for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. this morning women like our bras and they're expensive. we would never burn them. seriously, we never did that. and we can all do better. really, we can. and i'm going to talk to bill bradley about how. but first i'm no assassin, but i do have a few questions about character. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. yesterday in the afternoon a

little cheer went up here in nordland when we got the news that the ncaap joined the growing chorus of equality and voted on a resolution in support of marriage equality. finally. the organization focused civil rights, is supporting the rights of everyone who wishes to marry. it's quite a show of character and i'll have a little more on that later in our show. but actually character seems to be in the news a lot but not always in a good way. lately we've been hearing about character assassination and i'm a nice guy, which makes me feel like i'm about to watch a soap opera like this. >> as sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. ♪ >> okay. the reality is that these accusations of character assassination are not part of a soap opera. they're about the angst that

mitt romney feels about how he perceives president obama's campaign is treating him and in recent days he let everyone know about it. >> i've been disappointed in the president's campaign to date, which is focused on character assassination. i just think that we're wiser to talk about the issues of the day, what we do to get america working again. i talk about our respective records. >> seems like someone woke up on the sensitive side of the bed, but character is a political liability for governor romney and his opponents know it. it's not a liability in the way that character was such an open point of attack for, say, president bill clinton. thank goodness we don't have to go down that road again. rather for romney it's an issue of his privilege. look. coming from privilege doesn't necessarily mean that a candidate would be an ineffective president. remember fdr? but privilege does mean that a person does not have to worry about certain things. for example, a man doesn't have to worry when he walks to his

car at night doesn't have to worry about sexual assault. a woman does. a hungry person has to worry about where his next meal comes from. this doesn't mean that a privileged person is free of all troubles. it does mean if someone like mitt romney is acting from privilege he has to actively engage in issues he doesn't otherwise have to deal with. he would have to decide from going to being simply sympathetic to being empathetic. the argument president obama has, he has, because of his interracial heritage, an access to white privilege that could afford him a certain status. but as an adult, he chose to move away from that privilege as opposed to it. he chose to move to the south side of chicago, works for the

public sector instead of private and checks off as black. how that translates to voters is key. by all appearances mitt romney is truly a decent man. his dedication to his family is clear and his love for america is unquestionable. but things disconnect him from ordinary folk, especially when he says something like this. >> i'll tell you what. $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> oh, okay. >> or when he tells a group of out of work florida workers that he's also unemployed or how about this friendly presentation. >> i don't think i'd play a round of golf with the president but i'll take him water-skiing. >> water-skiing, oh, boy, disconnection central. so while mitt romney wants americans to vote for him to fix the economy, it is pricely

because of his did connected comments and the fact that we do not know what the other crisis will face the nation, it's because of that the character in fact comes into play. in other words, who do we trust to make decisions on the future unknowns. when it comes to that, character absolutely counts. joining me now are glen johnson, politician of boston.com and hank shinekoff, a member of president clinton's re-election team. lovely to have all of you here. >> thank you. nice to be here. >> so should character be a part of how we decide who will be the president of the united states? is it a fair basis for judging? >> sure. i think in me different facets or applications, character matter. the moral form of it in terms of whether or not your leader is somebody you can trust, also the

way somebody who's in a position of authority has to handle their decision-making, and do they have a proper process and background to make it. sauchb that's what i've about found in covering five. >> this is true for the challenger. the incumbent has the record, the four years, so the challenger can critique the sitting president based on what that president has done over the course of the past four year, but the challenger, i mean obviously it's about certainly what they've done in the past but it is also primarily about judgment, about decision, about character. >> sure. we define character differently. we give bill clinton a pass on moral issues an we go after gerald ford because character means that he for gave president nixon on our behalf without asking us. we judge character very differently.

we forget about the affairs. but millions of people are being destroyed in europe. we look at all kinds of things. we define character based upon the issues of the moment and we take our own moral lens off for just that second as americans and as individual voters, and all throughout the world, i've worked throughout the world. it's the same thing. we say, wait a minute, what is it about that person that makes that person fit the moment? character is probably an ultimate decision. >> is that about the quality of the campaign? it's interesting that you point that out. we look at fdr and think there's man of great character. but they say in his private life he was certainly not faithful to the most extraordinary first lady ever. so here's someone who in his private life had a bunch of question. he was a wartime president which means people were dying. is that about the quality of the

candidates' ability to get us to only think about parts of their biology? >> i think with romney it's interesting. i think his character -- well there are three things we know about him, he's really committed to family and marriage. he was a moderate republican and yet for ass al he was a moderate republican and yet for ass al of us watching h we don't know what his character is outside those three things. romney's such a kind of fair weather politician, that i think it's difficult to know what his character is outside of those three things. >> it's really interesting. this morning's new york times' cover story, "romney's fai

faith: silent but deep." particularly some of the rule following. what i got is he is deeply and profoundly a rule follower even if there's not a lot of compassion. >> exactly. he'd start to get heckled and he'd get upset and say you've had your turn. now it's my turn. he's very orderly. when reporter deal with him, he doesn't like unscripted encounters with them. he wants to know when. >> is that why he missed the moment that has now been negatively compared. john mccain is a -- >> he say, no, no, no, no, no, ma'am and he takes the microphone away from her and somebody else repeated it and he

missed the ability to correct the questioner. is it his inability to correct the scripted? >> in that case he's always wary of where the conversation is going. i just think, you know, to your point a little bit, that would have taken him way down another path that he didn't want to go to that time. he wants to talk about the economy or foreign policy. >> he's a believer in unfettered capitalism, first of all, which tells you a lot about the man. he's a believer in rule bus anyone who's religious is about rules. it's the reason why the dollar bill has in god we trust. god is all over. it's a major part of the discussion. this is about mitt romney who has a very definitive mess that is really america and barack obama who has another sense, maybe not as definitive about the sense that is called america. but there's a real banging of heads that's going to occur

between one pluralistic notion and one that is not. >> when we come back, we'll take look at the very first campaign ads that are ee emergencying and see what it is they'd rather have us talking about. mir on the character break and more what we should make of the naacp characterization. stay right there, and come right back. you know, we're a little early for this thing... want to hop in the back and get weird? no. family vacation... vegas. ♪ no. no. give it a big yank! really? yeah! [ knock on window ] no! no. ♪ ugh, no! [ sighs ] we can have hotdogs for dinner?! yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects hotdogs. made with 100% beef and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food. but why doesn't it last? well, plaque quickly starts to grow back. [ dr. rahmany ] introducing crest pro-health clinical rinse.

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we're back and we're talking about the importance of character and how that is packaged successfully in a presidential race. i want to take a moment and take a look at the first two election ads of this general election moment. let's first take a quick look at the romney first ad.

>> what would a romney presidency be like? day one, president romney immediately approves the keystone pipeline, creating thousands of jobs that obama blocked. president romney introduces tax cuts and reforms that reward job creators, not punish them. president romney issues order to begin replacing obama care with common sense health care reform. that's what a romney presidency will look like. >> i'm mitt romney, so i approve this message. >> it's real clear mitt romney wants to talk about job creation, the keystone pipeline and the economy. here's what the obama campaign is telling us they'd like to talk about. >> he's running for president, and if he's going to run the country the way he ran our business, i wouldn't want him there. he would be so out of touch with the average person in this country, how could you care. how could you care if the average working person if you feel that way. >> it's not just about the choices he made at bain but this

questionable lack of empathy, how do you even care. as you look at the strategy, does one seem more inherently effective or penetrating for voters. >> extra technological strategi clear. move him to the right and romney's position is to go after the smokestack states he need. the other is to tang romney oultd of the states that obama needs to win, ohio and michigan for example. the automobile states. that's going to talk about steel and break up the steel companies. if do you that, you can tell the people in the heartland, this doesn't matter to them. >> that was joe biden in ohio this week in ohio raging on who does he think we are. >> if grow back to ted kennedy,

mitt romney posed an ad until ted kennedy rolled out ads and that sent romney into a nosedive. so here we have the president at the start of the public phase of his re-election campaign and mitt romney new on the scene. the first order of business for the obama campaign is to try to define him in a negative way, and that's what the add is all about. >> there's an argument to be paed. choosing a president is a bit like choosing a spout in this one sense. we don't know what's going to face us in the future, right? we don't re-elect george w. bush president. we don't know that within the year of his inauguration we're going to face the age of terrorism for americans, right? we don't necessarily recognize each of the challenges in the future, so you're picking someone who you think will make the sorts of decisions, have the kind of honesty, judgment, capacity, self-control. in that sense, is there,

therefore, something valuable about not the private issues but the public question like can you care for workers? because who knows what worker decisions willcoming in the future. >> i think what's interesting about the ad, he's turning it against romney and shows a politics an tip a think is not very good. what kind of policies will he implement because of that? i it's nice that obama is trying to -- >> i'll give you the last comment. >> i'm a cynic, a practitioner. that's what this is all about. >> they have the help of the super pacs this time. >> they've got get him out of the way early because if he catches fire in the heartland, this is over.

>> i always like a good cynic at the table. up next the oldest civil organization has finally seen the light. what marriage equality really means after the break. [ male announcer ] this is lois. the day starts with arthritis pain... a load of new listings... and two pills. after a morning of walk-ups, it's back to more pain, back to more pills. the evening showings bring more pain and more pills. sealing the deal... when, hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. it can relieve pain all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lois... who chose two aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. for a day free of pain. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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the naacp's board of directors voted yesterday afternoon to endorse same-sex marriage, declaring, quote, civil marriage is a civil right and matter of civil law. this is a historic decision for the 103-year-old organization and one i've been encouraging multiple times right here on this show. the naacp will acknowledge their support in a press conference tomorrow but i wanted to understand a little bit of the implications today. i want to bring in -- she's

joining us from washington, d.c. hi, i isha. >> hi, it's good to be back, melissa. >> it's good under these circumstances. talk to me. >> clearly you prompted them to take action. >> they're watching, they're viewers. >> kudos to you. this is really a big deal for a couple of reasons. civility rights are not just for the black community. it's civil right. all americans including gay and transgender folks deserve it. that's one key thing the resolution does. >> it kind of ends the chapter doesn't it. there's been the one in north carolina that was led by reverend barber, very much against that amendment one. but this means now the national

organization is taking a stand. >> absolutely. we saw in iowa where the naacp was not supportive of marriage equality. there was a lot of distance in the chapter around the organization. what i bloov this transformative opportunity is for the naacp is to really lean forward in bridging the gap between the black church and the lgbt community. we see the leadership of the naacp to be a lot of ministers, black clergy, the members are full of black churchgoers who have been grappling with it and marriage in particular. the naacp at this point has an opportunity to lead in bridging that gap. >> we were teasing that the round table conversation you were part of might have had something to do with this. i'm not sure at all but if id did, let's make another call. what would make my weekend

complete is if the hrc and g.l.a.d. were taking a voter law and it's really the naacp's main issue for this election year. if we saw that kind of sort of return from lgbt organizations, would that mean we're really building a true coalition here? >> absolutely, absolutely. we're in a moment where we could be living out dr. king's legacy of stomping out injustice everywhere because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and i do think it's incumbent upon lgpt organizations to stand up and support racial justice issues as well. >> aisha, let me ask you one final question. should we be crediting this to the president? >> well, i would say that the president coming forward has

absolutely liberated a lot of people, whether they're black, white, or otherwise, who have been a bit on the fence about marriage equality, who are grappling with their -- they're trying to reconcile their faith and their political principles and values, and so i think the president has liberated people to be able to evolve and take a stand, and i think that, yeah, the naacp, probably a lot of their members are a part of that group who says, okay, the president has inspired me to step unand do the right thing. >> thank you, aisha. my father was a long-time civil rights activists. he would sign my birthday cards not love daddy, but the struggle continues, daddy. it tells me the struggle will continue but it's an exciting day and i'm glad you're here to share it. up next, speaking of historic social movements, this is actually a myth. i don't want to give away the punch line but some of us in nerdland are shocked when we dug into the archives. you might be too.

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okay. to set up this conversation, the nerdland crousset up crew set this up oopds this covers a miss america pageant outside new jersey. >> the women's liberation group has organized several groups to show that miss america's pageant is a society stall organization. the groups proliferate. there are namings as color ffl

as red stockings and red roses, as dismissive as new feminists, women for women, older's liberation. they're addicted to akron names, wolf for women's liberation fund and rat. there are groups who hate men and marriage and think all babies should be born out of test tubes. >> hating men? having babies in test tubes? this is actually not what the women's liberation movement was all about and contrary to popular believe it did not include bra burning. it did actually spawn from this 1 1968 event. a woman figuratively referred to bra burning as way to draw a parallel with vietnam protesters burning draft cards. people picked up on the bra

burning and missed the vietnam. they did throw things into a lard garbage can and according to one of the protesters who organized it they had intended to burn them but since they were on the boardwalk, police officers wouldn't allow them to play with fire. that was then, this is now. what's next. joining me to talk about the challenges, emily carpenter from girls for gender equity.org, she's 17. leslie cardona who's president of her school's organization, young women creating challenge. she's 18. and julie zielinger, author of the book "a little f'd up." it's not a dirty word. you saw that video, 1968, women's lib.

is there anything about that that you just saw that resonates that makes you feel, oh, yes, i'm part of that long experience or that was a million years ago? >> i think it's still very relevant today and the thing that's interesting about that clip and that myth, in fact, it just goes to show there's so many misconceptions about feminism. sigh it every day in my own life amongst my peers. they have these really negative stereotypes and connotations when in fact it means so much more. that's what i try to explore on my blog. >> you're trying to intervene that somehow the idea that feminism is gone. would any of you call yourselves feminists or is it one that's not as relevant? >> it's something i do take on. at first i wasn't shufrmt i'm all about race and feminism is like a completely thing and as i started to learn more about what was going on and how i felt as a

woman, i realized that saying i am a feminist is so importance because it really bridges the gap between women of different generations it. transcends race and efrs, you know what i'm saying and i think identifying as a feminist is really important when it comes to connecting with other young girls. >> it doesn't mean you have to give up having a real concern about real equality and race as well. those things can go together and often do. how about you, leslie? do you take on feminism as a label for yourself? >> i do not. i believe i'm just a true advocate for women. i don't think i need to identify myself with that term, you know, just to be supportive of women. >> and when you think about being supportive of women, what are the big challenges you see, women of your age, 17, 18, 19 years old? >> i definitely feel that education is an issue.

like graduating and things like that. a lot of people think when you graduate high school, it's over. it's not an expectation to go on. that's why i like my school where they hold a higher expectation of all of us. we all go to four-jeer colleges and we all graduate. it's not over after you graduate and it's not okay to drop out and things like that. >> feel free to give your school a shout-out if you like. >> in hartford, connecticut. i believe that high expectation of us is what makes us go father. if a school expects less of us, that's what we do. >> there has never been a better time and yet it also feels like a time. and there are a lot of new restrictions emerging for young women. are the three of you tune islamabad the idea of war on women. is it something you've been listening to, i thinking about? >> yeah, i think the war on

women is a time to watch. i think a lot of younger men are having a political awakening thinking about what's happening. i thrng a lot of young women thought our rights were one for news the '70s and that's a big reason why they might not identify. but now i think a lot of young women are starting to realize those rights could go away at any point. there are politicians every day trying to take them away from us and it's lending young women who are finding that they have to stand up for what they believe in. >> we were looking at a study that shows that in the year 2011, the number of policies that were eneighthed for abortion restrictions, and so you can see from that graph that basically throughout the '80s and '90s, it's fairly low number and suddenly it becomes a very high number. does it feel like something that makes you feel concerned or do you think those aren't the fundamental issues facing young women right now? >> well, i feel like it is

something that makes me feel concerned, and especially because i feel like oftentimes -- like i was watching democracy now, and there were all these men in a meeting, and there was not one woman present, and i feel like that's a big issue and that's what we need to be talking about. having women being part of the conversation, having young girls be part of the conversation. i feel like unfortunately that's happening but not enough and not on a national scale, so i feel like it's important for women to be present. i think they're trying to be but it's important that we are. >> so obviously you all weren't of age to vote in the last election, but in the last election, obviously hillary clinton was running in the primaries and then sarah palin was on the vice-presidential ticket. do you imagine that you'll see a woman president in your lifetime? >> i hope so. i hope so. i was watching a documentary and it said that at age 7, the same amount of boys and girls want to be president but by the time

they're 15, that number drops. like one third of those girls still want to be president and the amount of boys that want to be president at 7 still want to be and i feel like it goes back to education. something's happening where the girls thing that they can't be president. so i feel like that's important. >> i love that you watch democracy now documentaries. that's completely fantastic. do you think it makes a difference? if we had a woman president? would it make a difference to be a young woman and see a woman president? >> i think visibility is so important. a lost people say you can't look up to a role model that doesn't exist. going off of what you said also i think that there's this huge societal imposition on young women that we constantly feel like we're being judged. that comes from a number of sources. and we're so afraid of putting our voices out there, that the idea of leadership terrifies us, whether we're qualified or not. and i think that's also a huge obstacle for us. >> you know, it's interesting

that you talk about this image and you were talking about how you school says it's going to create for you the expectations of going to college. what do you see as how your school has been effective in creating an expectation for women in leadership? >> i believe that with that expectation it made us do, you know -- they even prepare us for everything. they are the true, like, core to why we do the things we do. and without it, you know, if we didn't have the expectation, we wouldn't go on. and now, you know, with ywcc, there is such a thing as women centers and i think, oh, when i go to college, i can be part of women centers but i wouldn't know it if i didn't go to this school. >> it gives you a place to gather information. >> yes. >> when we come back, i want to talk about this movie called "julia." how it talks about how young women like you would be impacted

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and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. welcome back. we've been talking with young women who i've completely fallen with. jessica declared this the year of the women. she writes that while the media was saying femme niche was dead and our foremothers were complaining that young women were politically apathetic, we were complaining. wu bringing down rush limbaugh and getting a transvaginal ultrasound mandate removed from state legislation is not the same as gauge-changing policy.

we need institutional power and backing do that. maybe now is the moment we can actually have it. joining us once again is emily a and. julia is kind of the -- it was an early strategy by the democratic party, the obama administration and re-election campaign to say this young woman julia would be immathed at all these different life moments by, obama administration policies, you know, positively. you'd have head start, student loan, debt forgiveness, all that sort of thing until she would retire with a good strong social security. do you all see yourself in julia? the idea that a young woman is kind of carrying the policy campaign for the president? does that feel like, oh, yeah, i'm like julia or do you think, what in the world does that have do with me? >> i think that in some sort

we're all like julia, and the education programs that he is trying to implement are very important, and i feel like the way that, you know, the -- it's the life of julia, how it helps her throughout her whole entire life, even with the student loans. who wants to be in debt when they're 40 for undergrads. its like we need someone who is going to support us throughout our whole life. >> i definitely agree. i think even on a strategic level on a campaign to go to young men and women online and using social media to give us a tool and educate our peers and yet it directly affects them. i think that's great, especially considering think there are about 64 million eligible voters from our generation in this next election and it's so important to reach out to us and have a tool to reach out. >> everybody is asking what your age group is going to do. 18 to 25-year-olds were

incredibly important to the president last time. so do you see yourself in julia? >> i feel like i do just in the fact that the way they -- at 17, where you are as far as school and things like that, i would be interest interested, though, to have something of maybe a group like a youtube video or something girl reese responding to it. because it's very important to be like, oh, yes, this is important what the obama administration thinks women are going through and i think it would be good to have young women responding to that from all over the country so they can say, hmm, this is right and they can adjust to julia and see how real young girls are responding. >> listen up, obama campaign if you're listening in chicago. we're gojs to need to have actual young women speaking whack to julia. you actually run a program. i'm so engaged with these young women's voices but i know a part of what you're doing with the

long walk home is making sure there are institutionally safe spaces as well as sort of empowerment with young women and jessica was leading us to that in that nation. how do we combine that with the voices and policy and institutional changes. >> i think jessica's article was really good. women of color, young women of color being this the forefront and so with the lock walk home, the population of young wum we work with are prize merrily african-american women and latino women, ages 9th grade going into college. what we've noticed is if you actually engage youth, and i think this speaks to the point you were saying. if you speak of young women, it's a really great organizing tool because through our work with different schools in chicago, public schools in chicago, you get parents involved, you get teachers involved and you get community members involved. if you start with girls

themselves, the ripple effect is tremendous. usually the policy is top down. the julia add like you said. but if you have girls speaking truth to their experience, what kind of ripple fight will that have? i think folks have a difficult time handing over that power or sharing the power with young people. >> all the good-hearted adults i know say i want go and spook to the young people and very few say i'd like to go and listen to young people, to actually hear that. which is part of the idea why i love the idea that you wrote a book because there's no better way to have a voice than to put it out there. talk to me about both your blog and this book. what are the motivations for you? >> yeah. the real reason i started my blog with the f-bomb, which is what we were speaking on, we need to have that. i didn't find space like that online. i was looking for them. i had a lot to say. i decided to create one. every single day women go on and

they have so much to say. people should listen to them. the reason i created the book is to give them a tool as well. i think a lost young women aren't exposed to it. i wasn't exposed in high school. i came to it in a different way. education, as you were saying before, is really a key to getting to these issues and allowing women to use their voices. >> so use your voices in the remaining moments that we have here. if you had five minutes with president obama and five minutes with mitt romney or maybe just 30 seconds with each of them, what would be the one thing that you would either say to them or ask them? >> i would say it's truly about women empowerment. who is going to do the most -- not just men but women but citizens. who's going to be that tool that will help us throughout our whole life because we're the ones voting for him. >> that's right. >> i would also say -- wow, this is intense. if i had 30 seconds.

i would say, for one, i feel like it's important for young women to know that their vorss are important. i feel that needs to be stressed so much. for a while i didn't even know that my voice was important and needed to be heard and i feel like it might be hard for president obama or mitt romney to make sure women's voices are heard because they're men, you know what i mean? so i feel it's important for them to have women close to them, women advisers, female advisers, to make sure that young women are being heard and that they know that their voices are super, super important. >> fantastic. julie, what would be your 30 seconds with the president or mitt romney? >> i would just say listen to us, we know where we are, we know what our experiences are. there's 88% of us that know about comprehensive sex education. give us that. we know what we need. >> thank you very much. sal a me shah, stick around.

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this week female soldiers marched one step closer in the military. on monday they made good on an announcement to open the doors for women to join units previously populated by only men. it's being given a chance. where once women only work aid longside combat units, now they will be assigned jobs within combat battalions, which means 14,000 new jobs now open to women. that still leaves them shut out of 250,000 jobs that remain closed. now, that's a lot of missed opportunity. for the 207,308 women currently serving on active duty who make up 14.5% of the u.s. armed forces. now, of those brave soldiers, only two, two women in military

history have ever been awarded the title of four-star general, the highest appointment for officer in three armed services. these remarkable women are earmy general n.e. done witty and air force general who are, by the way, excluded from combat rules. that's the usual path. that's because while the new policy puts women closer to combat, the women's ground combat policy means zero women are allowed to formally risk their lives in combat shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. that's the case on paper anyway. the reality on the ground is that military women have long been on the front lines of combat, and they've been facing some of the same dangers as their male pierce. because of the 282,000 american women deployed to iraq and afghanistan during the last decade of the women.

14 144 of them have died in iraq and afghanistan and 168 have been injured. they're among the 1.8 million american veterans and those numbers will only increase as the drawdown from the war in afghanistan brings more members back from overseas, coming home to 140% increase in female veterans identified as homeless by the v.a. between 2006 and 2010. compare that to a 45% increase of male veterans during the same period. now, i want you to think about the number three. because not only does the suicide rate for female soldiers triple when they go to wore but female veterans are three times as likely as men to commit suicide when they come home. because they receive no recognition, those women who get lost in the fog of war have a harder time getting benefits that could help them find their way out. all of that might be changing very soon, and we're going to

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that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. really monday's announcement on expanded military will give women more opportunities for service, but not the kind that will give them the highest elite ranks in the service. for that women have to risk their lives and fight alongside men on the front lines. they may soon have the opportunity. legislation is being introduced into both legislation of congress to encourage pentagon to lift all current restrictions on women in combat and my guest today says that can't happen soon enough. the author of "love my rifle more than you: young and female

in the u.s. army. "and genevieve chase who won a purple heart. still with us salamishah tillet and in d.c., kimberly dozier, former cbs news baghdad correspondent. thanks for all of you being there. kim, i want to start with you since you're there in the d.c. can you tell us how significant are the recent changes in opening up roles for new women? >> they're already on the ground dom some of these jobs. on the ground in afghanistan they might not have had the official assignments but because of the way the battle lines change, just driving across the country puts you in the middle of a war zone. the other thing is when i look around at my colleagues, diplomats, journalists, a good quarter of the third of people

around me in war zones are women. it seems like the military is finally catching up to that. what it means in practice, tearing down some of those internal divisions, there are still some folks in command out there who need to be taught about what we can do. >> yeah. so i love that comparison, kim, because, you know, obviously women are right there on the front lines, not only as soldiers, but obviously embedded with our troops, and yet, genevieve and kayla, it feels like the pentagon is behind in simply recognizing women are already there. so both of you have been very near to combat. what does that mean to say you were near to combat since you were officially in combat? >> i think that it is a little confusing for people outside the system to understand the difference. women weren't banned from combat. they're banned from combat jobs and from being assigned to combat units at certain levels. but as you pointed out, over 140 women have died in combat so clearly they were in combat and

many women have won a silver star. we were attached to certain units instead of assigned to them in some situations or as kim mentioned by the there are no front lines. this is no longer world war i and the entire theory of operations can be considered a combat zone. it's a little different. we haven't been banned from combat. just certain roles and positions. >> but that banning from the assignment, has a critically important effect on the career path, is that correct? >> it absolutely can have an impact on that. but the people who have sort of served with us for the last decade recognize the capacity with which we served, and despite what is on the books, you know, they're able to see our contribution and to respect that as well. that's why the laws and the rules are being changed now to be updated, to demonstrate what we've already done. we essentially had to go and do

it, and unfortunately the wars in iraq and afghanistan, this is a positive of that. we were able to go out there and test ourselves and prove ourselves and now we need to catch up the policies to reflect what we've already done. >> right. because thee are very protective wars and wars where we're using a completely volunteer army, no drafts. that meblt lots of bodies, not enough. >> that sounds to me as thole the pentagon is sort of reproducing this version of gender roles, that is at least 30 or 40 or maybe a hundred years old and how we think about everything from our politics to our economic life. >> yeah. so many thing it's so important in the implications of fully segregating the military is far-reaching, right? if you have women that are fully incorporated into all levels of the military, you can't then justify women shouldn't deserve equal pay.

you can't justify that women should have control over their bodies. so the biological and psychological arguments that are used to sort of say women should. be fully integrated, we saw this with african-american men in world war ii. people can use them still, but once you actually fully desegregate the military, it's kind of the final frontier. i think it's so important to -- for this to happen now. >> right. waend don't actually have anyone from the pentagon here. i wanted to look at a quick statement from the pentagon and this pentagon report from the congress about restrictions. they're still making clear claims about women's restrictions, and so what they've said is women basically need to be held to the same standards physically. so they're saying there are some serious practical barriers which require time to resolve so departments can maximize their safety and privacy. that's what we're hearing. it's a safety and privacy issue and these practical issues feel

to me like they're at least in part sort of concerns about physical capacity. is that a legitimate kind of concern? >> i think it can be a legitimate concern, but the assumption that it's only a legitimate concern for females is misguided. >> i see. >> so for example if there are jobs, units, or missions that require somebody to be able to carry a 50-pound rucksack for 25 miles, fine. make sure everybody can do it. males and females. a man who's 5'2" and 120 pounds could be challenged whereas a woman 5'10" and 180 would be able to. i'm come plpletely for having physical requirements. >> let me ask you about this. you know, is the pentagon sort of evolving on this or are we seeing a slow movement toward what is clearly going to be equality, or is there some real possibility here that these sorts of double standards are

going to stay in place? >> well, i would say there are two things going on. we are evolving toward the point that commanders will accept. if an individual can do the job, no matter, man, woman, sexual orientati orientation, that they belong in the unit. that person also has to prove to that unit that everyone in it can trust them to fight their way out. that's one battle that will happen in the front lines and also in the pentagon. the other thing that's happening, though, with war is it's evolving toward -- away from combat in that we're drawing down in iraq and afghanistan. we're going to a war that's much more intelligence-based, has a lot more to do with infiltrating society with what looked like couples. women will prove their worth by being val ruable in those roles. >> the idea of a soldier, what they need fars as a skill set will dramatically change. this is not trench warfare. >> i think that in looking at

the new battle space front, what they're talking about essentially and what we have used as a phrase as kouc counterinsurgency, in the hearts and minds, getting into societies and cultures, we have a natural capacity to be able to go and talk to women, to be able to appeal to the other side of the culture. and to be perfectly honest, i talked to many men in the local communities. so, you know, we have a lot of strengths, we have a lot of things to offer beyond just the physical aspect of it. and that's something that many commanders are beginning to recognize. >> genevieve is absolutely right. and i think it's important to remember that in the muslim countries, women and counterinsurgency operations can play a vital role. it can be much more challenging for our malcolm rads to have access to. >> i want to talk about the challenges that you're facing not only in the face of combat

but when women come home, particularly both issues of post-traumatic stress disorder. i want to talk about issues of sexual assault and violence and then, of course, about homelessness and unemployment and all of those questions. so we're going to turn to all of the issues to kind of how war continues to have an impact on women veterans as we come back. and later in this hour. former senator bill bradley is going to visit nerdland. so don't go away. time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. customers sign up for a sub skrikz and once a mojts get a surprise package of baby products. instead of hiring someone, she did her own marketer er. focus groups, testing and surveys to fine tune her products and packaging. for more watch "your business"

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we're here and talking about pentagon and their policy limits.

back with me. kim, let me ask you this. sexual assault in the military. we're talking about an estimated 19,000 women sexually assaulted in the military. if we're looking at more women in more equal combat roles, is that likely to induce or increase? will it have any impact? is separatexual assault a separ issue? it feels like we want this to be on our agenda at the same time. >> you know, that's always going be an issue. you a population of men and women together. it's going to be an issue. when you're trying to be a policy and change some miensd, could there be an increased number of assaults, harassment, sure, but, look, everyone going into these jobs, jobs overseas wlrks it's intelligence, dip ploem macy, journalism or

troops, you know you're going to be challenging some gender role, especially overseas where they really haven't caught up with us. they're going to run into this. you have to put the armor on because you know that's whatting you're going to face. it's part of the background noise. it's certainly not a reason to not leave my house in the morning. >> i'd like to bring up that military sexual trauma, sexual assault within the military is not exclusively a female problem. >> good point. >> we think of it as being a women's issue, but in terms of those who report to the v.a. that they experience military sexual tra marx because we're the minority, the raw numbers are roughly similar. this is not exclusively a female problem and think the stigma women face in reporting, the estimated numbers and the estimated report, member face an even bigger challenge of coming

forward and -- >> because the stigma is so great for them. >> i think it's higher for them. i disagree a little bit with kim. if we remove the combat exclusion policy completely over the longer term it will serve to reduce instances of sexual harassment. >> because of a sense of equality. >> yes. it's my opinion that it institutionalize as concept of women as second-class citizens, of not real soldiers. you don't quite deserve to be here, you don't have to face the same physical fitness test and if we remove that policy and women are finally acknowledged as being full soldiers and institutionally considered equal, that over the long run it will serve to make the climate better and less per missive. >> i think that's an important point. we have to protect you. we can't let you in combat because you have to be protected. in all the battles for the e.r.a., in all the battles for

the equal rights amended, that women are equal citizens, that this irv of women in combat was constantly used as the scare tactic to sort of build political will against the e.r.a. once we have women fully in combat, is that the end of the sort of final boogie man? is there an e.r.a. on the backside of this? >> i hope so. as i said, this diminishes some of the arguments about biology and psychology that discriminates against women. it won't eradicate it entirely. i think i agree with you it's not only a form of second-class citizenship but used to maintain with um in fairer positions. there's a great documentary out

called the invisible war. it affects both while they're there and when they come home, i mean if we can re-imagine it differently, thing it goes a long way -- >> when you harm the soldier, you're harming the nation. >> a radical reconfiguring how we think about sexual say sault. >> genevieve, you're working with veterans. >> i do. >> what do you do as more as more are coming home. they're drawing down now. >> right. there are a number of issues. i was on the phone great deal yesterday and have been over the last couple of weeks with women who are trying to transition out of the military and we're starting to see things and hear things that are extremely disturbing. having been diagnosed with po post-traumatic stress, vchb been freertd that for half a year and having that diagnosis changed to adjustment disorder which is sort of a discharge, get them off active dutsty as quickly as

possible into the vachlt health system and take whatever they have left to fight that battle to get their claims processed and to get treatment and to get care. so i know that there's been some recent stuff in the press lately, and whenever i hear that stuff i think not in my military and then i get these calls and i have to talk to these women and work with them on these things, and it's just overwhelming. but in terms of things like -- i wanted to comment on the military trauma aspect, i don't think we do enough to psychologically and emotionally prepare people for these types of things. i think that resiliency and that type of training and understanding starts early. i think just like in universities and other places, other parts of our society and culture, we don't necessarily do an adequate job of preparing young men or women for the things they might face out there. so we have young women coming into the military. i had a 19-year-old girl who went to an all-girl catholic

school. she wasn't as wise in the ways of that type of military culture. so there's so much we can do on the front end as well that i think should be preventive, and we stopped having these very uncomfortable discussions with our children in our culture. i think in some ways we still carry that on. and with respect to the higher reporting rates, we want to see that. we want to see more people feeling comfortable and confident enough to come forward knowing that they're going to be taken care of and that transferser of the to when they get out and come home. when they feel they can't openly talk about things, they're not going receive the care and treatment they need, all of that stuff spirals down into the suicide rate. >> so from recruits to soldiers to veterans, making sure we're taking care of at every point. genevieve, kayla, salamishah, and kim, thank you all so much for being here. and coming up, i'll introduce you to one man's story you're probably going to hear a lot more about, and he's a prisoner

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or award winning foam from the color experts at clairol. june less you, like my staff or me, came across a particular investigative report about him this week, you may not be familiar with the name clarence aaron. he was a lineback when he introduced one of his classmates to the brother of a cocaine dealer from his native mobile, alabama. then a set of drug crimes were introduced and landed aaron in prison where for almost 20 years he's been serving the harshest sentence of anyone involved. three laich sentences without any chance of parole. he's a 41-year-old man. here he is posing with his family. he does have a chance at

presidential comation commutation. according to an investigative report i mentioned earlier, the report whos whose writer is going to join me right now of pro publica. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> this had us appalled. tell us why aaron's sentence was so long in the first place. >> he became a symbol f the excesses of the drug war. he was part of a conspiracy, and often a conspiracy, a person in the group of those arrested, who knows the least, not able to plead out or cut a deal ends up getting the harshest sentence.

everyone involved is out except for the dealer who's going to be out at 2014. if he doesn't get a communitation, he'll die in prison. >> you think of guys in the back room and some kind of big dealer sort of thing. these were the excesses of that sort of initial push, this war on drugs. >> absolutely. and in many cases you saw over the years the girlfriend who was the driver or who hung out with her boyfriend and really didn't understand what the conspiracy or the deal was about. so in these cases, you know, this is a perfect example of somebody just caught up in a drug sentence like this and he's one of them. what makes him so compelling as a character, i think, is this is a guy who was sentenced by a republican appointed judge, a republican prosecutor, and there was a republican president in

the white house, all of whom were extremely interested in helping clarence aaron, who believed that his sentence was harsh, believed he had served enough time and at 14 years basically sought for him to be released from prison. the story we tell is how that didn't happen and why. >> yeah. and think this, again, was the nart was shocking. you've got all of this including prosecutor at the time of this clemency plea basically or comation plea who says this is a perfect candidate for it. why doesn't it happen? >> this is the mystery of the story. you have a pardons office which is basically the gate keeper inside the department of justice. it's as old as the constitution. the founding fathers fought over whether a president should have the this kind of power and they really felt the president had the right to injustices and dispense mercy. what we're finding is a huge

part of society is being left out without even the president knowing it. when we went into it, we look at is the president's power well deserved. in the case of clarence aaron where you have every single boggs checked, he's a model inmate, has had an extraordinary path during incarceration, and still he's a no. you know, the pardon's office, as we found, and we can talk about the statistics as you said, president obama has said no to thousands of people. two presidents have recommended 7,000 noes. seven a dafr working day. >> so what can we do now? part of the reason we wanted to lite this. we talked a lot about trayvon martin, but whatever justice or injustice comes, trayvon martin is gone. clarence aaron is not. is there anything that any viewer can do that makes a

difference in clarence aaron's case? >> i think family has done a lot to create petitions online and i think, again, he's a symbol because there are a lot of people just like him who want a fair shot. all they want is a fair shot. you know, we found that white app can'ts were four times as likely to be part abouted as people of color and that's not the way the system is set up to be. >> we appreciate it. we're going to keep our eyes on this case. thank you for your amazing reporting here. >> thank you, melissa. >> coming up i goep doing talk to a former nba star who is a rhodes scholar and once ran for president. of course, you know who i'm talking about. bill bradley talks about his latest project. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this,

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our next guest is a three-term senator who represented his state of new jersey for 18 years before serving in the senate. he won an olympic gold medal and played forward for the new york

knicks, winning titles in 1970 and 1973. this rose gold scholar and vice-presidential kaeblts ran against al gore in 2000 and now he mass a new book called "we can all do better" in which he argues government is not the problem and offers a prescription for what ails americans in politics. joining us from washington is senator bill bradley. it's lively to have you here. >> great to be here, melissa. >> this is a book that as i was reading it felt sort of enthusiastic. it felt like "yes we can" of this moment. it hassed so broad and specific prescriptions for our country today. what would you say, though, is the main message of this text? >> the main message is we have faced difficulties in our past, depressions, wars, we've overcome it. our institutions are flexible enough to allow us to deal with those problems and we must never

forget the goodness of the american people and to answer the problems in front of us, whether it's deficits or plight of the middle-income family who's been stuck for 30 years. >> i love that message because at my core i am an american economist. i think we do have everything we need both as far as the american people and the institutions, but i do worry a bit about our actual politics and there's this one story you tell in the book where "esquire" magazine asks you a request about how to balance the budge. it's a terrific story. you talked about how you got together in a room and balanced the budge. but i thought, yeah, that's because you weren't actually standing for election. there was no microphone or camera and there were no political stakes. so do you think will alone can get folks to do what we need them to do in order to get past the log jam? >> we need politicians who will put country ahead of party and

tell people the truth. that's where we are. i think that the democracy has two structural problems. one is gerrymandering, the way we draw congressional and district lines. it pulls congress because you have to draw differences. if only 50 seats are competitive. the second is the role of money in our politics. i think it's cancer eating at the core of the system. it affecting everybody. it used to be in you were in the senate you had ichb ter actions with people in the other party. now you're in town three days a week, and you're raising money each of those days. you don't get to know the other senators or congressmen as people than is one of the cores of the problems. >> you are extremely critical of the decisions united which on slis allows another whole level of money to come in and influence politics and also you

don't have a lot of kind words for the roberts court. what do you see as solutions to something that is so systemic as the issue of money and politics? >> i think there is only one solution, given where the supreme court wrong-headedly is today that says federal, local, and states can decide how much is spent in a political campaign. the reason is they've equated with speech. you can't limit speech, therefore, you can't limit money. citizens united skpechbed it to say you can't limit the speech of corporations fwhas are people. it's just a ridiculous set of decisions, but it is at the core of the problem because money is at the core of the problem. >> so here i think you put your finger on exactly what i see as the challenge that i'm not quite understanding how we solved it. i think it's great solution. we're just going make it clear

that we collect live as a corporation, that the corporations have a right to spend unlimited amounts. but why would any current official, where's the political will to make something so commonsensical occur? >> well, democracy's not a vicarious experience, melissa, and that means it depends on all of us as citizens. citizens can make something happen. for example, take a look at our history. there had to be a group of people who said slavery was wrong and they acted. that's abolitionist. people in the 1880s who said women ought to have a right to vote. those were the suffrages. a group of people in the 1950s who said african-americans ought to be a full citizen in every

sense of the word in this country, civil rights movement and in the '780s -- '70s who sad we need clean air and clean water. 's of these groups were innocent. it's up to us to build that move&and in the internet age, app pay is not a problem. >> senator bradley, don't go away. when we come back, i want to bring in a couple voirss and ask you whether north occupy would be part of that long story that you just told. we'll be right back. don't go away. if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn

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you were telling a story similar to what president obama was talking about as far as being a more perfected unit. yet you wrote an article recently in which you critique how we as citizens may have been thinking about president obama, saying that in november 2008 oven election night in chicago, we made the mistake of believing that a leader can renew the country all by himself. do you see that as sort of the fundamental challenge that we're facing now? have we gone to being spectators? certainly the only pie and the tea party see themselves as engage and involved. >> yes, do. the next sentence says someone who touched as ease le as birmingham can't do it alone. as citizens, unless we get involved, we're not going be part of i. not only can we do better as a government in terms of the fragility and inequality of the

economy or the direction of foreign policy or the paralysis of our international die lorks but we can each do better in our own lives by how much we take care of our bodies, read, et cetera, et cetera. what i want to do is act as a catalyst for this debate and on twig fehr you want to follow it it it's @bill bradley #goforward. primarily we need more jobs at higher incomes. >> hank, i love that bill bradley is saying join us. at the brink we were talking about the value of civil society. in its 140-character form may not be the same as the bowling leagues that robert putnam has told us we are now doing without. how do we harness that to do exactly what senator bradley here is suggesting? >> senator bradley's thoughts

are pretty clear. the research is very definitive. these societies, fraternal organizations, the places where they learn culture are break down and disappearing because the new generation and the baby boomers left them aside. we have to somehow refigure them and get them engaged. that's part of what the senator is talking about. >> glen, you've been covering politics iffer a long time do you see a kind of declean in our citizenship, not just in how candidates are made, but has there been some sort of shift in how citizens understand their relationship to our dmom? >> in campaigns, one thing you see is a growing courseness thech. then you see joe wilson on the house floor when he says the president lice. at the same time you see a politician who runs on a hopeful

theme, has to start governing and making real-time decisions. you see some of the support that the president enjoyed four years ago tag off on those who don't like his policy on guantanamo bay or don't feel like we got oust afghanistan real enough. some of you have to be realists. >> you have to governor with a couple hundred other people. >> but we have outsourced or democracy. we have outsourced it not to political petr bus to people who work for political parties. we create turnout organizations. we have unions that are supposed to be engaged democracy turning up but they're outsourcing the work they're doing to get their members to turn up. we're going to make the first system fall apart. you have to anticipate that it's

not support. it's not just voting. >> bill. senator bradley, you suggested here that part of that, right, sort of even having a strong civil society and part about people having jobs to nair bills. it's hard to get engaged if we don't have living wage jobs. talk to me about the specific policies you suggest in the context of the book for how government can be involved in generating and creating living wage jobs. >> in the short term, i think that if a company hires an additional worker and doesn't lay anybody off, the fed rat government for two years ought to pay 30% of the cost for that worker. that would employ millions of americans and not one taxpayer dollar would be spent unless jobs were created. when you look at the midterm, there's one startling fact. that is nonfinancial corporations have 1.8 trillion dollars on their books in cash and liquid assets. if 20% of that was spent to hire people at the median income of

$49,000, unemployment would be 5%. so why don't they? because it's uncertain. we need a rainy day fund. if we provide widgets, nobody will buy them because we don't have the confidence in them. you do tax, entitlement, and defense, and you then deal with the demand for infrastructure program that would create millions of jobs and would be a $1 trillion program on 50 national high-priority infrastructure projects like high-speed rail on both coasts, like a new air traffic control system. >> i thought this was so interesting for me as i was reading this text and you were making exactly that claim going all the way back to basically lincoln and suggesting that lincoln is the first progressive, understanding that the first individual freedom is

not the only foundation on which america built but also the government set up to promote the general welfare and to go through the homestead act and all of the ways we actually build infrastructure. it feels as though there was a time when infrastructure was a bipartisan issue. when everyone agreed we should build bridges, and we literally had governor romney standing on the bridge and making fun. have we gone so far that we can no longer even agree on the collective good that can be brought about by government. >> we have lost our minds. we have really lost our miensd. this country was built and created oven interstate activity. that's just a fact of life. even before president lincoln. part of what's going on in washington that is awfully dangerous is the fact on the federal system as we know it, that somehow the federal system

isn't working when, in fact, it's working very well. those roads and bridges brought this country together and as we're seeing it get ripped apart regionally, we're seeing it. it's related. >> one of the points i tried to make in the book is to show that lincoln, eisenhower, teddy roosevelt, even the first george bush, all believed government had a role. it is the radicalization of the republican party taken over by the tea party that wants to roll government back that has created the current crisis. you heard the guy that beat senator dick lugar in indiana last week. he said the air rah of corn sill yags is over. the era of confrontation has begun. i think a person who says that durcht understand the country. we would not have a constitution if we didn't have compromise. i'm not pessimistic as many people are because i have an inherent belief in the activity

and the values and the intelligence of our american people. >> how do we reconcile the fact that we have obstructist behavior by parties in congress but we have ordinary voters saying please work together and get something done. >> it's the inherent tension in our political system. have people being elect and being held to the absolutionist positions. they're blocking and vetoing all other congressional activity. 43 members in the house have more power than 100 senators on the other side of the capital. and so you -- when you start with an absolutist position, there sjts much more room for it never else. that's frustrating when you see people like olympia snowe leaving and deciding to retire and lugar losing.

and someone ends up not running or not winning. >> and we keep hearing from folks -- senator bradley, i'll give you the fiej word on this. we keep hearing from folks like you who the u.s. senate that there was a time when people could actually get policy made. >> that's exactly correct. there have been times in american history where political points of view were irreconcilab irreconcilable. the years before the civil war comes to mind. but usually political combat may be vicious, but it's bloodless, and one of three things happens. one party dominates, that's 1964, the democrats, or you have balanced government, meaning you have very narrow majorities, which requires bipartisanship. which is pretty much what it is today or when i was there. or if neither one of these things produce the things that american people want, in terms of more job at higher income and deficit reduction and reform of

our democratic system, you reduce the role of money in politics. there could be the emergence of a third congressional party. that will try to shake things up in the center, in order to get both sides to come together. >> thank you, senator bill bradley, the book is called "we can all do better." in just a moment i want to tell you about some very special i do's, but first, time for preview of "weekends with alex witt." the man behind the 1988 pan am lockerbie bombings has died. we'll talk to a family member of a victim who died about reaction. and i'll talk to jack abrahamoff who was behind bars at one time, his observations about john edwards and ha his time in prison was like. and in office politics, alex witt talks about dr. nancy snyderman, about the advice that

dr. nancy gave to president obama about health care reform. and one of the top trending stories of the hour. a farewell of sorts from "saturday night live," a huge graduation for kristen wiig. up next, a few good men made me very proud this week. [ 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. i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy.

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it all started on may 9th. >> i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> few days later on may 14th, it was jay-z's turn on cnn. >> what people do in their own homes is you know, their business. and you choose to love whoever you love. that's their business. it's no different than discriminating against blacks. it's discrimination, plain and

simple. >> on the same day, in germany, will smith weighed in, saying, if anybody can find someone to love them and to help them through this difficult thing that we call life, i support that in any shape or form. two days later, champion boxer, floyd mayweather tweeted, i stand behind president obama and support gay marriage. i'm an american citizen and i believe people should live their life the way they want. yesterday morning, right here on mhp, trinity united church of christ senior pastor, otis moss, made this exquisite statement. >> i wrote an open letter to other clergy who had some issues in reference to the president's stand in reference to marriage equality. to say that marriage is not under attack by the president's words, marriage has been under attack ever since men viewed women as property and children as trophies of sexual prowess. we do not need to frame gay and lesbian people as the problem in you're community. >> and just yesterday afternoon, the nation's oldest civil rights organization finally got off the

sidelines with this statement. civil marriage is a civil rights, and a matter of civil law. the naacp support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the 14th amendment of the united states constitution equal protection for all people. every once in a while, the movement for equality takes a completely wonderful step forward when surprising and compelling allies make their voices heard. it has been extraordinary to watch. well done, gentlemen, well done. and that is our show for today, this day, happy birthday to my bff, blair, and thank you to glen johnson and hank for sticking around. i'll see you next sunday. margaret cho will be here, up next, "weekends with witness witness." [ clang ] my house is where plants came to die. ♪ but, it turns out

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