stop-gap measures are the way to go. >> what would you do about it? >> as you know he was president for three and a half years and did nothing on immigration. >> people at the top would be paying basically the same at the same share. >> yeah. i'd be looking -- i think it's important to say look. i'm not looking to reduce the burden paying by the wealthiest but keep the burden paid by the wealthiest as the same share as it is today. what is the effective rate i've been playing? probably closer to the 15% rate. not familiar precisely with exactly what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. >> we begin with that gop show. mitt romney and friends on the road going from swing state to swing state and having a totally far out time of it even as the race moves into a high pressure system of ruthless campaigning and vp auditions. today it was the hot spot of janesville, wisconsin, where romney was joined by a whole posse who had just -- including

governor scott walker, senator johnson and a fired up rnc chairman reince priebus. >> are you ready to hire mitt romney and put him in the white house? are you ready to save america an fire barack obama? >> save america from what priebus called the nightmare in the white house? no fear mongering there thank goodness but it was conservative budget guru paul ryan who welcomed romney to his hometown by sending curious signals about who is best qualified for the oval office. >> you know, the makings of a great leader are people who actually say what they believe, say what they're going to do, and then go do it. >> do you think he is really talking about willard or do you think he missed sunday's "facial the nation" wherein romney performed a dazzling dance of evasion worthy of an olympic dressage event starting with the

hot topic of immigration. >> just to make sure i understand would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution or would you just repeal it? >> we'll look at that setting as we reach that. i'm very much in favor of the fundamental things one does to strengthen the economic footings of a nation. >> but are you saying here that when this trouble that's going on in europe right now, that there's not much we can do but just sort of watch and see what happens? >> well, we certainly cover our counsel. >> you haven't been bashful in telling us where you're going to cut taxes. when are you going to tell us where you'll get the revenue? >> we'll go through that process with congress. >> but people at the top would be paying the same, basically the same share? >> yeah. >> well, at least he's clear about one thing. he wants to keep paying that 15.5% tax rate that's for sure. and elsewhere on mitt's magical mystery tour they haven't forgotten about it. they also haven't forgotten about poor shamus either.

protesters in wawa, pennsylvania greeting mitt with furry icons tied atop their cars calling him president of the 1%. who, mitt romney? look how adeptly he orders a hogie from the touch screen. it's great for him because he doesn't even have to interact with a human. >> i was at wawa's. i went to order a sandwich. you press a little touch tone key pad. all right? you just touch that and you know the sandwich comes in. you touch this, touch this. go pay the cashier. there's your sandwich. it's amazing. >> romney actually had to change his event from one wawa to another apparently not up for a confrontation with protesters on his american safari all of which made for an even greater contrast with the president who was busy being, well, i guess presidential at the g20 down in los cabos, mexico. the president met with the mexican president filipe calderon who praised his initiative on immigration as well as vladimir putin president

of russia known only to mitt romney as our number one geo political foe. yes, quite a contrast indeed. let's bring in our panel in a special new york appearance. i have anna marie cox correspondent of "the guardian" with me in the studio. in washington democratic strategist julian epstein of media group and msnbc political analyst, former dnc communications director karen finney columnist for "the hill" and also appearing regularly on bill maher from now on. we'll come to that in a moment. he was amazed by the touch screen technology. >> touch tone. >> touch tone. absolutely. that is what he said. why do i feel as though mitt romney is like a guy visiting this country for the first time in his life? he is like a tourist rather than a presidential candidate. >> well, if you consider the divide between rich and poor to be two different americas he is visiting this america for the first time. >> that's true. >> basically he did not tie any dogs to the top of the bus in order to visit it. instead, he tied vice presidential possibilities to the top of the bus. >> he did. >> you know, the more he gets

out there, the more we see him being unsure of how to interact with normal, regular americans. i think this bus tour was intended to get him out there to get people to know him. he has really a very unusually high rate of people who say they don't know enough about him to have an opinion. unfortunately, other people who have an opinion about him is pretty negative. so i am not sure what the strategy is supposed to do. it is clear from the bob schieffer interview that he is running as they always talk about the generic republican running against the president. he is trying to be the generic republican as in all you put on it is a label saying republican and you don't know what's inside. >> that's true. karen, poor romney was blindsided by protesters and had to move his wawa event. does he really expect to convey strength on the world stage as the president of the united states is doing today when he can't even face down ed rendell and a few protest signs? >> i mean, look. if you can't handle pressure -- >> i know ed rendell is pretty

frightening in person. >> true. however, i'm sure he was actually fairly contained. is it any surprise given that he dodged, the way he dodged the questions from bob schieffer, one of the most respected journalists in the business, this is not a guy who any kind of profile in courage or who is willing to, whether it's facing down protesters or taking tough questions, that's not what this bus tour was about. this bus tour was about, you know, as anna marie was saying, you know, getting with the people. he was ordered to -- able to order that wawa sandwich and not talk about cheesy grits. right? so that was a success for them. >> okay. so another weekend of pandering according to you, karen. julian, do you think paul ryan went off script when he described a leader as someone who says what he means and says what he'll do? i mean, he can't be talking about mitt romney if that's what he means. >> yeah. talk about playing into a candidate's weakness. this still feels like the mannequin candidacy. you know, he cannot answer a question on immigration and the immigration initiative on friday directly. he has evaded the questions on

same sex marriage by simply just calling obama's position political. he has evaded questions on what he would do that's different on foreign policy. the only thing he has said is that he doesn't think he needs anybody including congress when it comes to iran which would be a huge surprise to the gop foreign policy establishment. i mean, waiting for romney to say anything of substance is like waiting for gudo. we said before his principle rationale for running is to lower taxes and the regulatory burden. that's what he says. taxes have never been lower in this country and the regulatory burden has never been lower because of what obama has done. if he really believes that he should vote for obama because he has brought taxes to the lowest point it's ever been in u.s. history and business profits right now are about 15% the highest they've ever been. >> right. >> it is impossible to understand what he would do that's different from what obama is doing. >> well, we're watching him now on the mississippi in dubuque. he's looking rather magnificent with his wife ann.

there he is on the mississippi. goodness knows if he's giving another one of his scintillating talks. we'll let you know if he is. anna marie, we're talking now about the vice presidency. you say that he was tying potential vice presidents to the roof. we've heard tim pawlenty who has been -- paul ryan -- i mean, it's got to be somebody hasn't it that is going to be even less charismatic than mitt romney? and look, my question to you is serious. is there anyone in america with less of a personality and more out of touch with ordinary people than this presidential nominee? >> it's true. i can think of people that are more out of touch but it's hard to find anyone. donald trump would be more out of touch but he is much more interesting. >> right. >> as a person. i would say that paul ryan is not bland. he actually does have some very strong opinions and he has a very sharp, you know, eye for how to please the gop right. he would be a great selection

for the democrats if mitt romney ran with him because he is someone who has opinions and has made them clear. these other people that you're looking at, yeah, he'll pick another old white guy. i mean, that's just going to be the case. i've heard people in the romney campaign say they're looking for someone who is compatible, who is sympatico. i think it's all code for someone with the same basic character profile as romney which is boring. >> indeed. stay with us. you're too good to let go. much more just ahead. >> i'm really not a guy that is going for the next step in my political career. bob, i don't have a political career. i don't care about re-elections, the partisanship that goes on. i want to get america right. >> it's not a lie. if you believe it. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth.

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the president has really put mitt romney into a quandary following friday's announcement on immigration, but not to worry. mitt the meanderer is negotiating with his usual combination of confusion and more confusion. >> would you repeal this order if you became president? >> well let's step back and look at the issue. >> has a great allergy to specifics and details. >> there needs to be a long-term solution. >> it is extremely vague. >> i won't keep on about this but just to make sure i understand. >> this is a big problem for romney. >> would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution? or would you just repeal it? >> we'll look at that setting as we reach that. >> as mr. romney spoke to supporters in wisconsin earlier today he made sure to repeat his talking points about the economy. he even worked in another rousing endorsement of freedom and liberty. no word yet however on whether a president romney would repeal

the new immigration order and force the deportation of nearly a million young people. we're back with our panel now. anna marie cox, julian epstein, and karen finney. julian, mitt romney says he is, and i'm quoting here, a severe conservative. so why doesn't he simply come out against the president's order on immigration, call it an amnesty, and promise to overturn it? >> because he knows what ed rollins says is true. ed rollins said recently if the hispanic vote goes the way the african-american vote goes, republicans will never win presidential primaries. and it's just remarkable. we predicted this on the show on friday that he would try to dance around the issue and wouldn't give the american people a straight answer. you know, it's interesting because conservatives are all over the map on this even though the movement conservatives protest this in the strongest terms. marco rubio has legislation that's not too dissimilar from what the president proposes on policy. the other criticism of the president is that he should be doing this with congress but herbert walker bush and w. both

supported decisions not to enforce deportation rules when it came to people in liberia, lebanon, and nicaragua, china, a whole host of other countries. so republicans are on record supporting this kind of prosecutorial discretion when it comes to not deporting immigrants. so the republicans are just in a terrible place as we predicted they would be on this issue. >> indeed. >> romney won't stand up and give us a straight answer. >> karen, he needs all the help he can get as julian has said with latinos. but i'm not sure it helps him very much when a fellow republican talks like this. take a listen. >> you're also talking about people that came over at 16 years of age. at that point you had a say in it. >> a 16-year-old is in a position to have a conversation with their parents about coming across the border you think? >> believe me my 16-year-old daughter has given me input on everything the family wants to do. >> this is one of the richest members of congress worth we

believe $8.5 million, so am i mistaken in thinking he has absolutely no i dwlee it is like for families facing such a difficult decision and the idea that children as young as 16 might object to their parents and offer an alternative view if the parents decide to go across the border? >> right. or even to be in the position to object or make choices about not going with them across the border. i mean, it's absurd. of course. you know there is another game obviously mitt romney is playing here and julian alluded to it in the other segment. that is he's not going to really directly answer any question he doesn't think he really has to. that is part of the strategy of his campaign, is to again sort of it's you not me, right? he is trying to make it about obama and therefore trying to -- he won't talk about where he is on women's issues. he won't talk about -- won't give you a specific -- there is no reason this campaign should not have been prepared for that question on sunday. this all happened on friday. granted i'm sure they had to have a little time to get over

how angry they were that we'd seen reports last week that mitt romney was actually going to flip flop on immigration and stand by marco rubio. the president kind of stole his thunder there but again he should have been prepared for a better answer come sunday morning. and that's more of what we'll see from mitt romney trying to answer as few questions as possible with as little detail as possible to win the nomination. >> is that really his strategy? >> i think it is. he's trying to keep a blank slate as possible not even draw on the etch-a-sketch. not even have to erase it. just put nothing on it. i want to point out something i haven't heard a lot of but that this is a generational issue in addition to the issue about latinos and people of color. it's in a way the way that obama is playing a very long game here, the democrats are playing a long game. the younger you get the more you find people who are in favor of things like the dream act and it is probably because they know when they were 16 they didn't have a lot of say in what their parents did. >> yes. >> the younger you are -- the more clearly you remember that. and the democrats are really poised to be able to look at a

generational shift in their favor and i don't know what the republicans are going to do. their base is literally dying off. you know, when you look at the social issues especially. >> julian, you've been maintaining that position throughout this primary process and saying repeatedly that unless republicans come to terms with the changing demographics of this country they literally are going to become extinct as a party. >> as i said, ed rollins just said the same thing yesterday. and it's not, i think what -- >> i think you're smarter than ed rollins. >> he is a very, very smart guy. >> so are you. >> and i think what ann marie said about immigration is true of the other cultural war issues as well. same sex marriage for example. if you look at where the under 30 crowd is on that issue and on all the other culture war issues, it's not where the republicans are. so the long-term prospects of the republican party right now both in terms of the hispanic, african-american vote on the one hand, youth vote on the other handly, does not portend very

well unless they do kind of what bill clinton did in the 1992, which is understand you've got to speak to a much broader tent of people. bill clinton did that. brought the democratic party back. the republicans don't seem to have the guts to do it. >> well, i would say, one thing i would add very quickly is that i think from the outside again karl rove does understand this friday he launched a new initiative crossroads generations geared toward going after this younger generation that they understand, you know, they're much more tolerant and feel much differently than the main stream right wing of the republican party does on these issues. so they know they have to start to appeal to younger voters. >> karen finney, anna marie cox and julian epstein thank you so much. next, breaking news as the president faces off with vlad putin as we like to call him the most interesting man in the world. details when we return. ♪

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with total customer support. legalzoom documents are accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so, go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense. breaking news out of mexico this hour where president obama just moments ago emerged from a lengthy meeting with russian president vladimir putin. after the meeting the two leaders issued a statement that read in part, quote, in order to stop the bloodshed in syria, we call for an immediate cessation of all violence and express full support for the efforts of the u.n./league of arab states. nbc news chief white house correspondent and the host of the daily rundown chuck todd joins us live from mexico. chuck, does this meeting and the statement that followed prove that russia is in fact no longer our number one geo political

foe? >> i can tell you there's not much to be gleaned from the statement other than the way to read this diplomatically when you're trying to read through the lines and diplo speak is you notice what did they lead with? they always lead with what you have the most agreement on. they led with trade issues, wto, those things. syria fell to the very bottom. it usually goes in order of most agreement to the least amount of agreement and it's pretty clear that at least as far as syria is concerned very little progress was made at least not enough progress to make anything publicly. the only key phrase that i would pull out is the idea that they agreed to a political process. now the question is going to be define political process. does that mean the russians are open to this idea of getting involved in a political process that would remove assad from power but maybe not overthrow the regime? that would be what the united statsz would say would be huge

progress. now none of that was obviously talked about in this part of the conversation behind the scenes and spinning over the next hour or so as both sides' various handlers come around and talk to the press i think we'll get a better idea. >> chuck, this suggestion the russians are going to offer their full support for the efforts of the united nations, this is something that they've not said previously. >> they have not. and that is -- so that's why you can call that, is it incremental progress? >> right. >> now of course this comes after annan himself basically said well there is not much he can do. so, you know, this is an odd thing to say sort of after the fact after it seemed as if coffey annan himself had thrown up his hands. if that was the case i think it would have been said and it wasn't. again, i think this is a case

where i would say in my experience when you do this you look at these things and the last thing mentioned is usually the piece of the issue that they had the most disagreement upon. >> well, let's hope there is some progress in the days ahead. nbc news political director chief white house correspondent and the hardest working man on television chuck todd. thank you, sir. >> thank you much. >> stay with us. the weekend's hot lines are coming up. >> i was at wawa's. i went to order a sandwich. you press a little touch tone key pad. all right? you just touch that and the sandwich comes. you touch this, touch this. go pay the cashier. there's your sandwich. it's amazing. ♪ come on without come on within you'll not see nothing like the mighty quinn ♪

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are people who actually say what they believe. >> they are americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one. on paper. >> an executive order is of course just a short-term matter. i happen to agree with marco rubio. >> back door opportunities to allow people to get the opportunity to vote. >> so he did it for politics? >> well, that is certainly a big part of the equation. >> talked about how he would just send 11 million people home. >> would you repeal this order if you became president? >> well, if -- >> but would you repeal this? >> well -- >> would you just repeal it? >> we'll look at that. >> people who actually say what they believe. >> just walk the line ♪ i fell into a burning ring of fire ♪ >> well he's trying to walk a line, not to sound like he's hostile to latinos. >> what's burning down here? >> back the bus. >> are you dealing with a sense of panic among democrats? no. it's going to come down to a few votes per precinct in a few states. >> this campaign slogan was hope and change. now i think he'd like to change

it to "hoping to change the subject." >> there's nothing funny about that. >> 22 years ago -- >> this was our time. >> down here it's our time. >> nothing for you on the vice presidential contest. i've got flog for you. >> sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand. >> thank goodness mitt was such a good husband to me, my five sons being such great husbands to their wives. >> the best hogies around. you get them at wawa's. we went to wawa's. i went to order a sandwich. touch this. touch this. go pay the cashier there's your sandwich. amazing. >> that's incredible. >> i'm really not a guy that is going for the next step in my political career. bob, i don't have a political career. >> let's get right to our panel. joining us is an emmy award winning journalist and also joe williams who covers the white house for politico and regular laurel laughs and john harwood

cnbc's chief political correspondent and writer for the "new york times" also has a good sense of humor. joe, if i can start with you mitt romney doesn't handle followup questions very well does he? in sunday's interview bob schieffer kept pressing him for instance on how he'd pay for tax cuts but romney had no response. but now we know he would wither under your interrogative gaze and i guess that is also the last sunday interview we'll see from him for a while isn't it? >> well, there is a reason why this was the first one and why this has been the only one so far. romney is not particularly good as we've noticed in some of his earlier gaffes on his feet. he did okay in the debates but struggled to put away the likes of newt gingrich and rick santorum so he's not going to go out seeking opportunities to ask or answer questions that have a followup nature to them. it was a one-on-one interview and romney's traveling press has long complained about very little access to the candidate. it is doubtful he'll do any more of these any time soon because he doesn't really have to. it may change during the fall election but right now he's in,

as far as the press is concerned, cruise mode and he probably won't face anymore of this type of one-on-one scrutiny for quite sometime. >> katherine, he did respond to the question of taxes and said that he would, he kept repeating this. he said the rich would pay the same share of taxes if he was president but that means does it not that they'd have a tax cut? >> well, of course. we're talking about tax cut numbers. we're talking about a percentage as they're getting more and more of the gdp and wealth in this country. absolutely. they're going to get a substantial tax cut when any of those numbers have gone through that they proposed. what i'm frustrated with is they won't put the plan out. he won't put specifics out to support these vague assertions. >> but he says that he's issued a 59-point plan on the economy. he says that he supports paul ryan's budget. >> yeah. but even paul ryan is not getting specific about what programs are going to get cut where. >> right.

>> and right now the media is being irresponsible in not pushing him. if you can't corner him with objective reporters then you're not going to get answers. >> it's tough because as joe says we can't get an interview with the guy. john, romney's ideas don't get a lot of analysis as we've said partly because there is little detail to analyze but what he suggested to create jobs such as focusing on energy doesn't provide immediate help as mr. schieffer pointed out, does it? >> no. and deep spending cuts in the short term as romney himself said during the campaign don't provide short-term help on jobs. but i would turn around your conversation earlier with joe, that is i don't think he did all that badly with those followup questions avoiding specifics where the specifics are politically problematic is one of the goals of the candidate. the longer mitt romney can get away with talking about the positives not the negatives he is better off. >> to be fair to joe he was actually expecting the guy to answer a question.

>> of course. look. i'd like him to answer with specifics too. but mitt romney is not unique in somebody who wants to duck the parts of the question that would produce the politically problematic response while focusing on the good stuff like cutting taxes. >> fantastic. so we'll have a president who doesn't tell us what he is going to do. brilliant. joe, ann romney was asked in a radio interview about the romney policy on vacations. take a listen to this, joe. >> this next question is going to sound like one of those flippant questions but i'm really serious about it. if you become first lady, are you going to go on all these vacations like the current inhabitants of the white house are? >> i doubt that. you know, our vacations and our happiness comes from being with our children and the grandchildren. >> what exactly was she trying to suggest? >> she is not going to be going on any of those high faluting

italian vacations to all these exotic places regular folk like her and her husband who happen to sit on a couple hundred million dollars don't cotton to. she is trying to project a regular gal image that they are just people like you and me who happen to have millions at their disposal. >> joe, mitt romney told us less than a few weeks ago that he had great memories of walking down t there with his beautiful wife. what is she talking about? >> that was then. >> oh. >> that was before he was running for president for pete's sake. now he is talking about the fact -- >> obama has not taken a single overseas trip and michele once in the summer of 2010 and once in the summer of 2011 with the family, with the girls. >> yes. >> which also was reimbursed. they reimbursed the taxpayers for the expenses of flying themselves over there. >> indeed. >> i got to tell you, though, i seriously doubt and perhaps this is a reflection of how well ann

romney has come across so far in the campaign. i seriously doubt she was trying to dig at the obamas there. i think she was simply not rebutting the premise of the question, which was silly as katherine just pointed out and was simply making a statement that is pretty irrefutable, which is that, clearly, that is a close family that likes to hang together. that's why they've got this ginormous house in san diego. >> i think it's one thing to suggest that they're not going to do that and then to take it a step further and say we get our vacations from spending time with our children which may very well be true. i don't think that's the only down time that they take together. i don't think that the inside of their -- >> of course. my only point is i don't -- i seriously doubt in fact i would be stunned if ann romney was actually trying to publicly dig at the obamas. in fact the more, if she did that that would undercut the very assets she brings to mitt romney in the campaign which is

that she is a very likeable person. >> i'm not so sure you're right, john. i felt it sounded a bit like a dig against the president. he is as you well know absolutely dedicated to his family, his wife, and his children. >> of course. absolutely he is. >> between comments like this and her olympic horse you know all about dressage, do you think ann romney's position in this race which john points out has been a tremendous asset thus far may change slightly as we get closer to the election? >> oh, i think the reflection on him in terms of the amount of money it would take to have this dressage horse and get to the olympics and all, it will reflect on him but she is a lovely person. people have no qualms with her. and i don't think it will reflect on her other than to sort of poke holes in the imagery. i think substantively she seems like a lovely woman. >> indeed. go ahead. >> i was going to say it's

interesting that this kind of off hand comment contrasted with what michelle obama said in 2008 about being proud of her country. it's kind of an interesting contrast in that, you know, ann romney is presumed to not have any sort of ill intent and michele obama is presumed immediately to have some sort of, you know, agenda she is talking about. so i'm not sure. i think that it's in the eye of the beholder but i also think these kind of comments are not simply accidental in that sometimes there are campaigns who want to have people take away a certain image and take away a certain suggestion that they make even when it's asked -- the questions are asked and answered. >> to most of the country now they know michele obama and other than maybe one small quadrant that will oppose anything she does, she is very well loved in this country. >> she is extremely popular for the very reasons ann romney is popular. >> indeed. thank you so much. next sheldon adelson the billionaire pouring as much as $100 million into republican

cofers but where is his fortune made? stay with us. >> sheldon adelson makes monday frei a foreign casino as well. you said this week it's tantamount to foreign money getting into the campaigns. >> i think there will be scandals associated with the worst decision of the united states supreme court in the 21st century. the wheat in every mini-wheat has gotta be just right. perfect golden color. rich in fiber. my dad taught me, and i taught my son out there. morning, pa. wait... who's driving the...? ♪ 99 bushels of wheat on the farm, 99 bushels of wheat ♪ [ male announcer ] yep, there's 8 filling layers of whole grain fiber in those fun little biscuits... so they stick with you, all morning long. kellogg's® mini-wheats cereal. [ mini ] yee haw! a big breakfast in a little biscuit. ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people.

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bloomberg view." welcome back. romney has a line in his stump speech where he keeps talking about the president standing in line waiting for chinese money. but thanks to mr. adelson it's mitt romney who is standing in line for the chinese money isn't it? >> well, obviously he's gotten a large portion of his wealth from his casino in mccow and his organization over there. but of course as you know, martin, money is fungible. it's hard to tell what comes from las vegas or mckow or whatever. the fact is the guy is worth $25 billion and is prepared to spend as much as a hundred million dollars he said to help fund romney's presidential election campaign and try to defeat the president. and maybe this is the new normal in the wake of citizens united but it's the kind of new normal that makes me very uncomfortable. >> i'm sure. adelson's company made about half its money in china last year. do you think he believes mitt romney when he says i'll stand up to china as mitt romney -- he

offers this slogan in all these speeches. i won't be like the president. i'll stand up to china. is he really going to mean that if he is taking a hundred million -- i would think he is going to say, mitt, don't trouble the chinese? >> i would think he wouldn't want to make political trouble for the chinese. in addition let's not forget who owns the vast majority of our treasury securities. i mean, it's the chinese government. and so, i mean, what role really can a u.s. president play in trying to affect the internal politics of china at the moment? we don't have a very strong hand. so whether it's owners of our treasury securities or the hundred million he is getting from a guy who gets half of his wealth from china i just don't see any of them going there at the moment frankly. >> sure. john mccain has called out adelson and raised talk of his money possibly leading to some kind of scandal. this was senator mccain on pbs. take a listen. >> much of mr. adelson's casino profits that go to him come from

this casino in mckou. >> which says what? >> obviously in maybe a round about way foreign money is coming into an american campaign. >> what do you think of that? >> i notice he is not saying that anymore. he has probably been silenced to some degree, senator mccain that is. does it -- i don't know. i'm not that bothered by the fact that it's foreign money or u.s. money. i'm bothered by the fact that in the post citizens united era as apparently it's developing somebody with a -- you know, $25 billion fortune can spend $100 million of his own money and to try to singularly defeat one candidate specifically. that seems to me beyond what democracy is all about. i just don't get that. >> it's the buying of democracy isn't it? >> well, it is certainly offensive to me. it feels like the buying of democracy. of course you know we had meg whitman who spent $125 million of her own fortune in california. >> true. >> to try to win the governor's seat and lost. >> and lost.

>> now she is back as the ceo of hewlett-packard trying to make a new fortune. it doesn't always work. frankly, i think the citizens united case is going to go down as one of the most fundamentally disturbing supreme court decisions that this country has made in the 20th -- 20th and 21st century. i think it is fundamentally disruptive to democracy. >> right. mccain made a similar attack on sunday on "meet the press" but rather than directly attacking adelson he tried to change the topic. take a listen to this. >> are you concerned he will have undue influence on this election and undue influence on mitt romney? >> i'm not only worried about him. i'm worried about many others. i've always been concerned about the labor unions. >> sounds like the senator was taken to the wood shed over that pbs interview. >> one can only assume that that's exactly what happened. to go from being worried about sheldon adelson and his foreign millions to worrying about the good old republican concerns like the labor unions, doesn't sound like -- sounds like he got a talking to in the wood shed,

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and in shock announcement from capitol hill, we are able to report that your elected representatives in congress have actually returned to work. not a moment before 2:00 p.m. for the senate and 3 p.m. for the house and just two weeks before they take another week off. luke, having suffered from a deep sense of isolation grief, the halls of congress are now resounding and i understand there's actually a brief flash of bipartisanship on behalf of the washington, d.c. d.c. scholarship program -- >> how about that, martin

bashir? we're back to start off a two-week period and there is some bipartisanship. the d.c. opportunity scholarship program has been near and dear to speaker boehner's heart for a long time. it provides funding so the d.c. kids can go to charter schools because the the school system here has been decrepe it for so many years. it has been generally opposed for many years. president obama didn't really give up anything for this. he just sort of relented and speaker boehner and joe lieberman got a bipartisan win for their side of the issue of education reform. >> absolutely shocking. now, we've just learned another shocking truth and that is that massachusetts senator, john kerry, will play mitt romney in mock debates with a president. what do you make of senator kerry? >> isn't that fascinating? i spoke to a friend of mine who

worked in the senate on the democratic side and they told me that look, john kerry, here's somebody that ran for president in 2004, a wealthy, well groomed guy from massachusetts. that's really the comparisons to mitt romney and because john kerry has a military combat wounded, but john kerry once again showing he is the dutiful soldier. i'm sure he'd much rather be secretary of state, but making sure that he wants to be mitt romney for barack obama in debate prep and remember, this could be an important position. in 2000, rob portman stood in as al gore against george bush and predicted gore would walk over to bush's podium. gore in fact did that. bush was really because of what portman had done. this is a very important role if the person takes it seriously. >> do you think some democrats

will feel john kerry is being slightly pre-tratray yal of the president in playing this role? >> there is a lot of folks that felt kerry should have been given the the secretary of state job because of how loyal he was to obama. without john kerry, there is no barack obama. he allowed barack obama to be the keynote speaker of the 2004 address and a lot of people soured on him. john kerry came to endorse him. but from spokes i've spoken to close to the kerry camp, they're taking this as a good opportunity and that he'll do a good job. he's certainly well prepared for it. >> great to hear that you're not alone anymore, luke. we'll be right back. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car.

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time now to clear the air. in 20 years since his name was sered into the conscious of this country, rodney king passed away on sunday. his body found by his fiancee at the bottom of his swimming pool. the police say there were tho signs of foul play. it was these images of king being violently beaten by police in 1991 that led to court proceedings against those involved. to the astonishment to many, all of a officers were acquitted the following year. that verdict triggered some of the most violent second base scenes this country has endured, and all of it began because of a traffic violation that led to a car chase, violent beating and the acquittal of those responsible. weeks ago, king published a memoir in which he accepted his name would be forever linked with that terrible episode. it is a revealing and painfully

honest book and in the final chapter, he explains why forgiveness is the only way to put out the fire of anger and the desire for revenge. he writes i am not totally clean. i have not completely forgotten, but i sincerely want to be a better human being. there is no longer a riot raging within me. i have forgiven the the politicians and lawyers who tried so hard to make me what i was not. by letting go of the riots within, i have been able to heal. if someone like me can heal and find peace, then there is plenty of hope for all of us. rodney king was 47 when he died on sunday. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is here. >> when you listen to your reporting, i say this in an entirely sincere context, why do you obsess so much