tv NOW With Alex Wagner MSNBC May 7, 2012 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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thousands. 1,000. it all comes after political upheaval in europe swept out french frez sash cozy and shook up the greek parliament. thereby concerns that the months ahead cod bring turmoil to the worldwide economy. joining us from france's capital city is christopher dickey, news week and the daily beast. thanks for joining the program. >> it's my pleasure. >> a lot, sir, seems to be happening over in europe. tell us what you think sarkozy's defeat means for your europe at large and specifically the euro zone. after the news from greece yesterday, this is talk this is perhaps the beginning of the end for the eurozone. >> i think we have to worry about what's going on in greece. fans is a more stable situation. it's a big power. it's a rich country. it's talking about doing a
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little more than tweaking the agreements that have been made, but not overthrowing them. on the other hand, in greece, which is where a lot of these problems began, the government is basically going down the tubes. they have no idea how they're going to organize the government, how they're going to make the payments they need to make, how they're going to renegotiate their debt. everything is up in the air in greece and the powers emerging are radical on the right and radical on the left. so it's really unclear what's going to happen there will. >> i want to talk about the piece that you wrote in the daily beast published today saying it would be a mistake to think that the results tonight marked a popular mpb embrace of holland'se social flat form which could be summed up tax and spend. you think this is more a rejection of sar kaez than an embrace of hollande and his policies? >> oh, yeah, i think that's really clear. i think hollande knows that. today in the french press everybody was saying the same
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thing. hollande doesn't have a mandate to cower out a radical socialist program if he wanted to. but his program sounded more radical than it is. and that's one of the reasons that i think you've seen volatility in the markets today, but not a wholesale selloff. nothing even remotely resembling panic. the idea he was coming in has been sort of factored in. people serious about money have looked closely at what he's proposing. i think they see room for serious negotiation going forward between france and germany and throughout the euro bloc. >> that's interesting that you say that. i read the san francisco germany regarding renegotiations wa is not possible, which is not something we often here in the united states. christopher seems to think the door is open. former chief strategist new york city deputy mayor wolfson. let's talk what this means for u.s. politics. certainly there will be a ripple effect in terms of relations
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between the u.s. and yaurp. sarkozy is -- u.s./france relations are certainly affected. erin, you're new to this little show we call "now." first, we were talking before the show began about who likes this news and who doesn't. you were saying democratic strategists do not like the results in france. >> not the results necessarily but the fact that there will be now so much upheaval in the eurozone with the european economy. it means there could be bad reverberations in the u.s. economy and democrats on capitol hill are worried that it really puts our recovery, our economic recovery in trouble. >> and their butt's on the line. >> exactly. >> you said it, i didn't. >> we've talked about the austerity question a lot. and it's certainly bound to come up in the u.s. presidential race as we debate how to tackle the problems weise have economically. howard, do you think the broad rejection of austerity plans in europe bodes well for the democrats? given the ryan budget and sort of what is in there as far as
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trimming programs, trimming programs that affect and help and aid the poor and the working class? >> what i'm seeing in europe is a rejection of parties in power. and whether that is good for the democrats or the republicans here remains to be seen because we have a power sharing arrangement essentially right now. i mean, at the same time that many france was rejecting their leadership, you saw the conservatives in england take a huge beating in their sort of off year elections at the local level. there's something going on where people are greatly dissatisfied. you have enormous unemployment in the many of these countries, very little economic growth. they're turning out the people in power regardless of who the party is and whether that plays well for the dras here or republicans here remains to be seen because both sides have some degree of, if you don't like what's going on some degree of cull companiability if you will. >> doesn't the president have to say you think cutting social programs works? look what's happened in europe? couldn't he use europe as example over and over?
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>> i think he could. in europe, you have a much stronger tradition df labor protest, of a pushback and forth. whereas in this country, outside of the public sector unions, labor has been totally decimated and the attacks have only furthered if you look at wisconsin and other places. i don't think we have the same balance here. i think that's a big factor. i think obama has to do a lot more selling of these policies than you would in europe where there is a backlash against incumbents, period, and secondly there is a long and rich tradition of trying to make sure people don't have to the work too long or hard for too little money. they have generally beentology take bigger trade offs in tax policy than we have. >> christopher, political dynamics outside of france, although to some extent this was happening in france too, which is the rise of radical conservatives and some would say fascist parties. in greece, the golden dawn, is the far right party whose
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members do the nazi salute won about 7% of the vote. a lot of folks have said, folks who watch europe are a little bit worried about what failure or trouble in the eurozone means broadly in terms of the rise of radical parties. >> well, i think there's a lot to the worry about. it's not only the sort of cryptofascist party on the right infer greece. it's also the left wing party which has a very radical program and probably holds the swing votes in the parliament now. you know, it's basically an old line communist party. so the, it's -- things are very problematic there, but not only there. in the netherlands, for instance, the government was brought down by alf absolute avowed islam ma phobe, individualers, who says all islam is bad and has been taking a very strong anti-immigrant posture for a long time. here in france, sarkozy was so
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desperate to hold on to his office he took a wild swing to the right and essentially legit mized the national front on many issues and now you've got maureen la pen coming out as a major player almost in the mainstream of french politics. you have all these parties considered completely out on the fringes and out of sight of the mainstream that are now coming in plaining a major role in the politics of these countries. i think a lot of people find that very scary, indeed. >> indeed, worrisome indeed. it's worth noting france's new president will be coming to the u.s. for g-8 and nato days after his an skenence to the french presiden presidency. we will be monitoring that. christopher dickey, thank you. and what a beautiful shot you have in front of the arch de triumph. coming up, joe biden's comments been the gay marriage on "meet the press" are raisie ining ques
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about his relationship with the president. mitt romney is getting set to speak in ohio. we'll look at the latest poll numbers and the president and rominee are battling more than just each other next on "now." [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you.
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>> i'm just not seeing a ton of sunshine in here. >> transportation warehousing is where we lost some jobs. >> that is a terrible number. >> the real question. >> job creation numbers fall for the third straight month. >> not just about how we're doing today but how we'll be doing tomorrow. >> that was a new ad out today
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from the romney campaign arguing that the economic recovery isn't happening fast enough. president obama's campaign is also out with a new ad airing in nine swing states. >> instead of losing jobs, we're creating them. over 4.2 million so far. we're not there yet. it's still to you hard for too many. but we're coming back. because america's greatness comes from a strong middle class. because you don't quit and neither does he. >> i'm barack obama. and i approve this message. >> a new poll by politico and george washington university shows that the president and mitt romney are in a statistical dead heat. among independents, romney holds a ten-point lead. let's talk about this, guys. robert, both candidates are running on the economy as you saw in those ads. who do you think has the advantage right now? >> wow, that's a trick question because i'm not sure anyone really does. i mean, look, elections are all about moving forward and all about the future. when you take a look where we
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are right now, we're just not there. assuming that and assuming that you agree with the assumption before the commercial break that the elections are about incumbency, president obama is still in deep deep trouble. however, mitt romney still cannot close the deal. that's the frustration with a lot of folks in the republican party, including myself is that he has so much going for him, the business acumen. he has the ability to be able to tract independents as you mentioned. but he cannot close the deal. this very much could be like 2004 when everything was going right for john ker ray, he should have won the election but bush squeaked by. i'm not sure we're there yet, but it's close. >> it's the game show. you know you have a washer and drier that you've won but sort of want the ferrari and you can pick behind door number three, but it might be a goat to put it in layman's terms. that is the cipher that is mitt romney is something the
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president's campaign seems to be seizing on. this is what jim messina said in a conference call a few hours ago. >> he has a private sector record of laying off workers and shipping their jobs overseas and making off with millions. he has a public sector record of increasing debt, raises taxes and fees, growing government and shrinking jobs. we probably won't see any ads that are talk accurately about his record because he has absolutely nothing to say. >> he has absolutely nothing to say, erin. >> the one thing he does have something to say about is the fact if you study him closely, his selling point is he is a budget cutter. when people are hurting, they don't want all the programs cut. >> austerity. >> he's got a problem not wanting to go full bore to that point. >> but howard, what explains then the ten-point lead he has among independents? >> there's a lot of dissatisfaction over the course of the economy. you saw in the president obama's
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ad, they can't declare it's morning in america because people don't believe that. they're trying to square the circle, thread the needle. it's tricky. they have to convince people things are better than they would have been had obama not been elected president. they can't tell people things are great. there's an obvious opportunity for romney. i think you're right that so far mitt romney hasn't articulated a program to tell people what he would do if elected. you ask the average person on the street what would romney do if president? no one would be able to give you an answer. he'll have that opportunity no time like the present, obviously. >> independents are different. independents, historically are highly educated, make up their minds at the last minute and do their homework. they don't toe the line on the democratic or republican side. i guess the reason they're probably looking at romney right now, at the end of the day, yes, it's all about the budgets and so for the but he does fix things. when you look at his record, he has proven time and time again
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that the things that were broken, he has fixed. maybe i should give him a second chance. >> i think team obama would say the same thing, too. it's not totally whole yet, but he has in large part fixed the question. we're not hemorrhaging jobs anymore. we're on a positive trajectory. >> independents are not convinced. >> he also hasn't said what he would do in a second term. let's seeing through the programs he has begun. >> it's unclear whether he would get any legislation passed depending on what happens in congress. >> if you look at the jobs act, the disclose act which goes after much pst excessive spending and disclosure issues people are concerned about, there is a rich is agenda that has been put forward to the highest filibuster rate in history in the senate. while not all the things are necessarily exciting, i don't think you can look at this presidency and the amount of legislative activity and obstruction and say we don't know where he's going.
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>> good luck getting it through a republican house. >> if you have the republicans controlling the house or senate, is he going to get climate change taken care of? i don't think so. >> i'm not saying everything can get done. he's been very clear where he's going. that's particularly important when you're talking about this contrast. the problem for romney is they've put out the attack here. it is that he is a disingenuous right winger. he has no core and you don't trust him to even do what obama's already gotten dmon foreign policy like taking out bin laden. these are very strong attacks and i haven't heard a good rebuttal. >> what's interesting, ari, when you look at independents, they determine who our next president is going to be. >> and they will in in race. >> independents are pretty wishy washy, too. they flip-flop. but you can make the argument that in a strange way they identify with mitt romney saying
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he's analytical here. he's not necessarily being idea logically driven but by the facts. if they take him to the left, fine, if they take him to the right, fine, as well. >> the obama campaign had to define romney. was he going to be a right winger or a flip-flopper without any convictions.early on in the campaign, they were posing him as a flip-flopper. now they've settled on a right winger. that may change as time goes on. whether the american people will be convinced that have is unclear. they're going to do the obama campaign is going to do everything they can, conference calls like that, ads to try to fill in mitt romney for the american people. he's got to get out there. he's got to tell people what he's going to doing. >> the president officially kicked off his campaign this fwhekd ohio. he was in ohio state university making a speech. 14,000 people showed up. it is worth noting because we have talked about attendance rates at campaign events. mitt romney also had a speech in
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detroit at an unfilled stadium. now, this is -- this is osu. a filled stadium although it was capacity, 18,300. the president got about 14,000 folks out there. mitt romney at his rally in detroit got 1200 people out to the speech. neither stadium was filled. david axelrod said look, 14,000 is more than 11,000 more than mitt romney has gotten out to any of his speeches. we talking about enthese yax and the message and who can dlirvegs the president still is -- that was a fired up speech. >> my car is faster than yours. is that what this is all about? >> howard knows this from the enthusiastic primary campaign that hillary and barack had these times. there's a reason they keep going around to different states. to have an impact. the way you do that is through local field events and local media coverage. it looks like to your point
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obama is were successful at turning out numbers while also getting local message coverage. romney is struggling with only doing the latter. he can get media coverage. the local papers write when you come to town. if you onlien hit 1200 people, that's not getting su the voter contact. that is a distinction for these campaigns that matters even if reporters only want to count the empty seats. >> john mccain was having problems attracting crowds too till he picked sarah palin. sarah palin brought a lot of people out. look, barack obama is for the base of the democratic party extremely popular. he's a great speaker. he's a great campaigner. a lot of people will come out and see him. do we will think a lot of people will come out and see mitt romney, at this point that's not the case. >> the only issue is whether the same people are going to go to the polls. howard, to your point, 57% of democrats are very or extremely enthusiastic. 46% of republicans are very or
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extremely enthusiastic. i'm very and extremely enthusiastic to continue talking about this and more. angry new reaction from the families of some of the nine-victims after the alleged conspirators disrupted their first hearing at guantanamo bay. we'll have the latest details ahead. but first, we'll look at some of the battles shaking up the political landscape on the state level and how those races coz affect the presidential election next. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and who doesn't want 50% more cash? ugh, the baby. huh! and then the baby bear said, "i want 50% more cash in my bed!" phhht! 50% more cash is good ri... what's that. ♪ you can spell. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? ha ha. ♪
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the united states, it needs to be more substantive. >> was hope more substantive. >> he wasn't the president then. that was a little bit different. it did capture the times that senator obama was running in. i don't know. >> erin mcpike, you said you liked. i put you on the spot. >> it does need to be simplistic so people can tell their neighbor what it is. the backward part of it that mitt romney is just like the bush administration just like republicans in 2008, it's an indictment against that. and forward is the opposite. >> so it connotes the backwardness of bush 43 while at the same time proposing an alternative. >> exactly. >> ari? >> i'm not feeling it. i was saying before that change we can believe in gestured towards a core promise of the obama campaign which is that he was not a normal politician. some people strongly disagree with that, but that's what it jett gestured toward. >> i think wolfson probably disagreed with that at the time. >> the famed lead strategist for the hillary clinton, what it
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said about hillary without being too mean was somehow you couldn't believe in her and she wasn't a real or true progressive. i think that will said more than one word. >> and howard? >> forward does that, too. forward is both positive and negative. it suggests we're going to go forward. things are moving in the right direction as the ad said, we're not quite there. and this other guy wants it take us backwards. i want to go forward, he wants to go backwards. you don't have to say backwards if you say forwards. people will get what you mean. >> i understand where everybody's coming from. i just keep expecting the next line to be forward, drop and give me 20. maybe that's a good thing. >> forward march. >> coming up, out of turn or out of the loop snst vice president joe biden makes notable comments about gay marriage and his political future. we will discuss them and the vice president's relationship with the president next on "now." [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way
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sfwhoobl this is all about is a simple proposition. who do you love? what all marriages at their root are about, whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women are entitled to the same exact rights. >> that was vice president joe biden on "meet the press" yesterday. gay marriage has been a delicate issue for the administration. president obama has said his views on it are evolving but not said he supports it. today on "morning joe," arne duncan was asked if he supports gay marriage to which he answered yes. robert traynham, we are floating various conspiracy theories as we usually do during the breaks. you were in coo hoots thinking this was intentional. >> two things.
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joe biden is on the record even when he was in the senate saying he was for gay marriage. the gay community are very, very lukewarm about this president. they often say i like this president but he's not 100% there when it comes to the issues important to me. you don't go on "meet the press" and talk about such a deep policy issue if in fact you have not cleared it with the west wing. that's what the vice president did. >> they knew it was going to come up, especially because mitt romney had to let go his spokesman who was gay. of course, they knew that it was coming. >> rick grinnell. >> took the words right out of my mouth thinking it was a carrot to the gay community. he rolled back don't ask, don't tell but that wasn't enough. this in addition let's the president have some space from the rest of the administration saying we're with you, but it lets the president create space going into the red states that he needs to win. >> okay. >> this is the kool-aid here.
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>> i called arne duncan the treasury secretary. he of course the secretary of education. the fact he doubled down gives credence to your theory that the white house wants this. but it does bring up an uncomfortable issue for the president. it's a delicate dance he has to do. though the gay community may be dissatisfied with his lack of full throated endorsement of gay marriage, there is a sense of understanding if he's re-elected he'll go further out on the issue. but right now he can't because he's at risk of alienating certain voters. howard? >> is there anyone on this panel or watching at home who doesn't think that will president obama believes in gay marriage? nobody. everybody assumes he's for gay marriage. we all that. so having vice president biden go out and affirm that will having members of the cabinet come out and affirm that gives a sense to people that yes, the president is there. he may not be able to do it right now for political reasons, but his heart is in the right place and maybe there's an opportunity for him to do it down the line. vice president biden i think has
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been a huge asset to the this president. he's a great campaigner. he's going on the show. i agree with you. he's not just shooting from the hip here. he knew exactly what he was saying and it sends a signal to people for gay marriage that yes, this administration is with you. president might not be able to come out and say it, but he's there. >> as we talk about the vice president's role in the administration, there is an article in the "new york times" this weekend that discussed the president's sunday night re-election meetings with his inner circle of a handful of advisers from the the re-election team. it's jim messina, david axelrod, stephanie cutter, larry griz lan know, from the house david bluff, valerie jarrett, pete rouse, dan pfeiffer and melissa mastromonaco. not joe biden. were you surprised by that? >> there may be other meetings he or his representatives are in. he obviously wants to keep those meetings close. i think joe biden is doing a great job for this
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administration. he can go out and get a big crowd and fire people up. so he could probably get a bigger crowd than mitt romney at this point i would think. >> i think the team you see there is the president and all of the chief advisers. you don't see other principals. michele is not in the room but i don't think anyone doubts that michele has plenty of input on his thinking and is used as a surrogate. i'm not sure there's a precedent for the vice president putting his time in there, as well. >> the one thing you see with that will full screen that you just brought up is everyone thaemts on that screen has been there since the early days. those are the guys and gals that have been there when they had no money to rub two pennies together. that's his core team. it also too, look, the vice president came in after the fact. the vice president is certainly very important. he's not pivotal to the president's re-election campaign. those folks on that panel are. >> certainly advising him on
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policy because anyway -- we got to play the sound when asked about 2016, this is what the vice president said. >> who's more likely to run for president in 2016, you or secretary clinton? >> i9 think we may run as a team. i'm only joking obviously. i don't know whether i'm going to run and hillary doesn't know whether she's going to run. >> there's a lot of truth in humor there, mr. vice president. >> old blue eyes. erin mcpike, biden/clinton ticket, huh? they're talking about it before. i think the real question is for howard when he said hillary doesn't know if she's going to run either. as a reporter, i've got to ask you -- >> is hillary going to run? >> she said she's not. i take her at her word. she has put in an enormous amount of service to this country and looking forward to time off and she says she's not running, she's not running. >> is wolfson too tired to run for president any 2016? that's more the question. >> i'm enjoying what i'm doing. >> very political. >> i'm going to stop.
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we'll probably continue to bat that the question around till 2016. after the break, a military judge at guantanamo battles with the five men accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks. a live recap from our correspondent at the proceedings and dig into the broader implications of the case next. [ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit 'em, with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds, and stops new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control. holding down the fort while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me, your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar,
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magazine reading. joining us now is ron kuby. first is, michael isikoff was at the trial this weekend and joins us live from our washington bureau. michael, we heard reports about some of the defendants reading magazines including the economist. it sounded chaotic. give us a sense what it was like in the courtroom. >> it's a pretty surreal experience to be down there in gitmo and first of all see the accused mastermind of the 9/11 plot, khalid shaikh mohammed and his four co-defendants. very much a contemptuousness of the whole affair, not answering the judge's questions, not even looking at the judge, refusing to put on head sets. ramzi bin al she had gets up and starts shouting about how the guards may be trying to kill us. another of the co-defendants asks for a full reading of the charges which stretches on for hours. the defendants pay absolutely no attention, talk among
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themselves, laugh. i mean, so the dynamic we're seeing where the defendants do everything they can to obstruct the process and offends the family members is something we're going to be seeing over and over again because it's very clear this is going to drag on for years. >> and tell us about the judge's reaction. at one point he ordered a translator to be brought into the room so that the defendants would have to hear the translations. >> that's another -- that was another tactic designed to drag out the process. they wouldn't put on their head sets. they couldn't hear the consecutive translaces. the judge clearly doing everything he can to make this seem like it's a fair trial orders the translations so he can be assured that the defendants are hearing what's going on. you know, look, there were things going on in that courtroom that you'd never see in a federal courtroom in new york. when i walked in during prayer break, there's khalid shaikh mohammed and the defendants with their prayer rugs engaging in
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prayer. khalid shaikh mohammed acting as the imam leading them. you would never see that in a federal courtroom in new york city. >> michael isikoff, thank you, sir. we'll come back to you for more as the trial progresses. ron kuby, you have defended many incendiary and controversial defendants. >> and mom is so proud. >> mom must be proud. >> tell me bury action to what happened in the courtroom. you were saying during break that you expected this would escalate this obstructionism on the part of the defendants. >> that's right. i think michael's analysis is really spot-on as to what's actually going on. because these courts are their own creation, they were created by the supreme court, by acts of congress, by the obama administration filling in the blanks, there's no template for doing this. they have no experience with a trial like this, so they're making it up as they go along. that gives the defense a fantastic opportunity to follow this process of delay, obstruction, and nonrecognition. i mean, the defense' fundamental
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position is these courts have no right to try us, and they're using a tactic used in the past by the faln here in the federal courts in the united states, the puerto rican independence group used for hundreds of years by the irish resistance in british courts. and the danger for the judge is he has to look fair. he wants to look fair. and the defendants' stake in this is to deprive the court of its legitimacy. so the defendants in the course of the case are going to escalate until they produce the overreaction they want and then they can denounce the proceeding. >> in terms of striking the veneer of legitimacy from the courts, the lawyers are also making issue with the rights denied their clients in these military courts which is to say attorney/client privileges are to some degree out of the window. i want to play sound from david nevelin. khalid shaikh mohammed's lawyer, him speaking yesterday. >> the government wants to kill mr. mohammed.
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they want to extinguish the last eyewitness to his nor tour so this he can never speak again. before we ever start, the system is a rigged game to prevent us from doing our jobs. >> i mean, that is doing exactly what you said, which is striking any sort of semblance of legitimacy or the attempt to strike legitimacy from the proceedin proceedings. howard, when you have a trial that begins with this, does anybody get any closure from this? >> high heart goes out to those families, many of whom are from new york who lost loved ones ten years ago who are either following it hour by hour or maybe just reading the newspapers the next day. for a lot of those folks, this just reawakens a lot of very terrible upsetting memories. and your heart has to go out for people who lost loved ones still looking for some resolution, still looking for some closure of what happened ten years ago. if this trial continues to drag
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out, if the antics continue, people continue to delay, that will only make it more difficult for those people. >> your point is bourn out by mark martins, the prosecutor. this is what he said this weekend regarding the trials. >> the remedy for torture or cruel treatment, things that will make you ashamed that they were done that are deplorable and disappointing, the remedy is not to just dismiss all charges. it doesn't pass the common sense test that everything, everything? is polluted and tainted by an instance of torture? that means everybody goes free? everybody is free of accountability? >> ron, what do you make of that? i mean, we know that mark martins has tried -- they've been trying to reform the process to make it more i guess transparent. what do you make that have point? >> well, i mean it's a legal point. usually when evidence is obtained through coercion, torture, things like that, the evidence itself is excluded.
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but you usually don't dismiss the charges but sometimes when the government misconduct has been so outrageous as to shock the conscience, waterboarding somebody, 183 times before bringing them to trial, under those circumstances it's a proper motion to bring. i think the court is going to have a lot of difficulty with the defense motions that will last for at least the next year always trying to look fair. >> i think that goes to the problems here, which is there's a different balance of military justice than civilian justice. one of the big fights we've had in this country is how to resolve all these cases. it's not enough to say we're at war so everyone only gets military justice or gets no trial at all. we have a president who came to office decrying tore to you but hasn't prosecuted any cases of torture widely reported. we have the photos and know what went on. everyone wants justice here. we want this done right and want the military and the families and everyone hurt by this to have some sense of justice. but we also have to ask the broader questions. as i said this president talked
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a lot about the problems of the last administration's approach but he's ordering assassination of american citizens without trial. so we have a lot of problems here that are a broader context than simply these delays. >> let's keep in mind the president did want to move the trial to new york city and -- >> mayor bloomberg i think and greg kelly were the one who's initiated a tantrum that then the right wing used as a political club against the president till finally he decided okay, i give up. >> and certainly congress had a role to play. do you think the trial could have taken place in new york city? >> the mayor said it would have caused an enormous amount of difficult in lower manhattan. that's true. the president made the decision not to have it here as i an result of that. i don't think there's any question watching what we saw over the past weekend it would have createded an enormous amount of disruption. people in lower manhattan have kind of had it. it's a wonderful residential neighborhood but attracts a lot of interesting activity.
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if you had had this trial here given the ghosts and remnants of nine-it would have been very very difficult. >> just across the river, they had the second biggest terror trial over there in brooklyn within 100 feet of a beautiful courtyard and playground. this was the son of september 11th, the attempt to bomb new york city subways, high security. none of which infringed whatsoever on the rights of the people just a block away. >> that's a testament i think to brooklynites and our tolerance. ron kuby, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, facebook gets set to take the excitement over its ip on the road. not everyone is enthusiastic about it. the details next. >> i'm andrea mitchell. coming up next, vice president joe biden says that the president is evolving on gay marriage. so why won't president obama embrace the issue? joining us, obama deputy campaign manager stephanie
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cutter, republican national chairman reince priebus. romney adviser kevin madden and the president of the human rights campaign. plus, as european leaders are voting themselves out, the night since the financial meltdown, look at france. lee gallagher will be joining us on that. see new 15 minutes. can befriendt may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition.
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internet. and i had you know, when i was in middle school, i was using search engines like google anya who. it was this complete -- world more open and connected. >> welcome back. time for what now. that was part of mark zuckerberg's 31-minute online video presentation making the case for investing in facebook. the road show for the social network's ipo kicks off today. ari melber, facebook is valued at $96 billion. what do you make of that? >> i'll tell you what i make of
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that, that number means it's about $4 peruser that they have to wring out. they're going to be doing that with a lot more aggressive personalized and social advertising and other things that pull off your data. so as people look and say what does this mean for me, if you want to invest in it, that's a stock question. as a user if you're signed up for the service, figure out whether you want to be a part of this increasing monization. >> chicago investors -- but the chicago investors are saying it is valued at a number -- a figure too high. the "chicago sun-times" says so many people have been hired to vouch for this ipo, there's no one left to disit. >> the question becomes how much is too much and moisture more as an vin evidenter you want to know what the growth rate is. walmart has huge growth in asia and south america. we kind of know where that company's knowing. we don't know the where facebook is going to go. in other words, where else can they go in terms of marketability and profitability. that's the question as an
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investor. >> lunar colonies. go to the moon. >> you think so? >> to the moon. >> and you have a facebook up there, huh? >> you do not like the new facebook. >> the timeline feature looks like my space. and the reason facebook won is because it was cleaner. my space was so messy. i hate it. >> the thing i really just wanted to get to the my space thing so i could talk about the band thing. so the thing that america doesn't understand is that howard wolfson is a music connoisseur par excellence. there's no one -- i won't say there's no one to obscure you. but the point is, america wants to know if howard wolfson is looking at bands on facebook and my space, what are the bands that you're looking at? who are your picks? >> we live in the greatest music city in america in new york. >> we do. >> and we've got a lot of great music here. a lot of people listening to a lot of great music here. best albums of the year, bruce springsteen, catch him on the tour if you can. he'll be back in the fall in the states.
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perfumed genius. dr. john. >> dr. john. >> alabama shakes. >> i'm with you on that. >> of mon centers and men and a left field choice, a singer from wales named julie murphy on band camp. >> wolfson's pick. chrysalis cillizza, if you are watching that's for you. i'll see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern/10:00 a.m. mountain time when i'm catherin katrina vannen hoofl. andrea mitchell reports is next. happy monday. >> happy monday to you. coming up here, politico's new battleground poll lays out a very tight presidential race as the president officially kicks off his re-election campaign. six months out. jinl vandehei will break down the new numbers. also joining us, obama deputy campaign manager, stephanie cutter, republican chairman reince priebus and romney adviser kevin madden right here
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on "andrea mitchell reports." up next. forecast storm system rolling through the great lakes and ohio valley. a lot of rain today, areas of ohio, indiana. and eventually down into kentucky and tennessee. atlanta slight chance of storms this afternoon. same for you down in orlando. west coast, beautiful weather continues today. seattle looks great along with phoenix and l.a. have a great monday. olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet?
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>> and who do you love? who do you love? and will you be loyal to the person you love? >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," vice president joe biden problems he's more evolved than the president. >> i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women are entitled to the same exact rights, ought civil rights, all the civil liberties and quite frankly, i don't see much of a distinction. >> but the white house tries to claim there is a difference between the two. here comes the or no difference between the two. but here comes the education secretary when asked about it by mark halperin on "morning joe." >> do you believe that same sex men and women should be able to get legally married in the united states? >> yes, i do.
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