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five advisement, where the judge basically told the defendant what constitutional rights he can expect to have in this case. you heard the judge say that there was a probable cause determination. in colorado we do an initial probable cause determination to make sure that there's kind of an overview of the evidence so that the court knows that there's enough evidence to continue to hold the defendant. the defendant is being held without bond at this point in time. eventually there will be a preliminary hearing and a proof evident presumption break hearing and we will ask the court to continue holding him without bond. so are there any questions? >> i'm gary peterson from cbs. i was part of the media that was actually in the courtroom and i was struck by the fact that the defendant seemed to have no emotion, did not follow what was going on. i don't think i ever saw his head turn when conversations

were being made. is he on medication or something or is he aware? can you tell us, is there something that would affect his demeanor because he seemed to not even pay attention. >> we would have no information about that. that is not something that would be shared with us. >> as the district attorney here, and long-time prosecutor, from the outset does this seem as though it is a slam-dunk case, given the evidence you have amassed so far? >> i would say there's no such thing as a slam-dunk case. it is a case where we will -- we're still looking at the enormous amount of evidence and we would never presume that it would be slam-dunk. we will work very hard on this case to prosecute it just like we would any other ce. >> talk about what he's being held on, please, what he was arrested on, please. can you tell us? >> i'm aware that you may not [ inaudible ] but if it was your decision, would this be a death penalty case? >> i don't think that that's a case that can be made in the abstract. there is so much that victims have to take into account and

victims will be impacted by that decision in an enormous way for years, if the death penalty is sought. that's a very long process that impacts their lives for years, and so they will want to have and we will want to get their input before we make any kind of a decision on that. >> can you please tell us, he was arraigned, first appearance today, on the charges that he was arrested on. what is that charge or charges, please? >> he was not arraigned today. this was simply the first appearance and the arraignment comes much further down the line. the charges on which the court found probable cause included first degree murder. >> could federal law apply -- be applied to this case? could there ultimately also be a federal trial? >> theoretically, there are ways that that could happen, but that's very speculative. >> do you anticipate an insanity defense? >> i don't think we're anticipating anything right now. i think we have to really look

more at what information we're being given and sort it all out, then make some decisions. >> are special precautions being taken to protect his safety in jail? >> that's my understanding, he is being held in isolation. [ inaudible ] >> it was my first time seeing him. it's important we treat him just like any other defendant coming into the system. >> i know you said you want to talk to the victims before you determine whether or not to seek the death penalty but can you give us an idea where in the process that comes? >> the death penalty decision has to be made within 60 days of the arraignment. so it is months down the line still. but we will, over the course of those months, be talking with all of the victims, developing relationships just so that they know who we are and who they can talk to and that will take some time in this case. >> how are you managing so many victims? >> we are managing all these victims with as many victim

advocates as week g can get. we are using victim advocates from other offices, pios from other offices so each family has someone they can rely on, but we also have a place on our website, and people can go to the website and let us know what their e-mail address is and we can send out mass e-mail alerts to this group of victims if they want to do that. >> you had a high number of high profile cases in this district. can you tell us where this one ranks for you and your staff? >> i don't know if we rank cases. they are all important to us and we want to give each and every victim the attention and each and every case the attention and resources that it needs. >> how many charges do you expect to file? >> i think that's unknown at this point in time. there's the potential for many but we haven't made those decisions yet. [ inaudible ] >> we don't know that yet. >> how long of a lifetime do you see this case having?

>> that is so unpredictable. i would have no idea. >> would you consider domestic terrorism charges? >> that would not be something that we would normally consider in state prosecutions. >> did you talk to the victims, and the mood is not to go forward with the death penalty, do you have discretion, does the team have discretion to go against that or are you bound in some way to follow their wishes? >> it will ultimately be the decision of the prosecutors on the case. >> has he been forthcoming? what's his demeanor been like? >> we don't have a lot of information on that and nothing we could speak to if we did. does anybody on the team have anything they want to say? >> how long do you expect this to go to trial? >> that is also very unpredictable. it will depend on the number of motions, the availability of the court. nothing in the court system moves all that quickly, so -- >> months? years? >> at least a year, i would say.

>> obviously you learned quite a lot in the first couple days. from now, what are the questions you still have that you're expecting answers to? >> it's still a very active ongoing investigation. we're still doing subpoenas, search warrants, so i don't -- we're still looking at this case from every angle, following up on information that the media has obtained that would be of interest to the officers. so we're still very much partnered with the aurora police department on finding information. >> considering the amount of media, would you anticipate a change of venue request because of all that's unfolded here? >> we certainly know that that will be an issue that will be brought up to the court. >> is that the standard color that a suspect or inmate wears in the county jail here? >> i would refer that to the sheriff's department. i don't know how they dress people. >> -- there were 12 deaths here but they could be 24 charges,

can you explain that to me? >> there are different ways that someone can commit first degree murder. one of those ways, for example, is after deliberation. but another way is extreme indifference. they just are two different ways. so somebody can, based on the conduct involved, can commit both of those offenses. >> the suspect's family said they are cooperating with the investigation. are they? >> i have no information about that. >> is there a deadline for when you can file charges? wh when do you expect to file? >> there's no specific deadline in the rules of when we can file charges. in this jurisdiction it's traditionally after 72 hours but there can be special circumstances when we ask for longer and this is clearly one of those cases. so the filing of charges is set for next monday morning. next monday morning at 8:30. 9:30. >> will the defendant be there for that? >> that would have to be directed at the defense attorney.

>> is this a preliminary hearing? >> no, the next hearing is filing of charges. that's where we give the defendant, we give the defense attorneys the actual charges that the defense -- defendant will be facing. >> because there will be so many charges -- >> do you believe it's the victims' rights to have this trial here because of everything unfolding here? >> i don't think it's the victims' right. certainly i'm sure it's their preference to have it close to their home, where it's most convenient for them, but all considerations will be weighed by the court. >> because there will be so many charges, how long do you think you will be amending them, adding, removing, that sort of thing? >> we're trying to get it right the first time, but as we will be continuing to get more information, in a case like this, the investigation doesn't stop. it will continue up to trial. so as we find more information, we want to make sure we've got the right charges. so i couldn't predict that. but it's certainly something we're willing to do, if necessary. so maybe one more question. >> can i ask a nonlegal question, please? i know we've been in court,

we've watched the proceedings, but considering the nature of what has unfolded and how it has hurt this community, what is the mood of your team about this case? >> our team is -- it's just a difficult type of case to be involved in, and i think everybody is -- just has been working just like the police, have they been working all weekend to get done what needs to get done? i'm not sure they stopped to consider how it's impacting them yet at this point. i think we want to get everything we can as quickly as we can. if there's anybody out there who knows anything about this who hasn't talked to police yet, please contact the aurora police department or contact us and we will get you in touch with the right people. thank you. >> that was rarapahoe county district attorney carol chambers speaking outside the courthouse. mike taibbi joins us live now

from centennial, colorado. give us a sense what it was like inside the courtroom. >> reporter: there was a lot of anticipation by everybody about what this defendant's demeanor would be like, everybody who saw him got a clear sense on their own just from watching it on tv but in person, he just seemed to be especially lethargic, nonresponsive. when the court officer said all rise to begin the proceedings at 9:31 local time, it took him three or four seconds to actually get to his feet. he was helped to his feet by one of his two public defenders. he didn't focus his eyes at all and look at anybody that i could see and i have been in these situations before. jared loughner in tucson, at least that person was engaged with others in the courtroom. this individual, james holmes, did not seem engaged at all. he didn't look at the judge, he was asked if he had anything to say, had no response. his attorneys spoke for him. again, throughout the 11 minute proceeding, really didn't seem to be engaged with anything or anyone. >> mike, i notice that the d.a. was asked whether she thought or

knew if holmes was on some kind of medication, precisely because he seemed so catatonic. she didn't seem to have an answer. >> reporter: she didn't have an answer to that. that's up to the department of corrections, if there's maintenance medication. brian williams pointed out he had been on before, we don't know that. that hasn't been revealed. perhaps he had taken those. he was in solitary since the time he was brought to the arapahoe county jail, segregated from general population for his entire time there. he had no visitors at all in that time, perhaps just in the holding room here to meet with his attorneys, public defenders, for the first time. not only didn't have any visitors but wasn't even talking to the cops, reportedly not cooperating in any way since he was apprehended in the early morning hours saturday morning. couple things about the hearing, alex, if we have time to go over this, that i thought were important. one was that the judge as he said, is going to draft his own motion and order on limiting pretrial publicity. that doesn't automatically mean a gag order but it means for the long period before this arraignment and it may be several months, there will be a

real restriction on what we the press and therefore we the public can know about this case. the search warrant has already been sealed. that order was referenced today. here's a second thing. whenever there's a case like this, there's a question raised about who else might have shared responsibility, not as an actor in this case. he is the sole suspect in what happened friday at midnight. but did anybody along the way not notice what they should have noticed. one motion that was referenced by the lead prosecutor in this case was for access to all of the records of the university of colorado, where he was in the medical campus, was dropping out in june. allegedly, he had a lot of the online purchases of ammunition delivered to an address at the campus. legally he can buy everything he bought. i think that's been established. but when someone accumulates 150 pounds worth of ammunition, 6,000 rounds, 350 shotgun shells, all that ballistic gear, should somebody have noticed that. did he use that address

legitimately. did he have access to an address the school provided for him. who knows. but the motion was made and referenced this morning to get access to all the records the university of colorado relating to this defendant. alex? >> nbc's mike taibbi, very important pieces of information. good observations. thank you, as always. i'm sure we will talk to you in the coming days. coming up, we are going to get reaction from our panel to all of this, next on "now." [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

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welcome back to our continuing coverage of the tragedy in colorado. joining me on the panel today, jody cantor of the "new york times" and author of "the obamaas." howard wolfson, dave cullen, author of "columbine" and david chalean, bureau chief for yahoo!

news. we just came out of the press conference held by the local d.a. and also the advisement hearing for suspected killer james holmes. there is going to be a lot of analysis and probably armchair psychiatry in the coming weeks and months ahead about what kind of person james holmes is. he was certainly, his behavior was i think intriguing to a lot of folks watching. we don't know whether he's on medication but he is certainly catatonic, slow response. you have an excellent op-ed in the "new york times" today talking about jumping to conclusions. >> thanks. >> about, you know, folks behind mass killings and tragedies of this stripe. i want you to give us a little bit of background as far as columbine and how the national media sort of really rushed to portray the two folks behind it as this kind of student, this kind of person, and how at the end of the day, that wasn't really the case. >> sure. well, there are several things we know about columbine. there were two kids who were loners, outcasts, members of the

trenchcoat mafia who were bullied within an inch of their life by these jocks and went about exacting revenge from the jocks. that's what everybody knows about columbine. everything i just said is wrong. not one bit of that is true. but we all believe that because that was the analysis in the first, really, the first day, but over the first week, over and over again, and those ideas solidified into fact to where everyone believed them. so 13 years later, it's really impossible to ever take that story back. when we in the media, if we do too much armchair psychology based on little teeny scraps of information right now, it's going to stay with us. honestly, there's a little -- somewhat less danger in this case because he's eventually going to go to trial and that will overwhelm -- we don't want to mess it up right now and have these ideas with us, and actually we don't want to be impacting the jury by solidifying these ideas of what we think was going on in his

head. >> it's worth highlighting a couple excerpts from former colleagues or fellow students with holmes. a class mate is quoted in the "new york times" on saturday saying he was really shy, really quiet, but really nice and sweet. another college classmate quoted says we were honor students, that always has a little bit of stigma of being weird, right, but i never would have thought he would do something like this, never considered him to be a lunatic or deranged like the news is calling him. then you have john jakobson who holmes called his mentor in grad school. he's quoted in the "l.a. times" as saying holmes was absolutely stubborn. i was at a loss to how to get him to program him in an object-oriented way, speaking about specific tasks. he just refused. finally i said do it any way you can. varying sort of profiles of a guy who remains, of course, shrouded in mystery. i want to bring in the rest of the panel here. jody, in terms of why the media does what it does and of course, we are all implicating ourselves here, but often it's to help i

think the country in some way make sense of what happened and why, and to sort of help with the rationalization and almost healing process. >> well, part of what stuck out about the quotes you just showed is that even the people that knew him don't have any idea why he did this. those were the classic day after quotes, he was quiet, he was unassuming, et cetera, et cetera. so as a reporter, i just look at it and say if even the people who know him don't really understand this, it has to give the rest of us a big dose of humility in trying to understand this. >> the fact that he is still alive, he did not commit suicide, he wasn't assassinated or killed during the confrontation with the police is a good thing in terms of finding out more. we heard during the d.a.'s testimony that there is going to be some request for records from the university of colorado to paint a fuller picture of exactly who knew what and when and specifically mentioned was

the fact that a lot of the ammunition that he used was delivered in fact to the university, and the role i guess of the academic environment, whether there was anybody else that knew such things were going on is certainly something we'll be looking to as we tell the story of this. >> they will clearly want to find out sort of the moment the ammo arrived on campus, sort of whose hands touched it and who knew what was inside the box. i'm sure that will come out. to the point of looking at him for the first time in court today and not rushing to judgment, it's all a quest to try to explain the inexplicable. we are so uncomfortable as a society leaving it unexplained although i can't imagine we are ever going to have an actual satisfying answer as to why somebody would do something like this. i can't imagine that there is one. so we seek for it every way we possibly can. maybe as you say because it's part of the healing process and largely because i think as a society we are totally uncomfortable with leaving something like that unresolved. >> howard, when we talk about our leaders and sort of how they

help us make sense of this, certainly the president has visited victims, has made two statements on the shooting. you know, it is also an opportunity, i guess, not to be crass about it, a time to perhaps move the ball forward on a couple of issues and your boss, mayor bloomberg, has been vocal and very immediately in that sense, on the issue of gun control and sort of saying look, this is a problem of crime. this isn't an issue of gun control in the united states. >> i think the president played an important role in going there and speaking comforting words, that is something he has done very well. presidents have done that well. it's an important presidential responsibility. it's also an important presidential responsibility to try to do something to prevent these kinds of actions occurring in the future. mayor bloomberg this morning and over the weekend was very clear that both he and former governor romney have some responsibility to tell the american people what they would do to try to prevent these horrific actions from occurring again in some other

place. what we can do as a society to prevent people like this from acquiring these kinds of weapons from going into a movie theater and killing these people. >> one of the things he said when he was speaking with "morning joe" this morning was i'm going to keep stirring it up and hope other people join in that effort. are you optimistic that other leaders will come forward and say we have to do something about this problem? >> you have to be hopeful that society can change and you look at a lot of issues over the years where the issue seemed intractable, the politics were against it and people were still willing to stand up and do something. there was a strong op-ed in the "new york times" this weekend about that very subject. people are willing to come forward and keep pushing the ball forward, keep pushing that rock up the hill. mayor bloomberg is willing to do that. there are a lot of other people willing to do that. he is head of the coalition of over 700 mayors around the country who understand we need to do something about getting guns off our street. this is a terrible tragedy, obviously, in colorado. we have a tragedy like this every day in america. it's just in lots of different

places. we lost a 4-year-old this weekend in new york, brought down by gunfire in a basketball game. so we've got to do something about this crisis. mayor bloomberg believes we've got to do something now. >> we have to go to break. coming up, how the campaigns are handling the shooting this weekend. and a broader discussion about gun control, all ahead. 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 and jeopardizing development in energy projects that create american jobs. ask congress to stop a dividend tax hike --

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>> it's ten pages of just full of hearts in the journal. some of them with the phrase "i love you" stencilled across them and love is the most common theme in his journal, mixed in with a lot of anger, back and forth. it's a very, very conflicted kid. what you see is not any one thing that any one cause or symptom but back and forth at war with himself. but depression is throughout. he mentioned suicide on the very first page two years before the murders. depression is of all the different types of killers, sort of four main types of mass murderers, depression is by far the most. it's not what the public expects but that's what tends to be driving them and a person who's got a lot of anger turned inward eventually turns it outward. >> thus the importance on not jumping to any sort of broad conclusions about why anyone is doing what. certainly it's a tragedy, time for national mourning but as far as james holmes goes, he is very much still a mystery. your book is worth reading as we

sort of triy and piece this together. thank you for your time. >> thank you, alex. coming up, the tragedy in colorado reintroduces the calls for stricter gun control laws but discussion doesn't necessarily mean legislation. we will speak with someone from the brady campaign to prevent gun violence, next. ade was found on the simple belief that bringing you better technology helps make you a better investor. with our revolutionary e-trade 360 dashboard you see exactly where your money is and what it's doing live. our e-trade pro platform offers powerful functionality that's still so usable you'll actually use it. and our mobile apps are the ultimate in wherever whenever investing. no matter what kind of investor you are, you'll find the technology to help you become a better one at e-trade.

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♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day men's 50+ healthy advantage. vice president joe biden spoke in the last hour to the national association of police organizations in west palm beach, florida. he discussed the acts of heroism during the shooting in colorado but there was no talk of new gun control measures. earlier today on "morning joe" mayor bloomberg said it's time for politicians from both parties to put the issue at the center of the political debate. >> we don't have to break new ground here. all we've got to do is follow the promises that were made by the elected officials back when they were pandering and said we're going to fix this problem. to those who say this is about gun control, it isn't. it's about crime control. this isn't about somebody else.

it's about you and your kids and we've just got to do something about this. >> joining us now from washington is colin goddard, survivor of the virginia tech shooting and assistant director of federal legislation for the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. joining the panel here in new york now is the co-host of msnbc's "the cycle" steve kornacki of salon.com. colin, i want to go to you first on this. there are a couple of pieces in play as we talk about gun control. one is certainly politicians and as mayor mike said, pandering. the other issue or the second issue perhaps is the nra, the power of the nra and the gun lobby. the third is public opinion. i want to point -- i want to call your attention to some polling from gallup. in 2011, 43% of the country wanted stricter gun laws. this is fascinating as far as hand gun bans. when asked do you think there should or should not be a law that would ban the possession of hand guns except by the police and other authorized persons, in

1959, 60% of americans thought there should be a stronger hand gun ban or hand gun ban, and 36% thought there should not be. by october 2011, say 50 years later, only 26% of the country thought there should be a hand gun ban. 73% thought there should not be. when we talk culturally about americans and guns, it would seem that the tide of public opinion is going towards the nra and gun lobby. >> well, to that i would say you have to look at how those questions are written. when you speak very broadly and vaguely, do you want more gun control or less gun control, people don't know what that means. if you break it down to specifics and say should we do background checks on all gun sales, should we sell military weapons to the general public, you will find an overwhelming amount of american people, even gun owners and nra members in support. i think frank lunce is about to release more data on show and

shows overwhelming support from gun owners themselves that they think common sense measures should be in place. you have to bring it down to specifics. that's what we're trying to do. we're trying to get specific answers from people running to lead our country the next several years that will be ultimately responsible for our public safety. if you're listening to this and you want to get a part of this and make sure these people are talking about specific solutions, that are candidates are talking about specific solutions, check out the brady campaign.org and voice your opinion there. >> david, i want to ask you about sort of the political capital that one has to expend to get anything done on gun control. very surprising that in 1999, rod blagojevich, maybe the only good thing rod blagojevich ever did and patrick kennedy introduced a bill into congress in 1999 that aimed at regulating internet sales of ammunition. it was never adopted, never went anywhere. we know that james holmes received 50 packages of equipment in four months, he had 6,000 rounds of ammunition delivered to him.

there is no regulation of ammunition sales over the internet. a bill from 13 years ago brought up basically collecting dust in congress. is there any chance it will see the light of day in coming months? >> we have seen a lot of statements on this issue, among many other issues, that you are right to cite the nra lobby as a really powerful force inside washington. i do think that you will start to see similar to the abortion debate in this country, in terms of legislation, start taking narrow slices, like parent notification with abortion laws. with gun laws you will see narrow slices of trying to fix one piece of it that can get some support potentially around the power of the nra but there is certainly no -- jay carney on air force one, howard was talking about what mayor bloomberg is calling for, it certainly seems like it's falling on deaf ears with the white house and in the romney campaign. jay carney instantly, his instant reaction while briefing reporters was on the one hand,

on the other, we want to protect second amendment rights and want to make sure guns like this do not get into the hands of people that will do harm with them. totally meaningless kind of statement that indicated the white house had absolutely no interest in moving forward on the national conversation -- >> literally days after, the exact quote yesterday was as you know, there has been opposition to that since the assault weapons ban, renewing -- renewed push to put it in place. as you know, there has been an opposition to that since it expired within congress. i wouldn't argue with your assessment about that so the president is focused on doing the things we can do that protect second amendment rights which he thinks is important but also to make it harder for individuals who should not under existing law have weapons to obtain them. very carefully parsing, i'm not going to try and do anything that might touch the second amendment, the laws we have in place, the laws we should follow. as david says, doesn't look likely there is going to be a ton of leadership in terms of legislation from the white house on this. >> what's amazing to me is you

can think back almost 20 years ago, there was the massacre on the long island railroad, 1993. the day after that, bill clinton went before the press and said we need to do more than sympathize. we need to take this and enact gun control. you had the assault weapons ban in 1994, the brady bill. two significant things have changed that brought about what the obama white house is now saying. one gets to what bloomberg said, gun control versus crime control. this was seen as a crime control issue because there was a sense among independent suburban voters that crime was out of control. you had a poll in '93 that said the top issue in the country was crime. violent crime has come so far down the last 20 years that there's that urgency, that popular urgency behind we need to do something on crime is gone. the second thing is, democrats in 2000 decided after al gore lost to george w. bush, they decided they lost because blue collar white voters in places

like west virginia, you know, throughout, made inroads in kentucky, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, those voters were turning on the democratic party because of guns and what you've seen over the last decade has been in polling, there has been a real dramatic rise in terms of how important blue collar white voters think the issue of gun ownership is to them. the democrats have to make a choice -- >> i understand the demographics on that but howard, i'm going to stop calling him your boss. >> he is my boss. >> you're a pro in your own right. he said when was the last time you saw a deer in a flack jacket. these are high capacity magazines we can't even get banned after gabby giffords was shot. we know james holmes had a se semiautomatic weapon that went out on him in the middle of the shooting. if it had been working, many more people would have been killed and injured. the fact the internet is an unregulated gray area and nobody is doing anything incrementally to stop what he rightfully termed as a crime problem. >> then senator obama was running for president four years

ago, he was in favor of reconstituting the assault weapons ban. mitt romney when he was governor of massachusetts signed an assault weapons ban. both of these candidates, one now president, are on the record in favor of this. now, they may be moving away from it now. they may be reluctant to do it but this is a moment for presidential leadership, where presidential leadership is required. joe biden helped write the crime bill in 1994 that banned assault weapons, that enacted the brady bill. we know how to do this. we've done it. and it had an impact. you talk about crime being high in the early '90s. yes, one of the ways we got crime down was we passed laws that made it more difficult for criminals to get guns. now we've got to enforce those laws. 40% of all gun sales now don't go through a background check. we can do something about this. and we should. >> jody, inside the mind of the obama white house on this, tell us, it's one of those issues where the president is sort of keeping a stiff upper lip and saying i can't touch this right now. >> i'm laughing because i

laughed laugh ed -- left my obama mind reading crystal ball at home today. we see a pattern on many issues and the one that really comes to mind is natural disasters and climate change. something happens like a terrible storm, the tornado that devastated joplin, missouri. the president flies in, comforts families, people whose lives have been devastated by this, but he doesn't do what a lot of people on the left want him to do which is to say there's something we can do here, we can change our energy policy, these events are caused in part by what we're doing to our climate. there's a legislative agenda here, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. what it makes me think about is kind of the powerlessness of the presidency, right, about having to go and play mourner in chief and face these families knowing that there may be something you could do but just an enormous political risk to yourself. >> colin, i want to ask you one last thing. when we talk about, i have been,

as you've heard, harping on about the internet being a sort of area for unregulated gun sales. we know that the shooter in the virginia tech massacre also bought his ammo online at ebay. in terms of priorities, it's not something we hear a lot about is regulation of ammunition sales on the internet. is that something the brady campaign is looking at? >> we're looking at everything. we're looking at everything because we think we can do better than this. we do not have to accept these shootings as normal. we don't have to continue to have these conversations and look at each other after these things and say what can we do. we know what we can do. there's literally bills sitting in committee right now that can address this issue. the missing piece here is the american public outrage. that's what we have to channel. that's what we have to make sure that they're contacting their representatives and letting them know this is a concern to me. you need to represent me accordingly. if they want to get involved, please have that conversation with me, with the brady campaign, with everyone that you can possibly have, because the american people are going to change this, not our elected

officials. >> colin godard, assistant director of federal legislation for the brady campaign, thank you. >> thanks. coming up, president obama and governor romney try to put campaigning on hold in the wake of the aurora shooting but some members of their teams aren't necessarily following suit. is it politics as usual? [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard."

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it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. i hope that over the next several days, next several weeks and next several months, we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this country, but also reflect on all the wonderful people who make this the greatest country on earth. >> that was president obama in aurora yesterday after speaking with some of the victims of the shooting there. governor romney resumed his campaign yesterday with three fund-raisers in california and said that the president's visit

with the families of the victims was quote, the right thing for the president to be doing on this day and we appreciate that. i will note that my remarks today will not be as partisan as normal. romney went on to say we've gone through a recession but it doesn't seem to be over for many people. i think it was the vice president who said if you are out of work, it's a depression. meanwhile, david axelrod wasted no time getting back on the offensive this morning, tweeting tax returns, bundlers, bain, m.a. records and now key docs from olympics. when it comes to secrecy, mitt takes the gold. david, the reprieve from partisan politics -- >> did you enjoy the reprieve? >> i blinked and i missed it. what do you make of that? axelrod clearly going on the offensive and trying to draw attention to the fact that records regarding mitt romney's tenure heading up the salt lake city games have been either thrown away or are in disarray but more secrecy around them. >> trying to build a narrative of we don't know what all is behind this guy, mitt romney, and there's still a lot to

explore, calling part of that tweet is inviting more and more scrutiny on to mitt romney, inviting more and more reporters to look into the olympic records and whathave you. but mostly it was a clear signal we're back to campaigning. that's why david axelrod sent that tweet today and the obama campaign set up a conference call to sort of preview mitt romney's foreign trip that's coming up overseas and try to set the bar of what barack obama accomplished in his foreign trip in 2008 and inviting scrutiny that mitt romney's trip should be in their eyes, as productive or successful or substantive. so clearly, the campaign is back in full swing. i was kind of struck by some of the words that mitt romney said at the fund-raiser lau er last that you noted which wouldn't it be nice, he said i'm not going to be as partisan as usual, i will focus on my vision for the country. >> why don't you do that for a couple more months. the naked sort of admission that i'm not going to be as highly partisan and nakedly political as i usually am. jody, mark halperin wrote this

morning before the aurora tragedy, the democrats had momentum on romney's tax returns and the republicans had momentum on the president's line about infrastructure and building businesses. with aurora likely to dominate the news for a long while and the olympics and romney's overseas trip coming up, which side if either can revive their line of attack soon or ever. i think the lines of attack are definitely being revived. >> they are just going to keep thrashing at it for months. i think the democrats have discovered that these chants for romney to release his taxes are incredibly effective. it benefits them to repeat that as much as possible. the republicans will do the same, i guess the question is, you know, by late last week it felt that the race was a little bit on repeat, that we were hearing the same thing again and again from both sides. so you know, this does seem like a brief pause and then back to the usual. i was very struck by a recent quote from jim messina, obama's campaign manager. he said if you live in a swing

state, give away your tv because -- throw it out the window, you're just not going to want to own it by the time late september comes along. >> please don't throw away your televisions. howard, we know mitt romney is going on a big foreign trip overseas. he's going to be going to the dressage competition at the olympics, of course. but then he's going to poland and israel. the israel trip will certainly -- the poland one because of u.s./russia relations and how mitt romney handles that and of course the israel trip. the president has not yet been to israel thus far on that campaign call that david mentioned, they said if the president is re-elected he will go to israel. how much pressure does this put on mitt romney? it also takes him off message as far as the economy, too. this becomes a foreign policy trip. >> any challenger running for president has to pass a threshold. american people have to believe that they can be president and one of the things they have to do is prove that they can handle foreign policy. so it is not unusual for the candidate to take a trip like this, then senator obama made a similar trip in '08. you have to be careful about not

criticizing the president from foreign soil. you want to be careful about sending the right signal about america when you're over there. but this is something that candidates typically do and it was important obviously for mr. romney to do it. >> we know that both governor romney and the president will be meeting with veterans later today. certainly the aurora thing is not done by any means. certainly a very painful moment in american history but it seems campaigns will go on. >> yeah. no. the foreign trip is interesting to me because it is about getting to a certain threshold and i think whole romney calculation is that that threshold is extremely low because the game the romney campaign has been playing is sort of the same game the democrats and bill clinton played in 1992. you're relying on a bad economy, taking down the incumbent president. you think of the foreign policy mismatch in 1992. george bush senior came into that campaign with a 90% approval rating thanks to the first gulf war. you had bill clinton, he had zero foreign policy experience and by the end of the campaign, didn't matter. it was all the economy. that's what the romney campaign is banking on. >> we love you for your insight,

brilliance and wit, but also because you get us back to the early '90s. >> one per show. done. >> nobody knows early '90s better than steve kornacki. we will have more when we return.

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thanks to jodi, howard, david and steve. this is all for now. see you back here tomorrow at noon. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. good afternoon, andrea. good afternoon. coming up next, the accused killer in the colorado shooting in court today. the politics of gun control in an election year. unprecedented penalties against penn state. and i go one-on-one with elton john before his big speech today, keynoting the international aids conference. he shares his personal crusade, how it started next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." >> airport delays are very likely during the late afternoon hours, especially up through new england, all the way back down

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