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tv   News Nation  MSNBC  July 12, 2012 11:00am-12:00pm PDT

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good thursday i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. we're following vice president joe biden's fire gentlemen counter punch before the naacp today, speaking to the same crowd that mitt romney addressed yesterday. he pushed back against the governor's claim that he would do more for the black community than the first black president. >> i believe this election will come down to character, conviction and vision. and it will not surprise you, i don't think it's even a close call. >> vice president also took
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shots at republicans in congress accusing them of putting politics over getting americans back to work. >> mitch mcconnell just said it out loud when talking about lessons he learned from history he said quote the single most important thing we want to achieve is obama to be a one term president. not, not to get us out of this recession. not to promote jobs. not to do the things that needed to to be done. but make barack obama a one term president. >> let's go ahead and bring in our "news nation" politicalle panel. richard fowler with alice stewart and ann henderson, political reporter for "the washington post." good afternoon to all of you. richard, i want to start with you. did the vice president deliver today in houston? >> the vice president delivered, craig.
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i got to tell you, the truth of the matter is the vice president went there and told the naacp the truth. we know that mitch mcconnell and republicans want to make president obama a one term president. they are willing to do everything possible to make that happen. they are willing to stall bills, stall job creating measures, do everything to make the president fail and the vice president pointed that out today. >> there was speculation around these parts the white house deliberately decided not send the president but to send joe biden instead because, you know, joe biden really got the crowd pretty riled up there. >> he did. that's exactly what de. there was a big argument why the president didn't go. the naacp and african-americans understand that the president needs to focus on, you know, the country as a collective and joe biden was a great is your rogate. -- surrogate and delivered the message. eight more years of george bush policies. >> alice, whatever your politics, regardless of your
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political leanings, why have we never seen mitt romney give a speech remotely close to the level of rousingness and a word i just created why we've never seen anything like that from him. is he not capable of it. is it not his style. >> rousingness works for the speech give end by the vice president. he did an excellent job. very well received. it was like a family reunion. what was interesting to note is what he didn't talk about. he didn't talk about the 14.4% unemployment in the african-american community. he didn't talk about the 23 million americans out of work. he didn't talk about the rising debt and deficit in this country. and what we did have was governor romney is he spoke to them, of course it was going a tough crowd but he was darned if he did and darned if he didn't go. he connected with them on how they can get better schools for their children. he talked about turning the economy around.
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not just for the african-american community but for all americans. because what helps all americans certainly helps their community as well. >> mitt romney yesterday didn't talk at all about voter i.d. laws in this country. was that deliberate? >> well, i think the message that he wanted to resonate with them is what he plans to do, improve the schools which is very for the community but improve the education and that was what he received very well reception by this group and certainly something that they wanted to hear. >> let's talk about bain here and some new claims over mitt romney's record at bain. team romney denying report in the "boston globe" today that romney allegedly worked at baip three years longer than he claims. we saw similar reports on motherens talking points memo. romney campaign fired back saying the article in the "boston globe" is not accurate as bain capital, as governor romney has said and has been
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confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times governor romney left bain capital in february of 1999 to run the olympics and had no input after that point. we know romney has used the 1999 departure date to shield himself from claims that he was at the helm when that company allegedly drove companies into bankruptcy, laid off workers, outsourced jobs as well. we should note that one of the fact checkers that he mentioned put out a statement today saying a lot of these claims, citing with the romney camp. even if he wasn't at bain at the time of the outsource how much does all of this continue talk hurt his campaign? >> well, it certainly hurts the campaign and i will say one of those fact checkers is our checker here. you can see the romney campaign is lachg on to what these fact checkers have said and calling out the obama campaign for telling falsehoods. so far that doesn't seem to
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necessarily be working and certainly not enough in terms of what republicans want to see mitt romney put up, which is evidence of that he created jobs at bain and to really flush out what his record there was. but we can tell, i think, from this reaction that the romney campaign is take on some water around bain and you've seen this narrative particularly out of these super p.a.c.s trying to paint him as out of touch. they are talking about his failure to release tax returns, some disclosures around these s.e.c. filings to show he was on southeast company's documents after 1999. it is a problem. if you remember back when john kerry was running these swift boat ads starting to run in 2004 right before the election, this is beginning much earlier than that and democrats feel like they want to define mitt romney as often and as early as they can so that -- they almost knee
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cap him going into the general election as the american people are just getting to know him. >> alice, lackluster job report, stubbornly high unemployment. everybody talks about this narrative. at what point does mitt romney, team romney start to define himself, start to define the candidate. >> he's been doing that. let me make a quick point. these attack ads or these attack claims by the obama administration, as she said herself her own news outlet fact checked a lot of these allegations and proven to be untrue, they are false and misleading and not true. fact check operation after fact check operation has found these to be false and misleading and here's the question the american people should ask. if the president and his campaign are going to continue to put out false and misleading information how can we trust him to run this country? you know, we have a campaign that's putting out lies, where is the trust?
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>> well fact checking operation at the "the washington post" has also noted both campaigns have said some things that have turned out not to be entirely true outsourcing specifically as it relates to the campaign. let's talk about dick cheney for a second. we know about the fundraiser out in wyoming, $30,000 a head. some folks who have been saying that mitt romney is not richer, not as aggressive as perhaps he should be at this particular point in the campaign. what does this do? mitt romney hanging out with dick cheney, what type of message does this send to t base? >> sten craig, i hope this fundraiser has a v.i.p. line because the one in the hamptons didn't. what it says to the base is simple. he's a real true and tried conservative. we'll give us eight more years of george bush/dick cheney policies. the truth of the matter is everybody wants to know who the real mitt romney is and him to stay tuned. every time he's changing who he
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was first. first he was for romney care then against it then he said he created jobs as governor of massachusetts. 37th in job creation. nobody knows who the real mitt romney is and he has to define himself. he can't depend on his staff or pundits or depend on articles to define himself. e himself and the american people are waiting for that definition. him going to wyoming is that definition. he's rich. part of the country club society of america, 1% and that's part of the problem. americans just don't like it. >> alice, you heading out the wyoming? >> no. i've never been to jackson hole. let me make a point. there's a mutual respect between the governor and former vice president. course if he's got an invitation to host a fundraiser the accept. the poinoi in terms the governor showing up the base, he raised $106 million last month alone. that goes to show conservatives and republicans are putting
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their money where their mouth is. not only that the latest poll shows independents are lining up behind governor romney and that's where this race will be decided. independents are results oriented. they see mitt romney can produce results. >> job creation isn't a result. >> alice with we'll leave it there. always a pleasure. you guys have a fantastic afternoon. thank you. >> thank you, craig. >> the most powerful man at penn ears to protect the any stepsr4 children. >> we're awaiting a news conference from penn state after that scathing report is released about what top university officials knew and covered up in the jerry sandusky sexual abuse scandal. also new details on congressman jesse jackson jr.'s mysterious medical leave. >> he's under medical
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supervision. >> and don't forget you can always join our conversation. we are on twitter. you can find our page @newsnation, one word. ♪ [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor.
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we are awaiting a news conference in the next hour by penn state officials. the university's board of trustees gathered at a hotel in scranton remember just over an hour ago to talk about that scathing report that came out this morning on jerry sandusky child sex scandal. they have schedule ad news conference for 3:30 eastern time. when that happens we'll bring it to you live right here on msnbc. the report meanwhile this morning issued today follows an eight month investigation of the
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sandusky scandal. it was led by former fbi director lewis freeh. he had sharp criticism for the university's president, vice president, athletic director and coach joe paterno all fired after the scandal. >> our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of sandusky's child victims by the most senior leaders at penn state. the most powerful men at penn state failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who sandusky victimized. mr. spanier, schultze, paterno and curley never demonstrated through action or words any concern for well being of sandusky's victims until after sandusky's arrest. >> coach paterno and the other top three officials at penn state repeatedly concealed
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critical facts that officials had opportunities in 19 the 98 and 2001 to step in and that their failures allowed sandusky to prey on other youngsters. the report blamed the board of trustees for not providing oversight. joining me live now from state college, pennsylvania, mark brennan who has been covering penn state sports for some 25 years and founder of the independent website fightonstate.com. mark, good afternoon to you. >> thanks for having me. >> any major surprises in the report so far? >> well i think everybody realized that the report was going to come down hard on curley, spanier and schultz. i don't think they didn't realize how hard it would come down on joe paterno. he basically denied knowledge of the 1998 incident. any reasonable person who reads through the report can see he had some knowledge about it even if he learned about it through the tim curley emails.
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most of the stuff people around here already knew about. >> mark, we should note here, we want to put on the screen here what the paterno family has said. as you mentioned the report heavily criticized the former coach, died in january, not able to interview him before his death. this is from the paterno family. just some highlights. joe paterno wishes he had done more. says sandusky was a master deceiver. also says that paterno did not cover up for jerry sandusky nor did paterno know that jerry sandusky was a pedophile. what does all of this -- what does the 267 page report today, what does it do to the legacy that is or was joe paterno's? >> yeah. that's a great question. a few weeks ago people were ready to rename streets here after joe paterno. joe paterno way. now a lot of people are saying do you take down the statue. we have to give a little bit of
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time. everybody wants to make a snap judgment it will impact it this way or that way. it's definitely going have a negative impact on his legacy. to what extent we have to see what comes out of the curley-schultz trial, spanier testifying on these things. there's more to come out on these thing. we won't know the long term for a while. >> lewis freeh said he interviewed 430 people. you reported today on your website according to a source, mike mcqueary was not one of those interviewed. how could that be? >> right. what freeh said today and it's in the report is that the attorney general's office requested they not interview mike macquery. why not interview him i don't know. tom harmon, that the attorney general' office didn't want him to interview. i assume because they thought it might impact their investigation into jerry sandusky. but i really don't know. it sure seems to me talking to
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mcqueary would have been another important piece of this. having looked at the report it sure seems to me as if it's fair, thorough. i really can't take exception of what came out of it. >> what can we expect to hear from the board of trustees in about an hour. what could they possibly say in response to this? >> i think all they can say is that they are happy that this was fair and thorough. the worst thing that could have possibly happened here for penn state was some sort of glossing over or perceived glossing over. they have to basically step up and say that they did lack the oversight that was necessary and that they did allow joe paterno and others, you know, spanier, curley and schultz to have more power than they should have had at this university. >> mark, thank you so much. appreciate your time, sir. >> thanks, craig. >> florida prosecutors today released new fbi evidence uncovered in the days after trayvon martin's death. one piece of evidence is this
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video of zimmerman's wife shelly at an atm on the day of the shooting. shelly is facing perjury charges for lying about the couple's finances. also out today the fbi reportedly says none of the people interviewed described zimmerman as a racist. but zimmerman's ex-fiancee told fbi agents that zimmerman had a bad temper and was overly protective and territorial. coming up cities at crisis, san bernardino becoming the third largest city in california to file for bankruptcy in just two weeks. which city is next? also, new details on the strange saga over mary kennedy's burial and what now has happened to her body. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...
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cities and bankruptcy. the city of san bernardino has become the third city in california to file bankruptcy over the past few weeks. the city had less than $200,000 in the bank, barely enough to make payroll and was facing the prospect of having to shut down all together. by filing chapter 9 they can renegotiate contracts and put off paying debts. san bernardino will probably not be the last city in california to make that tough choice. so, who is next? cnbc jane wells joins me life this afternoon. jane, first of all, what's the impact on city services after a city like san bernardino with its size declares bankruptcy? >> well, none right away, although the police chief here this morning was saying he doesn't think he's such enlie staffed and more cuts will come down the road. but they are trying to reassure people by going into bankruptcy, city services won't be impacted except down the road there will
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be those reductions. we have to see what happens. here it is, the headline, on the brink and the heat from what's happening here is spreading all up and down this state like a brush fire. other places are asking can it happen here? l.a. county, for example, want its financial practices, has ordered a review to make sure they are not like stockton which already filed for chapter 9. auditors in the city of compton have quit and refused to sign financial records. oakland is pricing a $211 bond to cover pennsylvania obligations. town of hercules. it started this whole chapter 9 business in 2008. hercules has been checked by the fbi, the state controller says its financial records are the worst he's ever seen but the mayor says they are trying to turn it around. they are cutting staff. they are cutting pay. the police have accepted concessions and they are raising
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the sales tax. but listen to this, the state of california is holding back more money than the city expects to get. >> the state of california says that every city is supposed to get seven cents of every tax dollar. city of hercules gets 3.3 cents on every tax dollar. if we were to get the seven cents we would not have a budget deficit in thecy. >> well, the state is trying to get more money. it has a huge deficit. how is this affecting the bond market? the investors out there who buy these municipal bonds. they are shrugging it off. there's nearly $4 trillion municipal bonds so a few million here or there is a drop in the bucket. even this week, craig, $7 billion in municipal bonds are going on the market which is very healthy. investors are saying they don't think this will turn into a whole domino effect. we'll see. >> jane wells, also so insightful.
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thank so you much. appreciate that. >> you bet. >> up next, i'll talk to a member of the congressional black caucus about the vice president's speech before the naacp this morning. we'll dissect that. also just within the last hour, massive solar flare erupted and we're just guesting in this -- pretty stunning image. we'll bring you details on that. don't forget be sure to check out that "news nation" tumbler page, a lot of behind-the-scenes pictures. it's @newsnationtumbler.com. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese
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education, civil rights, foreign policy as well. also lingering questions about mitt romney's address yesterday, about the things he said and some of the things that perhaps he did not say. we're joined now by reverend jeffrey brown pastor of united baptist church and romney supporter as well. pastor brown, good afternoon to you. romney received some criticism for not addressing those controversial voter i.d. laws that many believe are designated to disenfranchise minority leaders. tuesday attorney general eric holder compared them to poll taxes. should romney have talked about those things yesterday? >> what romney did talk about was the need to address some of the critical issues that are confronting the african-american community. >> but voter i.d. laws, that is a critical issue affecting large swaths of the african-american community. he didn't talk about it yesterday. the question is should he have. >> no.
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but what he did talk about was the issues around the cities and the need for us to come up with solutions that affects the number one issue that involves african-americans, in my opinion, which is violence that is plaguing our youth and he did talk about that and he talked about many other issues around the economy and i thought overall it was a fair speech. >> so, it doesn't bother you at all that he didn't talk about voter i.d. laws yesterday? >> no. what did bother me was as everyone in the media talked about, the boos he received. when you listen to the entirety of the speech, what he was actually trying to do was to reach out to those voters who have not considered voting for him before. and as a political independent, i'm one of those people who wants to hear about what both candidates have to offer. as an inner-city minister and working with the city, i'm working with gangs, i'm working with youth and i need a lot of help so i need to listen to both
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parties to hear what the solutions are. >> reverend brown you brought up the booing. there are folks out there who have suggested, a lot of folks suggested when mitt romney used the word obama care, the naacp annual gathering in houston, texas, he knew what he was doing that it was a calculated attempt to score points with either his conservative base, what is left of his conservative base and independent voters. what's your response to that? >> i think that if he would have tried to find another diplomatic way of saying it then the accusation would have been he would have been pandering to the audience. i think what he was trying to say i'm giving the same speech over tory audience because i'm trying to get the votes of all the american people. and for that case he's been using that term and so he used it again at the naacp speech. >> ref represented, mitt romney did receive some applause yesterday when he talked about education. and the vouch are system that he
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says would give parents a choice of where to send their child to school. i want to play a snippet here what the vice president said. >> education doesn't play a central role in the romney republican vision of the future of america. it's on the back burner. it's not a priority. you doubt me just look at their budget for the future. >> reverend, mitt romney supports what amounts to massive cuts in public education. how can he say that education is a priority for him? >> because he's looking for educational excellence for all americans. i have helped to start a charter school in the city of cambridge in massachusetts. it's an african-american, largely african-american charter school. and the students are there are learning in such a way that makes their parents proud. we're looking in our inner-cities for ways in which we can improve our educational system and get through the
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logjam of continued decades long failed education policies and anybody who has a solution that will help our children learn better and grow better, that's what i'm looking for right now. >> reverend jeffrey brown thank you so much. appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> should note that we're going to have a democratic leader congressman andre carson with the congressional black caucus. we'll joins in just a few moments. meanwhile mitt romney now finds himself confronting concerns that he hasn't been swift or aggressive enough in combatting democratic attacks against him. some conservatives are reportedly especially concerned. that's after romney and his team built a reputation during republican primary, they built that reputation as tough street fighters, tearing apart his rivals. here's romney's response. >> respond the attacks that come but they say in politic physician you're responding you're losing. >> joining me live now nbc news senior political editor mark
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murray. mark, you and first read, you guys pointed out this morning except for last friday, romney and his team have found themselves on the defense a lot in recent weeks over a series of issues. >> that's right, craig. mitt romney gave the line there that if you're responding you're losing. the actual line in american politics is if you're explaining you're losing. but the romney campaign has essentially decided that they want to focus like a laser beam on the economy. that's the one thing they want to talk about. that's the issue that they want to deal with and always be on the offense about. however, when it's come to all these other issues that are out there, whether it's mitt romney's work at bain capital, where it's offshoring, whether it's offshore accounts that mitt romney may have held in bermuda or the cayman islands the campaign comes off flat foot and they want the contours of this presidential election to be about the economy and nothing else. the problem is when it is about something else that they seem to
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be blind sided by that. >> how concerned are conservatives at this point -- how concerned are they about mitt romney being tough enough to take on president obama? >> in presidential contests there's always a tremendous amount of monday morning or tuesday morning arm chair quarterbacking where everyone feels like that they want to give advice in one form or another. i'll remind you it was about a month ago when president obama of getting a lot of advice from democrats who were worried about their economic message. so this comes and goes. there are cycles. lots of ups and downs. but there is a bit of a worry by republicans that they don't see this campaign as that nimble, that flexible and they really want the romney campaign to take the fight to the obama campaign and right now the one area where they are doing that is on the economy but on other matters it seems the obama campaign has had a little bit of wind behind its back and hitting mitt romney on several fronts. >> the romney camp responding to
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agencieses he outsourced jobs during his tenure as head of bain capital. today that campaign released new ad claiming president obama is not telling the truth. take a watch. >> the obama outsourcing attacks misleading, unfair and untrue. there was no evidence that mitt romney shipped jobs overseas. obama's dishonest campaign, another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. >> so there's mitt romney campaign essentially calling president obama a liar. here's what senior romney advisor and former rnc chairman said this morning the "today" show. >> we're saying that this ad that's been running saying that governor romney as chairman of bain capital moving jobs overseas is lie. >> one side saying one thing, one side saying the other. what do independent voters hear? >> well, i think a lot of independent voters end up
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hearing a cacophony of back and forth accusations where one way to actually move on and deflect a topic is calling somebody a liar. or saying barack obama is an outsourcer to. that's way for to you move on. what was interesting the last obama ad that was accusing mitt romney about outsourcing while at bain capital was released on july 3rd. this romney ad comes out nine days later and in politics that isn't the most rapid of rapid responses at all. you know the art of politics is always, mitt romney again said if you're responding you're losing. most people i chat with in politics you always want to respond very quickly if there's a charge that droublg. >> mark murray always a pleasure. thank you for your insight. >> thanks, craig. >> i want to get back to reaction from those duelling speeches before the naacp in houston yesterday. mitt romney today, vice president joe biden. we talked to romney surrogate a
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few minutes ago. we bring in representative andre carson, democrat leader in the black caucus. congressman, good afternoon to you. >> pleasure to be here. >> mitt romney applauded yesterday for school vouchers and traditional marriage. was he effective in finding common ground on those two social issues? >> well, i think he's playing a chess move. mitt romney has proven himself to be a political contoretionist. he's do anything to get elected. what we're seeing here he's trying at least in his mind to resolidify his base. he wants to give the wealthy 25% worth of tax breaks, he wants to roll back the progress that we've made in health care, he wants to roll back the financial
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regulatory reform we've accomplished and give payday lenders a pass and predatory lenders a pass. it's a step in the wrong direction. from is the guy we have to get forward and make sure he wins. >> black one employment, 14.4%. that to many is probably a conservative estimate, full six percentage points higher than the national average. yesterday mitt romney blamed the president for that, vice president biden didn't mention it at all today. what does that say? >> black unemployment is what it should be. we need to make more critical investments in that area. we need to empower small businesses to hire more african-americans. but the fact of the matter are that president obama has done a lot for the african-american community and is continuing to do more. mitt romney has proven, given his record as governor that if he were to become president --
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>> mitt romney's motivation yesterday when he went to houston and of course didn't help it hours later when he was at the fundraiser, he made some comments that could have been interpreted as maybe, you know, making, not light it but certainly making, perhaps yeah making light of it. what do you think his motivation of yesterday in houston, texas? >> again, i think that he wanted to be able to say that he's unafraid to make an appeal to the african-american community. and even offer an alternative, if you will. but also he wanted to show his base that he's bold enough to speak truth to power, his own truth and with stand the abuse to resolidify his base and also for those folks who might be disillusioned a bit to give them an alternate choice. if i become president it's not the worse thing in the world, i'm on your side. he's not on anybody's side. he's on the side of wealthy, corporate interest and big
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business. >> congressman, thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> coming up new comments from reverend jesse jackson about his son's mysterious medical leave of accident. congressman jesse jackson will reveal what's been called so far a mood disorder. first a whole lot going on today and just a few things we thought you should know. first the body of rfk jr.'s estranged wife has been dug up and moved away from the kennedy plot. he wanted the body notified the same part of the cemetery where there's room for her family members. >> senator brown is holding a cash edge over warren. he has 2 million more than warren. new jersey governor chris christie joining those who poke fun at his weight. christie's office said david
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letterman made 382,000 fat jokes since he took office. his staffers said just a joke and they did highlight more substantial achievements. those are just a few of the things we think you should know. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62%
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♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. . we are learning more this afternoon about the mystery surrounding illinois democratic congressman jesse jackson jr. month long leave of absence on capitol hill. in a new statement the sochb civil rights leader reverend jesse jackson is said to be receiving intense medical treatment at a facility in arizona for what his doctor described as a quote mood disorder. >> he deserves privacy. and the media and all the interest should give us some family space for his restoration. that is not too much to ask.
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>> nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me live. what else can you tell us about congressman jackson's ailment and his treatment? >> well, for now it seems that the statement that came from a physician that jackson's office will not name but it did begin to give an idea of what's going on here. that stems have calmed down the cries to know more and may give jackson some more space. what we're told by source that are close to jackson, close to him in his professional and personal life is that he is being treated for a clinical depression, that there may also be issues that deal with using alcohol in a problematic way, and the arizona facility is based on nbc news reporting but was not confirmed by the office. they don't want to describe where he's located specifically. but this has been going on for more than a month now. and he's under a medical leave and today speaker, former speaker nancy pelosi, the democratic leader she tried to kind of calm things down by
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saying during that month he's really only missed 12 legislative days trying to suggest that he does need the time, he's on official leave. here's how she described the reaction now that we know that a mood disorder is listed as the official cause. >> i think that that statement should enable him to have the care and time he needs to get well. and his constituents to know that this is what the nature, because we just didn't know and now we do. >> there have been other instances where members of congress have been in treatment or had prolonged absences. what stand out here jackson has bean part of congress for 17 years. he carries that famous name with his father the reverend jesse jackson and more recently he's been under a cloud of an ethics investigation with the house that continues and he's denied any wrongdoing but that related
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to the president's seat in the senate and the former illinois governor who went to prison over the appointment of who would succeed the president. so all of that has been really focusing a lot of pressure on jackson. perhaps that is a contributing factor as well. we don't know when we'll get the next update. we had three so far but there will continue to be some questions asked and maybe a bit of time will pass before we know more. >> i know he's set to run for a tenth term this move to. anybody talking about the chances of that happening? >> there have been questions raised about will he be able to serve is the condition since there isn't much known publicly. would that preempt his needing to take time off and not be able to complete his term or to run for re-election? those are being questions that are raised now but no serious talk that i've heard from any democrats who are putting any pressure on him to make that sort of decision right now. >> kelly o'donnell on capitol hill for us today, kelly, thank you so much. >> the president of florida a&m
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university has decided to step down. the president of the university since 2007 resigned in the wake of the hazing death of the drum major back in november. 11 students will stand trial in october on charges related to his death. the university will hold an emergency meeting next week to find a replacement for the president. nasa has just captured this image of a solar flare. check this out. it's an intense burst of radiation that traveled at the speed of light and triggered a temporary radio blackout. solar flares are the largest explosive events in the solar system. this particular one has been classified by nasa as class x. that's the largest type of flare. a woman fishing in south carolina got the unexpected surprise as she was trying reel in her big catch. look at this. a shark leaps out of the water. there it is. grabs the fish that was on the
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woman's line. experts say bull sharks like this are not uncommon in that area and that they are some of the more hostile sharks around. fortunately no one was hurt and the shark got a full belly as well. our "news nation" gut check is up next. the aclu is suing a school district they said violated the student's quote right to learn how to read. do you think the school should be sued to properly educate children. we'll tell you how to weigh in after this. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is.
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time now for the "news nation" gut check. the aclu is filing a lawsuit in michigan charging that a school district in the detroit area has failed to adequately educate children. the aclu says a highland park district is violating kids with' right to read. the aclu is citing an obscure state law if public school students are not proficient with
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reading they must be provide with special assistance to bring them up to grade level within a year. according to the most recent test scores, children were not proficient in reading. should schools that fail to teach children how to read be sudden? all you have to do go to facebook.com/newsnation to vote. that does it for this thursday edition of "news nation." i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall today. the cycle, the cycle is up next. r streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.
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♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. you're in "the cycle." we want to get to big breaking news this hour when we'll hear from the penn state board of trustees. they are