. mitt romney is an awkward man up close, just as he is on tv. he is wooden, and that's okay, can i rise to defend awkwardness and woodenness in politics? >> go right ahead. >> we had this debate in 2008 everyone wanted to know who's the better porn person to have with, mccain or obama. >> that's what politics is, right? it's marketing. and we're selling a television personality. >> it is. >> a product. >> i think it's important for them to relate to people.

every once in a while i feel it's necessary to point out it's not important for how they're togoing to run the country. >> that's fair whether or not we should be having a drink or beer with the president. to point that mitt romney stokes this idea that he is out of touch by embracing policies that are not in touch with what i think a lot of americans leave or the pane americans are feeling. >> that's a fair point. >> the comment about democrats not -- they look at a house like this, they think, no one should live like this, well, this -- we've talked about class warfare. if that's not class warfare rhetoric, democrats don't want you to be successful, listen to the sound bite of president obama from a few weeks ago talking about people being successful in the country. >> i want folks to get rich in the country. i think it's wonderful when people asuccessful. that's in part of the american dream. >> how many times does he need

to say that, steve kornacki? >> we've been having this argument for decades. you cannot underestimate the challenge that obama faces here. he can not be caught making a robin hood argument where the morally right thing to do is to take kir of the middle claes, maybe ask the rich to pay more. you need to make an argument this is fundamentally linked to the concept of the american dream, fundamentally linked to idea of american recovery. if you give them jobs, disposable income, there's all of this money, more people become millionaires. but that argument is tougher to get brought acceptance for than you might think. >> if you look at history, right? democrats are the ones who presided over programs in 20th century that created the middle class, right? stronger unions, stronger middle class. it's what the republicans are trying to remove and meanwhile you have paul ryan who is fighting to tax the poor more in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich. how does that make more people

rich? >> isn't that -- >> i have to point this out, there haven't been a lot of discussion, this is what mitt romney said yesterday, regarding president obama wanting to take from the poor. let's listen to that. >> we're seeing a greater and greater gap between those that have the most and those that have the least. the president's focused on taking away from those that are the least. i want to help everybody, particularly those left behind, i want to help the poor, the middle class, get the kinds of jobs that raise their income. let's focus on helping the people who need the help the most. >> yes. your facial expression is absolutely right. the president is focused on taking away from those who have the least. >> i fell through the looking glass, i did. i can't believe what i just heard. didn't we just go through the entire republican primary process listening to them say how the president was trying to steal from the rich to give to the poor. suddenly, here's mitt romney, flipping the flop saying that the president's trying to do the exact opposite.

i'm beginning to wonder, does he realize he's the presumptive republican nominee, he's -- there's still contests out there but he's got the nomination locked up and could he please tact more -- i don't know -- convincingly to the middle. >> or be consistent on any single point. >> this is what drives conservatives nuts. he will use any tool at hand. if there's an argument to be made to make a point, he will -- he will make it, he will read those lines. ideologically, he sort of delving into what conservatives would consider liberal territory with -- >> he's awkward he's not being his authentic self. >> that's the connection. >> the term used here is the rubb rubber glue strategy, i'm rubber, you're glue. obama has the secret second term agenda. he's been as vegas anyone

running for president. he's taking his weaknesses and projecting them on to obama. >> the president's message of fairness and addressing the income gap is working because mitt romney's saying i want to help the poor i want to help the working class and went on to say, yesterday that he meets with three, four families a day to talk about the economy when asked sort of how he is helping the poor or how he has his ear to the ground vis-a-vis the concerns of the poor. has anyone seen mitt romney meeting with families three, four times a day. >> does he eat the food they serve him? he's persnickety. >> democrats are winning an argument here. mitt romney will not talk about slashing government unless it's in the privacy of a fund-raiser's home and now he's talking about the growing income inequality in this country. score one for liberals and for occupy wall street that they've got the republican candidate talking about these things. >> score one for the white house, because they get to sit around laughing and when they hear mitt romney say the president is focused on taking

away those from the least as he wraps his arm around a paul ryan budget that does precisely that. mitt who? he's one of the gop's rising stars and he might be the real leader of the part. take a look at growing influence of congressman paul ryan when jonathan chait joins the conversation next on "now." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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are republicans in washington pulling for a president or a pawn? in the latest "new york" magazine, an article titled "the legendary paul ryan" quotes grover norquist say, we don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. we know what direction to go. we want the ryan budget.

pick a republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become the president of the united states. jonathan chait wrote that story and joins us from washington. a true pleasure to have you on the show. a great and important article that everybody in america should read. >> thank you. >> with that, let's talk about the article. you, assert, i think, make the case that republican in washington have found their knight in shining armor and it's in fact paul ryan. they need someone at 1600 pennsylvania avenue to put his policies in place. that mitt romney might in fact just be a pawn for paul ryan. >> that's right. ryan sort of figured out how to leverage his position within the republican party to rally them around this agenda that he crafted and it's in place. basically, anyone who wanted to get the republican nomination had to pledge to that agenda which they all did and romney did, they the plan. the plan is win the white house,

keep the house, win a couple seats to keep the senate and put that agenda into place. paul ryan's the guy who figured out what the republicans are going to do if they get hold of the power and romney's the one executing it. >> you make avery good point, the president is trying to unpack the ryan budget and show america's what's in that pandora's box, but in order to do so he has to overcome the mystique of paul ryan, who you describe as a courageous reasonable modest neighborhood accountant, at least in terms of perception and style. you say, seeming genuine is something ryan does extraordinarily well, in other words they've got a great sales mapp for a draconian budge. part of the reason i wrote this, ryan has created this perception of himself that's taken completely at face value, the perception vow describeded on air, whereas what i see him as a very, very good politician who's created a perception that isn't necessarily perfectly accurate.

now that's true in terms of himself, his ambitions or lack of ambitions, i think as he's managed to put it out there, but in terms of what his plan is what he's trying to do, i think, the reality is pretty different than the way he sold it. >> let's bring in the panel here a bit. when we talk about paul ryan, much to jonathan's point, there is so much support that paul ryan is a moderate, a good guy, guy from wisconsin, not what paul krugman described, paul touched on this and says, what's interesting is the cult that's grown up around mr. ryan and the way self-proclaimed centrists elevated him in an icon of physical responsibility and can't let go of their fantasy. paul ryan wanted bigger bush tax cuts. >> yeah. >> he wanted $2 trillion in bush tax cuts. the bush administration called those irresponsible. paul ryan is very much at the extreme end of republican fiscal policy. >> and i think one of the

reasons that politician can sort of overcome their actual ideology is the way that journalists cover these guys and you know, there's a reluctance among a lot of writers to pigeonhole them and place them on the ideological spectrum and sometimes talk about their charisma and their personality and other factors, and jonathan, it reminds me of the case you made on george w. bush back in 2000 who is someone that you were arguing in 1999 and 2000, was much further to the right than the press was reporting at the time. do you see parallels there. >> definitely. ryan's doing a similar game that bush did but the parallel's more there. if you remember, clearly you do, i'm not sure how many do how bush was presented to america, it was this compassionate conservative, this man who was rejecting supply side economics in the dogma of the republican

party to move in this moderate direction. but he didn't. he moved the party, you know, further right or at least went as far right as you could go, given the republican congress. ryan's trying to move further right still but he's managed to sell himself, i think in somewhat similar terms as this reasonable moderate guy who wants to find common ground. >> i have -- i'm a fan of laminated cards on this show, with important information. these are not laminated so they're not that important. one of the things that every democrat should have is a laminated card with this piece of your story on it, where you say ryan prom is to eliminate trillions of tax deductions but won't identify which ones. ryan is specific about two policies, massive cuts to income tax rates and very large cuts to government programs that aid the more and medically vulnerable. call this a deficit reduction plan, but it would be more accurate to call it a plan to cut tax rates and spending on the poor and sick.

steve kornacki? >> well, when you frame it that way, it damning. but i'd be curious to ask jonathan about this is what i hear from paul ryan defenders, it comes down to we have, you know, 14, 15 trillion debt problem in the country at least paul ryan has put a plan forward and you know, there is a budget -- >> the courage argument. >> there is a budget from obama but nobody's rallied around it. there's no democratic long-term deficit reduction plan out there to compete with the ryan plan. how do you feel about it? did they make a mistake in not putting one out, the democrats. >> the democrats have a plan, obama has a budget. it doesn't reduce the budget as much as ryan's does. it relies on trillions and trillions of dollars in unspecified savings and tax expenditures, they won't say which, relies on trillions of

dollars in savings in the domestic discretionary budget, which is like everything, it's not entitlements or defense, but he won't say what perhaps he's cutting there. it's hitting the limits of the definition of what is a budget and what is something that can be described as like a plan to reduce deficits. if you're saying here's my general rule but won't say these people have to pay more taxes or these people have to get less in spending what have you actually done? >> i would say, the courage part of the ryan budget, which i call sort of brazen, is the idea that programs for the poor are a fifth of the federal budget, in the ryan plan they absorb 62% of the cuts. and that's sort of like he's doing what's unpalletable, he's doing what's dangerous for the country. >> rhiyan is trying to walk bac from then spirration behind his beliefs, which is i'm rand, and a lot of republicans rallied behind the rand notion of social darwinism, the rich and betters and deserve more government.

i'd be interested in jonathan's take on what is it that the republicans do to market themselves to us, the media? i think mccain did the same thing, he was a maverick when he voted 99% of the time with his party. is there a great pr firm working with these guys in dc.? >> paul ryan is using language of the makers versus the takers. wonder, a lot of the country therefore qualifies as takers. why are they voting against their own economic interests in supporting something like this? >> that's right. what i tried to do in the piece is go back and say, who is this guy really? what does he believe. he's sold to the public as someone breaking from the republican party in important ways at least in his reasonableness or his willing to make deals, but he's never shown any sign anywhere in his career. totted her as the key to the belief system many times. he stopped doing it when it's become a problem. he was a fierce advocate of

supply side economics and the belief that the bush administration was not doing enough to increase the deficit in the name of supply side economics. he opposed the bowles-simpson deficit deal, opposed the gang of six deficit deal. he's shown no inclination to support any compromise on these thing. this idea of him as the great compromiser, the great deficit cutter, again, it's just not connected in any way to anything he's done. >> "new york" magazine's jonathan chait. thank you for your time. read that article and make laminated cards with your favorite quotes. a british comedian releases a searing report about rupert murdoch's media. new information that mitt romney attended a surprise meeting in new york city. we'll tell you with whom, after the break.

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nbc news confirms that mitt romney met with new york city mayor michael bloomberg this morning. a source in the mayor's office says two talked about a number of issues, bloomberg has not endorsed romney and is undecide as to whether he will in fact endorse. who lives in new york city? you do. looking around and i'm like, washington, washington. we know that they talked about gun control, education, the economy, and the way washington treats cities. steve kornacki, can we look forward to a bloomberg endorsement of romney, does it help mitt romney? >> this is a helpful test of the wall street community's personal an tip think towards obama. if you put it out there, where bloomberg is and where mitt romney is, you have gun control, gay rights, abortion, there is no common ground between these guys. bloomberg is functionally a democrat. bloomberg has gone after obama on one thing, wall street.

heat taken the line that the wall street executives and ciavarell ceos he's targeted wall street. blo bloomberg has taken the line -- >> does mitt romney help need with the money guys? >> new york but as someone who full disclosure worked on bloomberg's first campaign for may, i can tell you whether it's bloomberg or rudy giuliani before him, the mayor of new york city must have, and needs to have, a good relationship with whomever's sitting in the oval office. so, you know, we have -- we know that mike bloomberg has had meetings with president obama. we know that mayor bloomberg, i believe, vice president biden on saturday before the white house correspondents dinner. that mayor bloomberg is meeting with mitt romney is the mayor of new york city meeting with the presumptive nominee of the republican party, someone who could become president of the was wants to establish a

relationship assuming that there isn't one there already. >> the question is whether -- is who benefits more, or whose stock rises or falls the most. i say mitt romney, in the grand scheme of things, i don't know na mitt romney benefits from a mike bloomberg endorsement, as a resident of new york city, there are new yorkers who think mike bloomberg's stock falls in their eyes. >> bloomberg endorsed romney, which i find unlikely that would be significant. a sign to centrists that romney wasn't as far right as he looked in the primaries but when you go and sort of look for an endorsement and don't get it of course you've done harm to yourself. >> mitt romney has had a problem with full-throated and arduous endorsements. >> i'd like to know the details of the conversation that both men of great means -- >> they are. >> anyone can talk car elevators, it's bloomberg and romney. >> anybody knows from car elevators. a year after the killing of osama bin laden, sobering

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this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ i think it was very disappointing for the president to try to make this a political item by suggesting that i wouldn't have ordered such a raid. of course i would have. any american, any thinking american would have ordered exactly the same thing. >> that was mitt romney this morning, firing back at the obama campaign's assertion that the presumptive republican nominee wouldn't have made the decision to kill osama bin laden. today, romney's in new york city, with rudy giuliani, the man dubbed america's mayor, for his role in leading new york on september 11th which of course led to the war in afghanistan. joining the bull pen now, msnbc's willie geist, staying late for us today, after hosting

way too early and be on another show, a show called "morning joe." sad this is late, it's 12:30. >> from washington, david wood, pull litting prize winner with "the huffington post." i cannot tell you how happy it makes my to bin the phrase pulitzer fries wprize winning journalist. i want to talk about afghanistan and what is going on, reality on the ground. we know that in there's a drawdown of troops. the a.p. yesterday with an interesting story how the u.s. is underreporting the number of times afghan soldiers opened fire on american and foreign troops. not reporting insider attacks in which u.s. soldiers are wounded or not hit. this year 13 attacks, 10 fatal, 3 not. is that an effort to say we're in a bitter place with our afghanistan -- our partners in afghanistan than we actually are? >> look, alex, this is a

tremendously damaging and corrosive thing going on in afghanistan where they're there are an increasing number of afghan soldiers and police attacking u.s. and coalition force soldiers. and i know a lot of the guys over there fighting right now and it's very, very difficult for them to go out carrying a lot of weapons with their afghan counterparts and trust them with their lives. this is bad news. but to put it in perspective, there have been ten american or allied soldiers killed this year by their afghan counterparts. the hidden part of it, if we can use that word, that the pentagon hadn't been reported, is that there were three nonfatal attacks, two in which case the victim was wounded, one where no one was hurt at all. i think, over the ten years of war, at least since 2007, when the pentagon started counting these attacks, there have been about 50 fatalities.

so given the fact that there are, what, 340,000 afghan security personnel working in combat operations with americans and allied forces, that's a pretty low percentage. but still, very, very damaging. >> i want to -- let's bring willie in here. talking about year later after the death of bin laden, clearly a certain amount of political football that's being played. so some degree on both sides. i want to read a quote from the "wall street journal," this is the first time i know -- i can remember that the "wall street journal" is referencing ron burgundy and anchorman in context with national security, they say obama's ron burgundy campaign, they, the obama team have to assert if mitt romney heard the same intelligence and received the same security briefings he would have cowered in from sending in the seals. stay classy. has the president overused this

moment for political gain. >> my gosh he has every right to use it at will, the way he wants to, if we're talking about this this morning, if you made a list of decade ago over the last decade of the single most important things for the country to do, whether meaningful, symbolic, whatever, number one, kill bin laden. if you want to give him full or partial credit it happened on his watch, obama's good guy that got him. i take issue where he questions whether or not mitt romney would have gone ahead and done that. that's where he loses a little bit. could he use surrogated to talk about it more? probably, and he probably will. i think the problem is if he questions the intent, the guts, the character of mitt romney whether he could have done it. it is a remarkable moment, you have to agree, when you have a democratic president questioning whether or not republican would be tough enough to take on the big questions on national security. >> i was going to say, there's a simple principle here if that mission had been a disaster we're we would be rightfully

blaming republican and republicans would be bouncing. if that's the case you get the upside credit. >> the president and his campaign are going on the attack on mitt romney because when the then-candidate barack obama said what they would do, go into pakistan if there was actionable intelligence on a high-value target, he said that. mitt romney the next day criticized him saying, i wouldn't do that, that's ill conceived. >> they have a case here. they have some actual quotes from romney's mouth that suggest a very similar case from what happened when he was 5050ing theing wth idea of doing that. >> he set himself up for that. we've been talking about president obama's legacy. there was a big op-ed in "the new york times" talking about obama and positioning him as the warrior president. in a lot of ways you can argue he's got ainten a free pass froe

democratic base on the counterterrorism poll sy. john brennan, yesterday, talking about the use of drones. let's play that sound and talking to civilian casualties in the drone strikes. >> there is nothing in international law that bans the use of remotely piloted aircraft for this purpose or that prohibits us from using lethal force against our enmes outside of an active battlefield. at least when the country involv involved consents or is unwilling or unable to tack action against the threat. >> he went tonight say war is awful, it involves human beings killing other human beings, sometimes civilians. >> it comes down to a question what is an innocent civilian. as you know, in a war like we're fighting in afghanistan, and an insurgent can be a farm, a

schoolboy, can go back and forth between planting an i.e.d., going to school, tilling his fileds, the notion of uniformed salaried regular troops done hold at all in afghanistan. i question whenever anyone starts saying these are innocent civilians or civilianed killed we don't really know. one of the things that's hampered the drone program is the on the ground intelligence. drones of course can stay up over a target for hours or days watching who comes and goes and can have a pretty good idea of who's there and who's not. but it certainly is not an infallible weapon. >> it's worth noting that under president george w. bush, there were drone attacks in pakistan every 43 days during the first two year of obama's presidency, every four days. it's certainly a weapon in the arsenal we are going to be using for some time to come.

thank to "the huffington post" pulitzer prize journalist david wood. we look forward to having you back on the program soon. after the break, occupy wall street gets its may day on, holding events and protests around the globe. is the movement still packing the same punch? we will debate that next on "now." ♪ under blue moon i saw you [ young man ] whoo-hoo! ♪ so soon you'll take me there he is! the party's arrived. ♪ [ both hiss ] [ screaming, explosions ] oh, he-- [ crickets chirping ] [ owl hooting ] [ gasps ] ♪ fate ♪ up against your will ♪ through the thick and thin

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whoooa i'm in a river. what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok. i'll take it. new offers in new places so you can try new things. sync your american express card with facebook, foursquare, and twitter to find savings. that's the membership effect of american express. occupy wall street is trying to occupy the national dialogue. today, a number of people are taking part in may day protests, plan ford 125 cities across the country, including new york. the events are being billed as a day without the 99%. we witnessed to what happened in zuccotti park and certainly occupy wall street changed the national dialogue insofar as we remain talking about the income gap, the president talking about

everyone having a fair shot. what do you think? does occupy have to go big today or go home? if there isn't a hume sort of outpouring of support for this, do they -- can they carry this into the conventions into the summer, into the time before the elections? >> one of the big questions around thanksgiving time, would they hibernate forever or come out at the end of the winter, the spring? some point they have to alie themselves, as painful as it can be, with a political agenda to get their agenda pushed forward with the mainstream. they're going to struggle to get their numbers up. they're going to struggle to get their message out until they get a care is mattic lead where get toque with politics. that doesn't mean they can't do it, but people will be waiting to, see, how what? the aenger's out there. where do we take it from here. >> steven, you were close to zuccotti park. >> i talked to a couple of people a few times, i thought

there was a disconnect between the people who were camped out there and presumably the people taking -- who are doing the general strike today and the broader message that came out of that, we are the 99% message, which has become a major part of american politics this year. the whole issue, the debate over income inequality, this is central to the presidential race in a year it hasn't been in a long time. that message succeeded. the sense i got from the people camped out there, they were not interested in having a coherent, defining message, not just a political message, but any coherent, defining message. it was an expression of something else. and i think within that group, it continues to be, so i don't -- i almost think, in terms of american politics and the election, i hate to say, it's irrelevant what they're doing at this point. >> go ahead. >> there's a great quote by the great radical organizing. >> and friend of george romney. >> he dismissed movements, the only movement i want is a bowel

movement. and this is -- >> thank you, ryan. >> he was an important organizer in america and had a point, that movements without action, without doing something are meaningless. and just look at occupy wall street using may day. frankly, international workers day is not a big deal in the united states. you're not going to speak to the broad most americans by doing your organizing on international workers day which is foreign to most americans and don't understand what the relevance is. >> the or thing about not having a flag bearer, standard bearer for your message and having a platform for prescriptions is it's open to being co-opted by other folks and i thought this was amazing that the four seasons had an ad in the "new york post" out today, co-opting the language of occupy wall street, saying the secret of the four seasons is simple. we're for the 100%, not the 1%. >> there you go. >> 100% who work hard, eat well, want the best for their health,

businesses and families. jonathan cap heart, you're the best best suited literally to weigh on what that -- how that works. >> read the entire ad before you get to the punch line here. julienne and alex, terrific guys, yeah, when you walk in, you walk out, are you down a few paychecks for lunch or dinner? sure. but it's a wonderful experience. these are guys -- >> you'll never find a snob in the four seasons. we degree up penniless. >> these are guy whose came to the country with nothing. they are living literally the american dream. when you walk into the four seasons, the joy on these guys' faces of what they're doing and the money, the bank they're rolling in, it's incredible. i cannot believe i'm here defending the four seasons. >> note to self, hang out with

capehart when you visit new york. >> jonathan capehart can name check the guys who run the four seasons, impressive. >> like you don't know them. >> is it the restaurant, not the hotel. >> is it the restaurant in the seagram building. >> it does speak to the idea of the 99% and that it is sort of you know adopted, shall we say, by all parts of society. it worth mentioning, as we're talking about, you know one of the big thicks, one of the big prongs of the occupy message, wall street, the banking industry getting an undue leg up from the government and we have bloomberg say, writing, post, printing today, at the end of 2011 the five banks, jpmorgan, bank of america, citi group, wells fargo, held 56% of the economy. in 2006 they held 43% of the economy. so their power has just increased. >> and this happened around barack obama.

if you listen to the average ceo type talk about the obama administration, they said they're under siege. >> jimmy kimmel said, congratulations, octobcupy, aft hackie sack, there's no more greed on wall street. it continues and too big to fail is bigger than it ever was. >> steve kornacki, thank you for joining us today, sir. look forward toto more from you every week. >> i'm being exiled. we're encouraging you -- >> i'm going to the four seasons. >> coming up, hillary clinton gets an offer to appear on the silver screen. details, next. >> hi, i'm "andrea mitchell reports." the raid that killed osama bin laden one year later. and the war of words that's erupted on the campaign trail ever since. joining us, live from abbottabad in pakistan, michael lighter head of the national

counterterrorive center under president bush and president obama. he's also, as i said an nbc news terror analyst. and jim talent, a romney adviser, senator tom daschle and former ambassador nicholas burns. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior,

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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix easy label, right? but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and we don't want to go there. so let's try to see people for who they really are. you can help create a more united states. the more you know. welcome back. time for "what now?" . forget sarah marshall, jason sigel has been rejected by secretary of state hillary clinton. i will read this note she sent to jason sigel. i was delighted to hear about your interest in sharing the big screen with me. i'm a little occupied but perhaps some day i can help you forget sarah marshall again. my only condition is that there be muppets involved and that is nonnegotiable. i didn't think there was a lot i had in common with hillary clinton. >> the secretary of state has

the worst case of seen senioritis. >> i love it. i love the fact that she's having a ball before she has to buckle down. >> i'm more cynical about this. she's a very able media staff around her that lately has been putting out fun little thing for people like to us talk about on cable once a week or so. and you know, i think we would -- we might think it has something to do with 2016 and her next stage in her life. >> i agree with you. >> is that a huge leap? >> she's talking muppets when she's going over to beijing to deal with highly sensitive u.s.-china relations and dealing with a situation in the middle east by no means stable. >> got to have fun. >> i hope her staff is doing this. >> yes, i'm thinking the muppet, the muppet line is not first on her agenda. speaking of talented media staff or not so talented, i british

parliamentary panel declared rupert murdoch unfit to run his media empire, in a scathing 125-page report members of parliament concluded murdoch, quote, turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his company's and publications and is, quote, not a fit person to exercise this stewardship of a major international company. but not everyone on the panel agreed. one conservative member called the criticism wildly outside the scope of the committee. that person is looking for a job at the news corp. just kidding, willie. what does this mean for old rupert. >> rupert murdoch is 81 he's made it this long, he'll survive this. they tried to turn the tables, talk about how they were in cahoots with david cameron, we'll see how in this plays out. >> the joke, which i do not endorse, rupert murdoch says, you say i'm unfit to run a news organization, well i -- >> there's always that. >> we know na james has had his

troubles, elizabeth doesn't want the job and lock lynn doesn't seem to be able to get the job. wendy, who's next? >> roger? >> we'll see. thanks to jonathan, joy, ryan and thank you, as always to willie geist, staying up so late to stay on the show. willie, who gets up way too early on msnbc, at the insane hour, i will say the insane hour of 5:30 in the morning. >> you're so kind to return the favor tomorrow morning live in studio, alex wagner. >> there will be muppets. see you back here noon eastern. david frahm, rick tyler, karen finney. find us at facebook.com/nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. good afternoon, andrea. >> as we say at the state department, muppet are not

negotiable. next, on a serious subject, marking one year since the raid on bin laden's compound, nbc news terrorist and head of the national terrorism center, michael lighter, he was in the situation room with president obama. is bin laden's death being plit side? would mitt romney have made the same call? romney adviser former senator jim talent joins us with tom daschle and nicholas burns next on "andrea mitchell reports." i am going to become facebookri. no. these work, right? no. all right. mom! look what i found in the shed! no! no! no! ♪ ew! were you guys just making out in here? what? no! is it okay if i quit my job and start a blog? no. really? cold cuts from a package? yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects deli meat. the tastes you love and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food.

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by what's getting done. measure commitment the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," one year later the raid on osama bin laden has become a war of words. >> i think it was very disappointing for the president to try to make this a political item by suggesting in i wouldn't have ordered such a raid. of course i would have, any -- any american, any thinking american, would have ordered exactly the same thing.