millions. expo export x47b or ufo? and u.s. open and tiger woods. but first -- front page politics. and new today, mitt romney with fresh criticism of president obama over the economy. >> i'm concerned that over the last three-and-a-half years we have had a president who may be well meaning but didn't help enterprises grow and thrive. he upon becoming elected governor or president last time, governor may have been better for him to have started with, but -- >> well, mitt romney is in pennsylvania right now and is in the middle of the swing state bus tour after stops in new hampshire yesterday. other stops include ohio, michigan, wisconsin and iowa. also new today, president obama is taking aim at republicans on the economy calling on the gop-controlled congress to act.

>> most of the ideas will create jobs in the economy. republicans in congress have not lifted a finger. they would rather wait until after the election in november. just this past week one of them said, why not wait for the reinforcements? that's a quote. you can bet plenty of his colleagues are thinking the same thing. >> and we are getting new reaction to the president's new immigration policy. it may help hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants stay in the country. the president outlined his plans in the white house rose gad garden friday. >> for the next few months, eligible individuals who do not present a risk to national security or public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work @ authorization. pete williams is here with more.

>> he says american who is are in every way but one, on paper. starting immediately the government will stop deporting people brought to the u.s. under the age of 16 and are age 30 or younger now, have lived here at least the past five years, are in school or have a high school diploma or military service and have not committed a serious crime. those who meet these standards will still beilgally. it doesn't change their l and they will not get a leg-up for citizenship, but they can apply for relief from deportation for two years. something that can be renewed repeatedly and they are eligible to ask for work permits. the candidates say the president was wrong to bypass wrong congress, which has declined to give relief to those who want citizen ship. >> thank you for that, pete williams. joining me is staff writer for "the washington post," manuel, and chief washington correspondent and writer for

"the new york times," john harwood. hello, guys. good to see you both. >> hey, alex. >> john, what do you make of the timing of the immigration announcement? did this come as a surprise to you? >> it did surprise me. but when you look at the schedules coming up next week, both romney and obama are going to speak to a group of hispanic-elected officials, it makes complete sense. and it makes sense in that the president had been on a very bad streak of news. the economy softening, some mistakes that he and his team have made, and he wanted to change the storeline and did so in a pretty powerful way with an appeal to a constituency that divides republicans because they know in the long run they have to do bet we are latino voters who are a growing block, 9% of the electorate in 2008, more this time. but they also have to appeal to the conservative who is have a tough line during the primaries. >> john, how powerful? are you saying, this was the

game-changing moment? >> could be. there are so many factors in the election, the economy is more important than anything else, but in states like nevada, colorado, new mexico, new jersey, florida, you've got significant hispanic populations that are growing and that make a big difference. and these are places where president obama has got to hold on to. virginia is another one that has a significant group and growing group of hispanic voters. so the president is trying to make a difference on the margins. he does very well with hispanics. the question is going to be, how enthusiastic are they going to be in turning out. this may help. >> another question in terms of qualifying the volume here, manuel, is it possible to overestimate how this may energize the latino community to get out and vote for the president? >> i think you can not overestimate it because a lot of people forget this, but president obama was starting to have a problem with latinos. they were frustrated with him that he had not pushed harder for a comprehensive immigration

reform. and then there was this matter of deportations. you know, the obama administration set records for deporting people from the united states. and that angered a lot of latinos. >> you can bet. how about hispanic republican leaders, manuel? are they at all in a tough position? >> well, they are now. when you talk about the republican reaction, it really boils down to a freshman senator from florida, marco rubio, who i have learned a lot about in the past few months. and it is interesting, i talked to his football coaches from high school. i talked to people who worked with him in florida. they all say this. marco rubio is quick and fast. look at his political rise. he's done it fast. on this one instant, he seems to have moved a little bit too slowly. he talked months ago about bringing up an alternative dream act. he got a lot of attention for

that. he earned that conversation. and suddenly yesterday president obama took it away from him. for the first time really in his political career, he seems to have moved a little bit too slowly. >> and that which he was talking about, the alternative dream act, manuel, that was not different than what the president proposed, right? very similar. talking about giving an opportunity to young people who are going to be enrolling in college to get a kind of temporary visa that allows them to be here illegally but does not give them a path to citizenship. because that's the real red flag for opponents of these sorts of initiatives. >> alex, to underscore manuel's point, you can see in mitt romney's reaction, it directly tracked what marco rubio's reaction was yesterday. he didn't come out to say he was in favor of what the president had done but he didn't say he was against it either. he talked about how the president had sort of gone around the congress and made it more difficult for a long-term solution, but as marco rubio

said yesterday, this is coming as a relief to a lot of young people. mitt romney took refuge behind mar marco rubio's statement. >> this all happening during the election year. that makes sense. john, i want to switch gears with you, mitt romney is starting his six-state bus tour on friday. did this announcement work to steal some of his headlines? >> no question about it, it drove the campaign contribution for the last 24 hours and will over the weekend. interestingly, mitt romney is going to states where latinos are not a big part of or as critical of a constituency as in many other places, but it is significant because he's going to a lot of small towns. small town rural americas with a key republican constituency. the states he's looking at is 74 electoral votes, more than one-fourth of what he needs to win. president obama has shifted the conversation in a direction that's uncomfortable for romney. >> okay. manuel, your time there in miami when you worked there for a

number of years, by all accounts florida is a pivotal swing state. we know the immigration question may impact what colorado, nevada, mexico, virginia and elsewhere do, but florida, how do you read that? >> florida is one of the most interesting places for people interested in latino politics. here's the reason. most people think florida and they think cubans because of the cuban/american population being so unified and so influential, but the demographics in florida are changing. if the pew hispanic center estimate that is cubans representing 32% of the voting bloc in the hispanic population, for 32% of the voters in florida, but puerto ricans, 28%. that's getting really close and are growing faster than the cuban population. and they have been trending towards the democrats or at least towards the middle. a lot of people will be looking to grab the poout rican vote.

and you'll hear more about the puerto rican vote than you ever have in this election cycle. >> the growth of the non-hispanic cuban ban in florida is why florida is a wing state. i worked in florida for many years in newspapers and that's why democrats are now competitive ever since 2000 when al gore ran neck-and-neck with george w. bush. and that trend has continued demographicicly. >> guys, thank you very much for the good conversation. i do appreciate it. john harwood and manuel franziac, see you again. the president is doubling down on congress today. why lawmakers need to share some of the blame on the economy. that's coming up in 20 minutes or so from now. global markets including the u.s. are bracing for this weekend's crucial greek election which could see the country ditching the euro. tomorrow voters will cast their ballots in pivotal apartmentmently elections. if voters back the party in favor of rejecting the economic bailout plan, the debt-ridden

nation may be forced to abandon the euro and change its currency back to the drachma. the president's immigration decision. to the benefits of president obama's plan outweigh the risks? we'll see you back here on "weekends with alex witt. ed" [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac!

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we are going to bring you headlines making news on the west coast. the sacramento bee has a front-page story about keeping state parks open. the organizers are volunteering

to do the work that the california government will not pay for. they will clean fire pits, restrooms and are getting rid of rattlesnakes. the state department of parks is in the wake of california's budget crisis. the daily news is talking about a japanese boat that is washing ashore that is causing debris from the japan tsunami. it is keeping people away to prevent the spread of the invasive species. they will be examining that today. the news tribune has a story on the father-in-law of susan cox powell sentenced to 30 months in prison for voyeurism. steven craig powell took video of two young girls ages 9 and 8 as they bathed and played. they did not know they were being filmed. before announcing the sentence, the judge called him the ultimate creep of a neighbor. susan powell vanished in 2009 and has never been found.

powell's son and her husband josh killed himself and his two sons in a murder suicide in february. today both criticism and praise for president obama's announcement to grant relief from deportation to young illegal immigrants. >> there are americans in their heart, in their minds and in every single way but one, on paper. >> both sides of the aisle were agreeing that something has to be done, but this being politics is where the accord ends. joining me now, maria teresa kumar, and danny vargas, republican strategist and former chairman of the republican national hispanic assembly. good to see you both. thank you for being here. >> good morning. >> we are going with ladies first, the president's plan hurts the chances for a more permanent answer to immigration. how do you respond to that? is it a complaint? >> no. if anything, the latino community and americans have been waiting for the comprehensive immigration reform

for the last ten years. this is actually what the president is doing and is very temporary. he's bouncing it back to congress saying, you know what? we have tried with the dream act back in 2010 to pass a resolution that congress passed but the senate failed to pass. this is temporary relief. it was only two years that can be repealed at any moment. we want somebody else to take the executive office. if anything is sending the message back to congress, we need you to fix this. >> how about you, danny? know the gridlock in which congress is embroiled, why isn't this the better strategy? the one that has a chance of being enacted using an executive order like this? >> well, it's sort of an echo of what maria teresa said. this is temporary. the president is taking a proactive measure to give some of the -- >> but it is getting something done, danny. at least something. otherwise nothing gets done. >> i'm sorry, it gives the 800,000 kids the opportunity to go to bed and not worry about being rounded up tomorrow. what about the next month or

next year? we are a federal republic. we are not a dictatorship. the president can make decisions and we need to be able to have the force of law behind it and the congress cannot be side-stepped. the constitution cannot be side-stepped. what he's done is good for the individuals today, but at the end of the day, we have to make sure we are doing everything possible to allow the congressional process to move forward and not thwart it. i see that happen time after time with this president. >> i want to ask you this, though, what he's saying, executive decisions can be a slippery slope. it does set a precedent that you may not like when the next guy is in office. so do the benefits of president obama's plan outweigh the long-term risks? >> i am hard-pressed to believe that anybody, let's say for example, worst case scenario somebody else is in the oval office next year, worst-case scenario this could get repe repealed. the likelihood of this getting repealed is very unlikely and

saying something very unclear. what president obama has been able to do now is able to identify what won the idea of this and having the national conversation about national merits and what it's doing to the american dream. because he's bringing these people at the forefront of it and creating the national debate to talk about what are the merits of having dream act kids serve in the military, come out of the shad dose and fulfill their skillset that the country needs is much better than being buried in congress where no one wants to talk about it. >> but alex, while maria teresa and i agree on what the aspects of what the president did, the will of the people matters. and that's expressed by elected representatives. we cannot sidestep that they have an important role to play that. and the president back in 2009 when first elected after campaigning in 2008 could say immigration would be one of the first priorities. he passed health care reform and

stimulus act. he had overwhelming control of both houses and could have brought it forward. president bush to his credit had two members of his cabinet assigned to get immigration reform passed. president obama did nothing of the kind. this political pandering is not the right thing to do. we need to move forward with legislation. >> maria teresa, 2011, look at the number, a record number of deportations. nearly 400,000 people. does that at all temper latino voter support for the president with this new policy? >> i think what they are saying is that i think a lot of the latino voters are going to say the president is finally listening. and this is where i think danny and i agree. the problem with the dream act is so personal to individuals because you're not talking about a temporary fix but people who are being torn apart. you're talking about children who live in mixed status families, meaning their siblings may be here documented but they may not be. and it is that tragedy we have to start talking about, but also fixing it to say, at the end of the day you were brought here

when you were young. this is not your fault. you believe you are an american and are serving your country. let's actually give you a pathway to that relief. >> but let's also give them some level of certainty so that next month or next year or whenever we have a new administration -- >> we know that's two years. >> danny, the head of the republican hispanic assembly, how do you explain to your constituents this is a bad thing for them? that is a much different conversation than you're going to have with maria teresa here? >> well, no, what i'm saying is that this may be a good thing for today. but this is not necessarily the solution. what we need to work towards is a solution working with legislation and law. working with congress is the only way to be able to make this happen so that it gives long-term sustainable, credible relief to these folks that maria teresa and i both care about. doing this with political fiat does not give the folks what they need. >> how will this play out in

november in the voting booth, danny? >> so i think in november what we'll see is that, particularly as it relates to hispanic voters, they are going to primarily care about the economy. those folks that care about immigration reform, they will see the president took advantage five or six months before the election surpassed an executive order as opposed to 2009 and throughout with the president working with senator rubio and senator graham and other folks generally wanting to find a solution and keeping it as a political football throw to keep it for political pandering. that's what they are going to see. at the end of the day, they are also going the see what really matters is being able to come up with solutions that have concrete long-term solutions as opposed to short-term measures. >> maria teresa, is this seen long-term as a tipping point, if you will, or just some election year political strategy? >> i think it is a tipping point. i think it is both. definitely a short-term political strategy and a tipping point. by short-term political strait ji, it doesn't matter what the

republicans are going to introduce obama came out first and is winning the news cycle. as far as the tipping point, it will be difficult for republicans not to demonstrate they believe in some sort of dream act or comprehensive immigration reform. when you look at the electoral map, there's no way anybody can win the white house with at least 40% of the latino vote across the board. so the more that we have is at the forefront and we provide relief while temporary it gets bumped back to congress to say, look, we have tried to work with you. you filibustered the last piece of legislation of the dream act back in 2010. it's up to you now, congress, to actually make sure this is permanent. >> okay. maria teresa kumar, danny, you were both clear on where you stand. we like that. thank you so much. here's what we have been asking you all today. is the president's immigration policy a game change her? here are some of your tweets. @kgvm says, the president's immigration policy a life changer for hundreds of thousands. right thing to do. maybe congress will finally

follow his lead. @klausfuture says, it's definitely going to help both the long term economy and the election. and @muddpie says, it's deaf possibly a game changer for the election, but a game loser for the country. and the u.s. open and tiger woods. he's back in control of his swing finishing the first two rounds in a three-way tie for first. he remains 1-under after shooting at 70 yesterday. the third round in san francisco gets underway later on today. chances are, you're not made of money,

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with alex witt." you think apple had the midas touch? they will discontinue their music-oriented social network ping that has not caught on since its launch two years ago. all things digital says ping goes bye-bye this fall when the next itunes update is released. now we'll take you to today's list of number ones. and this first list, no country wants any part of. cbs.com's listing the countries with the highest unemployment rate at the very top. you are soon going to find south africa there with a rate of nearly 25%. once more, the rate has been over 20% since 1997. second place is spain at 21.5%. greece is third, not surprisedly, at 17.5%. the website 24/7 wall street names new zealand the best country for entrepreneurs. you have to apply online with the government to pay a small fee. australia ranked second, canada in third, the u.s. is fourth

followed by london. since london is the upcoming sight of the olympics, this is the most popular destination on the planet. paris is second on the nation's index. bangkok, singapore and istanbul round out the top five. new york is the top american city coming in 14th overall out of 20. and here's something for all you jet setters to know, southwest airlines rates the best on a new airline satisfaction study. so there you go. happy flying. those are the number ones here on "weekends with alex witt." do you read out loud or in your head? do you need a lamp to see? and does it leave your bedmate be? don't you wish there was a light that wouldn't keep them up all night?

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." minutes from now mitt romney will be speaking at a pennsylvania campaign event. he's expected at a wawa gas station in the borough of quakertown to speak at 12:45 p.m. eastern time. we'll be hooking one nbc's peter alexander in a bit to get an update on the bus tour. meantime, in strategy talk,

president obama is on the fence and today in his weekly address the president is doubling down on his line of attack against republicans in congress. >> on most of the ideas to create jobs and grow our economy, republicans in congress have not lifted a finger. they would rather wait until after the election in november. just this past week one of them said, why not wait for the reinforcements? that's a quote. and you can bet plenty of his colleagues are thinking the same thing. i think that's wrong. >> joining me is tony frodo, former white house president secretary under president bush and jonathan altar, a columnist for "bloomberg view." hi, gentlemen. tony, you cannot deny that congress has been marred in a political battle. how does republican leadership respond to president obama's remarks? >> well, they shouldn't call it a do nothing congress. i feel like i have to be the one

to go out and am still speaking for the white house, alex, when i go out to remind everyone of just how successful they have been in getting legislation passed, whether it is a big stimulus bill, cash for clunkers, unemployment extension, health care reform,ed dot-frank, the list goes on and on of the president's economic plans that have passed through congress until this third effort in the stimulus bill, parts of which republicans actually passed. so the problem isn't that congress has not passed large parts of the president's plan, it's just that americans understand they have not been as successful as they would like them to be. >> then how about talking about the ranker between the two parties. that can't be denied. >> no, it can't. look, this is something that's been growing really for decades. and i think it is really structural. we used to have different compositions in the house and senate. we see this. we are a polarized country.

it is lodgicly a lot of issues that are reflected in the congress. you know, a lot of us would like to see more cooperation and collaboration between the parties and look forward hopefully to maybe getting to that in the future. but it's not one party or the other. we need to see it from both sides. >> jonathan, how about this? we'll talk a look at the clip from the president's weekly address. here it is. >> the economy is growing again but it's not growing fast enough. our businesses have created 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but we are not creating them fast enough. and we are facing some pretty serious headwinds. the effects of the recent spike in gas prices to the financial crisis in europe. >> how tough is it for a president during an election year when he has to qualify his every statement on the economy, jonathan? >> very tough. the headwinds he talks about are real and they jeopardize his possible re-election. and that's why he tried to tee this up this week as a stark

choice between two competing visions of the country. and what he's talking about today, and i thought that the radio address today in some ways was better than his speech earlier this week, when he said that the republicans wouldn't lift a finger, that's a good way of connecting. you have to use that kind of language that people can relate to and that may be lingering in the mind. while i agree with tony that there were a number of bills that passed congress, particularly in the past two years, the american jobs act, which the president introduced last fall and has a lot of common sense job creation solution that is have been supported by republicans in the past was rejected by republicans, obstructed by republicans for no other reason that president obama proposed them. now this is not a good thing to do for this country when we are facing these economic times. the congress has to move forward on some of these job creation

ideas. and it's not really right to accuse the president of not doing anything when they won't negotiate in good faith to try to create jobs. >> tony, i want to talk about mitt romney right now who is kris-crossing the northeast in the midwest on his every town counts bus image, but "the washington post" reported that mr. romney is flying to each town on a private jet and the campaign has several matching buses positioned along the campaign trail. how do you think voters will react to that? >> i think voters will be happy to see the campaigns coming to their neighborhoods. by definition, the romney campaign is going to, you know, places, the road less traveled. the roadless traveled is hard to get to. so, look, no one loves logistics and process more than we do here in washington. we love to chatter and talk about it and tell stories about it. but voters are really focused on real issues, on how their

households and how the family is doing and the outlook of the country. they are not focused on the logisti logistics. >> how nervous should the president be about retaining the heart land vote in this economy? >> i agroo we tony in that the trivialities are not relevant. the good news for obama in the heart land is that in many of the badleground battleground states, the economy is doing better and unemployment is below 8% in several of these states. so ohio, for instance, northern ohio, really benefited from the auto bailout. and so when obama goes in there and does speeches and has ads that say, mitt romney was against helping detroit, that works real well for him in northern ohio and helps keep ohio competitive. wisconsin will be competitive.

i think scott walker's victory in the recall indicated that, but you still have to give obama the edge there. >> tony, what about the latest news, do you think gop strategists right now are feverishly crunching the numbers on the president's immigration number and what this means for the hispanic vote? >> it's tough. i've been talking to some of your former earlier guests on the show about this, too. a lot of us will be talking about it for a while. i think it was an important announce. a good strategic move by the president, but in a way it represents or reminds for a lot of hispanic voters also how let down they have been with the president on this particular issue. the president back in 2008 made a lot of promises to the hispanic community that he would go strongly for comprehensive immigration reform. he has not used any political capital over the past three-and-a-half years to try to get that done. they recognize this and are happy with this announcement. a lot of us who are

pro-immigration or pro-immigration reform republicans even can accept the president's decision here. we wish he had done it with congress and with people like marco rubio. but a lot of hispanics are very concerned that the president has not followed through on his promise from 2008. and this is a reminder of that. >> and the bottom line with you, jonathan, there are those who will look at this announcement being a major tipping point with regard to our national policy, but ultimately if the economy does not rebound, is this all a moot point come november in terms of what happens in the voting booth? >> i don't think it is a moot point. it is not like some of these peripheral issues like dogs on the roof of the car type issues. this is a central issue in this election. the dream act, which mitt romney said he would veto if it came to his desk, would be a big issue in the debates this fall. so we have not heard the end of this. i think it is very troubling issues for republicans right now, although i agree there's

hispanic unhappiness with obama's inability to push this issue in 2009. but it's important to remember that he did push it hard in 2010 and 2011. and republicans in congress refused to engage on the most compassionate kind of legislation you can imagine, which is to allow young people who were brought to this country at a very young age in no fault of their own to pursue the american dream. and this is a pivotal issue, a pivotal difference between our two political parties. there are some like tony in the republican party that have a sensible view on this, but the balance of opinion in the republican party and in the congress is against the dream act. that's a real problem for them. >> jonathan alter, tony grotto, thank you for talking to me. tomorrow david plouffe and senator john mccain. he is leading hundreds of protesters to battle the

national epidemic, gun violence in our city. demonstrators are gathering in 25 cities from coast to coast. the reverend is holding one protest outside of gunshot areas near chicago. earlier today i spoke to those who lost a nephew to gun violence. >> we have to find a way to keep our kids in school and provide them with education that they find interesting. that's one of the things -- we have to do something about guns, the availability of guns. i live in the inner city of baltimore and when i talk to the kids in my community, they tell me they can get a gun as fast as they can get a cigarette. >> cummings went on to say urban teens need nor opportunities like education and job training. to number three on the first top five stories this hour, the girlfriend of the late thomas kinkade claims he wrote notes giving her his mansion and $10 million. this is one of the notes you will see her. the kinkade estate says the

latest will did not involve the girlfriend. it will go on in public probate court. he was found in his bed in april. he died of a lethal level of alcohol after a night of heavy drinking. kinkade's scenes of pastoral landscapes helped build a gallery of spinoff products that at one point brought in $100 million a year in sales.

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ahead of father's day tomorrow. the furniture store ikea is offering free breakfast for dad. denny's restaurant gives away free pancakes for a father and child. and tcby will give fathers a free cup or cone. also, redbox is coming to family dollar. the movie and game rental kiosks will be at stores across the country. and the philadelphia eagles signed five undrafted free agents. the angry birds from the popular app. the wall street journal says the birds are teaming up to launch a game this fall. the birds will also appear on the field and video displays. that makes sense, the eagles and the birds. now must see, must avoid. tom cruise is channeling his inner rock star in "rock of ages." take a look. >> some people have said you have become quite difficult to work with. that you're constantly late, you are reclusive and nonsince call. >> let me ask you this, have these people even met

themselves? >> does tom cruise deliver the goods? that is a question for e. correspondent alicia corals. "rock of ages," must see or must avoid? >> a must see because of tom cruise who has never played a role like this. he plays a rock star. tom sings in the movie. >> no. is he good? >> he is good. and i interviewed him earlier this week. he said his agent wanted him to try something different and he nailed it. >> you just wanted to get that in. >> he was a lot of fun. he was honored by the fryers club. their highest honor. all his co-stars from "jerry maguire" came out. he's reversing in aging. >> i am coveting that job there. >> the much-anticipated movie, "abraham lincoln vampire hunter." really, must see or must avoid? >> for me it's a must see. if you are into the genre

match-ups, this is history and being a vampire. one or what if abraham clinton lincoln was a vampire hunter? you are making me laugh. >> i can't stop looking at her like, you can't be serious. >> i'm excited. if you are into this, you have to see it. alex, we are going. we are going to go. i'm dragging you with me. >> here we go. okay, there's another one to talk about. "that's my boy." adam sandler. >> if you are not into adam sandler, it is adam doing the same thing he does. he plays a boy who had a kid with his seventh grade teacher and goes back for the kid he never raised. infantile jokes, if you are not into adam, avoid. if you like him, you'll get the adam few horse he's doing. the women are sexual objects in the movie, so it's a must avoid. >> let's go see "rock of ages"

together. >> let's do it. sounds good. and abraham lincoln. speaking of adam sandler n today's one-minute playback, a milestone reached on "late night with jimmy fallon." 17 people did imitations of adam sandler. jimmy starts it off and the people behind him keep going. >> shut up! >> shut up! >> chlorophyll. >> more like borophyll. >> why is everybody laughing at me? how are you doing? how is it going? >> sloppy joe, slop, sloppy joe. >> so hot, want to touch the hiney. >> that chicken is friggin awesome. >> conditioner is better. >> give me some candy!

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the organization says the purge is in violation.

why is this significantly different than the department of justice lawsuit? >> well, thanks a lot for having me, alex. what we have in florida right now is this showdown over democracy. so on one side you have a law-breaking governor who is continuing to throw citizens off the roles, mostly hispanic, and deny them the right to vote. on the other side, you have the department of justice organizations like ours. our lawsuit is different in that it looks at two specific areas in this case. one is the discrimination in which 58% of the voters targeted on the list are hispanic. the second thing it looks at is the 90-day rule. under the national voter registration act there's a rule that says you cannot start this within 90 days of an election. there's a good reason for that. it creates chaos, intimidation and a lot of mistakes are made. we talked about this the other day, bill who is 90 years old,

world war ii vet, born in brooklyn is being challenged. he's been voting for 50 years. if he does not prove citizen ship within 30 days, he'll get thrown off the roles. one of the plaintiffs didn't get the letter because she moved. if she didn't respond in 30 days, she's off the roles and won't find out until she goes to the voting booth to try to cast herbal lot, cast her ballot. >> governor scott says this purchase is necessary. let's listen to what he says. >> i've asked for the database, which we are entitled to from homeland security, to help us make sure that non-u.s. citizens are not on the voter roles. and they have not given them to us for nearly nine months. now justice is saying we are doing something wrong. this is not a partisan issue. this is a democrat, republican, independent, this is protecting the rights of u.s. citizens and not deluting the vote by non-u.s. citizens. >> layla, i am looking at the

number of 86 non-u.s. citizens removed from the role since april 11 all who voted in previous elections. so does the state make any point, at least with those 86? >> well, i think that, first of all, the 86 are not confirmed that they voted. sometimes you have people who, you know, accidentally may get registered through voter laws and things like that, but the point is there are very stiff penalties for voter impersonation fraud. a minimum of $10,000 fines and five years in jail, which is the federal law, some states have even more severe penalties that that. so the laws are already there. everybody wants integrity in the voter roles, but the reason you don't do it within 90 days is because of what happened in 2000, for example, where tens of thousands of mostly african-american voters who should have been able to vote were denied their fundamental right under democracy to vote because they were using flawed lists, which is the same case here, to try to challenge their

voter eligibility. and in that case, it was people who allegedly had felony convictions. in this case it is people who allegedly are non-u.s. citizens. but the vast majority of the people on the list should be voting and we'll see tens of thousands of people who will be taken off the roles, but the law is clear, alex. the law is clear and that's what is in violation. the law says you cannot do it within 90 days. that's the reason for the law, but the point is whether you like the law or not, you have to uphold it and don't break it for partisan gain, which is what's going on right now. >> leila, we'll have you back again. there's a lot to watch and see what's happening leading up to election day. come see us soon. >> thank you, alex. big news at the mitt romney bus tour event in pennsylvania. we'll bring that to you. plus office politics with chris hayes. we'll talk about the 2008 presidential campaign and president obama's promise of hope and change. what's happened to that? plus, we'll ask him, why do you ride to work? although that looks pretty, so maybe that's the reason why.

we'll talk about it on "weekends with alex witt." i went to a small high school. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us.

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good day to all of you. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it is 1:00 on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. out west. we'll get to what's happening out there today as mitt romney's battleground bus tour is rolling through pennsylvania. our crews on the ground are just now telling us a scheduled campaign event is moving to an undisclosed location because of protesters where it was originally planned. a bit earlier today in the community of weatherly he criticized president obama's economic plans. >> you ask your friends, you ask your small businesses about whether the president's policies have made it easier and are going to make it easier for them to hire people. job one in this country is to create jobs for the american people, and i will. >> nbc's peter alexander is on the trail. peter is joining me on the phone.

peter, what's up with the location mess-up? where are you? >> we are on the back of the press bus trailing mitt romney's bus right know traveling across about 130 miles. we'll travel across pennsylvania today. the intention was to arrive at an event at one of the local convenience parks here, known as wala. peach in this region are familiar with it, but we are told with our team on the ground at the site and by campaign official that is the location is being moved. the campaign will not indicate why it is moved, but from our reporters on the ground at the location, we are told there are a lot of protesters there. frankly for the last half hour, we have been spreading down the road to a different convenience store where apparently there are no protesters. this is in an effort for mitt romney to get the chance to shake hands with face-to-face politicking that is significant to presidential campaigns. this is a swing for him in the general election swing as he

hits six states in five days. all of the states, including this one of pennsylvania, state that is president obama won four years ago. but as you have been talking about with some of your guests over the course of the last hour, one of the challenges he's going to be facing tomorrow heading to ohio is the state unemployment numbers are getting better below the national average. be e below 8%. governor kasich and mitt romney have to acknowledge the numbers are improving but try not to give credit to the president himself. >> real quick, peter, how often do you see protests on the bus tour? >> throughout the course of the bus tour we were told the democrats could be reaching out to say keep an eye out for us. they launched their own competing bus tour as it were calling it middle class under the bus tour to mock mitt romney's efforts to suggest he was the one who gave middle-class americans a fair shot. at the first event in new hampshire yesterday, there were many obama supporters outside

with large signs and protesting. we saw a plane with a planner or banner flying above. but generally they hold them in private enclosed properties. these are areas that they have control and haven't had to deal with a lot of proesters protesters away at a safe distance. but when you head to a supermarket, sometimes the message is in the hands of the people who are there. and in this case these people may not be mitt romney's biggest supporters. >> thank you for phoning in, peter. new today, president obama issuing a strong message on the economy in his weekly address aimed directly at the republican-controlled congress. >> congress should pass a bill to help states put thousands of teachers and firefighters and police officers back on the job. they should have passed a bill a long time ago to put thousands of construction workers back to work, rebuilding our roads and bridges and runways. and instead of just talking about job creators, they should give small business owners a tax

break for hiring more workers and paying them higher wages. >> nbc's mike have a care wroe is at the white house tomorrow. good saturday to you, mike. >> good day to you, alex. >> what do republicans say in response? >> it is interesting, by any standard, the president was coming off a rough stretch there with bad economic numbers and tightening in the polls. there was a los by the democratic candidate in wisconsin at a special election. he's turned that around somewhat with that sudden announcement yesterday pleasing latino voters with conferring the deportation of young latinos who are here illegally. of course, several weeks ago there was also the stance of the change on gay marriage. the president has been taking care of a lot of core democratic constituencies, making them happy unor up until the election. it is coming down to the economy and that's why the president was focused in that in his weekly address. he talked about the to-do list and the republicans on capitol

hill, saying they want to leave this until after the election. this is an effort to make him look bad and the republicans feel like they are going to win the senate and the house. therefore, they will have reinforcements and will do it the way sthept they want to do it. in response to that, the man from wisconsin victorious, fresh off the victory, governor scott walker delivered the republican response talking about traditional republican themes like small government. here he is. >> sadly, the president and many of his allies see to measure success by how many people are dependent on government programs. those policies have failed. in contrast, i and many other republicans define success in just the opposite way, by how many people we can free from government dependence by growing in the private sector. >> now as mitt romney makes his way through pennsylvania and the other swing states, let's have a note on where the president is. he's at home in his old neighborhood in his old house in chicago. he said he'll be attending a wedding. valerie jarrett, his top aid,

her daughter is getting married in chicago. late sunday night he leaves directly from there, alex, a big economic summit, a g20 summit in mexico. alex? >> oh, a couple nights in the chicago home in the past month then. good for him. i bet he's loving that. thank you very much, mike have a caro. joining us from the front page politics, political columnist, dana and susan page. thank you for being here, both. ladies first, susan. how do we categorize the president's announcement position, how many parts principle driving policy? >> six months before an election, everything is political. and this does the president a lot of good with the important voter group. on the other hand, it is completely consistent with the dream act that he said he would sign. this doesn't go as far as the dream act and doesn't provide a path to citizenship, but it provides something for the young people brought here illegally as children who followed the rules, went to school, some served in the military. it gives them a way to get work

permits to stay in the country. so i think politics and principles kind of mesh on this one. >> dana, do you think come election night we'll be pointing back to the day the president announced this as being pivotal to him winning some key states? >> i don't think so, alex. because this election is going to be decided almost entirely by the economy. but if that makes it a very close election, and it is just, you know, a few hundred votes in florida, i can't imagine how that would happen, but if that sort of thing were to happen, yes, of course this sort of thing could be at the margin. where this really helps the democratic parties in the long term, they are cementing the huge voting bloc to help them for generations to come. >> how quickly we forget. i'm just kidding. susan, did this effectively steal some of the headlines from mitt rom northeast's six-state bus tour, and how is romney playing on that tour? >> you know what, it definitely was not the start to the bus tour that he had hoped for. but i would say that i don't

think we know quite how this issue plays out with romney. his comments yesterday were interesting. he said an important matter, we have to give it serious consideration. he said he would veto the original version of the dream act but would look at the version senator marco rubio is, working on, almost identical to the policy that president obama outlined yesterday. so if romney embraces this policy while criticizing the process doing it by executive action, that undercuts to some degree the advantage this gives president obama with latino voters on this particular front. >> but if barring and not doing that, do republicans risk losing the latino vote over a generation over the hardline stance? >> republicans are definitely in a strained situation where this largest growing, fastest growing ethnic group in america, but let's remember there are republicans who do pretty well with latino voters. governor perry in texas does pretty well. george w. bush got more than 40% of the latino vote when he was

running for president. that's pretty good for republicans. so i think the harsh rhetoric we heard in the republican primaries this year have definitely hurt the gop with hispanics, but i don't think it is a done deal. i think it would be a mistake for democrats to think this is over with. >> back to the economy, both mr. romney and president obama touted economic messages in ohio this week. you wrote, dana, you had high hopes for the president's speech. what happened? >> it was a terribly long speech at 54 minutes, but there was nothing new in it and a lot of democrats are crying out for something new from the president because the economy is not getting better fast enough. they want to hear more about what he going to do in the near term. he gave the laundry list but nothing big on solving the debt problem, nothing really bold there, so i don't think it gives people something to seizure on. it does not turn the advantage to his favor in the way that i think a lot of people had hoped. >> on another note, dana, i want

to play what happened in the rose garden when the president made his announcement and was interrupted. let's take a listen to what happened. >> it is the right thing to do -- excuse me, sir. it's not time for questions, sir. not while i'm speaking. >> what happened there? dana, how unprecedented is this? >> well, not entirely without president, precedent. there was a chinese journalist at a previous thing with the chinese premier a few years back, but this is just bush league stuff. later the reporter said he had done this by accident and thought that was over. that's nonsense. really, the rough part of this is the web publication, the daily collar, the editor of this defended that sort of behavior. maybe you don't like this president, but respect the presidency. and that's what journalists should be doing regardless of who is in office. >> i'm getting to the statement issued by neil monroe. the quote is, i timed the question believing the president was closing his remarks, because

naturally i have no intention of interrupting the president of the united states. what's your take on this, susan? is this a level of incivility that we have not seen before? do you buy mr. monroe's explanation? >> well, i just remember that the iraqi journalist threw his shoes at george b.bush, i covered the white house with sam donaldson during the reagan administration, and he shouted questions to reagan while walking two and from the helicopter. to do it in the middle of the speech is inappropriate and rude. >> in the rose garden as well. do you think his press credentials might be revoked? >> i hope not because that's kind of not our tradition, but the white house correspondents association will discuss the issue. so there would be news on the front. people misbehave. i don't think we curtail press

freedoms as a result. >> before i let you go, fun stuff tweeted out by susan page. you are about to get busted so big time. look at that. dana milbank and harry baker jr. you are fully clothed on the top and on the bottom -- >> alex, i have pointed out we have only seen the top of you today. >> see, i have a skirt on there, we go. oh, many i gosh. that was hysterical, susan. we started busting up and had to put that on. that's how we roll on the weekends. it's all good. thank you so much. appreciate you both. >> thanks, alec. no a moment, meet a high school graduate facing deportation before getting a temporary prereeve reprieve. and chris hayes on the youth vote importance to president obama's re-election hopes. you are watching "weekends with alex witt." i have a black skirt on, i'm

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president obama's announcement to make changes to the nation's immigration policy could already be changing lives today. my guest guest was scheduled to be deported to her guatemala days after her high school graduation in virginia. joining me is haiti meija and her attorney, rick. thank you for being here. >> grad to be here. >> congratulations to you for graduating. your mother brought you here to the u.s. when you were just 4, is that right? >> yes, that's right. >> so 4 years old.

and you have lived in virginia in that area ever since. tell me about just your normal life like any other kid, right? >> yeah. we lived here for 14 years, actually. this is the only state we have lived in the whole time we have been here. and it's been great growing up here. i like it here. and jont want to move anywhere else. >> this is your home. >> ricky, does the president's announcement yesterday affect heydi and her mother. is there a chance of permanent dismissal of her deportation? >> in terms of affect, it affects in the positive. there's part of it that is what's called post-removal individual. she's post-removal. she received a one-year deferred action in advance of the announcement on monday after "the washington post" story broke. but now with this announcement, she would be eligible for, i believe, an additional two years, which would plan to

apply. but again, this is only a temporary solution for herks, y, heydi and many others. we need to still work on approval and reopening, but it is still a possibility for heydi and thousands of others. >> heydi, i'm curious about your reaction when you got the news. and how much are you consumed with the knowledge that you have this hanging over your head all the time. i mean, is this something you worry about a lot and consistently? >> well, before i got the news of my year reprieve, it was like a big burden over my shoulders. but now i actually feel relieved. and i think everything is going to go well from now on. i have hopes that it will be me staying here permanently. and i feel relieved. >> well, that's good. rick, has there been any indication that the government was softening its stance on immigration before yesterday's announcement?

because some of my guests said they were caught by surprise. >> i think there was a slight softening about a year ago. there were these morton discretion memos that came out to review everyone in removal proceedings to try to prioritize those high-priority removals over those low-priority tree mooufls. removals. there was a movement by this administration to soften. at the same time, there's a record number of removals that were occurring. so i'm glad this happened. it was an amazing week. heydi was on "the post" on friday and then we got the announcement to affect heydi and thousands of others. i think it was foreseeable in light of the states like the visa processing announcement that came out in january of this year. there are positive movements that are pro-immigrant. it's a pleasant surprise. i think it was foreseeable. >> have you seen a lot of people reaching out to you since this story broke and featured you,

heydi? >> yeah, a lot of people have contacted me. people that i have never heard of. and i've been asked to talk on different shows and have different interviews from writers, too. so it's been great. >> i bet it has. and i heard your attorney say your name is heydi, is that how you announce it correctly? >> it's heydi. >> rick, you have to get that correctly. >> i always call her heydi, my apologies. >> i'm just saying i was right. all good. he wrrks d, heydi and rick, thank you. from diapers to child-rearing costs, how much is it going to cost to raise a child? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right

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now to the three big hundred headlines. the cost of raising is child is up. morgan brennan is joining me in studio. good day to you. thank you for coming back. >> thank you for having me. >> after being flat in april, consumer prices drop by the most in three years. what does this mean? >> they dropped 0.3% led in large part by gases plunging. we also saw food costs remain flat for the past month. this means that inflation is rep remaining relatively low. for that reason, we'll hear the new announcement from the federal reserve next week about plans to boost economic growth next week. i think that's going to come in the form of an extension of operation twist, which is the bond-buying program that's been keeping interest rates low. i think that's going to be here next week. >> this is not so great, the foreclosure activity has risen above the 200,000 mark after being below that mark. what's behind the change?

>> this filing increased month over month. realtytrac projected the uptick is going to continue throughout the rest of the year most lie likely. this is as terrible as it sounds, but this is good news in the long term. these are foreclosure filings that have been delayed. default notices sitting on bankbooks for the last two years. now they are starting to push through the pipeline. we'll see downward pressure in prices in areas where foreclosure filings are the highest in the short-term. but the long-term gain here is the sooner we get these out to the market the sooner foreclosures get reabsorbed into the market and the sooner we'll start to see a real true housing recovery. long term, this is a good thing. >> what about the cost of raising a child? it has gone up a lot! tell us about that. >> it has, and just in time for father's day. we get the annual report from the usda. it shows that the cost of raising a child from birth until age 17 is at an all-time high.

it is $235,000 on average. and adjusted for future inflation, the number is more like $300,000. that's not even including the cost of college tuition. so my advice here would be, given the fact that consumer prices are coming down a little bit, take the pennies and put them into a college fund. after 17 years of these costs, you will probably need it. >> very good advice. morgan brennan, thank you very much. ahead on the big three, the president's immigration change, will it have any measurable effect at the ballot box? and in office politics, who needs a metro pass when you have pedal power. but why does msnbc's chris hayes bike to work? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." our cloud is not soft and fluffy.

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you are here in new york city, it is a gorgeous day. a couple people have taken that lead. it's a beautiful day. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." half past the hour, here's what's happening right now. we'll go to the big three in today's topics. immigration game changer, it's the economy and best week, worst week. we'll bring in msnbc contributor and democratic strategist crystal ball, msnbc contributor perry bacon jr., and republican strategist, susan delper sirks delpersio. mitt romney reacted to the president's immigration policy by saying he agrees with florida senator marco rubio. let's take a listen to this. >> this is an important matter that we have to find a long-term solution. but the president's reaction makes reaching a long-term

solution more difficult. >> so bottom line today, sun susan, do you feel better or worse after the president's immigration reaction yesterday? >> i think the central reaction is on the economy. if it came down to being such a super close election that it was a swing state like colorado, virginia or florida and if it came down to the latino vote, i just don't see that happening, but then it would be a game changer for the election. >> how about you, crystal? i would like to have you listen to how the president describes the new policy. here that is. >> sure. >> let's be clear, this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. this is not a path to citizenship. it's not a permanent fix. >> now crystal, republicans have suggested this was overreaching on the president's part. and the way he's gone about it sets a dangerous precedent with respect to the executive order of sports do. you agree with that? if the republicans were in the white house, would democrats be squawking something similar?

>> probably. because everybody squawks when they don't get their way, right? but the fact of the matter this is prosecutorial discretion. it is well within the right of the executive to take this action. and so, you know, from that perspective, i think he's on firm footing. and from the political perspective, i think susan makes the right point. if it does come down to swing states, if it is a very close election as many people expect it to, this really could be important. mitt romney was forced to stake out a very far right position, his self-deportation immigration policy in the republican primary, and essentially by taking this action, the president has sort of closed off any ability for mitt romney to come back towards the center. so he's really taken one chess move off the board for mitt romney, which could important come november if it is close. >> what do you think, perry, in terms of november? do you think we'll look back at this day and say, this was a game-changing moment? >> to ma obama leads the latino

vote by 30 points. if romney wins the vote, he'll have to work around the challenge of latinos. so i do not think this is going to be a game changer, but he already has a stronghold of the latino vote. >> this does help solidify it, i would say. >> it helps get them a turnout. that's the question. no one is questioning if romney is going to win the latino vote, but it's a matter if they seem interested in what the president has done so far and it gives them reason to go out and vote. >> it is a much lower number than on average in the population that provides numbers for that as well. >> it's a motivation seen here. the gop stance on immigration, has the gop potentially lost that voting bloc for a generation? >> potentially if they don't get back to the middle on this, they should have passed the dream act when they had the opportunity. this is now going to be a very

difficult thing for marco rubio to come out with the plan and not see the super right while he was president while he was just in line. so it is a difficult situation for the republicans. >> and with the changing demographics for this, it makes the electoral map a lot tougher. >> yes. it does. >> krystal, moving on, it's the economy here. and president obama and mitt romney squaring off on thursday with dueling speeches in ohio. here's what the president said. we'll hear that first. >> of course the economy isn't where it needs to be. of course we have a lot more work to do. everybody knows that. the debate in this election is about how we grow faster. and how we create more jobs. >> you know, the president's big speech, dated 54 minutes long, dana milbanks said it didn't get rave reviews from many, even die-hard supporters, but was some of that criticism

warranted? i had a different take. i thought the speech was fine. i didn't like it as much as the one he gave in kansas last year that was more of a barn-burner, like very energetic, but he laid out the historical perspective of what's happened the last decade and sought to tie mitt romney and his proposal os to the failed policies of the past. i think he did it in a compelling and effective way. if we are still taking 50 minutes to describe economic policy and talking about the historical perspective of september/october, we are in troublement but at this point in the game, laying out the broader narrative in a dispassional way, i didn't think it was a bad thing. the whole speech was overshadowed by the immigration news, though. >> perry, how did the white house try to frame the speech? did they feel the need to do any damage control? >> they didn't do any damage control. i'm not sure they needed to. the goal was not to necessarily bring out new policy. the goal was to change the

conversation. mitt romney is giving an interview tomorrow on cbs. i guarantee he'll be asked at some point how are you policies different than george w. bush's. obama was trying to link romney to bush. the speech is effective along those lines and will encourage the reporters and press to ask romney the question, how are you policies different than bush's? and it will be an effective speech for that reason. >> mitt romney has been saying the president is out of touch with the middle class. you advised tons of campaigns, how tough of a sell is that coming from a multimillionaire? >> it is not tough at all given the environment he's coming in. going into small towns, he's good on the one-on-one campaigning with folks. all the talk we have had with bane and all that, it doesn't mat tore the people he's reaching out to. the average person does know people need jobs. >> we are coming back with all

of you to talk about your picks for best and worst weeks, so don't go too far. thank you very much. meantime, egypt is voting in the final round of the historical presidential election. they are trying to decide who replaces the old regime, but many fear the changes this could bring. they ousted hosni mubarak's prime minister against the candidate from the muslim brotherhood. richard engel says turnout has been moderate to low today. the turnout continues tomorrow. global markets in the u.s. are bracing for the crucial greek election that could ditch the euro. they will be voting tomorrow in parliamentary elections. if they vote in favor of rejecting the economic bailout plan, the debt-ridden nation could be forced to abandon the euro and change back to the drachma. in this week's office politics, i talked to chris hayes who tells me why he bicycles to work, we talk about

president obama and his vote for power and we begin with his new book, "twilight of the elites." in it he talks about how the president inspired hope and change in the 2008 presidential election. and i asked him what has happened to that hope and change. >> it's gone right back down to the levels that we saw in the bush administration. >> why? >> my read on this is that the reason for so much hope invested in this figure of barack obama is precisely because we were dealing with the aftermath of so much crisis in our trusted institutions that are so low across the board. we were looking for someone to place our trust in. he opted for the possibility of redeeming a system that was broken. i think with what the first three years of his administration has shown, and there are a lot of parts of his record that are incredibly admirable and very effective, but on the whole i think the problems of america are bigger than who occupies the oval office. that's the fundamental problem.

and in some ways, this is the argument the president makes when talking re-election. it took a long time to produce the crisis and the aftermath of the crisis. and it took a long time to produce the ten-year occupation and ten-year war in afghanistan and the war in iraq. solving those problems, bringing the iraq war to a close, drawing down troops in afghanistan, getting ourselves out from the aftermath of the worst financial crisis in a while, those were created by huge structural factors. one person occupying the oval office is not going to be the only solution to repairing the damage that's been done. >> so the youth vote having swept him into power, that inspiration we talk about, the hope, that seems to have dissipated dramatically. can the president get that back? how does he get that back between now and november? and if he does not get that back, then what? >> let's just take the status quo as it is right now. it will be a very close race. extremely close. it will probably be, like,

2,000-level close. >> like 4:00 in the morning for us all. >> definitely around 4:00. i think. i could be wrong barring the change that could knock it in either direction. >> yeah. >> so i think that clearly a huge part of the recipe for victory of 2008 for the obama campaign was changing what the electorate looked like. more african-american voters, more hispanic voters and more younger voters. they have to do a better change of the electorate in 2012. if it looks like it did in 2010, which was an older electorate and whiter electorate, the president cannot win. >> i want to ask about, you mentioned growing up in the bronx, and the school that you went to, the hunter high school. 11 years old. and you had to go and stand in a line on a saturday morning to take a pivotal test to determine whether or not you were getting into this excellent school or not. talk about what that meant in your life and how it is

different now. >> hunter is a public school, free and open to students from all five boroughs. you take a test to get in, 7th through 12th grade. i got just an incredible education. i was exposed to exceptionally talented and smart people. and it put me on this path where, i think, if i had not gone to hunter, i wouldn't have thought of trying to apply to an ivy league school. that was not in the realm of possibility. >> but you had to have a certain level of intelligence. you had to be 11 years old to pass the test to get in as opposed to others who didn't, or these days being a parent of kids at a certain age. i totally know, you feel like you have to tutor up everything to stay competitive. you don't like that. >> what it has done is it skewed the system. and now i talk to people there who say, it's hard to get numbers, but they feel like a majority of the kids getting in are taking the test prep. and it is not their -- i don't want to judge anyone doing it. i'm a parent now, i understand.

getting your kids a good education is priority number one, but i think it reflects some of the core problems that i talk about in the book. climate change is the biggest governing challenge we face. the biggest governing challenge we have ever faced. >> we have the promo of you riding your bike. why do you do that? >> i love to ride my bike. that's one of my favorite things to do in terms of thinking through stuff. i find it gives me a real -- people talk about runner's high, i hate running, i hate running. but i do get a biking high for sure. >> yes, you saw it in the background there, there's the cover of chris' new book, "twilights of the elites." a great new book. we wish him good luck with that. we'll continue with chris tomorrow when he talks about the message he wants to see the president promote before the new election. and the new father will talk about what he wants for his infant baby girl.

watch "up" with chris hayes tomorrow morning at 8:00 eastern on msnbc. the united nations observers in syria have had enough of the ongoing bloodshed and today they took a dramatic turn, but what will the u.s. do? that's next on "weekends with alex witt." do you read in bed? do you read out loud or in your head?

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and conceal, obama's use of american power." thank you for being here, david. good to have you. >> great to be back with you. >> i'm curious about the development we just talked about in syria. how serious do you see this as being? >> it is serious because it really marks, i think, the beginning of the end of kofi anan's plan or effort to bring about some kind of a peaceful diplomatic resolution. probably one that would involve somehow easing president assad from power. in this particular case, no one has really had much enthusiasm for the assad plan because they feared that the violence led by the syrian forces would continue. what this simply means is that there is now going to be new pressure about whether or not the west can intervene and new pressure on russia. and to a lesser degree, iowan, to come up with an alternative, although neither one of them plan on doing that. >> david, with regard to all the violence in the city of mahs,

hams and elsewhere, is there evidence to suggest the u.n. monitors were able to curtail the bloodshed? >> they may have just by their presence for a brief period of time, but they weren't there for very long. and it appeared, in this case, as if the syrian troops or their sympathizers were willing to throw stones at these unarmed monitors and beat them back from any real examination of the atrocities that we have all seen play out on our tv screens each day. >> are you hearing any indications that either the u.s. or nato are getting closer to going to take action in syria? is there anything that would say that the model in libya would work in syria? >> well, it's a good yes. it is something i deal with at length in confront and conceal in the chapter entitled, why what works once doesn't work twice. libya was a different case. you could see the forces massing

out in the desert. it was fairly easy for nato and the arab league and the u.s. to bomb them before getting into the cities. and do so without much fear of the significance of the casualties. it is completely different in cities. you can't go in from the air. and president obama has made it clear his light footprint obama doctrine, which i try to layout to some degree and examine its limitations in the book, this doctrine does not call for sending in armies that will both fight on the ground and occupy. we've been through that in iraq and afghanistan and i think it's been pretty clear the american people are after ten years of that looking for a different way. >> in essence, david, your book and articles have really launched the intelligence controversy and now fuel has been added to the fire with the u.s. secret operations in africa. what do we know about that operation? >> you know, i've seen these reports but it's not something i

deal with very much in the book, other than the yemen part where you saw the president yesterday acknowledge in a document that went to congress that we are using drones there. this has been an open secret for a long time that drones are being made use of in yemen. i think if the administration is coming out and saying so, that's a step in the right direction. one of the reasons i wrote about the cyber issues as well is that since it's obvious to iran they have been under cyber attack, not exactly giving them news, but there is a important point of debate whether the united states wants to use cyber weapons since we are the most vulnerable country as well. >> david, thanks for coming back on the program. >> thanks, wonderful to be back. >> the book is "confront and conceal" obama's secret wars and surprising use of american power. straight ahead the big three. who had the best week and worst

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it looks just as beautiful at president obama's house as it does in new york city. we'll find out who the best and worst week in politics. crystal ball and perry and susan. best and worst. who had them? >> best week definitely the dreamers, it's pretty obvious they have two years to live without fear of deportation. i don't want to oversell but i think romney had a bad week between immigration announcement overshadowing his bus tour and comments from john mccain that corporations are not people, insinuating that romney was getting foreign money in his campaign. >> perry, you're up? >> great week for jose vargas,

who runs a pro-immigration group called define american. they are a big pusher behind friday's announcement. ener also on the cover of "time" magazine. not a great week for congress. if you look at friday, deportation announcement, it sounds as if most members, republicans and democrats agree with the president's proposal. it's bad they can't pass something they agree upon. then b, that obama so easily sort of worked around them. it shows a weak congress. >> susan? >> the worst week -- start with the best week, went to president obama i think for the reasons crystal mentioned earlier because he was able to not talk about the -- end the week not talking about the economy and talking about this immigration proposal, which washed away everything that happened earlier in the week. so and took everyone by surprise. the worst week actually i think goes to marco rubio, supposed to come out with the republican answer to the dream act and he

was kind of caught back on his heels and he should have been out there first. >> before we say good-bye, we have to throw up the picture that susan paige took of you with your shorts on instead of being dressed properly, young man. pretty funny. >> she caught us. >> come on back tomorrow at noon for more. we'll see you then. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men... find a way to rise above. this is the land of giants. ♪ guts. glory. ram. glory. free-credit-score-dot-com'sur boargonna direct you ♪ts ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪

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