. what's your policy? this morning my question, is this election rigged? plus, the war on women transformed into the year of women as a record 154 seek congressional seats. and we have foot soldiers onset here in nerdland. they won! even if the folks in power won't admit it. but first, paul ryan brings his medicare message to the sunshine state and he's taking his momma with him. good saturday morning.

i'm melissa harris-perry. and the biggest story of the week is about a partnership that is finally official. we all new it was eminent, but we had to wait for the official question and the decisive yes. media has been there from the moment the two decided to become one. no, not the engagement of jennifer aniston and justin therow. i'm talking about the republican rollout of romney/ryan 2012, or as i like to call it, argh! paul ryan is scheduled to speak at the villages near orlando. yes, the guy whose budget plan would change medicare as we know it into a coupon program speaking in florida to a group of seniors? we'll take you there live once we see him stepping up to the mike. and you are not going to want to miss that because i'm kind of hoping i'm hear the grammys go, arr! today this caps off an introductory week that began in

front of the u.s.s. wisconsin last saturday. since then the romney/ryan campaign says they have raised $10 million. not a bad week. but as much as their bank balance went up, gallup's national poll stayed pretty much where it had been. since the country is just getting to really know congressman ryan, they have been starting with the thing that he's best known for, his controversial budget plan. which would cut corporate and 1% of taxes drastically. all while increasing the deficit that ryan claims to dislike so much. now romney has said he would sign the ryan budget, but after the week of ryan as his running mate, we are still not exactly sure he would actually run on the ryan budget. so let's follow the bouncing romney, shall we? on sunday, romney told cbs news that he wouldn't be running on the ryan plan since he has his very own. the next day, monday, they were for it again with romney saying, quote, my plan for medicare is very similar to his, meaning ryan's plan for medicare. so romney's own plan might as well be ryan's plan anyway, but

wait, there's more. on tuesday, against it. romney's surrogate told cnn the romney plan was very different. then on wednesday romney said in a local interview that if his plan wasn't identical to ryan's plan, it was, quote, probably close to identical. we await the next update. and one thing was certain this week, not even ryan himself could explain his budget. this is from his first solo interview of the week with fox news. >> the budget plan that you are now supporting would get to balance when? >> well, there are different -- the budget plan that mitt romney is supporting gets us down to 20% of gdp spending by 2016. that means get the size of government back to where it historically has been. what president obama has done is brought the size of government to as high as it hadn't been since world war ii. we want to reduce the size of government so we can have more economic freedom. >> i get that, but what about balance? >> well, i don't know exactly when it balances because i don't

want to get wonky on you, but we have not run the number ossen that specific plan. the numbers balance the budget. i would put a contrast. >> so when ryan wasn't getting wonky on people with details and fuzzgy math, he was confusing his record with requested funds from the obama stimulus. when he did and then slamming the president for not saving an auto plant in his district. under that other guy, president george w. bush. oops. the week's highlight might have been mitt romney trying to use a white board to explain how his plan differs from obama care. he still neglected to write on the board that the ryan plan budget cuts the same 700-plus billion from medicare. cuts he proposes at the same time that he insists on cutting tax rates for americans who are the most wealthy. but then just this morning in his first ever weekly podcast, governor romney made clear he

supports the actions paul ryan has taken on medicare in congress. now that he and i teamed up, we are going to ensure that seniors are protected from president obama's reckless actions. >> so as we keep an eye on florida and await congressman ryan, i'm joined by yahoo! news washington bureau chief karen fin knee, the columnist for the hill and political analyst, kate dawson, one of our former favorite republicans, and matt miller, washington post columnist and msnbc tribute con tribute or the. thank you to everybody for being here. >> thank you. >> he's going to the lion's den if we want to think of it right into florida, right into the retirement community. what's he going to say? >> well, first, it is kind of a rigged, kind of a rigged lion's den because it is owned by a big republican contributor and known to be populated by mostly republicans.

so if he's taking mom down to sort of the side car with him, his message is to reform the programs but it's not a threat to anyone currently on them. i think it is kind of a bold move for them and he'll do better than expected selling that message to a very friendly crowd primed for him. >> it's also not unfamiliar turf for him. when he put his budget out, he ran around wisconsin and did the town halls with seniors. he really likes giving this sort of lecture, this educational speech to people about his plan. and there's no doubt matt is write, this is not palm beach county senior center, this is the villages and it is definitely a home turf for him. >> this has been traditionally a bipartisan issue, right, karen? >> no, it's traditionally been earlier as we saw in the week a presentation put out that said that points out the fact that is traditionally an issue where the republicans start with the trust deficit. so the whole presentation was how to you take that issue on

and essentially they said, my favorite of the lessons learned is bring a third party value day or the, maybe mom. they had a candidate who basically used his mom as validator. here's where the romney plan ended up which was the double speak. they were talking about the $760 billion that obama takes out and they say puts it into obama care. well, it actually goes into obama care for medicare to reduce costs, it's waste fraud and abuse, reduces cost. as of friday on that lovely etch-a-sketch or whiteboard that we had. >> i have brought a whiteboard in case anyone would like to make any points, kaden, if you are into this. that's okay. >> so what romney essentially by the end of the week was saying is i'll restore that 760 billion and we are going to approve the program in ten years. so why not go ahead and put that money like president obama wants to in right now? >> this is part of the blil brilliance of the language of obama care.

i'm taking money from you to go care for president obama as opposed to what the plan is actually called, in fact, not a plan, a law that's been upheld now by the supreme court. i think i teased you previously, but i don't think that you guys like mitt romney much, which is to say republicans were relatively cool about romney and the ryan rollout is supposed to be about getting this enthusiasm and energy back, we saw it initially at the u.s.s. wisconsin, but has it fallen apart this week? can ryan bring folks together, particularly if he's going to the weak point, the trust deficit for the medicare question? >> we do like mitt romney. i did work for newt gingrich and i did work for rick perry and am proud of both of those men and our service there, but we did in the campaign election try to tear his arms off and do everything we could. we tried to push him to the far right, we did. one thing i found with mitt romney is this guy is pretty tough. i mean, he can take a punch. we have thrown everything we can throw at him and he won. and whether he was the most conservative candidate or not,

he outlasted everybody. and i'm proud of that. he wants to be president. it's tempered him for this debate. and i'll go back to earlier campaigns, i watched the hillary clinton/barack obama campaign in south carolina. i watched it. one of the most brutal campaigns i have ever seen. and president obama then senator obama took every punch clinton could throw at him, so these things temper a candidate. i think what paul ryan has done for us, i understand that republicans are willing to have a medicare/medicaid debate. we have usually ducked that, so at least we are willing to address that. but -- >> i hear you. and i hear you that medicare is an important part of the federal budget that we have to talk about, but it is not really a debate. in part because what's going up on the whiteboard is not fair, right? >> melissa, it is not a debate yet, it will be. >> but actually it has been and actually that was the other thing you saw this week where you had to have john boehner essentially calm down most republicans who are terrified of having this conversation, you have allen west trying to defend

his vote in support of the ryan/romney budget. >> we need a referee here. >> the big hoax that's come out already is one week of paul ryan's suitny. there's a media love fest echo chamber that propagated this image, this totally phony that ryan is a leading fiscal conservative. everyone who started to look at this, i have written my columns on this because i had ryan in my sights far long time now. he adds trillions to the debt. hiss budgets don't balance until the 2040s. that's on very dubious assumptions. what fiscal conservative has a 25-year plan to balance the budget? it's a hoax. >> his actual vote, his actual votes for the bush tax cuts, which increased the deficit, his actual vote for the iraq war, which increased the deficit, particularly off the books. >> in fairness he would say he was a junior member and had to do what he was told to do. >> but then --

>> that was the principle. >> right. and the notion of principle versus what he's actually doing. we are waiting for congressman and vice presidential candidate paul ryan to take the stage at the villages in central florida. stay with us. we are going to bring you the romney/ryan republican rollout. ♪ to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you.

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we are waiting to hear paul ryan who will be joined by his mother today speaking at the villages, a huge retirement community outside of orlando, florida. ryan's very presence in florida is a big deal considering his plan to end medicare as we know it is his calling card. here's something he had to say about medicare just yesterday. >> we want this debate, we need

this debate and we are going to win this debate on medicare. [ cheers and applause ] >> i'll tell you why. there's only one person who treated medicare like a piggy bank. and that's president obama. he took 760 billion dollars from that program to create obama care. that affects current seniors and his campaign calls this an achievement. you think raiding medicare to pay for obama care is an achievement? let's just get rid of obama care altogether. >> while it is not exactly brave to go into an enclave like the villages, they are elderly individual who is i venture to say like medicare. romney is not only asking for a debate about it, he's practically begging for it. joining me at the roundtable, we

hear that pivot. no, it's not about my medicare plan, it's about obama care. and he just does it each and every time. is that a debate or is that sort of an unfair characterization or is it fair? >> it's the best thing the republicans can do. it is kind of clever, usually they are putting their head in a noose. ryan, to his credit, medicare does need to be reformed in the long-term. that's not by big beef with him, it's the cutting taxes on the 1% and slashing programs for the poor. but there's no question from the progressive side medicare's growth has to be slowed. so the idea that they are trying to go on offense and try to mud by the water enough so people aren't sure exactly where it lies, it is an interesting strategy. i think because people don't trust republicans ultimately on medicare. it will be a loser for them, but i think it's the best hand they can play. >> i'm sorry, you put democrats on defense on obama care and unfortunately we know a lot of democrats, a lot of candidates

down ballot are still playing a little bit of defense. highcamp is the only one to show how to effectively turn that around. >> you saw how effectively the republicans showed this jujitsu on medicare and the tax, the effect on seniors. >> there's no cuts being done by anyone in medicare. medicare is growing enormously under anyone's plan. it is around $550 billion a year today. it's going to go even under the to supposed ryan plan to $950 billion ten years from now. then they talk about slowing the growth after that. so we do have to get in nerdland to -- >> that's right. >> we have to get real about this. >> but the solvency of medicare is not a one-sided question. this is true at any given budget debate. there's certainly the question of cost control but there's also the question of resources. this is when we try to make it on the individual level, you can get a second job, bring in more

resources to your household or cut the budget. when you cut the budget there are limits to where you would cut your budget, right? so one might say, okay, i'm going to take the second job. in other words, raise taxes, bring in more revenue rather than talking about we are not going to feed folks or not going to provide health care. it does feel to me as though from the pure politics of it, not even the nerdland of it, but the politics of it, the cardinal rule of the vp pick should be first do not harm. on the one hand you have, yes, it changes the musical tract, you get the energy but do you also end one a candidate who does more harm to the party as a political mat her? >> i don't think so. paul ryan was a tremendous add to the ticket and a good balance. i do as a republican. he does change the music and our party does. we need to change. and he's an exciting guy who has a lot of experience and a very touching personal story. and i applaud the fact his

mother is willing to go into the audience with him. >> we almost have to ask, whose momma isn't going to go? >> right. >> i see my son as more of a problem. >> they didn't like me -- but i think we have touched the underlying thing in florida. the battleground state, the ads are coming just in rapid fire down there right now, both the president and team romney now are competing at a pretty high level. so i'm excited the fact that we are spending the time in florida. i'm excited we are talking about that. and next week it will be social security. so just right now -- then the president is going to have won again because what we have done this week, and i'm glad republicans are talking about it, but next week it will be social security and we won't be talking about what bill clinton talked about when he beat george bush, when was the economy is stupid. >> i think we are a little ways off from saying the paul ryan pick has done harm to romney's campaign. i think the jury is still out on that. i do think there's no doubt that in the ryan pick romney gave the

obama team a weapon that they were already going to use but sharpened it for them, right? you just don't want to give that to your political opponent. here's a weapon and i'm going to make it a more effective weapon for you. that's what he did. >> unless it's the briar patch. one possibility is, okay, they were already going to wrap paul ryan around him so they sharpened it by putting ryan next to him. or please saying, don't throw me in the briar patch when that's exactly where i want to be. i haven't figured out if the romneys actually wanted to show up here. >> tactically speaking, part of the conversation we had this week, not just democrats but republicans, was the lack of the preparedness of the romney campaign for the ryan budget and ryan medicare. we got lots of different answers. again, at the end of the week, we find out, guess what? instead of campaigning separately, they are coming back together next week. and one of the excuses they gave aside from romney's little isolated feels lonely on the campaign trail, the president is

really lonely, is because they want to try to get, put this issue of the differences on medicare behind them. that says to me, i certainly don't compare ryan to sarah palin, but again, there's this -- it's not just a do no harm, you have to be able to move the ball down the field past the first 48, 78 hours and keep that momentum going. >> it feels like the other thing going here at the end of the news cycle, friday night, is the tax returns. so now we've got ryan, right, showing up with two years of tax returns, paying at least a 15% rate. when you read ryan's tax returns, man, he's downright middle class compared to his running mate. so again you stay on the side -- >> the higher tax rate again than mitt romney and trying to justify it by saying, i think he was saying romney has already paid. he's paying taxes twice because he earned it as income and is doing it, but that's not true because of the carried interest loophole on the private equity stuff, most of romney's earnings

weren't taxed twice. and the idea that the guy is making $20 million a year at a time of trillion deficits, ten years of war, and is trying to cut taxes further on the top. how do you defend that? >> i'll let you defend it when we get back. >> thank you. >> but when you are faced with a proposed drastic change in medicare and you go to speak to a group of elder will any florida, there's a word for that. i'm told the word is called p s putsspa. we'll go live to congressman paul ryan in florida. when we come back. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day.

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welcome back. we are awaiting congressman paul ryan in florida at the villages, a large retirement community there. and while we await congressman ryan, i want to give you an opportunity, katon, to defend this position on the tax returns question, which came back up because we saw ryan's returns. >> we as republicans in primary

have tried tax returns and tried wealth and no wealth and whether there is five years, three years or two years. that in our polling doesn't matter right now. there are all kinds of arguments -- >> but it matters to not do it. i certainly agree with you. if he showed them whatever is in them, it would go away but the opposite refusal to show them does feel like it matters. >> in democrat primaries and republican primaries and wealthy people and non-wealthy people running for office, we look and can tell what matters. where the president's team has won is we are talking about taxes and not talking about the jobs and the economy and creating jobs, which is mid mitt romney's forte. that got him the nomination. that's the win. i think we'll stand another four or five days on the tax returns, but at the end of the day, the people want somebody in office who had been -- >> and the guy who is stepping up right now there is, in fact, a taxpayer. we have seen two years of his tax returns of 15%. let's go live to florida where

congressman paul ryan is speaking at a retirement community called the villages near orlando. >> i want to introduce you to my mom. this is my mom, betty. she's why i am here. she and her grandkids are why i am here. say hi to my mom, betty. thanks, mom. have a seat, mom. there you go, mom. friends, we have a big choice to make. this is no ordinary election. it's not an ordinary time. we have a choice. we can stay on the path we are on, the one president obama has put us on. it's a nation deeper in debt,

it's a nation further in doubt, it's a nation in decline. or we can elect a leader, a leader who will make the tough decisions, who will apply our founding principles, get us back on track, restore the american idea and get people back to work. you see, president to obama and other politicians like him in washington have become more focused on their next election than they have on the next generation. not us. we are not going to do that. we will lead. we want to earn your support. we want to deserve victory. so that when we win, we have the

mandates, the moral authority to stop kicking the can down the road and get this country back on track. [ cheers and applause ] >> it's very clear that president obama -- you guys see that? it's very clear, you guys see that? yep. it's coming. got the medic coming? thank you very much. say hi back for me. it's very clear that president obama inherited a difficult situation. there's no two ways about it. the problem is he made matters worse. this is why the president has run out of ideas. this is why the president is not running on hope and change anymore, he's running on anger

and frustration. fear and smear. we are not going to do that. we need real leadership. let me tell you about the man who is about to be the next president of the united states and his name is mitt romney. [ cheers and applause ] >> i don't think i have seen a time in our nation's history where the man in the moment have met so perfectly. this man is a leader. everything mitt romney has done in his life has prepared him for this moment in our history to provide the kind of leadership we need. look at the beautiful family he's raised. you remember the olympics in the late '90s? remember the scandals, the waistful spending, the bloat, the corruption. sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? when they needed someone to turn

it around, who did salt lake call? they called mitt romney. and mitt romney turned those olympics around and made america proud. and we thank him for that leadership. look at what he's done in business. he helped start new businesses. he helped turn around struggling businesses. he helped create great businesses that we all know now. sports authority, bright horizons, staples. this is a man who actually created jobs. who knows what it takes to get people back to work, to get businesses up and running, to create prosperity, to help people in need. take a look at what he did when he was governor of massachusetts. of all contrasts that we can have, this is as clear as it gets. president obama came into office promising to create jobs and prevent unemployment from ever getting above 8%.

it's been above 8% for 42 months. when mitt romney is governor of massachusetts, unemployment went down. 23 million americans today are struggling to find work. nearly one in six americans are in poverty today. household income, family income has gone down by more than $4,000 over the past four years. when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, family income went up by $5,000 over his four years. remember president obama used to say, he's going to bring everybody together. there are not red states or blue states, just the united states of america. we'll set aside childish things. it's the most partisan atmosphere i have seen and this is the third president i have served with. when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, a republican in a democratic state with a democratic legislature consisting of 87% of the

legislature, what did mitt romney do? he reached across the aisle, he extended the hand, he negotiated and balanced the budget without raising taxes. this is the kind of man for this kind of moment we need to lead our nation at this crucial moment. now, you've heard the president has been talking about medicare a bit lately. we want this debate, we need this debate, and we are going to win this debate. [ cheers and applause ] now, like a lot of americans, when i think about medicare, it's not just a program, it's not just a bunch of numbers, it's what my mom relies on. it's what my grand ma had.

you see, like a lot of people, and i see some wisconsin hats all around here, wow. that's a pretty good showing. hey, pat. we had this rule in wisconsin, kind of an unwritten rule, you turn 65, you have to go south for the winter. we call them snow birds. my mom is a snow bird. she's a florida resident. she lives just down the road over near lauderdale and she, like so many people here, she comes down here for the winter. just like so many folks from all over the country do. you know, my grandma moved in with us, with my mom and me when i was in high school. she had advanced alzheimer's. my mom and i were her two primary care givers. you learn a lot about life. you learn a lot about your elderly seniors in your family. you learn a lot about

alzheimer's. medicare was there for our family, for my grandma, when we needed it then. and medicare is there for my mom while she needs it now. and we have to keep that guarantee. my mom has been on medicare for over ten years. and i will tell you exactly how many years over ten years she's been on it. she plays tennis every week, she exercises every day. she planned her retirement around this promise that the government made her because she paid her payroll taxes into this program, which she had this promise with. that's a promise we have to kee keep. here's what the president won't tell you about his medicare plan. about obama care.

the president raised $716 billion from the medicare program to pay for the obama care program. once more, in addition to that, he puts a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of medicare who are required to cut medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for current seniors. you want to know what medicare is saying about this? from medicare officials themselves, one out of six of our hospitals and our nursing homes will go out of business as a result of this. 4 million seniors are projected to lose their medicare advantage plans that they enjoy and they chose today under this obama care plan.

what's worse? is the president's campaign calls this an achievement. do you think raiding medicare to pay for obama care is an achievement? >> no! >> do you think empowering a board of bureaucrats to cut medicare is an achievement? >> no! >> neither do i. medicare should not be used as a piggy bank for obama care. medicare should be the promise that it made to our current seniors period, end of story. [ cheers and applause ] >> okay. so we are hearing what has been described by at least one of my guests here at the table as a ballsy conversation, in which congressman ryan goes directly to the issue of talking about and speaking about medicare in a retirement community called the villages near orlando, florida. let me bring back david, karen, katon and matt.

let's start by clearing up a couple things we heard ryan saying at the end, which is the affordable care act of 2010 raids medicare to pay for obama care. there are provisions that affect medicare including enhanced benefits, spending reductions around current plans, including for some high income individuals, raising premiums a bit in order to make it more affordable for other folks. but this was the point i was making earlier about bringing in more income, changing that payroll tax system so that everybody pays who are at the top of the income a little bit higher. this notion that ryan is giving us here that my mom paid into it and now she is taking basically her wages back. that is not how medicare works, right? that's simply not how the system works. so on the one hand it is balsy, they are there having the conversation, but it is not a fair fight that he's suggesting facts that are not accurate. >> essentially he's doing what democrats have been trying to do for several years, which is it's not, these programs are not

entitlement. the idea it's entitlement is like a thing of going to saks fifth avenue instead of the promise across generations and the idea we value, that we don't want seniors to be living in poverty. by saving, preserving, my mom, all that language, which was in the presentation that says this is how you mitigate the issue for republicans, this is also the difference between nerdland and political land in terms of the facts and the spin. >> and the thing i love about the story is my mom is retired and she gets to play tennis and comes down to florida, i'm thinking, who doesn't want that for their parents? sblu the reality before medicare and social security is that the elderly lived in abjact poverty and the notion we had high poverty rates is going to be dissolved under the ryan plan. >> all that's true but this is effective from the republican side. it humanizes ryan as somebody who cares about seniors, the alzheimer's grandmother who lived with him while younger,

using your mom as a political shield is dubious maybe, but the thing -- one of the things that shows up is they are making the most, the cleverest moment to go on offense, but it really shows how the white house blew it by delaying the implementation of the affordable care act past the next election. because it still remain this is half and half support/nonsupport line. it is an applause thing to extend healthcare to 30 million people that romney and ryan want to take away. and because the handful of people, all the subsidies, all the enrollment, they are trying to stop that. >> i hear you, but saying the white house buy it on this because that's tough. it wipes away on the whiteboard the whole reality that it was incredibly hard to get every single tiny bit of everything they got. we had ryan there saying this is the most partisan atmosphere. i'm thinking, yeah, it takes two

sides to make it a partisan atmosphere. >> my only point is they could have funded benefits before the start of the 2012 election. the deficits are so big if they frontloadsed this, millions of people signing up for coverage for the first time not tied to their employer, it would have been a big story right now. >> they didn't message it as well as they could because there are millions of people impacted who don't even realize they are benefiting right now. >> matt, thank you so much. unfortunately, i have to take a break. paul ryan took up a bunch of my time. up next from paul ryan to the man he seeks to replace, does joe biden deserve his place? that's when we come back. in your jeep grand cherokee. and when you do, you'll be grateful for the adaptive cruise control that automatically adjusts your speed when approaching slower traffic.

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sure he was not left behind in the shadows. vice president joe biden reinserted himself right back into the national conversation this week. like only joe can. take a look. >> romney wants to -- he said in the first 100 days he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain wall street! going to put y'all back in chains. >> did he just say that? say it ain't so, joe! while some including the romney campaign jumped on joe for his comments, the president had his back. noting that his comments had to be taken in context versus focusing on just the phraseology. so even after decades of public service, vice president joe biden may not be slick or poised, polished or perfect, but what vice president biden is includes passionate, effective, smart and real. he's all of those things regardless of the times when he has us shaking our heads with a collective, did he just say

that? like the time he tried to invoke president ted kennedy, exlose me, ted roosevelt when talking about president obama. oh, boy. >> now is the time to heed the timeless advice from teddy roosevelt. speak softly and carry a big stick, end of quote. i promise you, the president has a big stick. i promise you. >> i don't even know how to react to that one without possibly getting fined by the fcc. so as jay-z says, on to the next one. when president obama signed health care into law, it was an exciting time, no more so than for vice president biden. >> [ bleep ]. >> okay. you have to agree with the vice president, that moment was a big you know what deal. and when joe biden tried to come to hillary clinton's defense in

2008, even before becoming vice president, he may have me a made a better case for her than for himself. >> make no mistake about this. hillary clinton is as qualified or more qualified than i am to be vice president of the united states of america. let's get that straight. >> so we know what you meant, joe, even if it took us a minute. and one can make a good argument for vice president biden having a really, really bad case of foot and mouth disease, but gaffes alone do not make the man and there are many reasons why joe rocks. one of the big zest the violence against women act of 1994 which then came about under senator biden's leadership. then there's how joe can go anywhere and be a rock star, even at the naacp's annual convention. and finally, joe realizes the immense weight and responsibility that being part of the administration, the first african-american president. and he told just that in 2008 when asked what would happen if he had to take over for

president obama if tragedy struck. >> how would a biden administration be different from an obama administration if that were to happen? >> god forbid that would ever happen. it would be a national tragedy of historic proportions if it were to happen. >> so that's joe biden. relatable, no nonsense, having his presence back. now, while paul ryan may give a great speech, joe biden makes great policy. with a passion and enthusiasm that only amtrak joe can deliver. and while he may not always be smooth, he is our guy. so you go, joe! gaffes and all. coming up, a record number of women are running for office this year. and i'm going to tell you why that number is still too low. that's up next. ♪ early for is thing... want to hop in the back and get weird? no. family vacation... vegas. ♪ no. no. give it a big yank!

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you know that beyonce song. ♪ run the world girls >> i won't sing anymore, i promise. but from rutgers university, 298 women filed to run for congress in this election cycle. 154 have won primaries in house races. and there are still more nine upcoming congressional primaries involving women. this outpaces the previous record of 141 nominees set in 2004. now that sounds like a whopping number, but there are only 73 women in congress right now. that means women only make up 17% of the house. one of those women hoping to add another seat to the boy's table this year is this lady. she joins me now from virginia beach. good morning, ms. ward. >> good morning, melissa. how are you? >> it's lovely to have you on.

and i really, i'm so excited because part of the thing we want to talk about here is the fact this has been called kind of the year of a war on women, but then you look at these numbers and you are one of a record number of women running, you're running against a sixth-time incumbent. what made you decide to run? >> i think it's the challenges of women period. what has happened, melissa, throughout the fourth district, throughout virginia, really throughout the united states. i heard you say earlier, there is a war on women. and women make up 52% of the population. in this country. so when you consider the fact that 17%, only 17% represent us in the house of representatives and just 16.8% represent us in the senate, well, it's time for women to take their stand. and the fact that we have 52% of the population gave me the encouragement that i need to step up to the plate. and it's time for candidates to

see that women make a difference. and when women vote and when run, we win. so we are going to have to fight that war in a way that we just cannot have things the way that they are. we are certainly happy about the act that passed, but the fair act did not get passed. so i'm running for women -- go on. >> you have been married more than 40 years with an adult son who served in the u.s. military. you have more than five degrees, if i understand right. you have been involved in education, you have -- you have a ton of experience. and yet experience teaches us that often women with exactly that kind of record don't make the decision to run. and one of the reasons they often don't run is how hard it is to raise money. how are you doing in terms of trying to find the resources to challenge a sixth-term incumbent? >> well, mama lisa, it is very

challenging. having to have a primary, you talked about the primaries earlier, that certainly did put a damper on things, but we decided we are strong and determined and we are going to go on. one thing about it is that i plan to go to all of the areas in the fourth district and touch bases with the people there. people vote, melissa, it is not just the big votes that win all the time. we've got to be on the ground and certainly a grassroots campaign that i'm running, but i think it is achiefable. i think it can be done. once we put our minds to it, women can do it. it is hard, yeah, he's had 11 years to build up his task, but just let the people know they can make a difference. at this time they have a choice. they can keep things the way they have been over the last 11 years or they can elect a congresswoman whose going to go to congress and not forget where

she's come from and not forget the people who put them there. i think that's going to be -- >> let me ask you a question, you are talking about a door-to-door grassroots campaign in the fourth congressional district. virginia is a swing state for president obama and governor romney. they are going to have their eyes focused on virginia. how will your election impact president obama's or the other way around? >> well, i think it will be two-fold. lit go both ways. because i have lived in the fourth district all of my life, i think that's going to be a help for president obama. but the fact that he is running and he is now the current president, it's going to help my campaign, also. i think it's going to take teamwork. we are going to work this thing together and our ticket is strong. it's powerful. and we are going to make a difference. i believe that team rick will certainly get us where we need to be. and when you consider that 52%

of the voters and 52% of the people in virginia and in the nation are women, women are going to help make this difference. and i believe that i'm up to the challenge. >> thank you, ms. ella ward. i truly appreciate you're a model of stepping up to the plate and running for office. >> thank you so very much for having me. >> and coming up next, i have got one simple question. a question that must be answered. is the election rigged? [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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legislatures of both states. maybe that was hard, next, how many states were required to approve the original constitution in order for it to be in effect? that's right, nine states were required to approve the constitution. finally, name two things which the states are forbidden to do by the u.s. constitution? the answer? coin money or make treaties. so how did you do? as a professor, i would like to give my students every opportunity for success. so i'm going to give you a bit of a make huff up exam in case you didn't get them all correct. i'll give yo a crack at a few more questions, these shouldn't be quite so hard. take a look at this jelly bean jar, these are a regular guest on the mhp show. how many jelly beans are in that jar? not sure? take this one. this is a bar of soap. if i were to wash my hands with the soap, how many bubbles would be in the bar? both of those are pretty impossible questions to answer,

right? w imagine if your right to vote depended on answering them correctly. because that was the case in many states throughout the south throughout the first six decades of the 20th century. you had to answer questions like these or pay the equivalent today of a nearly $11 poll tax to even be allowed to register to vote. the result was that between 1892 and 1916 states with both a poll tax and a literacy test had a presidential voter turnout of just 24% according to research by historians francis fox pivan and richard cloward. those numbers were not just collate ral damage. the laws were designed to disenfranchise those without money to pay poll taxes or without the advanced education to pass a complicated test o. of the 147,000 african voting of age in mississippi, fewer than 9,000 were registered to vote after 1890 according to the national museum of history records.

and in louisiana, 130,000 black voters registered in 1896 dropped down 1,342 by 1904. after discriminatory voting laws were enacted. thank goodness those days are over, right? today, 71% of voting age americans are registered voters and more than 17 million of them are african-american. all that in no smart part thanks to our constitution, which was amended and expanded to extend the vote to all americans, but you see the evolution of our laws around voting has historically moved to making the vote more, not less acceptable to citizens. and it is why as americans we should be concerned about the state of our democracy when we heard the news this week that a pennsylvania judge ruled to uphold the state's new voter id law. pennsylvania's law and the newly minted photo i.d. laws in nine other states are a far cry from the jelly bean literacy test, but the consequences of the

pennsylvania law whose requirements to vote are among the nation's strictest are the same. discriminatory disenfranchisement of american people. and testimony in the case brought against the law revealed that more than 1 million registered pennsylvania voters don't have the required identification. it's not just pennsylvania, more than 21 million american citizens do not possess a government issued photo i.d. they are overwhelmingly more likely to be people of color, the poor or young people, all of whom tend to vote democratic and all of whom turned out in big numbers to vote for the man who is now president of the united states back in 2008. joining me now, nicole austin hillary, director and counselor of the brennan center for justice in washington, d.c. and victoria bassetty, a consulting producer on a documentary of the same name. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. >> so i really wanted to pause and take a little time to talk about that history, but tell me, what happened in pennsylvania just this week? >> what happened in pennsylvania this week, unfortunately,

melissa, is that the court made a decision that's going to make it difficult for thousands of voters in pennsylvania to cast their ballot. the court was able to see by the evidence that was presented that there are numerous pennsylvanians who are not going to be able to add here to the requirements that the legislator has set up. unfortunately the court said it believed that the steps that pennsylvania is taking to ensure that the voters in the state have the reck questionrequisite i.d., that everyone in pennsylvania would have the requisite i.d. and be able to therefore vote. we don't think that's true. we know that in any instance when a state institutes new procedures, particularly in a crucial voting year, that it is often filled with errors, inefficiencies, and so to think that everyone in pennsylvania who does not have the reck

question sit i.d., to think they will get in time for the november election, i think the -- it is not realistic. >> we are 80 days out from the election. this is not a year out, six months out, we are less than three months from the election. victoria, as you can see from the state of your book here, i have spent a lot of time with it. and i got to say, it feels to me like this law, a rule like this is not -- it certainly is not maybe as egregious as can you interpret the constitution or tell me how many bubbles are in a bar of soap, but it does feel like the effect of reducing the number of people eligible and able to cast their fundamental vote for the president of the united states is similarly restricted. >> yeah, there have been more than a few studies which have attempted to study the extent of the burden that the laws place upon voters. for example, in indiana, in 2008, was one of the first states to implement the laws. more than 1,000 people were effectively turned away at the

polls in the 2008 election. they were offered provisional ballots. of them, only 15% ultimately managed to cast their ballot. in another instance in philadelphia there was a local church that was trying to help people get their voter identification so that they could ultimately go to vote. 150 came into the doors. only 75 of them ultimately succeeded in getting their voter i.d. state after state shows that trying to actually get your i.d. and suck constituently trying to cast a ballot really does put a burdenen in the way of people casting their ballots. for example, in texas, which currently has a voter i.d. requirement which is suspended, it is not in implementation right now, there are more than 25% of the counties in texas don't have an operational dmv office. in one county it takes 127 miles round-trip to get a driver's license or license. >> we were looking at the numbers just around how far people are from a state i.d. office. and we've got more than 10 million eligible voters overall

who are quite far for them, 1.2 million eligible voters whose income falls below the poverty line, 1.2 million african-american voters that are quite a distance from their state office. it is a real burden. talk to me about why. why is it that -- people ask me all the time, why don't you just have an i.d.? what sort of person doesn't have the kind of i.d. you need to vote? >> melissa, first of all, i hope the stayistics came from our brennan report which we just released a few weeks ago that goes into detail to talk about how difficult it is to get the reckry sit i.d. to vote in these states. when we are asked the question, i want to remind people of this. voting in a country is a right. it is not a privilege. as is getting on a plane or going to an r-rated movie or going to do anything in this country where you have to show

an i.d. it is a fundamental right. and as you stated at the start of the show of this segment rather, the history of this country has been about the right to expand the vote. it has not been about decreasing that right for americans. so to put any kind of barrier in place that's going to make it more difficult, particularly when there's really no valid reason to do so, it's nonsenseical and goes against the grain of democracy. >> the ugly history is full of this, though. so i'm reading this and am thinking one of my favorite moments in this text is that thomas payne, who is the -- truly in my ways, the founder of the american democratic system was at one point kept from voting in part because he had gone over to hang out with the french and became a little too common foaling. and this idea of restricting ordinary people's ability to be part of the governing decisions. >> yeah, it's -- the history of

american democracy is the expansion of the franchise. and it is actually one of the histories we should be proudest of and embrace. we started off with a restricted franchise with only white property owning males able to vote. and slowly by surely over time as a result of social, profound social movements as a result of americans coming together and valuing democracy, we got to the point where everyone can vote. and to begin the process of pulling some of those, some of that progress back is really a profound shame for american democracy. we have one of the lowest participation rates of any industrialized nation in the world where approximately we are 170th out of 180 democracies. that's something we need to fix. that should be the thing we are trying to fix, not imposing voter i.d. laws, which are a solution in search of a problem. >> right. where there isn't even yet a problem. so what's key to understand here is that these laws are not random. there is a very clear reason why

this is happening and we are going to get into that next. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. throughout our lives.

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in our last segment we started with a history pop quiz. now let's try a little math. start with this number in 201 according to the brennan center for justice, states with laws requiring photo i.d. quadrupled. quadrupled in order to vote. that's an increase by four times the number of voting laws. prior to that year, only two states, indiana and georgia, had ever implemented a voter photo i.d. requirement. now take that number and add to it these. at least 180 restricted bills

were introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states. all but one, all but one was a strict voter i.d. bills were backed by republican state legislators. 25% of them were introduced by new members voted into office after the 2010 midterm elections. add all that up, what do you get? not a coincidence. still with me here, nicole austin hillery. and joining them is katon dawson, a former gop chair. katon, doesn't look random to me, that's why it is in red. i'm assuming democrats and republicans both care about the country and the quality of voting. why is it only republicans introducing and backing these? >> let me give statistics here. 33 states have some type of photoi.d. or i.d. that's

required. my history of running election cycles, there are a lot of things that go back to registration and victoria, i agree, and nicole both, it is a right, it is not an entitlement to vote, but you have to exercise that right. and one of the things i'll tell you about the voting problems that cops around, is in my home state, you're from virginia, i'm from south carolina, we have been having dead people voting for years. years. right now in south carolina we had 953 in the last cycle. there aren't even alive -- it looks like a may cal jackson thriller coming in. >> you have them voting. >> we have people voting under those names. and i know that gets to a dicy question, but what the problem, in terms of the problem we have is, and you did say, the i.d., it gets down to the voter's i.d. and the question is, are these republican states doing it? i think this is a very important point that it is one of the most precious things we have in

america. it makes us different, the right to vote. >> i hear you, katon, this is the republican line, the precious right to vote. that you've got voting polls where people have obviously lost a loved one and don't make it their first priority to go and get their dead relative off the voting roles, that's not completely unheard of. but when you listen to what republicans said why they are doing this, you have the pennsylvania house republican leader mike turzine say this. excuse me? that is not voter i.d., which is going to protect the integrity of the process. that is voter i.d., which is going to allow romney to win. that sounds to me like a partisan issue. >> i couldn't disagree with that. the house, the senate and the governor signed it and now the judge okayed it. it's gone through the process. what he said characterized the

entire feeling of that tune of legislation? maybe it did, but i can't change his words. it is what he said. >> obviously, there's no way to have elected representatives, partisan elected representatives go into office to change voting laws without putting a political calculus on it, right? they are linked. so if it is an agenda item to get power and then go in and change voting laws, you know doubt make a calculus about whether that's going to hurt or help your own party's political -- >> this is what the sentence is, every year you get the census and redrawn lines. democrats and republicans will always redraw boundaries so it benefits their parties, but democrats don't pass voter i.d. laws. >> i understand. this was clearly a republican agenda item. and when a lot of republicans took over state legislative houses, governorships in 2010, we saw this item as you were saying become a major -- let's also, it is -- i think we have to pull back a little bit to say, this debate should not be

one we have to be having anymore. this does not represent 21st century america. wave voting system bismol all the way through. we have the technology and the ability as a country right now to have a system where everyone has access to vote without question. and these debates about the laws are not necessary. we need to get out of the system we are in and put in a modern 21st century voting system. >> the brennan center has a policy proposal called voter registration modernization that proposes just that. in fact, the house of representatives introduced a bill lately called the voter empowerment act. this specifically includes recommendations dealing with voter registration and modernization. just yesterday in the great state of new york or earlier this week governor cuomo took a step toward that. he recognizes that we have an antiquated system that needs to be changed. so now in new york voters can now use the dmv website in order to register to vote. that's a step in the right direction. >> i want to suggest, the very fact in new york it is happening

this way and in pennsylvania it's happening this way. i think americans don't always catch, and i think your point makes this well, there's no national right to vote. there's no federal level, every single american having -- it all rests in each and every state. so as i've heard reverend jackson say many times, there are 50 separate and unequal rights to vote or relatively less right to vote in each and every state. isn't it time to simply say, okay, even if you're a states rights kind of person, this is a right that aught to rest at the level of american identity. particularly in a country where people move as frequently as they do. the idea that i'm always in virginia or a floridian or something else is just sort of antiquated. >> we have a patchwork fractured legal structure and system that allows for more than 13,000 election districts, each of which has their own history, each of which has their own scatter shot rules. as a result, voters are confused, votes are lost, people aren't registered.

we have an outmoted election system that was basically built for the horse and buggy era. in the 21st century we aught to be able to get around or a lot of the debates about whether or not dead people are voting, whether we need voter i.d. we need to take the partisanship out of the system and establish a few clear metrics and goals as a nation that we want. have the number of people who are unregistered in five years, increase our turnout rate to be comparable to canada or mexico's. these are the sort of things we can do rather than fighting about whether or not people should show voter i.d. or whether or not dead people are voting. and i can't let it pass, the idea of 900 dead people voting in south carolina has been rebutted by south carolina's own election board, which did a detailed study of every single one of the incidents and found no reputable case of it happening. >> these are people on the registration rolls and sometimes because it is not the first priority of a family to get folks off. >> in fairness, they did find

three dead people who died after their cast their ballot. >> thank you. i promise, you'll get to stick around. we have more on this. the rest are back for more. among the dozen or so battleground states, one stands out above the rest as the key test. the essential win for the white house. republicans there are changing the rules. we are going to go to that state next. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: upbeat ] [ dog ] we found it together. on a walk, walk, walk. love to walk. yeah, we found that wonderful thing. and you smiled. and threw it. and i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. because that wonderful, bouncy, roll-around thing... had made you play. and that... had made you smile. [ announcer ] beneful. play. it's good for you.

the way i think of this is voter i.d. laws are one tool on the legislative army swiss knife on army suppression and where voter i.d. laws won't get the job done there's always another weapon in the arsenal. in five states including the battleground of ohio and florida, that weapon is a restriction on early voting. new laws limit the hours for weekday, early voting and eliminate voting on the weekend before election day altogether. those sundays are traditionally

a day that african-american churches organize trips for their congregations to voting locations after the sunday service. so this week ohio secretary of state john huested stan dollarized the election boards in ohio stay open for the same hours and his directive still includes limited evening hours and no weekend voting. but a group of black mass or thes in ohio are saying that won't stop them from getting souls to the poll joining me today from cleveland is one of those pastors, reverend tony miner, director of advocacy for cleveland's lutheran metropolitan ministry and member of the african-american leadership council. good to have you, reverend. >> good to be here. >> we have been talking a little bit about this idea that voter i.d. restrictions and that early voter restrictions are all sort of about voter fraud, but we have data here from the school of journalism of arizona state

university that says in-person voter impersonation on election day which prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tough voter i.d. laws is virtually non-existent, only century touch cases over a decade were reported. looks to me like voter suppression, looks to me like ringing in the election. what can a chunch like yours and the organization that you lead do about something like this? >> well, thank you very much. we certainly are trying to make the most out of a very terrible situation. we hate to call it partisan and hate to say that it's targeted, but it is what it is. but the faith community has a very strong opportunity using the power of the pulpit to be very organized to help our people get to the polls. what we attend to do with agencies i'm associated with and l&m, we try to give people the tools and inspiration so that they can take part in our democracy. in cleveland we have introduced a five-point plan. over the last three months we have been training individuals to be captains.

we have about 50 captains on the ground that are working through congregations. some are at the 2100 men's shelter, a part of llm, and we are getting them to understand people's status. we are in phase two of the plan and what we are doing is voter verification. with all of the confusion that's out there with folks being purged with the changing in precincts, it is important that people do what we are inspired to do through the vessels program. and that is to be prepared. and we have implemented an i am ready program so we are using software, we are on a 14-day plan now going throughout cleveland and we are verifying people to vote. the most important thing is the souls to the polls. and we will not be deterred. these are barriers, these are restrictions, but what they have done is ignited us. they have encouraged us to use

the power of the pulpit, to use the experience in our past to say that we will not turn around. so we will continue to use vans, we will continue to use the buses. and we are going to try to take advantage of the ab century see process. and throughout churches in the next couple of weeks we'll have a vote now day at churches where people are going to come with their absentee ballots and they are actually going to mass mail them that day. now here is the challenge. >> reverend minor, i want to ask you a quick question on this. i love what you're up to and talking about sort of using your history as a way to be motivated. and on the one hand clearly there's a deep history, a long history, but there's also a vent one. i was in ohio in 2004 and the lines were brutal. it was bad weather that day. so it feels to me like there's a fundamental ethical issue involved here in that some precincts, no problem, just walk in and vote. you don't stand in the rain and others the long lines. >> absolutely.

what happened in 2004, we experienced it, long lines, people got frustrated and they went home. by 2008 we changed the laws and we allowed early voting, in which you saw across the country in ohio, in cleveland particularly, and in urban communities working through churches, people voting early. taking advantage of the process. the question is, what happened after 2008? so now we have hb-194 where they began to change the law. and right now we are -- we have done away in ohio with early voting. and when i say early voting, i mean the ability to vote in the evenings and weekends. and as we indicated, that was a very important tool. we hate to say that it's partisan, we hate to say that it is targeted, but it is what it is. >> reverend, i feel okay saying it is targeted and feel okay saying it is partisan. and the reason really goes back to ohio, that is the fact there are elected officials from political parties who are making these decisions. these are not sort of unelected

officials for whom there isn't a partisan interest. we are going to keep our eye on ohio. we will undoubtedly talk to you again, reverend tony minor in cleveland. i want to say i was a fan of the late congressman stephanie tubbs jones whose work was very much about making sure what happened in '04 would not happen again. i appreciate you are continuing her legacy. now, if you don't live in pennsylvania or in ohio, that doesn't mean you aren't about to be disenfranchised. voter suppression efforts are underway all over the country. i'm going to bring my panel back in and we are going to talk potentially about your right to vote and whether or not it's safe. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. now in two new flavors.

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i have nicole here along with katon. as the minister was speaking from ohio laying out his five-point plan, i saw you taking notes. i was going to say, don't you take notes on what they are doing, but there is a passion in that minister here about what is happening on that space. i have to tell you, it feels to me like this is where the democratic party actually aught to be. >> i applaud pastor minor. he's doing what sometimes the party should be doing. voter registration, absentee ballot process, moving people to the polls. i'm sure he's adhering to the laws, but that history is in african-american churches forever because they didn't think they had the right to vote. >> and because we were told we were not human beings. and we had to be reminded of the right. >> and not just told but legislated. and i think that's part of it. it's not just sort of an emotional or psychological, although that's certainly part of it, but it is that these laws feel so similar.

i was looking at -- we have an intern here, kristen, in school in pennsylvania last year, although she's graduated. and kristen got the letter, you know, from pennsylvania about what it takes to be able to vote. and i'm thinking, this is the kind of thing they would send out. like these long, hard, technical words. you have to do these 15 different things. every i.d. card needs to have an expiration date just to discourage you if you are an ordinary citizen. >> these kinds of activities are intimidating to voters. even in states with no voter i.d., i have heard secretaries of state say that in west virginia, particularly, i was on a planl with the secretary of state in west virginia saying, i have voters calling to say what are the voter requirements in west virginia. it is causing intimidation and mass confusion among voters. that's a serious problem. >> part of the problems democrats have had on this, and this is a place where i'm disappointed in my party, i think the republicans have had a

long-term strategy, as david pointed out, this was on the legislative agenda. we have seen it in pennsylvania and florida, it just happens to be any state that's a battleground state that has a growth in african-american/latino population that just happens to have the laws. our party, the democratic party, needs to do a better job on a constant basis. we have seeded the ground on the conversation. this is not about voter i.d. this is about voting. it is a constitutional right and the right to bear arms is a constitutional right. if we are going to have that fight, let's have that fight and figure out what's the best way to ensure everyone gets to exercise that right and politically, unfortunately for you, part of the reason your party takes a hit on this, i'll give you an example, november 2008 the rnc tried to get out of the 1982 argument with the dnc to stop voter suppression based on an '82 case where 45,000 african-americans were targeted. there was a memo from the rnc

political director saying if we do this right, this can keep the black voters down considerably. >> it is easier to buy a gun than to vote in many states. and you can't use your student i.d. to vote but you can use your gun license to vote in texas. >> you can't use your military i.d. to vote. >> and yet we don't -- part of the kind of hands huff off on gun control is, look, it's a fundamental right so no party is going to go there, but we don't get the same sense with the vote. >> before you dismiss the entire voter fraud side of the argument, i mean, the reason why we see polling suggest the florida law, majority popular in florida we have seen across the country, is because americans believe in the rule of law. so we have -- there is the access piece. every single legitimate voter should have access to exercise their right to vote. and it seems to me that this, when the conversation gets

politicized, these aren't two things that should be pitted against each other. it's the wrong debate, right? there is no doubt that everybody at this table, i would imagine, can agree that if you cast a ballot you should be a legitimate voter doing that, right? no doubt about that. and i would bet, katon, back me up, everyone who is a will jit mat voter who you would have equal access to vote. >> no they don't! we all agree that if you cast a vote you should be legitimate. but it is completely clear that republican state legislator does not think that if you are an eligible voter who is in fact who you say you are, that you have -- i'm sure, katon, we'll get to that later. thank you to all of you. karen fin knee is going to stick around a little bit longer because in 1992 at the university of richmond history was made. one woman made an introduction that hasn't been repeated for about 20 years. and that is all about to change.

we are going to introduce you to the young women who made sure it was going to change. gomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

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our morning routines are important, aren't they? new activia breakfast blend. presidential debates are like the political nerd's super bowl. the best of the best, everything that a big game has. time limits, rules and referees. and any sports fan knows the difference a referee can make. one bad call can tip the game, which is why it's so important to make sure the ref is the best there is. for our vault this week we dug back into 1996 to see who the referees have been for the past 11 presidential debates. here's a look at 11 debate moderators in 63 seconds. >> good evening from the fieldhouse at washington university at winston-salem, north carolina. >> i'm jim lara of the news hour on pbs. >> i'm charles gibson of abc

news. >> i'm bob schaeffer of cbs news. >> i'm tom brokaw of nbc news. >> tonight will primarily be about foreign policy and national security. >> the topic will be domestic affairs. >> i have selected the questions to be asked and the order. >> and the questions are mine. >> the first question is for senator kerry. >> do you think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. >> why is your plan better than his? >> are you opposed to affirmative action? >> do you believe homosexuality is a choice? >> you may not have noticed but we have lights around here that have -- they have red, green and yellow and they are the signal to -- >> i'm just trying to keep up with john. >> speaking of keeping the scorekeepers, i'm trying to do that here. we are going to move on, we have to move on. >> i will leave you tonight with what my mother always said. go vote now. it will make you feel big and strong. good night, everyone. >> so did you notice anything except the fact that i was as bad as blocking as some of those debates?

well, first, you probably noticed that jim lara of pbs moderated a lot of presidential debates. that's cool. jim is terrific, but we couldn't help but realize that when the commission on presidential debates chose someone other than jim lara, the person looked a lot like, well, like jim. ten weeks ago we brought you the story of three young women from new jersey in our foot soldiers segment. emma, elana and sami had one request learning that a woman moderated a presidential debate since carol simpson in 1992. the girls set out on a mission to change that and threw a petition change.org these young women collected more than 180,000 signatures in support of their cause. this week change happened. 20 years later jim lara will once again be moderating the cnn debate, but so too will candy crowley. she breaks the 20-year exclusion of women. success. joining me now three young women who say their work is far from finished. emma axle south, sami siegal and

elana sebarus. and msnbc contributor karen finney. thank you for being here, ladies. >> thank you for having us. >> it's almost exciting to have foot soldiers at the table. when you all discovered this, sort of in your civics class, why the decision to take the information and turn it into a petition? >> because we wanted to do something about it. we were all sort of shocked that it had been 20 years and sort of wondering why people like us couldn't moderate a debate and wanted to change that by the time we are adults going out into the world as career women. >> what difference does it make who the debate moderator is? there's not a woman on either ticket this year as either president or vice presidential candidates? >> it is all about being a positive role model. there hasn't been a woman moderating for two decades, longer than in any of us have been alive. >> oh, my gosh. that's true. some of vus been alive longer than that but i'm with you, okay. >> but it's all about having a positive powerful role model up there for little girls to see and achieve to be in such a

great position. >> so when you heard that candy crowley had, in fact, gotten this decision, did you feel like we have a win here? >> we were so excited that this finally happened and we were so thankful to everyone who signed the petition. we couldn't be here without them. >> so just -- this is one of those moments when young activists sort of do something so obvious that the rest of us should feel like, oh, right? why didn't we take care of that? why didn't we take care of that for 20 years. >> martha rad dick will also be at the presidential debate. we are also at parody in society, we are not quite there yet. look, i think, i do think that the commission understood this time that they needed to do better with regard, from what i understand, to having women representation, but one of the things we have to remember, when women are in these positions, when you watch the sunday talk shows and you watch the presidential debates, you see and perceive these people as

authority figures. when women are blocked out of those opportunities, it subverts women to a different position. and so you're right, we should have been fighting for it. i think people have been trying to fight for it but just haven't quite, you know, been able to make the case. one other challenge i'll just say tactically having been through this is both campaigns have a lot of input in terms of it is almost like the preemptive challenges they won't acce, so it is hard to get down to four people that both sides agree on. i'm thrilled. >> apparently everyone likes jim. >> right. indeed. but it is thrilling that candy crowley is an excellent journalist. she's going to represent very well, as is martha. so i think -- you guys should be very proud of what you did. it was awesome. >> and you should be hugely proud. and despite the fact that the cpd is saying it is not because of what you did, i'm completely convinced it is because what you did. so what will you use your super powers for next? what's the next agenda item your for you?

>> i'm sure everyone noticed there's no one of color representing, so hopefully we can tackle one of those issues. >> i love those are. you thinking round petitions or in other kinds of ways? >> petitions are a great way to do it. we were very successful. it is also just about keeping the public aware we can't have another 20-year gap and we finally closed it but we don't want it to reopen and want the public to be aware this has been going on an needs to change. >> one of the things i experience with young women at our table is they do a lot of political work but are not thinking of running for office themselves. anybody at this table thinking of running for office at the school level or potentially at other levels at some point? >> definitely at the school level. next year i'm going to be the president of the junior class in our small learning community, but we'll see. i mean, we are 16. we have a long way to think about it. >> i'm thrilled you are getting experience in your junior class as president. that's the first step. you start holding office now, maybe we'll be moderating debates where you are the

candidates at some point. and more in just a moment, but first it's time of a preview of "weekends with alex witt" hosted by craig mill van. >> i love the foot soldier segment, by the way. a little more than a week into the republican national convention. i will get the inside scoop from the press inside scoop. and whether the grand spectacles are even relevant. plus and chelsea clinton's thoughts on running for office. alex talks to the creators of the real housewives and finds out the truth behind 2 t all. plus, the one question that andy cohen asked the president that he refused to answer. and the movie "sparkle" is out. whitney houston's last performance. that and more at the top of the hour. >> thanks. and i love that chelsea clinton may be running. another female role model.

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it is always hard to talk about rape. and in some communities, the silence is deafening. but as they heal, survivors can learn to be advocates for themselves and others as they tell their painful stories. co-founder of the organization, a long walk home, is committed to teaching them how. and her vision is to turn survivors into leaders for the movement to end violence against girls and women. recently, i went to chicago to meet her and the extraordinary teens in the program. >> my sister is a sexual assault survivor. in the process of me trying to help her heal, i photographed her healing process. and so that really became the understanding of how to use art as a way to help someone and help someone heal. so the heart of a long walk home is using it as a tool to end

sexual violence in communities. >> so art it end violence. that seems surprising. >> art is a way of engaging people. i think it is such a really taboo topic to talk about violence against women and girls. so we use art as a way to entertain, get them to talk about it, get them to heal, a way to transform culture at large. >> a lot of times we don't like to talk about things that happen in our household. so here, i can speak out about it and when i tell my story, it helps others tell their story. i think i use anger the most to tell what happened to me as a child. my mom asked, why do you paint everything so dark. then when i got ms. tilly, i realized, wow, this is all of the anger inside of me, putting it on the canvas. >> so the dark colors in the painting was about your -- >> about the pain and fear.

>> i was the type of person that i don't need to tell anybody anything. things are better left unsaid. but it ended up to horrible things and me thinking horrible things. when you talk, and you speak, and you know that somebody is there to listen, then it can work out. >> 1, 2, 3 -- >> i think we're so protective of young girls when it comes to this issue, we don't think of them as leaders about these things. like how do you actually become a leader about these things. >> we think of them as victims or survivors but not leaders. >> yeah. they are trained to end sexual violence in our community. then they spread the message where they are building their own programs. that the idea of the movement. >> a movement. a movement that can inspire a community and change the way we view survivors of sexual assault. that's why shahara is this week's foot soldier. so learn more about her organization go to

alongwalkhome.org. thank you to you at home for watching. what happened to the campaign of big ideas? what makes for a great education? does paul ryan have a plan it solve the national debt? plus iconic actress jennifer beales will join me. up next, "weekend with alex witt." era laundry detergent is a black belt stain fighter.

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