to soak up big spills and lock them in. let the spills begin. p&g. proud sponsor of the olympic games. american tourists kidnapped from a tour about bus in egypt. a big change from a mural honoring joe paterno. oprah's latest interview -- surprising? paul mccartney and bruce spring teen improm sue sing get shut down. taking off into the sky in lawn chairs. and first we go to front page politics. new fireworks today as the battle escaltes over mitt romney's time at bain capital. at issue, mr. romney's role at the company after 1999 when he says he left to run the salt lake city olympic games. president obama's deputy campaign manager is defending the attacks. >> if you are signing an sec

document with your own signature you are the president's ceo, chairman of the board, and 100% owner of a company and in what world are you living in you are not in charge? what american understands you don't bear a responsibility for the decisions made at that company if you are at the head of it? if he wasn't who was? the simple point is if you are telling the sec you are in charge but telling the american people you bear no responsibility, one of those things is not true. >> the rom new campaign was quick to fire back. here is mr. romney's senior adviser on "meet the press." >> we took a leave of absence from bain and left a life he loved to help a country that he loves more to save the olympics and he was not responsible for day-to-day decisions and not participating in day-to-day decisions in the management company at that time. he was on leave. as former sec chairman pitt was quoted in a story about this, it is standard, though, to -- while you are on leave to sign those documents inform the sec. he was still ceo and had shares

but wasn't responsible for management and that's, you know, bottom line. >> joining me now for more front page politics, eleanor clift. and david weigel. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> eleanor, i will begin with you. the obama camp not backing at all on the bain attacks. deputy campaign manager asking more questions about it today. what do you make of how the romney camp had an dld this so far? >> well, i thai that they are trying to damage president obama's brand saying that this kind of attack advertising is been eats him. they are not really responding to the charges and their argument is there is a good bain and bad bain. mitt romney was there when it 'twas good bain. it was just a technicality his signature is on these documents afterwards. i think that what is going on here is a race to define mitt romney and i think the obama

campaign is drawing some blood and really seeing mitt romney for the first time make the rounds of reporters last week giving everybody five minutes to answer some of the questions. i think that there's blood in the water and it is hard for me to see how the romney campaign can resist the calls for him to reveal more of his tax option. >> there a difference between mr. romney saying that i had nothing to do with bain after leaving to go work for the -- head up the salt lake winter game and ed gillespie saying there is a leave of absence? i mean, i'm curious? can either of you know the answer? does a ceo with a leave of absence nothing to do with it? or, as is being alleged by the obama campaign, that even though you just -- take anyleave of absence but you are still the ceo. do either of you have an answer to that? >> it is really -- it is a situation on that spin -- has been the problem. could have possibly explained

what happened at bain. again, ed gillespie is expressing what happened at bain because mitt romney needed to rescue the salt lake city olympics. they could have explained this and said it is a complicated corporate process. sheer how it worked and here are how the decisions were made. they decided not do that. the problem they created was by responding to every obama attack about bain is saying it is totally untrue, he had nothing to do with the company whatsoever. there might not a lot of wiggle room. the -- i think you see today -- in the last few days people that worked at bain saying he was on the forms but -- more than we thought, he couldn't participate in day-to-day operations. but participated a little bit. it was an odd situation. it is very rare somebody leaves a company to take over the job of olympics but never explained how it worked. they have been so adamant in their denials they opened themselves to these attacks. >> do you want to add anything to that? >> well, yes. i think the fact that mitt romney continued to receive $100,000 a year i you this that

from bain during this period, to most people, that's a fair amount of money. what kind of capitalism is this if you have nothing to do with it but you are still getting this chunk of change? the analogy they are making, it is like steve jokebs. he was not making day-to-day decisions at apple. apple didn't veer off in any different direction when steve jobs was sick. i think that the distinction they are trying to make is this how what bain did during this period of question, offshoring, is something that they are not proud of. and it does raise the larger question of what kind of capitalism did romney profit from and what kind of capitalism would he energize the country with? he needs to explain what his plans are, i think if he should win the presidency. we would all like to know. >> what's interesting, david, you and i were talking last week by b the latest job numbers which were not all that great. this week it is about bain. do you see this is as a sign that the obama camp is having greater success in controlling the message? >> they are.

a classic karl rove tactic. it is classic strategy of turning the strength or biographical strength into a weakness. this is what was done to john kerry and done in some cases to al gore. they -- before voters knew mitt romney very well, they were trying to make it impossible for him to explain that the way he made money in business was admirable, ethical. they get to the off-shoring on conversation on policy terms, not that much of a difference from what barack obama did to president, even when democrats were in congress and romney would do. differences in tax policies. it is not a policy issue. just -- instead of letting mitt romney be a businessman who had to -- made money the way all americans can make money, they are trying to make him look like -- borrow a phrase of rick perry, vulture capitalist. he's trying do that before people have that idea of his money. two weeks before the romney's horse is in the limb have fun

with that. trying to toxify the way he got rich. >> switching gears now here and i will begin with you, david, with regard to the new poll out in the bamt ground state of florida. mason/dixon pom. he's leading mr. rom one point. with a thip thhypothetical matc mitt romney and marco rubio, that's when the republican ticket flips and leads by one point. but then over the president and vice president. what do you make of senator rubio not givepling romney that much of a bump? at least in this poll in his own state. what are the implications of that? >> i'm not really sure. a poll like that is -- in july before the people -- on the convention, going to be in pam that past. i don't know how locked in those voters are. florida has been this tight for three years. florida improved a little bit more economically on just -- just on unemployment numbers than the rest of the country.

and there has been a problem when -- romney's campaign there and tried to coordinate his message with rick scott. i think just -- we had -- recent past, vice presidential nominees who burned really brightly and didn't have a ton of experience. there may abbit of worry there. individually it is a sign voters haven't quite engaged yet. >> eleanor, mitt romney sent out an e-mail to supporters yesterday saying that he would pick a vp candidate sometime soon. how do you think the romney camp is interpreting poll numbers like these? do you think it would have any impact on senator rubio's standing as potential veep? >> i think what we know about mitt romney and corporate-style campaign is they are pretty risk-averse. i think they are going to look at a marco rubio and see him as somebody who is maybe not quite ready to project the gravitas to become president if necessary and he would -- his candidacy with mitt romney would involve some risk. i think these poll numbers don't help if it shows they would

handedly bring florida and then i think that would really boost his credentials that his -- romney can win florida that's an important state on the way to what he needs to win the electoral vote. i think that rubio's stock has been falling recently as potential veep. >> i-want to thank you both. good to see you. appreciate. >> it thank you. historic visit to egypt by secretary of state hillary clinton wraps up today. met are w the first freely elected president in egypt's history. she spoke with mohammed morsi yesterday about the relationship with the two countries. >> we believe america's shared strategic interests with egypt far outnumber our differences and we know that egypt's future is up to the egyptian people. >> there were protests against clinton's visit outside of the u.s. embassy in cairo by those opposed by any american presence in egypt. developing now in egypt, there may be an exchange of prisoners to free two americans from

boston who have been kidnapped in the sinai peninsula. pastor and parishioner and tour guide were abducted by a tribesman from a tour bus traveling on a major road linking cairo and the sixth century st. catherine's monastery. an egyptian official says they are trying to free a prisoner for a swap for those hostages. let's get the latest. what do you hear about a possible exchange for the kidnapped americans? >> reporter: well, egyptian officials are telling nbc in fact, they are working now to release the uncle in exchange for the release of the americans and their tour guide. it seems, according to the egyptian officials, as well as the tribes, that he was angry his uncle was arrested by egyptian police and believes he was unjustly arrested and being exploited by the egyptian authorities and egyptian authorities detained this individual but have not given

information as to why he witnessed originally arrested and they are now saying they are working on releasing him. he is being held in a prison in alexandr alexandria. it will will take some time to release him and get him back. actual kidnapper says he will not take the egyptian authorities for their word. he wants his uncle released in order to reless the americans. that's why he's not released the american hostages so far. >> there was a recent kidnapping of the same type by the -- i believe the same group of tribesmen. however, with regard to american hostages, do we know how they are being treated? any updates? >> reporter: the kidnappers have been talking to media here. they are saying the -- have been telling the egyptian officials as well the americans are being treated well. they are being fed and are actually at the house of one of the tribesmen. they are saying they are being accommodated for. this is not a politically motivated kidnapping. previous kidnappings of this nature have lasted anywhere between 48le to 72 hours.

and all of those that have been kidnapped, tourists kidnapped, are always released unharmed. without a doubt it is very troubling for the family of these relatives and uncertainty of it, of course, causes anxiety. it seems their situation is well. the risk, though, is that as you mentioned, the pastor, he -- is suffering from diabetes. and that always makes it that much more complicated. >> that is something that needs consistent medical attention. thank you very much. > a mural of joe paterno has been changed. the halo was removed from paterno at the store bookstore. he add ad blue ribbon symbolizing sexual awareness. he plans to add hand prints of

sandusky's victims in the near future. the image will stay on the mural and will soon decide what to do with spanier's image. the former, now ousted,.state president. awkward in the u.k. uncomfortable moment after bruce springsteen and paul mccartney sang in london. mormons and money. new article examines how and where the church of latter day saints spends its money. is good business god's business? this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

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some headlines making news. "los angeles times" has a story on how more cities may have the temptation to declare bankruptcy. three california cities have filed for bankruptcy protection in reese end weeks.

it gets into local governments are facing rising financial pressure and experts think cities and towns should cope and why most won't be going that route. the oakland trib sun a front page article on the golden good-bye. power of the bay areas biggest companies handed out $65 million to executives fired last year. among the company's listed hewlett-packard and yahoo. the peninsula daily news imports angela, washington, says it all. one fat lightning bolt. massive bolt of lightning over the strait from friday. it happened during a thunderstorm and that was friday, the 13th. new report from bloomberg business week about money in the mormon church is causing controversy partly because of the magazine's cover art. that picture you are seeing shows an image of john the baptist telling the church's founding from prophet joseph smith to build a burger king and a shopping mall and a hawaiian theme park with smith's answering hallelujah.

mormon reps are not laughing. church spokesman issued a statement in the desert news saying sadly the cover is a reflection of the bias and speculative nature of the article itself. narrow and incomplete. meaning a good deal of information given on how church resources are used. what is the story behind the vast and secretive holdings? josh green is the senior political editor for bloomberg business week. josh, good day. glad to have you here. >> good to be with you. >> cover art controversy aside, article points out some of the church's key business interests in holdings on a for-profit level. they own everything from the newspaper we just quoted, desert news there in salt lake city to a tv station that got a hospitality business and life insurance company that's very profitable. what does that chunk there tell us about the church's investment choices and how they earn money, if anything? >> well, this is really a fascinating story. and the mormon church in -- in addition to being a church, it is really a business empire.

despite the unhappy statement you read from the church earlier, they actually cooperated with our reporter on this piece. brought her in and out to salt lake city. she was allowed to if he speak to the ceo of the church's holding company and is a fascinate storing xwrip the church is a $40 billion enterprise that owns everything from shopping malls to cattle ranches and theme park in hawaii. >> we have those stats and our director can throw them up for anyone that wants to look. it talks about the millions of money that it takes in, $8 billion in tything. the church donates less than 1% to charity. they have all this money. yet, as you know, nobody knows where financial investments lie in detail. why is it they are so secretive? do you think it may be a reflection of the mormon ideology/thee-- theology?

>> church has been secretive. a long and persecuted history in the united states, as we know. i think that its cooperation with our reporter was an effort to, you know, undo a little bit of that mystery, open up and show why businesses is important to the church. reason for that is joseph smith, who founded mormonism, believed that it was more difficult to be spiritually fulfilled if you were materially deprived. and so the idea of industry and human industry, it is really at the heart of the religion and that's why these have these broad holdings. like a lot of businesses, they are not a public company and therefore they are not on obligated to disclose any of this. >> i want to bring up something written in "the washington post" article talking about how they weren't pleased with the bloomberg article. and they say that they do run employment services, thrift stores, food pantries, other welfare programs. so that's their contribution to charity, as they say. your article also says that

unlike judaism and christianity the mormon church believes being invested in local businesses is all part of god's work. so good business is basically god's business. are they merging business with religion in that regard? >> yeah. i think they are. i mean, part of it -- what you get in the article part of what they are after is to improve local bus communities. the idea of being that that can improve everyone's lot in life, perhaps bring them into the church, and that business can really be more than sort of raw capitalism but something that can uplift people not just materially but spiritually also. >> okay. i also talk about the specifics to mitt romney and others at bain capital. you say gave to the mormon of church billions of dollars of church in stock holdings. that would include $2 million in burger king, $1 million in domino's pizza. why was that done? because is that -- is that because of the church tithing requirements i mention eed

earlier? is it good business? >> i think romney is the only one that can answer that. he said in the past he does tithe. as a church the mormon church along with all other churches, get certain tax breaks. they don't have to pay real estate taxes. they don't have to pay capital gains on investments that are donated. as this burger king stock and some of the other stock was. i is on i would imagine it is a combination. nothing unusual about it. but this is just part of the vast holdings that the church can lay claim to. >> it is a fascinating article. josh green, many thanks. >> thanks, alex. a new article says our digital devices are literally making us crazy. do you believe that? first, we get to number five of the first five web stories. up, up and away. this is what it looked like in bend, oregon, yesterday as a couple of guys tried to break the guinness book of world record for the longest would-man cluster balloon flight. they had hoped to travel 500 miles and land somewhere in montana. the men were forced to land due to thunderstorms about seven

hours into that flight. only 30 miles from their starting point. does that look like fun? i can't tell. ♪

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ranking the top spending advertiseners america and procter & gamble comes out at top. number two ranked general motors spent just over $3 billion last year. verizon and our parent company, comcast time for third, $2.5 billion in advertising all of last year. >> feelings. we only have room in our hearts for beer, sex, and monkeys. >> you might call him the king of wisecracks on youtube. ray william johnsons that most subscribers with more than 5.5 million. taylor swift earns a lot more. she tops forbes's new list of the top recording celebrities 30 and younger. between may of last year and this, swift made a tidy $57 million. justin bieber's, $55 million ranked second. rihanna coming in third with $53 million.

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welcome back to "alex witt." the battle over romney's time at bain capital cess can alating today with surrogates for both candidates taking to the airwaves to keep up their fight. >> he was still ceo and had shares but he wasn't responsible for management and that's the -- you know, that's the bottom line. >> he said chairman, ceo. sole shareholder, president. you can't, as president of the united states, you can't have a sign our desk that says gone fishing. >> 8.2% unemployment, 23 million americans struggling to find work. we have record deficits. we have people, you no i, people trying to find the job that can't find one. people that have a job are really worried about losing it. and the president does not have

an answer to that for the american people. >> as the governor of massachusetts, use taxpayer dollars to outsource jobs to india. and now, you know, his tax policies now encourage the same type of outsourcing. this is a legitimate discussion about romney's record in the past. also what he wants to do now for this country. >> time for strategy talk. joining me is tony frato, former white house deputy white house press secretarity and margie amiro. good to see you both. tony, you heard from rahm emanuel. does he not have a point? will voters buy the leave of absence excuse? >> i don't think voters will vote on that issue that all -- to be honest with you. i think -- what we have seen as a pattern is, you know, every time you get a bad jobs report have you -- obama campaign talking about something that happened that -- some -- you know, boston consulting firm 20 years ago or 15 years ago, that's not the way they are voting. if the economy is heading in the wrong direction, heading into the fall, obama campaign has

much bigger problems explaining what's happening today and what mitt romney will have explaining what happened 12, 15 years ago. >> that may well be, tony. and people may not vote on this one issue. but the subliminal erosion of people's trust and wanting to vote, do you worry about that? >> not really. look, you know, again, people vote based on their -- based on their own conditions and what they see and in terms of the future. how they expect the future to look and they do that based on, you no know, what they see in the economy and with job creation and economic data and what's happening for their own lives. it is not these kind of issues. >> a leader. and you look admit romney and he -- he can't be -- be straight with the american people. can't be straight about the tax returns and can't be straight about his role at a company where he was the soul owner, soul ceo and president and he has adviser saying he retired retroactively. that's what we heard this morning. it doesn't make sense to voters. just as a sense he's hiding

something. >> what about this, margie? kevin madden enjoying a weak economic -- drawing a weak economic picture. is the president using bain to take focus off the economy? do you think that will be effective based on the way tony analyzed how people will feel hen they go into the polling booths? >> i think it is important -- first of all, mitt romney brings up his tenure at bain more than tenure as governor of massachusetts because he was 47th in the country in job sea nation massachusetts. he brings up bain. this is not something that's dug up that no one ever heard before. this is mitt romney's main credential he cites as -- why he should be president. that he knows how to create jobs because he did it at bain. let's talk about it. this isn't a distraction, this isn't an obscure issue. this is what mitt romney wants to talk about. he doesn't want to talk about tonight a way that's -- fully disclosed and transparent. he wants to talk about it in his own -- his own way about any kind of criticism, critique, or discussion. >> tony, wisconsin governor

walker told romney to get off his heels. does the president have him up against the ropes with the bain attacks? >> look, the -- you know, if you go back to -- lot of presidential campaigns, you see lots of topics discussed in the sum their have absolutely no bearing on the campaign in the fall when voters make decisions. the other thing you always he, alex, i get to be one of them this year. one of the guys from the sidelines, you know, sideline quarterbacks who get to call plays from the side, everyone has ideas on how presidential campaign should be run. the people in the romney campaign excellent people. ed gillespie and others. they have an idea what they are doing and know what the strategy is. let's let them execute it. republicans will -- all kinds of ideas for how they should run. talk about it, give suggestions. at the end of the day, it is the romney campaign that will make decisions on what's best for them strategically and tactic. >> i what about this with the obama campaign having released two anti-romney ads yesterday? the one that goes after bain and the other shows mitt romney's comments about the president.

so from here on out, is it going to be all attacks tall way to move? >> i think it is important to have a discussion. mitt romney wants to be president and support -- important to have a discussion about his record and his character and how he would lead and right now he is saying he would lead by keeping it withhold prosecuting the american people and have separate set of rules for the very wealthy, tax havens and -- swiss bank accounts and rather than fighting to close the loopholes and reinvest the money in america. all those things are important when focus groups -- they want to hear more about romney. they don't know enough about him. it is important to have this discussion. i don't consider them attacks. >> here is another question about the timing here. is the president using house best ammunition too early in the campaign? we all remember four years ago we had john mccain going after the president and at that time and labeling him as a celebrity. that didn't work. >> yeah. i wouldn't say that this is -- the wrong tomb to use it. this is part of the discussion.

and swing voters make up their mind very late. they are -- you know, here in washington we have this debate every day, every -- you know, all weekend long, automatic sunday long, saturday long. for a lot of swing voters they -- just -- only beginning to pay attention, they are enjoying their summer vacation and it is -- >> margie and i agree with that. >> yes. >> we are not on vacation quite yet. couple of more questions with you. senator portman came out swinging at the president yesterday during the ribbon cutting of a new romney victory office near his hometown. should we read anything into this for the vp pick? >> no. look, doing the same thing that he has been doing in previous campaigns. he knows this state very well. he's -- he is a good friend of mine. i respect him a great deal. would love to see him out will being active. and being an excellent senator. that's what he is focused on now. >> we are out of time. margie, you get to go to break now. good to see you. thank you so much. florida can now use homeland

security data to check voters' citizenship. the federal government will let florida use data pace to challenge people's rights to vote if they are not u.s. citizens. the state can list non-active citizen residents. for months it was denied but gave in when a court ruled in florida's favor. a move as big victory for republicans in the key swing state. more on this coming up in the next hour. casey anthony's former attorney has a new book about the trial that captivated this nation. one year ago this week, anthony walked out of a florida courthouse with attorney jose baez. a jury acquitted her in the death of her 2-year-old daughter. anthony has not been seen in public since. she's described as prisoner of her own people. i asked him about cindy anthony's frantic 911 call describing the smell of a dead body in casey's car. >> when we heard the 911 call, we heard it just like everyone else. evaluated it. and -- the first thing that you

hear when you listen to that is -- this does not look good. especially for our client. but once you listen a little closer, there is a point where george walks into the home and cindy tells him that caylee had been missing for a month. and his first -- his first and natural reaction, i guess, was dead silence. and all of -- the testimony that occurred that night from law enforcement testified that the only two calm people in the house were george and casey. and everyone -- cindy was just basically hysterical. >> what do you take from that? >> well, you know, it is a subjective thing. however, if -- it were my granddaughter and she were missing for a month, i think i would have reacted more along the lines of cindy as opposed to that of george. >> you can hear much more from jose baez including the inner

workings of the defense. "defending casey anthony." premieres at 9:00 tonight right here on msnbc. promising to be an exceptional program here. tax reality nobody talks about. why are so many people confused about president obama's latest proposal. it is coming up in our next hour on "weekends with alex witt." call now to request

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♪ go ahead, amanda. in today's then and now, newt gingrich and his love for animals. we saw him visit several views during his run for president. just last week he treated about meeting some fbi dogs back in 1995, almost nobody in washington knew he had such a soft spot. that is until as speaker he took a moment to share his feelings on the house floor. here's an excerpt.

>> hi some concern for elephants but as person, maybe this is because of my own physique, i have a particular affection for rhine on rye kn rhino. >> the speaker in support of endangered animals. as eager as he is to about a answer the budget, he would rather have a world with rhinos, tigers and elephants. the chamber was stunned. few knew of the speaker's affection for the animals let alone spending money on them and in their shock they voted to fund the animals. >> hey, look who was filling in for tom brokaw. in 2010 congress gave $3 million to help fund 54 rhino conservation projects. are you going eye crazy? there is a report that looks at how the digital culture is rewiring lives and altering personalities and it is not always for the better. the statistics are staggering. today the average teen gets or

sends 3,700 text messages a month. a third of us get on to our smartphones before we get out of bed. that's the topic of this month's "newsweek" cover story -- icrazy. good day to you. i tell you, we are all going it is like you are talking to me. it is scary. >> talking to all of us. >> it is. let's talk about, first of all, the evidence. it is a growing body you cite of the effects of web and devices on our health. saying the brain of internet addict turns out looks like the brains of drug and alcohol you a dikts. >> absolutely. there is growing scientific consensus that the effects on the brain of our current digital culture is -- the effects are massive. they simply cannot be understated. many are not paying enough attention to what a massive change both associate oriole logically and emotionally,

neurologically this new lifestyle is on us as a society. >> yes. i have to say i remember -- several years back, being with my mother at a restaurant, and seeing a group of attractive young teens. one was a celebrity and i won't call her name out because i'm not trying to slam her. but they were all like this. just like this. not talking. having lunch. not even talking together. >> absolutely. it is that level of disassociation that these scientist studying at a greater left. that's when our cover story has taken a closer look at there is a thai psychologist in the article that says the digital devices create insanity. let's qualify that. >> yes. no one saying that, okay, you are using twitter, texts and you are checking your e-mail regularly. therefore, you are going to go insane. no. that's a gross overestimation. however, for people that are already somewhat prone to mental illness, the effects of reading a modern digital -- leading a modern digital life could lead you much closer to a level of severe mental instability.

>> there will be further study on all of this. china, taiwan, south korea, they officially recognize this already as a diagnosis. i mean, there is an internet addiction diagnosis. >> there is. we sent several cases in which there were severe mental breaks. as a result of a very extended time spent on the internet. >> how do you distinguish from the experts 'anypoint of view what's leading to crazy and just pure enjoyment. >> well a lot of it -- i think it is -- safe to say that a lot of us do not use texts, e-mails, twitter for enjoyment. many of us feel that there is pressure to constantly be plugged in and in modern society. i think that -- the line really has to lie in some sense with each of us. what's your -- your threshold? when do you start feeling a bit unstable after being on the internet for a long extended period of time? the only -- heightened level of

mindfulness. pay attention to your emotional state. are you starting to feel severely depressed, upset, unhappy? have you been inside on the internet ail day? are you constantly checking your e-mail and unable to connect with the people around you? register that and it is time to take break. >> i was on vacation recently and did not check in at all. what i got from people all over the place reaction was good for you. that's awesome. >> absolutely. >> it felt great. i have to say. >> it does. >> all right. thank you very much for plugging in with us. >> you're very welcome. >> we have been asking all of you today, new article saying our digital devices are making us crazy. do you believe that? here are some of your tweets. depends on how you use them. sometimes taking a break is good. but a lot of people won't/can't do it. they are fine when they work. it is the non-working ones that drive me crazy. yeah. totally agree. i would say the author is all

wet. whatever that means. crazy? no. unsociable, yes. progress can't be stopped. although in some ways it could destroy us. i will get to more of your tweets later on. number four in our first five web stories. cut off by curfew. what an unhappy crowd at hyde park last might after bruce springsteen and paul mccartney were silenced after defying the sound curfew. mccartney just joined springsteen. "i saw her standing there." neither performer had a chance to thank the crowds. springsteen known for his super long shows playing for more than three hours and had exceeded the kur tie by a half an hour. there it went. not once in my life did i ever think i would have heart disease. she just didn't fit the profile of a heart event victim.

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the latest issue of "time"

magazines examins a crisis in u.s. military. at a rate of one a day u.s. troops are dying. not on the battle fields in afghanistan but at home far from enemy fire. the issue takes a hard look at the latest shocking rates of suicide for active duty members of the u.s. military. while the rate leveled off in 2010 and 2011, now there is an alarming rise. in the first five months of this year, more american service members killed themselves than were killed in combat. suicides are up 18% from january through may. and for veterans of all wars, the numbers are far worse. one suicide every 80 minutes. joining me is colonel jacobs, recipient of the u.s. medal of honor. very sober good day to you. >> sad news indeed. >> what sit about this time or is it different, this alarming suicide rate? if it is, why? what's different about the culture, the kind of wars they are fighting? >> i think one of the reasons is that the kind of war we are fighting.

when i was fighting, we fought toe to toe with the enemy. i felt as if -- you were scared out of your wits. but -- you really felt as if you could have -- actually have a positive impact on the outcome. you were more or less in charge of your fate. whether or not you did a good job or bad job had an folk the outcome, whether or not you and your friends would survive. that's not the case now. the large proportion of our casualties in iraq and afghanistan have been explosions. improvised explosive devices. that's the result of driving down unsecured roads which you are told you are not supposed to do. we do it for a wide variety of reasons. when you are doing that you feel as if you have absolutely no impact on whether or not you are going to survive or get your legs blown off. >> that means these men and women come back to reality here in the states and just -- simple things like driving down a road can bring up flash backs. it is hard to deal with the reality of a relatively secure environment. >> yeah. you are in an insecure

environment. you are overseas with you and your friends subject to a great deal of violence and you could not affect it. there is no doubt about the fact you have a feeling of helplessness when you -- recognize that no matter what you do, no matter how tactically correct you may be, driving down the road you may get blown up. >> how about the way that veterans are being received as they return here in the united states? because i'm really proud of what nbc and our networks are trying to do. we are trying to get out and make sure the people offer jobs in this strapped economic environment and do their best to be where of the veterans' needs for jobs. that's just one element. we are just one group that's doing that. it is tough for them. >> the good side is we love the troops these days. they didn't -- nobody loved the troops because they were subject to the draft back then. and nobody liked the war and the troops -- back when i was fighting. >> we do. but loving them and actually doing for them, putting your

money where your mouth is. >> that's something altogether. i think that there is a real problem that you -- pointed out. there is a big gap between the people that are serving and people being served. we have -- less than 1% of the american public in uniform. for most americans we effectively outsourced, completely outsourced our defense. when kids were in the combat zones spent their -- risked their lives to be with others, to sacrifice for their buddies, in an environment in which you are in a community and you are all pulling for one another and working with one another, when you come back to the united states, and discover that you have had an experience, comb pleatly unlike everybody else's, when you are back in the united states, there is not that sense of community. people don't look at you that way. >> people can't relate to you. >> like you are coming from a different -- >> i'm told we are out of time. i have to ask this question.

as we try to figure out the solutions and would talked about this before, this is not the first time this issue has come up. as we do that, is it maybe that -- we need to look more inward into the groups of people that work with these people that feel badly? other soldiers get groups like that to be the ones in a help solve their problems because they can relate to them? >> yes to the extent veterans administration is working better and better in today to address the problems. you are also talking about the communities to which these people belong. i think it is the responsibility of people who are -- have these soldiers, sailors and marines in their communities and it is their responsibility to make sure that they are taken care of and that means mentally and associate oriole logically and physically and economically. you know, we all bear the responsibility for taking care of those people that have defended us. we have to do a better job. we are not doing yet but working on it. >> i agree with you. thank you very much. >> thanks, alex. we should note there are

several services available 24 hours a day for members of the military and their families if they think a loved one of theirs is at risk, call the military crisis hotline. office politics and melissa harris-perry. her take on the newspaper nape speech. her favorite guilty pleasure on tv. doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna...use these. ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] unlike mops, swiffer can maneuver into tight spaces and its wet mopping cloths can clean better in half the time. mom? ♪ ahhhh! ahhhh! no it's mommy! [ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. ♪

good day to awful up just past 1:00 p.m. here in the east. ten cloak in the west. new comments to share on mitt romney's tenure at baen capital from president obama's camp today. campaign chairman and chicago mayor emanuel took on the candida candidate's claims he was not in charge when the firm outsourced jobs. >> he said chairman, ceo, sole shareholder. you can't as president of the united states have a sign on your desk that says gone fishing.

it is basically the buck stops there. >> joining me now, nbc news white house correspondent mike viqueira. good sunday to you, mike. rahm manuel, hardly the only surrogate out there this morning talking brain. let's take a listen to this. >> took a leave of absence from bain. and left a life he loved to help a country he loves more to save the olympics and he was not responsible for day-to-day decisions and not participate in day-to-day decisions on part of the management company at that time. he was on leave. >> okay. he was on leave there. >> leaves on leave. we went on to say mitt romney retired retroactively from bain in 1999. in other words, those sec findings and controversy that swirleded over the course of the last several days, the last week reably exactly what mitt romney's duties were at bain capital from that period, 1992 to 2002. that has been the attack on -- of the obama campaign. why is it important? i'm going to let you listen to

dick durbin. he was on "meet the press" today. he explains the democratic reasoning behind these attacks. >> we need to get down to the bottom line here. why is mitt romney running you a way from his company, bain capital, like a scalded cat? because there's -- abundant evidence that under bain capital, they were exporting american jobs to low-wage countries. he doesn't want to be associated with it. >> it is important to note that a lot much independent fact checkers, factchecker.org, wash post, they studied this issue and said any claims mitt romney was part of any company, either through bain by extension through bain, that outsourced those jobs, is not supported by the facts. but romney surrogates are all over the airwaves today saying that but nobody, you know, message is simply not getting through. they have a new tv ad out. you heard mitt romney if n a series of interviews friday with the television networks saying he wants president obama to apologize. well, late today or i should say early this morning, response of

local nbc affiliate in tide water, virginia, they asked president obama whether he was going to apologize to mitt romney and he says no. i'm not going to be apologizing. it gets. heightening, swirling controversy this morning in washington. >> okay. one that's not likely to go any time soon. >> no. >> many thanks for that. let's now bring in david and amy gardner from "the washington post." good morning to the two of you. >> health go david, i will begin with you. the obama camp not backing off the bain attacks. here is a bit more from president obama's deputy campaign manager today. >> you said that the -- mitt romney either misled the securities and exchange commission when he filled out forms about what his stat was bain capital or misled the american people and you said if he misled the securities and exchange commission, he was guilty of a felony. that has -- >> which would be a fell. >> i would be a felony. >> but -- >> felony, david?

that's what we are hearing now. i want to know -- stephanie said she is not suggesting mitt romney is not following the law. where this headed? do you think the bain issue has staying power until november? >> i think it absolutely has staying power at least million mitt romney makes news and picks his vice presidential candidate. i mean, it is remarkable that just a week ago, what we were talking about as a jobs report, another dismal jobs report, the obama administration, should have been on the defensive talking about. here we are seven days later, and their campaign has been able to make it all about bain and mitt romney and not coming forth about what his role was. not releasing his taxes. they really have the romney campaign on the defensive. and i think you have to end this week with the obama campaign. >> okay. amy, what you about n what do you make of the romney campaign's response to this? has it been effective? how do they change the narrative, if not? >> well, i think that's what we are hearing even republicans

talking about this weekend. you know, we -- scott walker, governor of wisconsin, quoted in the column this morning saying it is time for mitt romney to go on the offensive and to start articulating better and more clearly his own message about the economy and about the ways in which he believes president obama failed the nation these past four years. he hasn't been doing that as david said. he has been on the defensive not only on the bain but why he is not releasing his tax returns. going back further. so it all contributes on the perception he's not answering questions and not being forthcoming about some of the issues that the other side is asking him to talk about. >> david, you know, republicans are blasting mr. romney for not releasing more of his tax returns. the republican governor to alabama, setting the record straight following the report by the ap on comments that he made about the issue. of good bentley says i believe this transparency and i personally choose to release my own returns each year. there was no effort to imply mr. romney has anything to hide.

i also believe much of the rhetoric surrounding the personal finances is nothing more than an attempt by democrats to distract from the real issues of the presidential campaign. but -- david why do you think romney is refusing to release more of the tax -- look what he did when being vetted for the vp potential nothings '08 with john mccain? >> right. he said in interviews that he dash you know, he doesn't want the obama -- team going through and picking through his tax returns for opposition research. what could be in there? you know, offshore accounts, maybe lightly taxed income. needing more information on bain he doesn't want out there. the problem is you have conservative critics even as lates that morning coming out. bill kris, george will saying this is unacceptable. he is going to have to come forward and release more tax returns. so i don't see how he can go from now from the next four months and not do that when you have member of -- members of his own party and allies saying that

come forth and get this off the table or it feeds into the impression there's just something foreign about mitt romney, we can't quite get inside what his motives are. >> hey, if you are looking at -- you know, coming from all sides against the biggest side of concern would be that of independents. do you get a sense of how ts issue is registering with them? >> well, i mean, i'm not sure that the american public is clamoring to see mitt romney's tax returns but i think what david says is right. this is splg that's going to continue to haunt him because the other side is going to haunt him with. if he doesn't deal with it. it seems to me there will be potentially short-term pain in the release of the returns. but -- the longer he goes without releasing them, the more the obama campaign can continue to suggest that he's hiding something. and that fits into a larger narrative about mitt romney than he's not answering some of the questions in a more forthcoming way. that can be damage. >> i want to talk about swing states with both of you. amy, your latest article, you write about the fight ahead and n the swing state of virginia.

we had the live feed. poor guy got soaked as did most of everybody did there. he was soaked. how about the battle there? how is that shaping up? >> well, you know, virginia had been a republican solidly red state in presidential caucus going back until 1964, last time a democrat won the state. that changed in 2008 of course when president obama won. it is not a blue state now. it is very much a purple state. it is in play. both sides have the opportunity in virginia. you know, obama has advantage with the large and growing minority population in the eastern cities and virginia, richmond, tide water. romney has advantage with the still largely very conservative republican rural south and west in the state. s what in play are the independent voters of the booming suburbs and, you know, military families in tide water. they are going to both sides fight very hard for those votes. >> okay. want to get to the state of ohio

with you, david. the president is campaigning in cincinnati tomorrow. but overall, the latest quinnipiac poll thoeg the president leading by nine points or so, other polls show the race a bit closer. what do you expect the president to say in cincinnati tomorrow? >> i think you will see a lot more of the tsourcing argument that he carried into virginia the last two days. the president doesn't really mention bain specifically on the campaign trail. but he does talk about that mitt romney invested in business with outsource jobs. that will be an argument you hear repeatedly. particularly resonant in ohio which obviously has been hard hit with manufacturing losses. this is another issue that mitt romney -- although he did five interviews with the networks on friday, i think that he will have to explain more about what his role at bain was because if you don't know what bain is now, if you are just tuning in, voters are going to know over the next couple of months, i think. >> i just want to state another question to you about ohio

because we have senator rob portman campaigning his home state there this weekend. here is what he said yesterday in cincinnati. >> i am going to tell what you i think. i think he is running a campaign with -- stick with me here -- no fresh ideas. when you have a campaign with no fresh ideas you use stale tactics to scare voters. if you have no record to run on, you paint your opponent as someone to be run from. guess who i just quoted? >> barack obama. >> barack obama. four years ago. >> with the senator being on the short list of vp picks potentially, what kind of impact do you think he would have on the republican ticket? >> i don't think there is a lot of evidence the vice presidential pick sways voters 'opinions on who on vote for. they vote for the top of the ticket. of course, senator portman is a big asset in ohio. critical, critical swing state. republicans don't run a white house without winning ohio. i also think senator portman has potential to put romney at ease. they are like-minded, serious policy folks.

and in that respect, i do think that the vice presidential puck is important if it is somebody who partners well with the presidential no, ma'am me and makes him more comfortable on the stump. that could be an as set to governor romney. good to see you both. thanks so much. >> thank you. she publicly supported president obama in the last election but now she is sitting down with mitt romney. the queen of talk met with mr. romney, his wife friday for an interview published in "owe" magazine. campaign aides didn't divulge the topics of the interview. we are talking about oprah winfrey. latest political headlines, first read updated daily. logon to firstread.msnbc.com. coming up, more facts, more fire. that's what our next guest says president obama needs to win the battle over taxing the rich. what's he mean by that? office politics. the early predictions important the showdown in november.

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the fight over extending bush tax cuts sin tense tieing with president obama making his case this weekend. >> what i have seen to congress is let's make sure that everybody's making $250,000 a year or less and then your taxes don't go up. that's 98% of americans. but let's ask folks like me who can afford it, the top 2%, to do a little bit more. >> the new article from "newsweek" spells out what the president may have to win the

issue in november. and joining me is the author of that article. welcome. what he has to do to win that. michael, thanks for being here. you wrote about the tax reality that no one talks about. under president obama's proposal people would only pay a higher tax rate on the income amount above $250,000. not the total. so for a quick example if someone makes $300,000, you are only paying on $50,000. why are people so confused by this? >> well, it starts because president obama doesn't quite phrase it the right way. and -- it would help if he would. the media wasn't talking about it the right way either. the proceedsposed increase is n people, dollars earned above a certain amount. you said it exactly right. only the dollars earned above $250,000 would be subject to this additional tax. and then, again, there is another point, it is only taxable income. that is, income after deductions are taken, homeownership

deductions and other deductions are taken. if a couple makes $300,000 and they take $30,000 worth of deductions, their taxable income is $270 and they would be paying higher rate only on $20,000. those dollars above $1250,000. i'm so happy to have the opportunity to come on national tv and say this. >> no. i'm glad you did. you absolutely say it even better than i did. it is important people use that quarter of a million threshold, you added up can take your deductions, deeg duct them and what's remaining of that, it is an even smaller amount people will have their -- this new tax would go into or the -- lack of extension of bush tax cuts would affect that amount of money. the numbers on extending the tax cuts overall 5shgs 2% of voters say they want all of the tax cuts extended, 43% want them extended for the incomes under $250,000. what's your take on that? do they not understand? are people saying between can't put any more of our cash into

the general pot there? >> yeah. i don't know. that number surprising me. it doesn't jive with most other polls i have seen. most polls, you see -- people in the 65% range say that we agree with raising taxes on the dollars above $250,000. i guess i-want to know more about exactly how that question was asked because it seems like an outlier to me. but, you know, i guess it just proofs that -- if that's -- at all sentiment out there, it proves that obama has to go make this case more forcefully and -- more smartly than he has. >> okay. can i ask you about the other article you wrote this week about romney's tax returns. do you think he will be forced to release more tax returns? >> i think eventually he's going to have to do something because every candidate does. every candidate has. going back to house father as many people have observed. but ever since then, candidates released tax returns. barack obama released seven

years of tax returns in 2000. george w. bush released many years of his tax returns. john kerry also released many, many years. same with john mccain. you just don't run for president and get away with not releasing your returns. now, what i suspect, alex, he might do is he might pull something i have seen in my years as a journalist. other really rich candidates do. they don't pass out copies but they -- invite reporters to come sit in a room and look at it for three hours and can't make copies. you can't make heads or tails of anything. he might try to pull something like that. >> what's inning to me, this is a very intelligent man. released all his tax returns while being vetted by potential vp pick by john mccain many years prior. then have you these four years where he's clearly on the public stage. you would think -- even though people are suggesti ining he ha something to hide, you think he knows better. i keep going back to why aren't you just doing it? i mean, he has been on the

public stage and probably had aspirations to run for the presidency four years ago. you know, i mean, he knows what he is doing. >> he does know what he is doing. and it is true. you make a very inning point that the people who run mccain 2008 campaign are sitting there 20 years worth of returns. steve smith and others on that campaign, they know what's in them. it will be interesting to see if they have anything to say about this. at any rate, you are right. he does know how the game is played. and -- it just suggests the obvious thing. there's something in there that's -- unflattering he doesn't want the rest of us to see. >> okay. always good to talk to you. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. up next, dramatic rebound in the housing market. are we really home free of the housing mess? here is hoping. this is new york state. we built the first railway,

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new report suggests one of the biggest causes of the economic weakness has rebounded. "the wall street journal" declared the housing bust is over. nearly seven years after the bubble burst. they sought convincing new evidence including increase in home sales and 10% more homes were sold in may than last year. "money" magazine reporter amanda is joining us to break this down. welcomed news for if it is true. do you agree? >> many economists are indeed saying that the moment has finally come. that -- we are in the early stages of a recovery. we have turned the corner and the housing market is on the mend. but on the other hand, have you to be careful. you don't want to overstate the strength of the recovery. because, in fact the market is still very weak. even if we are in the early stages of a recovery, we are still a long ways away from having any type of normal market. we are probably not going to get

there for three, four years. good news so many economists are saying, hey, we finally are on the mend but we just want to be careful not to overstate it. >> sit safe to say we hit rock bottom? do you think we can ensure that? >> one of the nation's largest homebuilders. ceo's in the earnings release said in june before the market hit bottom. that's base you cannily what the economists are saying. and i think what's interesting this time around is -- lot of people have been saying that over the past couple of years. i think it has been more anecdotal and -- it may have been happening in one market of the country but not another. but what's happening now is -- many economists are looking at the country as a whole. and saying -- okay, there's mounting evidence that we finally have the numbers telling the stories. if you look at home sales, housing permits, start, median home price are indicating that the recovery is here. >> if the epicenter of our downward trend economy has do with the housing bubble which

burst is it safe to say that with this, you know, at least bottoming out, slowly heading uphill, there is expected room for improvement in the economy overall? >> i think it is definitely good news for the economy because there is not a lot of positive news coming out of the economy right now. housing is, in fact, one of the areas, one of the few areas that is gaining strength. definitely. if the housing market continues to chug along, the slow and steady climb, that's good news. >> what can you see as something that would be uh-oh, send it off again? >> if we went into some type of recession, that could. but i think -- biggest obstacle facing the market right now is tight credit. we hear these record low mortgage rates, 30 years at 3.6% -- >> if you can get them. >> that's the problem. banks have very strict standards. there are a lot of people had a with like to buy and are not qualifying for the really low rates. that's one of the biggest head

winds today. federal government clears the way for florida to resume its hunt for ineligible voters. that could have a huge impact on the election. talking about it next here on "weekends with alex witt." thoug. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

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and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. welcome back to with the kwkds with alex witt." well, the feds are giving the green light on a right to vote challenge in florida which means that the state can now use a homeland security database to check on whether its residents and non-residents have the right to vote based on citizenship status. all this is playing out in the midst of a close presidential relationship in the battleground state. steve is joining me now. good day to you and thanks for joining me. >> thanks. >> tell us what's happened to allow florida to move ahead with the voter purge. >> for most of the past year the governor here, rick scott,

republican, has been ardent in miss belief the states should do everything kit to prevent noncitizens from voting. there's very little evidence of that to ever occur. they are having a handful of cases we found. but the state was using outmoded and bad data to try to catch noncitizens on the voter registration roles. with this latest development, by the department of homeland security, the state now claims it has much better, much more current, comprehensive data on non-citizens in florida that get benefits like food stamps. then they are going to run that list against the voter lists and check for more non-citizens that may have voter cards. >> okay. so -- we are talking how many people affected by this decision, steve? >> yeah. they have gone -- there are about 11.2 million registered voters in florida. >> wow. >> and, of course, we are headed for a high turnout presidential election. and the number of people who might be on the homeland security list who are non-citizens is yet to be

determined. the first list if state created, again, based on bad data from the department of highway safety, was about 2700 people. so small number, but rick scott is determined to see to it that no non-citizens get to cast ballots. >> 11.2 million. i thought that you were going pull me up with that number as being those that may be affected by this because apparently across the country, there are huge numbers that may be affected by this. i mean, it is not just florida state that we are talking about here. how unprecedented is this? >> well, i'm not sure what the states are doing. but the florida -- florida is hoping to set an example for other states to do this. but there is the high likelihood of a lawsuit here. because democrats and voter advocacy groups have insisted all along this is a vetter suppression tactic by rick scott and republicans to try to tamp down the turnout in florida. the people who have been -- who

surfaced on the first list, the state created, were are overwhelmingly hispanic. and so we are going to -- have litigation with us of a federal law that says you can't systematically review voters from the voter roles less than 90 days before an election. so this situation, episode is far from over in my judgment. >> i agree with you but what was it that made the department of homeland security change its mind? it has been appealed to prior to release these roles that they have. they said no. what changed? >> right. the -- department of homeland security has not answered that question. however, obvious fab tore was the fact two weeks ago, the department of justice and other federal agency, lost in federal court, in tallahassee, the department of justice trying to get an injunction to stop these purging efforts and the judge -- judge, by the way, parenthetically, bill clinton appoint he said no, no. the state didn't continue to look for non-citizen voters.

i think when the federal government lost that important round in court, they decided to throw in the owl and let the state have that. >> what if they find there are thousands of non-citizens on the vo voter polls? what does that do in terms of going to law enforcement matter in immigration? >> absolutely. i don't know if that will happen. they find -- i think that -- you can expect the governor here and the republican leadership to say even if they find one noncitizen on this role they made hair point. if you find a lot of them, it is up to a local prosecutor to charge someone with a third degree felony. it is a crime to state on a voter registration application that you are a u.s. citizen when you are not a u.s. citizen. that's a serious crime. >> it is an interest conversation from the tampa bay times herald. thank you, steve. i appreciate. >> it okay, thanks. in today's office politics, i talked with melissa

harris-perry about her vision of bringing her classroom in front of the cameras. the hidden view of humanity in her favorite guilty pleasure tv shows. but first, i asked melissa for her reaction to mitt romney's speech to the naacp and her early prediction for the election. >> i actually initially thought it was a great speech, that then went bad at the end. weird, sort of racial, cultural way. he also didn't flip-flop which is re -- has been the thing he has been criticized for. he came and said exactly the same things and says to every audience. i am here to cut taxes. i am here to stimulate the economy. and i am here to repeal obamacare. and use the language of obamacare. right? for from my perspective -- >> the boos. >> here comes the boos. mitt romney's biggest challenge is he has been called a flip-flopper. had he gone to the naacp and said well, you know, i'm considering the parts of -- affordable care act i like,

everyone -- including naacp wouldn't have called foul because it would not be consistent with his message. i thought he was fine there. then he made the little comment in the press pool afterward. he said the thing about if you want free stuff go vote for the other guy. and that, i think, was where he went wrong. he really threaded the needle even with the boos. i think had you to respect where he stood. and then that last little dig felt like -- well, now you don't get it. mitt romney is a very disciplined guy. he is not natural. he's not sort of -- easily affable. but he -- he is disciplined. and competent. i suspect the real question of what happens in the debate from the fall, disciplined at that time. i cannot call this election. i have to say it feels like an absolute tossup to me. >> still? >> yeah. maybe it is because it is still july. >> yeah. >> i got to watch how they

perform in their respective conventions. gop convention can be much more excite thing year than the democratic convention. democratic convention is like fireworks and light and happiness. then the republican convention with sarah palin which was fascinating dash hard for me to imagine either can be as interest thing year as they were four years ago. but it will be meaningful because these candidates will have to come out of that. here's something you are really good at on your show. that's speaking your mind. even if it stirs up controversy. why do you do that? what propels you to do that? >> you -- i felt like it was a good mission statement as given when i came to the show. my conversations with phil griffin was that part of what they were looking to do was to provide an opportunity for opinion and analysis, voices. so we have some great news reporting that happens on the show. on this network. we also have some really smart

an -- analytical opinions on this show. this is sort of the -- whole thing we are going for. it is -- you know, all of those years spent in the library, all those years of, you know, serving the tenure committee is so you can eventually just really say whatever you want to say. within the bounds of -- reason. what's it about this show i love? what sit that makes me feel at the end of it that was a good way to spend my 30 minutes of my life or something? and with those kind of shows, it is always my sense that i have somehow felt a sense of humanity from the people i'm watching. where i really -- it is mr. granite counter tvs but also about people and the way we live and what we think of beautiful and what counts as space. >> do you consider yourself more of a green thumb or decorator? if you are into hgtv.

>> it is -- decorating part. yeah. i love it. >> what do you want to do this w this office? you know. >> i gave up -- this is really -- this was a management choice. the staff is very lean and mean. i could have an office but no collective space. i'm only here friday, saturday, sunday. my staff is here wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. i gave up having an office so that we collectively can have -- >> you have the shoe. >> yeah. >> i like those. >> they are my shoes. i forgot to ask her what size they are and whether i can borrow them. anyway, for more of melissa harris-perry be sure to tune in to her show every saturday and sunday at 10:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. in next week's office politics, i'm going to be talking with that guy, andy cohen. "watch what happens live."

it is all about bain in the battle important the white house. right now and heating up more. big three is next.

down here, folks measure commitment by what's getting done. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment.

and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. it is time important the big three. today's topics are the blowup over bain. swing state smackdown. this weekend's must reads. let's bring in my panel, reporter from real clear politics, erin mcpike. robert trainum and columnist for the hill, karen finney. good to see all three of you. it is awesome to have you. >> hello. >> i will begin with you, erin. first to the blowup over bain here. a former partner of bain appeared on "up with chris hayes." he asked him after 9:00 when mr.

romney left to run texas salt lake city olympics. >> he is the chief executive officer during this time. >> legally on documents i suppose, yes. he's not attending any meet. >> no meetings at all. he never showed up at any meetings. >> i will tell you this, it was ten years. can i remember every single meeting? no. but i remember mitt was gone. we had a management teamworking hard to manage the company. we had to negotiate for terms of mitt's departure and everybody's departure at that time and it was difficult to get any time from mitt to get him at -- his attorneys said so do that because he is so busy working on the olympics. >> okay. when you hear all of that, does that clear anything up? or does it open the door for more questions? >> well, with gray area like that, of course there are always more questions. so perhaps he was on a conference call at some point. if he was on a conference call, did he provide some sort of advice that led to another transaction? we don't know. maybe he did go to a meeting. that man doesn't remember all of

them. basically, alex, the romney campaign and bain capital have been kind of messy in their responses and it was originally billed as he was not part of bain and -- after 1999, but now he was -- still legally head of bain until 2001. it has been messy. >> yeah. robert, senior adviser at gillespie, describing it as a leave of absence even though mr. romney's name appears on the sec filings after 9:00. what is it? did mitt romney misrepresent his role on those sec filings? >> i don't think we know. i think that's the murkiness 37 going back to erin's point we just simply don't know. i agree that the romney campaign has been a little sloppy in handling this. and look, my advice to them is just to tell the truth. because dash obviously the coverup, as you know, as we always know, is always worse than the actual crime. i'm not suggesting that governor rom new broke the law or anything like that. just completely tell the truth and if, in fact, it was an error say that.

i think that's the main reason why, alex, why we don't see governor romney's past tax returns as -- that could conflict with the sec filings or complement them. there's a lot of murkiness out there and that's why a lot of republican governors are saying look, mitt, please tell the truth. please be transparent. and let's talk about the economy which is the number one issue that americans want to talk about. >> here raes so's someone tryinp in here. >> in communication strategy, robert knows this well. it is the -- fact -- your question to erin, so there's one new piece of information from had guy who says -- i don't think he was at meetings. but then we saw additional reports from the boston globe friday that again contradict what has been said. there are documents coming out every day that say something different. over the last couple of weeks, we have gotten different pieces, almost every day. they all contradict one another. that is the problem. you they, these kinds of things, you have to get it all out. have your narrative, explain it

and then -- you can't keep -- interest can't keep shifting like this because they are not going to be able to move past this because they are raising more questions every day. >> we have a brand-new ad out. let's take a look at it. >> when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's coming right out of the box with these -- old fashioned negative ads. >> starting negative by going extremely tough and extremely hard, conventional. running ads that are inaccurate. >> barack obama's campaign more negative ads against this republican nominee in 2012 than ever. >> give me a reaction to the effectiveness of this ad. >> you know, i understand what they are trying to do. classic tactic to say, you know, you hear surrogates saying obama does want to talk about the economy. nothing could be farther from the truth. in every single speech president obama does and every surrogate out there is talking about the record -- record on the economy

and job creation. and the things that he wants to do in the second term. i mean, he has done that very clearly. you heard joe biden do it to the naacp clearly. lay out a second term vision. it is a classic tactic to try to say the only reason, you know, you shouldn't care about my tax returns is because -- you know, obama is just going negative. again, mitt romney, fundamental piece here, mitt romney himself said my record as a businessman at bain capital is a primary reason for to you consider me for president. now we are asking questions -- the fact he's not prepared for these questions is problematic a. and b, the fact that these -- answers to these questions don't seem to line up with one another and don't seem to line up with, you know, new pieces of information that keep coming up. that's a real problem. they can try this tactic but in the long run it is not going to work because people still at the end of the day will say how -- you were ceo but were ceo. you were in the bahamas. it doesn't make sense to people. >> let's move up to the next topic. robert, swing state smackdown

now. president obama heads inform ohio tomorrow, cincinnati. latest polls show the president with a slight lead in both states. so how does the romney campaign compete here? what's his strategy? >> first of all, i love the whole smackdown comment. i love that. at the end of the day. >> swing state smackdown. >> i understand. look, i think at the end of the day -- slightly disagree with karen. i don't think most people wake up in the morning and say let me figure out what bain capital has done today. they are still interested in the economy. they are still interested in the economy and how it troelts them. i think what governor romney needs to do, doing this, speaking to the independent voters specifically and dash in virginia but also in southwestern i on owe and saying i'm bet other the economy. i'm trying something different. southwestern ohio is the way -- where governor romney needs on speak to. but also the tide water area of virginia. that's where the real battleground place, if you will, is in the two states. >> erin, what -- what about the

new mason-dixon poll? shows mr. romney leading the president by one point. you want to throw in the hypothetical matchup and you add marco rubio as the vp pick. then it flips. just by a point. republican ticket leading over president obama and vice president biden. what do you make of these numbers? what does that tell you about a possible romney/rubio ticket? basically, do we need to be talking about this combination? should we not? >> well, look, yank it says much at all because either way that's a tie. one point a tie in both directions. despite that mitt romney said he's -- thoroughly vetting marco rubio, between don't see much evidence that marco rub wroe is very high up on the list. he is not campaigning with mitt romney really. we haven't seen what they are -- relationship is like in the chemistry they have. i would say marco rubio is still very unlikely as potential running mate for mitt romney.

>> you guys sit tight. must reads for esteemed victory panel coming up next. ♪ [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t.

rethink possible.

we are back with the big three. it is time for this weekend's must reads. bringing the panel back in. erin, robert and karen. i will go to you first, erin. how do you see things? >> there's a great story in "the washington post" today by amy gardner about virginia. we were just talking swing states and the swing state smackdown, virginia is ground zero for that. she has a great story about what the state will look like this fall. >> i have to say i agree with you. we had her on the show earlier and talked about that interview. good job there. how about you, robert? what's your must read. >> great story in politico. republican governors are concerned that mitt romney is not smacking back forcefully with the obama campaign and with the strategist. they are very worried. push back and push back hard. >> thank you for that. karen, we will finish up with you. what's your must read? >> "boston globe," one of the many stories coming out, again with this conflicting information and why it matters is that it is hard to make an

argument you are bet other the economy when you may have played as a businessman undermining the economy. >> can i ask you really quick, is bain going to stay with us through november? what do you think? yes or no? >> in ads by the obama campaign, absolutely. >> okay. robert? >> no. >> okay. karen? >> absolutely. they don't have an answer. >> okay. there you have it. thank you so much. appreciate you all being here. and before we go, tonight the premiere of an msnbc documentary looking at a controversial court case that gripped this nation. casey anthony trial. her former lead attorney, jose baez, is out with a new book as we approach the one-year anniversary of her release. you are going to hear about the inner workings of the defense and a whole lot more to be on the documentary "defending casey anthony." it airs tonight at 9:00. it is definitely must-see tv for you. that's a wrap-up of this sunday edition of "weekends with alex

witt." we will have headline updates and news as it happens. up next, "meet the press." stay with us. i'm alex witt. have yourself a great sunday. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

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