campaigning in virginia, in virginia beach. you're looking at live pictures coming up. president obama became the first democratic presidential candidate since lbj to carry virginia and both campaigns are vying for the state's 13 electoral votes. nbc's senior political editor, mark murray, is here with me and nbc white correspondent kristen welker joins us from virginia beach. kristen, since you're down there, this crowd obviously waiting for the president, it's a democratic proud, military area of the tidewater. at the same time, this is such a critical state and it is very close. virginia has been getting more and more conservative in recent years. >> reporter: absolutely. and the importance of virginia really can't be overstated, andrea. the obama campaign thinks it's crucial to winning in 2012 so when president obama takes the podium here, he will, as he has in days past, call on congress to extend the bush era tax cuts for folks making less than

$250,000, but he will also tell or some of his comments we are expecting to the military community here. there are about 800,000 veterans who live in virginia. they are a crucial part of winning virginia. the president in past speeches when he has been targeting the military community has talked about the fact that he's called on congress to provide tax breaks for companies who hire veterans, he's called on public/private partnership for companies to hire veterans. he may also tout the fact he's drawn down the wars in iraq and afghanistan, issues that really matter to this community. but by the way, there has been a bit of a shadow campaign going on here today. governors bob mcdonnell and scott walker held a news conference earlier today, essentially accusing the president of not doing enough to get the economy back on track in virginia and also talking about that issue of the sequester. of course, that would be those automatic budget cuts that would impact the military, potentially strip about 100,000 military

jobs here in virginia. they say that it's on the president's shoulders. the white house, the obama campaign has pushed back against those allegations, saying the president has proposed alternative plans to that sequester, which was put in place last summer due to the debt ceiling debate. but the white house arguing that republicans have rebuked the president on those counts. so that is some of the dialogue that has been going on already here in virginia. as you point out, this is a very close state. both campaigns have poured a lot of money into this state, second only to ohio. so this is going to be a hard-fought state in november. >> kristen, you stand by. here in the studio, mark murray. couple of points here. word from colonial williamsburg where the national governors association is meeting and where scott walker and governor mcdonnell were just speaking. there was some surprise frankly there because that is a nonpartisan or bipartisan event and they took a very partisan

attack against the president. the sequester was agreed to in a bipartisan way, agreed to by both parties, so it's a little awkward for them to be trying to attack the president for defense cuts that were agreed to by republicans and democrats, but the other point that's on the political horizon today is the whole vice presidential sweepstakes for mitt romney and we don't know the timing, but as you have been pointing out, they put out an e-mail yesterday, fund-raising e-mail suggesting it was a matter of weeks, not days, and at the same time, only hours later, matt drudge with close connections to the romney camp floated the trial balloon of condoleezza rice. what are the pluses and minuses obviously of a very, very experienced foreign policy advisor who would certainly meet the test of being ready to become president on the vice presidential tickets, years and years of experience in the white house and state department. but what about the political side of it? >> she would bring foreign policy credentials to the mitt romney campaign. he's a one term governor,

doesn't have a whole lot of foreign policy experience. she would also bring diversity to the ticket. but when you look everything else, you look at the fact that her ties to the george w. bush administration, the fact that she is somewhat pro-choice, a little squishy there, would almost be a nonstarter with a lot of republicans and one of the gop leaning groups, the anti-abortion group said rice could be unacceptable to them. it did seem like a trial balloon that went over like a lead trial balloon. >> eric erickson of the red state blog tweeted that it was an absolute nonstarter, that he had checked with folks in the romney camp but it certainly got everybody dialed up overnight and we expect that mitt romney is going to be asked questions about a lot of things, including bain capital. he will be speaking to peter alexander later today in new hampshire. the president is just entering the room. it's a fired-up crowd.

as we say, virginia, a big win last time around by six points which as you pointed out earlier today in first read, is exactly the amount that he won nationally by. let's listen to what the president has to say to this crowd in virginia. he will be talking about the middle class tax cut and his campaign. >> couple of people i want to acknowledge. first of all, please give ricky a big round of applause. we are so proud of her, not just for introducing me, that's not that big a deal, but her serving her country first in uniform herself, then as a military spouse. she is an example of what is best about america and we could not be prouder of her. couple other people i want to acknowledge.

first of all, your outstanding former governor and soon-to-be united states senator, tim keane. your outstanding former governor and already senator, mark warner. we've got your second congressional district candidate, paul hirshbiel is here. and i want to give a special acknowledgment to somebody who is not here, but who we will always remember. she was a true trailblazer, not just here in virginia but across the country, and did so much for so many. so we are truly blessed to have known and we profoundly misstate senator yvonne miller.

who is now in a better place. our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, her two brothers were here, i had a chance to meet them, and we're so proud of them. now, i love you back. now, some of you may have noticed that we are in campaign season. i know that's surprising to many of you. i don't suppose you've seen any advertising on tv. you know, we are seeing more money spent than any time in american history, a lot of it undisclosed coming from folks who can write $10 million checks, most of the ads are

negative. in fact, almost all of the ads are negative. and it's understandable that as you watch these tv ads that you start thinking that politics just doesn't seem to get what's going on in your lives. that there's so much negativity and so much cynicism and it's understandable if at a certain point, people just say you know what, there's a disconnect here. this is not speaking to me. it's not speaking to what's going on in my neighborhood, my community. but i just want to remind everybody that in 2008, there were a lot of folks who didn't believe, either, in the possibilities of change. there were folks that counted us

out, people who were sure that a guy named barack obama could not be elected president. and what -- and so the reason we came together was not because we thought it was a sure thing. it was because we shared a set of values. we believed in the basic bargain that has been the bedrock of this nation for well over 200 years. and you know, i was thinking as i was about to come out about this which will be my last campaign -- no, no. there's a term limit thing in the presidency. this isn't like congress. i can't just keep on running.

[ audience chanting ] >> but it made me think about my first campaigns, my earliest campaigns, and the reason i got into politics in the first place. you know, some of you know my grandparents were part of that world war ii great depression generation, and my grandfather fought in patton's army and my grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line and when my grandfather came back, at that point my mom had been born, he was able to go to college because of the g.i. bill. and they were able to buy their first home with some help from the fha. then my mother, she was a single mom, my dad left before i even

remembered him, but she was still able to give me and my sister this unbelievable education, because of scholarships and grants and the fact that she was willing to work hard so that she could work and go to school at the same time and raise two kids, and then i think about michelle's family. her dad, he was a blue collar worker, worked at the water filtration plant in chicago, and even though he had m.s., he -- by the time i met him, he couldn't really walk. he had to use two canes and he would have to wake up an hour early, earlier than everybody else, to get to work just to put on his clothes and get ready for work. but he never missed a day's work. and michelle's mom, she stayed at home and looked after michelle and her brother until they got older, and then worked

as a secretary most of her life. and yet despite these modest beginnings, michelle and her brother craig could go to the best schools on earth and rise up to do extraordinary things. so in my first campaign, when i thought about why am i getting into politics, the reason was because we, my family, michelle's family, we had benefited from this basic american bargain. this idea at the heart of this nation that if you're willing to work hard, if you are willing to take responsibility, then you are not constrained by the circumstances of your birth. you can go as far as your dreams can take you. if you are willing to work hard,

then you can find a job that supports a family. and you can have a home to call your own. and you won't be bankrupt when you get sick. and even if you weren't born into wealth, you can make sure your kids get a great education and go on to college. maybe you can take a vacation once in awhile. i was up in ohio talking about my favorite vacation, when i was 11 years old, my grandmother, my mother, my sister and me, we traveled the country, but we didn't do it on jets. we took greyhound and the train. i think twice we rented a car. and we would stay at howard johnson's, and if there was a

pool somewhere, it could look like a puddle, it could be so small, i was so excited and you would go to the ice machine and the vending machine -- i was 11 years old. that was a big deal filling up that bucket of ice and getting that soda. and the point was that your vacation didn't have to be fancy. it just gave you a sense of how you could spend time with each other. that was part of that american dream. and then the notion that you could retire with dignity and respect after a lifetime of work. you know, that's the idea that got me into politics, because my feeling was given how much this country had given me, and given michelle, i wanted to make sure that that same bargain held for

the next generation. that it wasn't just about me, it was about making sure that every american had those same opportunities, and the interesting thing is when i first started running for the u.s. senate let's say in illinois, and i would be driving around and we would go to downstate illinois, small farm towns or sometimes we would be in the big cities like chicago, no matter who you met, they had those same stories in their background. black, white, latino, asian, it didn't matter, they remembered their parents or their grandparents or great grandparents, some of them immigrants, some of them brought here not by choice but each successive generation believing that this union could be perfected and that if they really worked hard and were able

to overcome whatever barriers in their way, that they could succeed. so i ran in 2008 because i felt that that bargain wasn't reaching enough people and the reas so many of you supported me in 2008 was because you understood that that dream was slipping away for too many people, that we had gone through a decade in which wages and incomes weren't going up no matter how hard you worked, while the cost of everything from college to health care to groceries to gas kept on going up. and people worrying that maybe their kids might not do as well as they did, when the idea was always that your kids do better than you do. and so that's what brought us together. the campaign in 2008 was not about a single candidate, it wasn't about me, it was about us.

and our desire to make sure that the american dream continues for the next generation and the generation after that, and the generation after that. now, what we didn't realize at the time was we were about to confront the worst financial crisis since the great depression. millions of people thrown out of work, folks losing the value of their homes and so in some ways, that dream seemed even further away. but you know, we worked hard over the last three and a half years to try to restore that belief that in this country, you can make it if you try. and that's how we were able to save an auto industry when some said let's let detroit go

bankrupt. we said we're going to bet on american workers and american industry, and now, gm is back on top and ford and chrysler are selling cars because we believed in that american promise. business started getting back to basics and we have now created more than 4.4 million new jobs, more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs created during this time. we have seen all across the country folks who got laid off, retrained, go back to a community college and be able to find a new job in a new industry. small businesses struggling, sometimes keeping their doors open even though they're not taking a salary because they know their employees depend on them and their families depend

on them. it's turned out that america's tougher than any tough times. but what we also understand is we've still got more work to do because virginia, the reason i ran and the reason you supported me wasn't just to get back to where we were in 2007. the reason we came together was to restore that promise for middle class families and all who are striving to get into the middle class. that's what we're fighting for. and we've got a lot more work to do. on that front. now, i've got to tell you, this election in some ways is going to be more important than 2008. because after three and a half

years of not getting much help from the other side -- >> joining me now, first of all, i'm still with mark murray. we want to just button this down and talk about the speech we just heard. this is the president trying to compare himself to mitt romney. this is the class distinction that he's trying to make. >> right. both personally and on a policy front. he's trying to make this contrast where he was talking about the vacations that he went as a child, with those ice buckets, trying to almost contrast the vacation that mitt romney was on just last week at his home in new hampshire, and also just kind of talking about the different economic philosophies for both men. president obama talking about a fair shot, the american dream. mitt romney talking about to unleash the power of entrepreneurship and andrea, that dichotomy, that contrast will be something we will be talking about from today all the way to november 6. >> mark murray, thanks so much for being with me. joining me now is virginia's republican attorney general. thanks very much for joining us.

i know you're in richmond but have been watching the president, listening to the president as well, and the romney campaign had put out a welcome to virginia message this morning. what is your response to what the president has been saying? >> you know i listened to a lot of it and like so often when we listen to each other, republicans and democrats share an awful lot of the same aspirations. we want america to be strong again. we know we're on a slide. we want america better for our children but we have stark differences about how to get there. just three years ago, even the president said in 2009 that you don't want to raise taxes in a recession. that's a bad thing to do. now that's what he's proposing. so with unemployment up over 8% for 40 months, with consumer confidence down, manufacturing down, he wants to raise tax rates up. one major difference is, and you mentioned the class warfare here, barack obama wants less rich people in america.

mitt romney wants less poor people in america. he wants the poor to make it to the middle class and the middle class make it to the upper class, and this president seems focused on tearing down those who have the ability and the willingness to create jobs. right now, higher tax rates are a job killer, just like the president said three years ago. so while i hear a lot of aspirational things about the greatness of america from the president that i absolutely agree with, and i know governor romney agrees with, this president's formula for how to make that a reality going forward in this country doesn't make any sense and it's failed. that's why we have half a million people, less people at work, sorry, fewer people at work than when he took office. he promised us unemployment below 8% with his stimulus package. well, it's been above 8% for over 40 months now. this is a failed formula. we need less burdens, less

regulation, less taxation on america so you can unleash the american people. we are our greatest resource, the people are the greatest resource of this country and mitt romney wants to unleash them and get government out of the way, and this president keeps talking about more regulations, more taxation, more uncertainty for the people who make the decisions that help create jobs in the private sector, which is where we need to create them, and not in government. >> of course, their argument is that only 2% or 3% of the people would be affected by the middle class tax cut being imposed would be involved so that it would not actually affect those who are creating jobs. >> well, you know, well, the small business -- >> the people at the $250,000 level, they say it's law firms, it's not really small businesses that would be affected. >> give me a break. come on.

that's a lie and the american people know it. that's just absolutely not true. the american people reject this class warfare approach anyway. they always have, because we're a nation of equal opportunity, and this government and this president are crushing opportunity, not only liberty, but opportunity in the economy with their massive regulatory schemes that have created enormous amounts of uncertainty going forward. you ask a business owner today, ask them what their tax rate is going to be next year, next year, one year down the road. with this president, we don't know. with mitt romney, we'll have certainty about that and business owners will be able to plan and move forward to hire people and get people off the unemployment rolls and into the work force, which is the direction we need to be going that this president has been failing to lead us. >> the joint committee on taxation and other bipartisan data indicate that the tax levels, the taxes being paid are actually the lowest in many,

many years, but at the same time, i wanted to quickly ask you about the health care, medicaid expansion, because obviously you are one of the lead attorneys general challenging the health care law in the supreme court. when will virginia make its decision about the medicaid expansion? >> you know, i briefed about a third of our general assembly yesterday by phone about the consequences of the supreme court's decision for medicaid and the health care exchanges, the two areas where states have decisions to make. i am also a candidate for governor next year, not this year, and so i have my own position on that and that is that we shouldn't undertake the expansion. the numbers in virginia, when you go out a few years, are enormous and people need to understand that in our state budgets, this has been the biggest, fastest growing monster in our budget. it's eating everything else up, transportation, education, everything else, and taxation. with a president who is trying to bump taxes up, even when he

says that's a bad idea in a recession, we don't want to be confronted with that in virginia. i hope our governor and general assembly will not undertake the medicaid expansion. that's my policy position. legally that option is now ours because of the supreme court's decision. >> for the first numbers of years, wouldn't it be federal money coming into the state with a very small participation by the state. >> if they're telling the truth, yes. there's a long habit of that being broken and remember, the people promising to put that money in, the federal government, they're broke. they've never been broker. so -- and we in virginia, like every other state, once we decide to get in, we're stuck in there. there's nothing the supreme court did to say that we could get out. we need federal permission to get out once that happens. starting in about three or four years, the state amount goes up literally into the hundreds of millions of dollars for virginia and with our retirement system,

we're better than a lot of states but we're still behind in catching it up, we're strained to the breaking point in the budget in terms of our operation year to year. looking ahead, there's no easy answer to where that money would come from, and frankly, as i said, the federal government in large part thanks to this president is so flat broke that they're making a promise that it's very unlikely they can keep without essentially destroying the rest of the budget. >> thank you very much. the attorney general from richmond and battleground virginia. up next, the call for action amid new reports of mass killings in syria. and the war of words over mitt romney's tenure at bain. our current dividend tax rate will expire this year, sending taxes through the roof and hindering economic recovery. the consequences? millions of americans will see their taxes on dividend income spike, slowing investment in u.s. companies

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tdd# 1-800-345-2550 there are atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the most dreaded fees of all, hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, you won't pay fees on top of fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no monthly account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and we rebate every atm fee. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because when it comes to talking, there is no fee. activists in syria today are reporting bloodshed on a major scale in the central part of the country. reports of more than 200 dead after pro-government gunners opened fire followed by a wave of deadly attacks in villages by

those supporting the assad regime. the overall death toll has not been independently confirmed. you were in syria until early june. you witnessed a lot of this first-hand. tell me first of all, what do we know from the ground? it's been so hard for us to get a handle of both the strength of the opposition which richard engel began to report in the last two weeks, has really increased in recent weeks since his previous trip, and also, the defections and the possible cracks that are opening in the assad regime. >> well, i was there to investigate the serious human rights abuses, notably war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the regime forces in the north of the country and indeed, wherever i went, i visited 23 towns and villages where there had been a string of very short intense and very brutal military operation where regime forces and

paramilitary militia swept through villages and committed unspeakable crimes, took young men out of their homes, shot them dead in front of their families, in some cases burned their bodies, burned hundreds of homes in sort of in reprisal and in revenge, the fact this community supported the opposition. while i was there, the armed opposition had been severely beaten back in some areas. in the following weeks, and certainly in the last four or five weeks, they have gained more ground throughout the north of the country and i believe in other parts of the country as well. >> from what richard engel was reporting last night on "rock center" and on "nightly news" all week, he is seeing a change in the amount of territory they control in the rural areas, not in the cities. is that what you're hearing as well? >> well, certainly when i was in syria, it was already like that. the security forces, the

government forces were controlling the main roads, the highways, and the armed opposition was pretty much controlling the smaller roads. the government forces were surrounding all the towns and villages and could go in at any time but they were not present, they were not holding small towns and villages. those were sort of under the partial control of the armed opposition. that was already so back in may. >> what do you think the international community can do? >> the international community has unfortunately failed rather spectacularly to address the plight of the ordinary civilian population. very early on when it would have been a lot easier to address the situation, they failed to do so. but certainly there are two very concrete actions that should be taken. one is that the u.n. mission whose mandate is expiring next week, that mandate should be renewed but not in its current form. it should have a mandate and the necessary resources to investigate the crimes against humanity and war crimes that are

being committed. >> how do you get around russian opposition? >> it hasn't been tried. it hasn't put to a vote and the options that have been blocked by russia which has indeed played a very negative role, has been more about should there be military intervention or not, should there be a chapter seven invoked or not. there hasn't been enough focus on action that can bring relief to the civilian population away from should there be -- >> aside from military intervention. thank you very much. very good to see you today. and in the escalating allegations over mitt romney's tenure at bain capital, the harshest rhetoric came from obama's deputy campaign manager, stephanie cutter. >> either mitt romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at bain to the s.e.c., which is a felony, or he

was misrepresenting his position at bain to the american people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments, and if that's the case, if he was lying to the american people, that's a real character and trust issue. >> today, mitt romney's campaign shot back with a new ad, while republican national committee chairman reince priebus responded strongly to obama's attacks on cnbc. >> i have a problem with a president who loves to throw stones but forgets about the log in his own eye. i don't understand where he comes from where you would decide that you want to lie purposely and intentionally, intellectually rationalize it in your head, lie anyway about mitt romney, who already has got not a shred of evidence of truth. >> joining me now, susan page, "usa today" washington bureau chief, and major garrett, white house correspondent at the

national journal. the rhetoric is escalating. i'm not sure we have come to any conclusions. we have the s.e.c. forms, we see what mitt romney signed about being at bain after 1999. at the same time, major, he is saying, the campaign is saying he wasn't managing it, he wasn't overseeing it, so the question still goes to them, do you take credit for the jobs that were created after you left, when you're not taking responsibility for jobs that were sent overseas, when you say you had left. where do we end up with this? >> what this is about is a persistent effort by the obama campaign to force romney to explain his own narrative, to be more comfortable and more transparent with his own story. the mitt romney campaign wants to say bain ended in 1999, i was an owner in absentia, nothing that happened after there should be reflected on me or my campaign. the obama campaign says a lot of things happened at bain, the culture of bain was identical -- >> and you signed an s.e.c. form

saying you were the ceo. >> you gave testimony in massachusetts to the effect that it was your principal job, you were paid $100,000 a year, and the culture of bain after you left was exactly as it was before. so whether you were a managing partner or ceo in absentia, it's your culture. you own the story of bain. you better understand that we are going to make you own the story of bain as long as this campaign goes on. i wrote many, many months ago that when this story first started coming up in my column at national journal, that romney to get ahead of this would have to describe to the country what bain meant to him, and say to people look, if you're upset about job losses when i was either controlling or having an interest in bain, and that's all you care about, vote against me. but he has never come -- become comfortable with his own bain story. until he does, the obama campaign will use this to try to make romney visibly uncomfortable, what they consider and what romney has often suggested is the central premise behind his presidential campaign. >> the other part of this is his

continuing refusal to put out more than one year's tax returns and the fact is, susan, that he provided john mccain and that campaign with 23 years of tax returns, he said he was a packrat, he kept everything, so a lot of people are asking why isn't he following even the example, the sterling example of his father, george romney, when he ran, who said he put out a dozen years because one year could be a fluke. >> the fact is every presidential candidate has put out more tax returns than governor romney. >> he's the first who has not done it. >> i think that's the kind of drum beat democrats will keep up and in the end, i predict governor romney will put out some more years of tax returns. i think what's happening now is really an effort by democrats and by the obama campaign to take away the biggest asset that governor romney has, which is i'm a businessman, i understand how the private economy works, i can fix this economy. they're not arguing about what his economic prescription is for the country. they're trying to take away the asset of being a successful -- >> to disqualify him as an

acceptable alternative. because the obama campaign knows if romney is viewed as an acceptable alternative to the voters, consistently top pollsters who are dissatisfied with the economy, romney has a good chance of winning. they have to disqualify him now before people make their economic decision in september and october. >> you were two of the best reporters in washington. what was your reaction when you saw the drudge report last night and the speculation about condoleezza rice? >> a familiar sighting of a trial balloon. >> i don't think it's that. i think it's total nonsense. it's an effort to get a little flurry and get a little conversation going. but a trial balloon -- >> nonsubstantial trial balloon. >> if you want people to be excited about tim pawlenty or portman or some other traditional candidate who we might have a lot of assets but might also be described as not exciting or charismatic, why would you put out a trial balloon about something as different in the republican

scheme of things as an african-american woman with great foreign policy credentials? >> once you name tim pawlenty or rob portman, you want to be able to say we thought seriously about marco rubio and condoleezza rice -- >> kelly ayotte. >> right. we were willing -- these are great people, we considered for vice president. >> expansive view of the republican bench. >> we have settled on rob portman or tim pawlenty as the right guy at this time. i think you will be vice president on romney's ticket before condoleezza rice will be, or maybe you. >> one thing back to bain -- >> how unlikely would that be. >> i have a piece in the magazine this week talking to david plouffe, he has this theory he calls stray voltage which means sometimes you create controversy and there's extra wattage or voltage in the system that sometimes comes back and burns the white house or the campaign but over time, they believe it works to their net advantage or they try to channel it that direction. bain is a classic example of that. early on, there were democrats, corey booker, ed rendell, harold

ford, archer davis who questioned this whole strategy. >> you think it's now working? >> i'm saying they think it works. i am only reporting what they think. they believe over time this is an example of taking some of that stray voltage, the elevated controversy, making a story last longer, become more deeply imbedded in the public conscienceness and working it to their benefit. >> before we leave the vice presidential deal, susan, do you think it's sooner, later, before his foreign policy? >> later. i think it will be right before the convention. doesn't look to me like they're in a position to do it right now, nor do i think they think it's in the end in their interest to do it too early. >> thank you very much for wrapping up the week with me. up next, we have an eye-opening look at race relations in america. lester holt joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪

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i bought the car because of its efficiency. i bought the car because i could eliminate gas from my budget. i don't spend money on gasoline. it's been 4,000 miles since my last trip to the gas station. it's pretty great. i get a bunch of kids waving at me... giving me the thumbs up. it's always a gratifying experience. it makes me feel good about my car. i absolutely love my chevy volt. ♪ coming up in just 15 minutes on "news nation" is condoleezza rice really being considered as mitt romney's running mate, or is it a ploy to distract from

the latest controversy over mitt romney's bain tenure? whatever the case, the headline on the conservative blog drudge report certainly has tongues wagging. is condi a front-runner? plus, new information suggests jpmorgan may have covered up many billions of dollars that were reportedly lost from $2 billion to as much as $5 billion. a big initiative to get vets back to work, called hiring our heroes. they have hit a major milestone. check it out coming up in 15 minutes. welcome back. in 1965, an nbc news documentary profiled life in the mississippi delta during the civil rights struggles. the film outraged some southern viewers in part because of a scene featuring booker wright, an african-american waiter working at a whites only restaurant in greenwood, mississippi. more than four decades later, booker's granddaughter and the film maker's son went back together to mississippi, searching for answers to booker

wright's life and his untimely death. "dateline" anchor, lester holt, joins me now. this is a fascinating story. >> it's a fascinating story. think about it was laying in the nbc news archives. this story was a documentary really about the white perspective on segregation in mississippi and they happened upon this black waiter from a white restaurant who really unloaded about his pain, what it was truly like to be a black man in greenwood during the jim crow south. i want to warn you before we play a clip for you, you will hear a word in this report that you don't often hear on tv and one that i think you will appreciate, i don't take lightly but it's important to understand the depth of his pain and why this was so shocking at the time and now. here it is. the words were heart-felt and laced with pain. >> the meaner the man be, the more you smile although you're crying on the inside. >> in 1966, those words had the incendiary impact of a molotov

cocktail in certain sections of greenwood, mississippi. >> some are nice, some not. some call me booker. some call me john. some call me jim. you have to smile. >> that piece of film was not seen at the time by a lot of the local black people. a lot of them did not own televisions. >> the impact of what he said was felt in the white community because so many whites knew him, so many whites really felt that they had friendship with him and to hear him say no, this isn't friendship, this is humiliation for me, it was a wake-up call. >> alan wood is one of those whites who knew and liked booker wright. >> he was great personality, good man. >> then came that sunday evening in may 1966 when the happy-go-lucky black man alan wood had known for most of his life suddenly appeared on his tv set, saying he wasn't happy. >> night after night, i lay down

and i dream about what i had to go through. i don't want my children to have to go through. >> that's the first time i realized booker felt that way, after the show a lot of people were pretty upset. >> many whites in greenwood shunned booker after that. on the black side of the tracks, booker's monologue became the stuff of legend. >> people who i thought would have been too young to know him, knew him by reputation. it became almost folklor in greenwood. >> he's almost the accidental activist. nothing in booker wright's history suggested he was an activist before he said this and he didn't really say anything about it afterwards, this one time, but he was beaten and he paid a heavy price for what he said on tv that day and this had been long forgotten but now thanks to his grandfather or granddaughter and thanks to this film maker, they are now telling his story. >> thanks to you, lester. this is extraordinary. what ended up happening to booker wright? how did he die? >> he was beaten -- he was

murdered several years later and there's some question as to whether it was linked to what he said or not. now, he had his own bar on the black side of town, his own restaurant, called booker's place, and one day a customer altercation and he was shot. the film makers have produced their own documentary about this, suggest it might have been as a result of what he said but he definitely paid a price. the film maker who did the original documentary said to him are you sure you want us to use this, because he recognized how incendiary it was, and booker said no, i want you to use it, i want people to know how i feel. >> it's an extraordinary story. greenwood, mississippi, we think of some of the legendary journalists down there who tried in the mississippi delta to do so much good during those years, and now to learn that nbc news was there and doing this kind of work and that you're expanding on it, lester. >> it's a very changed place

right now. somebody asked me what was the white reception about this story. my sense is folks down there don't run from their history. in fact, they appreciate their history, if for no other reason, a measure of how far things have progressed. they now have a mixed city council, a fully integrated town and folks knew we were council. ful ful ful ful ful fully integrated town. people knew we were doing this story and were interesting. >> you can all catch "finding booker's place" on sunday on "dateline." what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next here on "andrea mitchell reports." [ 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.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. jonathan capehart joins me now. the president will be back in virginia tomorrow. two days in virginia. that's how important it is. this is a little bit about what he had to say about the symbolic

vote that took place this week. >> i noticed the house of representatives, the republicans and house of representatives, they voted to repeal it again, that's the 33rd time they've done that. 34 votes to repeal the health care bill. all it would take is one vote to make sure that all of you don't see your taxes go up next year. you tell me what would be a better use of time. >> the fact is they will most not likely win the state they want. the obama campaign knows that they can still win the presidency by losing florida and

losing ohio, two in previous contests must win states but that is only possible if they win virginia. that's why we're seeing the president in virginia this weekend. that's why we've seen the president in virginia many times throughout his presidency to sort of remind people there that he he knows they're there and knows they're important and he wants their votes. >> governor bob mcdonnell will be our guest on monday along with others. he's already set the table for the president saying that they are looking very seriously as you heard earlier from the attorney general on the show, looking seriously at joining those who are not going to accept the medicaid expansion and not going to go along with setting up exchanges. to be continued. >> yes. well, they are going to be there for the national governor's association so this topic and other topics with nation's governors will come up. >> thank you so much. jonathan capehart, have great weekend. that does it for us. all of you have great weekend.

we'll be seeing you next week. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> so great to see you. coming up in the next hour, is condoleezza rice really being considered as mitt romney's running mate or is it a ploy to distract from the latest controversy over governor romney's bain tenure? the headline on the conservative blog that says rice could emerge as a front runner has tongues wagging and our political panel will chime in. new information suggests jpmorgan employees may have covered up billions of dollars far more than first reported. we'll look at that debacle and an initiative to get vets back to work called hiring our heroes. they've hit a big milestone and we'll reveal it to you. for years. but lately she's been coming in with less gray than usual. what's she up to? [ female announcer ] root touch-up by nice'n easy has the most shade choices, designed to match even salon color in just 10 minutes.

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