threatening to block a vote on the senate floor. >> yet some folks back in washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms and that's not right. that is not right. we need a vote. >> senate majority leader harry reid echoing the same sentiment on the floor in the last hour. take a look. >> i hope republicans will stop trying to shut down debate, start engaging on the tough issues we were sent to washington to tackle. how would i describe these 13 senators who sent me this letter. i want to do this respectfully. they have a right to their opinions, even if they're illogical and even if they're speaking out of both sides of their mouth. >> republicans are not backing down but instead doubling down.

the filibuster threat getting a powerful ally, mitch mcconnell. the majority leader joining a growing list of gop senators who are vowing to stand in the way. >> people put their hands on a bible in the senate to have a debate and a discussion on these issues. that should be the minimum that we expect. >> i don't understand the idea of positioning the party, positioning the leadership, against an issue that is a 90% issue with voters out there. you know, at least pretend that you're interested in it. at least pretend that you give a damn about what happened. >> the volume of the voices calling for gun control is michael bloomberg's group, mayo mayors against illegal guns. a new ad features a father who lost his little boy on that deadly december day. >> i feel it's something i owe to my son, jesse, to speak up. i'm his voice. i feel if i didn't, i would be letting jesse down.

>> keeping up the intensity, vice president joe biden and attorney general eric holder will hold a joint event on gun control coming up later today. let's dive in and talk right now with minneapolis mayor r.t.ryback, founding member of mayors against illegal guns. sir, good to have you here this morning. as we have been seeing the intensity and the voices grow louder from the families, certainly the newtown families who lost so much on that day back in december, a lot of people are talking about whether or not the president is using these families as a way to change the political dialogue because of emotion, but in watching these families, it's hard not to listen to their voices. look at this. >> though sometimes the waves of sadness are so great they threaten to drown me, i stand before you now and ask you to stand with me, with all the families, help this be the moment when real change begins. help this be the beginning of

turning tragedy into transformation for us all. >> sir, is it fair to say that the president is capitalizing and using these families and their grief to try to score political points? >> well, thomas, you're right, there's emotion and when i watch "60 minutes" it all came back to me, not just about newtown but like any mayor in america, we've seen time after time with family after family. yeah there's a lot of emotion but for anybody to say that's about politics has never stood at a corner with a mom whose kid is dead and try to explain to them why it's so hard to figure out where the gun came from, trying to explain to them that people in congress somehow stand between them and the truth. you bet there's emotion. but when i saw the president come out of newtown that first time, i saw a look in his eye that i have seen in the mirror after i have been at a shooting that mayors across america have seen, and it's imperative, i really think, that people use this emotion. emotion only comes because there's a reason for it.

in this case, it's because there's an epidemic of people being killed. there's not one law that will change it, but the idea that 90% of this country supports background checks, that senator manchin has now come up with a good compromise that gets over the main objections about it, you and i as friends or family members sell a gun to each other, maybe we don't need a background check there but i got to tell you, 40% of the guns in this country have no background check. 100% of the people get on an airplane have a check. 100% of the people getting guns should, too. >> sir, we watched the video there, the president ushering and escorting the newtown families back to washington, d.c. where they will spend the next two days lobbying members of the hill to convey their message, but your group, mayors against illegal guns, is out with its own ad campaign, specifically targeting certain states. i want to show this ad to everybody. you're specifically showcasing senator pat toomey. take a look. >> now the u.s. senate can pass comprehensive background check

legislation that will stop criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from using loopholes to get guns. senator toomey understands how important that change is. >> i'm in favor of making changes to a background system. >> so there, you're showcasing, highlighting the fact that senator toomey is willing to work with those across the aisle to get something done. some would look at that and think you're trying to, i guess, pigeon-hole the senator to make sure you keep his feet to the fire on this one. what was the political calculation of running that ad for toomey? >> i wasn't involved in it. the choice of that to me was pretty clear that over and over, people from both sides of the aisle have said we need universal background checks. the only time people get wiggy on this is when they get into the back rooms in washington and somehow people start strong-arming them to vote against the will of their people. so it's important to call that out, it's important here in

minnesota, in the suburbs of minneapolis and in that area, john suter, a guy who was shot and mercifully lived in a mass shooting, rightfully should ask his congressman why won't you support me in congress, why do you support interest groups, why do you want to play political games like filibusters instead of have a vote. i think it's right to bring these things out and i think eventually the right thing will happen. >> sir, i want to show everybody because right now, we do have the talk of the filibuster going on about anything moving forward on the gun conversation from the senate. 14 different senators who are vowing to utilize the filibuster and on the wonk book today, there's a quote that really struck me. i want to read it out loud to everybody, where they say it's probably rational for a senate republican to believe he has more to fear from the conservative activist who would be furious that he went along with the president's gun control agenda than from the broad mass of the public who would be vaguely pleased but mostly unaware. is this really about the vocal

minority that is scaring senate republicans as opposed to an apathetic majority of americans who are going to turn the other way no matter what happens on gun control in the country? >> well, i think frankly, thomas, there's a certain amount of truth to that. but you know, there's a real tragic reality that's happening in this country, and that day after day, month after month, more activists demanding action on reducing gun violence, they're getting trained because they've had direct personal experience. there's not a place in america that's been immune to this. so if people think somehow they want to react to tragedy by playing politics, let's talk about what's going to happen over these next few years. as one person after the other goes back to their district, there's a family there that's seen this, they move people. the republican party's adherence to extremists who they're afraid of primarily over the next election didn't work out so well in the last election. i got to tell you, i don't think it's going to work out too much better going forward. much more important, people

don't like leaders to play politics with tragedy. and that's what i think is happening right here. maybe you could accuse those of us who stand with people who have seen great violence as being political. i call it being frankly moral. i think sometimes that word needs to be injected into politics and this is one of those times. it's moral to vote. >> sir, thanks so much for joining me. i appreciate it. i just want to pass along this programming note. "morning joe" will hold an exclusive roundtable discussion with vice president joe biden on gun control thursday morning and you can submit your own questions for the vice president using the twitter hash tag, vponmj. the other big story is from this magazine that first published the 47% tape that upended mitt romney's presidential campaign. it's out with new recordings, this time mother jones and writer david corn are featuring what they say are audio recordings of a meeting of senator mitch mcconnell's re-election campaign in which they say he and his staff gamed out strategies against actress ashley judd if she were to run.

she has since said she will not run for kentucky's senate seat. mother jones says the recording were made during a february 2nd meeting of mcconnell's campaign in kentucky. the magazine quotes mcconnell himself as saying during that meeting, quote, i assume most of you have played the game whack-a-mole. this is whack-a-mole period of the campaign when anybody sticks their head up, do the math. the mcconnell campaign is now asking the fbi to investigate the leaking of the tapes and the campaign told msnbc we have always said the left would stop at nothing to attack senator mcconnell, but nixonian tactics to bug campaign headquarters is above and beyond. we have also reached out to ashley judd. we have not gotten a response from that camp. i want to bring in our tuesday political power panel. ann kornbluth from "washington post," karen hunter and republican strategist hogan gidley. great to have you here. we will not be playing these audio tapes out of an abundance of legal caution because of where these tapes were recorded and the one party consent rule and blah, blah, blah. but you can check it out

yourself on mother jones. hogan, someone at mother jones has identified a campaign aide as the one who is talking about ashley judd's mental health in these tapes. they say on there that she clearly, this sounds extreme, but she's emotionally unbalanced. it's been documented. you can go into chapter and verse from her auto biography, she was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the 1990s. we know your political background of working on santorum's presidential campaign. is this something that will be fair game because it was in an autobiography or does this hit below the belt? >> for a campaign to directly attack an opponent on their mental health was definitely below the belt. i think it's quite frankly reprehensible and nasty. but you know, because it is public record, you can count on outside groups and organizations to make sure they point this up if they're trying -- if they have a vested interest in keeping any particular political seat and this one's no

different. when campaigns start, you take a look at opposition research. you want to find out everything and anything you can on your opponent and you want to use that stuff against them. most all the time, it's political, it's a vote they've made, a position they've taken, but something like mental health as we're talking about the gun debate and the importance and seriousness of mental health, that's nothing to be used as a political pinata, nothing to attack your opponent on. i think it's pretty nasty and quite frankly reprehensible for a campaign to do so. >> karen, the mcconnell campaign has told mother jones quote, obviously recording device of some kind was placed in senator mcconnell's campaign office without consent. by whom and how that was accomplished, will presumably be the subject of a criminal investigation. kentucky is a one party consent state. obviously it's illegal, completely illegal, if you are not a party to the conversation to begin with. so there needs to be a lot of vetting done to this. but the senator's office is asking the fbi now to get

involved. how serious are these allegations? >> oh, extremely serious. as far as the legality, welcome to 2012 where nothing is off limits anymore. >> or 2013, even better. >> i missed a whole year. must have been asleep. >> that's okay. haven't seen you for awhile. >> but welcome to the new millenium, where we are, you know, everything we say is subject to being displayed for the public's discernment. this is where we are right now. while it may be illegal, the bottom line is out there now and mitch mcconnell can't do the smoke screen thing and say we're going to prosecute and going to go after these people. he's going to have to deal with what was said on those tapes, because we know what was said on those tapes because we're all going to mother jones after this and listen to those tapes. >> one thing that was on there in this conversation where they talk about the mental state of a potential candidate like ashley judd, they also talk about what she's written about her stance on religion, from her autobiography. they quote her book as saying i still choose the god of my understanding as the god of my childhood. i have to expand my god concept from time to time, particularly

i enjoy native faith practices and i have a very nature-based god concept. i like to think i'm like st. francis in that way, brother donkey, sister bird. that's back to st. francis and the way that he would preach to animals and felt connected to them. but when we talk about the fact that maybe they would have mocked her religion, would that have played well in a red state like kentucky? >> i mean, this is now often such hypothetical land obviously since she isn't running and this is all going to be moot now. but i think in any campaign, talking about someone's mental condition or about their religion would risk a backlash. it could also work. i think as hogan pointed out, while the campaign itself might not be the one to bring it up, you certainly wouldn't expect to see the senator mention it in debate, certainly outside groups would be free to. what you don't know is how the electorate would react. would this be a woman under attack unfairly, would there be people, especially in the mental health question, who would say this just isn't fair game and feel sorry for her. others who might feel that religion is completely out of bounds.

i think it's hard to know. but i do agree that i think the topic now is going to be where did this come from and was it a bugging situation or was it simply somebody with a tape recorder who was in the room who then leaked it to the outside world. >> exactly. it is going to be a lot of interesting facts that come forward. hogan, quickly. >> real quickly, this is nothing new in politics. i'm in south carolina. lee atwater famously accused one of his opponents of being hooked up to a car battery from mental illness. it's nothing new. just the fact that now we're going around putting these things on the internet and it's viral in a matter of seconds that makes it new and more damaging. >> senator mcconnell's campaign again working with the fbi and they have also notified the local u.s. attorney general in louisville, per an fbi request. in a phone interview with nbc news, mother jones' david corn say he and his publication have no comment into the fbi investigation into how they got this recording. however, he says quote, the story speaks for itself and adds that mother jones reached out to mcconnell's senate and campaign

offices for comment before publication so they were tipped off to this, but they didn't hear back. also, david corn goes on to say that the article makes it clear that mother jones was provided a copy of the audio from an anonymous source. karen? >> still speaks to mitch mcconnell having a real serious problem that he would even have to resort to this kind of behavior to try to go after someone who had never announced they were running. i think we're focusing on how the tape got here, not on what the substance is. >> they haven't denied the authenticity of the audio. >> saying this was illegal. >> our power panel for today, my thanks to all three of you. a programming note. david corn, the writer of that mother jones piece, will join martin bashir coming up at 4:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. just ahead, rutgers opens another investigation into its basketball program. and is it taking a few further steps as well? we will talk about that. plus, from near tragedy to triumph. louisville's kevin ware gets to celebrate the championship with his team. look at that image. next, why college sports is all

about the benjamins except for the students playing them. and the cuban controversy continuing. another republican joining the call for an investigation of beyonce and jay-z. that leads to our question of the day, is this controversy overblown or is it appropriate to question the couple spending their five-year anniversary in cuba? but i wondered what a i tcustomer thought? is great, hi nia... nice to meet you nia, i'm mike. what do you drive? i have a ford explorer, i love my car. and you're treating it well? yes i am. there are a lot of places you could take your explorer for service, why do you bring it back to the ford dealership? they specifically work on fords. it seems to me like the best care. and it's equal or less money, so it's a value for me. get a free brake inspection and brake pads installed for just

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what a game, what a comeback for the louisville cardinals. the men's team winning a spectacular third ncaa championship for the school and boy, this was a nail-biter t cards were down by 12 before they sealed the deal late in the second half of the series. a thrilling three-point shot against the michigan wolverines. even crutches could not keep sophomore kevin ware from celebrating. look at that guy. he did the honors of cutting

down the net from the team's winning hoop. now, there was also celebration taking place in the streets among kentucky fans. unfortunately, though, got a little rowdy. 23 arrests, 14 of which involved booze and disorderly conduct. the ladies of louisville will try to make it a two sweep when they tip off against uconn coming up tonight. the best to them. on the flipside of that victory, more fallout in the rutgers basketball player abuse scandal. new allegations that the ex-coach mike rice showed violent and homophobic behavior when he coached at robert morris university. this is rutgers ordering a review of practice videos from all its teams to see if other coaches engaged in this kind of abuse that rice is seen exhibiting in the now infamous clips. nbc sports network anchor and co-host of "the crossover" joins me to talk about this. so much has unfolded over this story but one thing that's come down about this is the fact that the president of the school, barchi, is getting a lot of support from higher-ups like governor chris christie.

i want to play what he had to say about this. >> you have lots of successful coaches in this country at the college level who don't act this way. lots and lots who have been successful. yet they don't conduct themselves like animals. and you know, one of my questions to folks was what parent would let this animal back into their living room to try to recruit their son? after this video? >> does that put an end to anybody looking out for barchi's head, because he's got the support of the governor now and the fact that in the 72-hour period, it seems as if this was all tidied up and cleaned up and people are out? >> i think it is over. i think a lot of faculty are still furious. they had a town hall with president barchi yesterday, many of them voicing how angry they are. christie has a 70% approval rating. he picked this guy to merge the schools, to move the school to the big ten. millions of dollars are at stake. that's what this comes down to. yes, barchi keeps his job because of chris christie. >> rutgers is saying it plans to

hire a consultant to review how it handled the firing of rice. now, there are these allegations out of robert morris university that he was throwing basketballs and homophobic slurs when he coached there from '07 to '09. is this going to bring forward, we talked about this before, does this bring forward potentially and give other students the confidence to potentially expose this type of treatment at their universities? >> look, i think this will help other schools in terms of this type of culture being cleaned up. as i told you last time i was here, i don't think this is common. this is a guy who has some clearly massive anger issues. will it get them off the hook, this investigation going forward, i don't know. they told him, an outside law firm told the school they had cause to fire rice when they came and investigated this several months ago. they had the legal recourse to fire this man. they didn't do it. there was a board of governors member who saw the video, chose not to act on it, said he wanted rice fired. but look, he kept his job.

i don't think anything's going to change. ultimately, when you're making a big money move like this, the money is all that matters. >> big money here. when the rutgers a.d. tim pernetti was fired, he got $1.2 million to walk away, car allowance, two years health insurance, ipad, threw that in there. the daily beast just ran a story called the shame behind the game about how student athletes really get treated like second class citizens while the university big-wigs get a lot of cash. you're grimacing at that. >> so many people are coming out left and right and saying now, i don't believe student athletes are being looked out for well as they should be. i don't think there's any model that would clean up basketball by paying players, nor football, nor any other sport. you show me a model that protects the integrity of the game while allowing to pay players, i will be stunned. that will never happen. there ever never be a successful model for that.

i'm okay with pernetti walking away with money. he made the school tens of millions of dollars. i'm not okay with mike rice walking with more than $1 million, being fired for cause. >> be cheaper to pay the blackmailer. >> this is taxpayer money. rice walks, gets fired for cause. pernetti resigns before the scandal really hurts the university even further. >> dave briggs, good to have you here. today's producer's pick. it was a team decision today. wait until you see this one. we're going crazy about cookie monster. yeah. look at this. the story that's gracing the covers of the "new york daily news" and "new york post." cookie monster and tough cookie. the man behind the fuzz, the blue costume, was arrested on sunday after allegedly shoving just a 2-year-old boy during a confrontation with the kid's mom. the mom refused to pay the $2 for the kid to have his picture with cookie monster. you can read all about it.

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♪ (announcer) wake them up with breakfast-favorite flavors and we are sharper. like salmon, egg, cheese, and whole grain oats. friskies. now serving breakfast. man: the charcoal went out already? ... forget it. vo: there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford original charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill. florida's state senate is expected to take up an abortion related bill today that requires providers to offer emergency care if the baby is born alive. it's just one of the 42 states considering new abortion laws this year with a handful that have already passed bills. now, on friday, you may recall, kansas lawmakers passed a bill defining life as beginning at fertilization.

last tuesday the alabama legislature put new regulations on doctors performing abortions. last month, north dakota banned abortion at the sign of a heartbeat. an arkansas lawmakers overrode the governor's ban on abortions at 12 weeks. joining me is the president of naral pro-choice america. elise, in 2012, 43 laws were passed that put restrictions on abortions. in 2011, there were 92 abortion restrictions. are we on track for 2013 to see another record year? >> well, if early indicators are correct, we unfortunately are, thomas. i mean, i think what we're seeing here is an extreme position about women's rights that was soundly rejected in the 2012 election at the federal level. you have to remember, the so-called personhood ballots or personhood measures when they were connected to paul ryan essentially helped to derail mitt romney's presidency and put

him on the defensive vis a vis women voters. but we're unfortunately seeing in some state houses where they've moved very far to the right since 2010, that these very, very backwards positions, that in some cases actually codify doctors lying to women are taking hold and becoming all the rage. >> one thing, though, because we have an article today that shows some in the anti-abortion movement are worried these new laws may actually hurt their cause in the long run because they could tie up the courts for decades. quotes a lawyer who heads a right to life group in ohio, who says the difference within the movement is about strategy, not philosophy. legal scholars call these heartbeat bills a hail mary pass. do you think these bills will do nothing but create the long expensive legal battles that would ultimately only reaffirm roe v wade? >> i am not a lawyer, but i do hear that is ultimately probably

what's going to happen, although as the governor in arkansas pointed out, at what expense. these governors are being forced to spend millions and millions out of often cash-strapped state budgets and that comes from education, that comes from nutrition assistance and you know, there are 36 state houses up in 2014 and these governors should be watching very, very carefully, because i do think what these bills are doing is waking up americans who mostly actually support a woman's right to choose to the consequences if they don't activate. >> thanks for making time for me. i appreciate it. >> thank you. another democrat in the senate has flipped on their stance about marriage equality. this time it's south dakota's tim johnson who says this decision doesn't require any religious denomination to alter any tenets, it forbids the government from discriminating who can marry whom. that leaves only leave senate dems holding out. joining me is a former advisor to president bill clinton,

democratic strategist and gay rights activist. richard, good to have you here. we have been hearing a lot about which democratic senators are left to come out for marriage equality. interesting, we have former republican presidential candidate rick santorum warning his party against supporting marriage equality, telling the des moines register quote, the republican party's not going to change on this issue, in my opinion, it would be suicidal if it did. what are your comments about it would be suicidal if it did when we have senators like rob portman who has come out now in support of marriage equality, and he still has a political future ahead of him. >> rick santorum doesn't have a very good track record of predicting the outcomes of things in republican politics. but i think it's clear the future is that more and more senators, more and more americans are coming out for marriage equality and i thought you saw in senator portman just the beginning of what is a lot of support from moderate and even conservative americans who realize that this is not an

issue about religion, this is an issue about civil marriage. i thought people thought there was a lot of courage in the portman family, both father and son. i was very touched by that story. >> you know, in that instance, politics was very personal and we booked you today because you wrote this incredible post on the new yorker called coming out to my father, about an interview that you did with a blog in which you described what it took to tell your dad that you were gay. just so everybody knows, your dad was the prominent dr. charles kocarides, one of the founders of gay conversion therapy. >> he sent me a letter and sent me a beautiful letter handwritten, four pages, in which he basically said i'm sorry i behaved so badly, i'm sorry i got angry. you are the most important person to me in my life and i love you and the only thing that's important to me is your happiness. it was not always that easy going forward, because he did not, you know, he did not change

what he was saying publicly about the treatment and cure of homosexuality. >> so it didn't change what he believed in terms of science and being able to change human nature, but he was able to support you. >> yeah. >> how does that or how did that change the relationship that you had with your father knowing that originally, he wanted to fix you but then he felt that you didn't need to be fixed? >> it was a very difficult relationship and as i say in that video, i don't think he ever really wanted to fix me. i think he felt that people should be entitled to lead their lives as they see fit, although that is not what he said publicly, and he did a lot of harm and a lot of damage to people who thought that they might be able to change their sexual orientation. but i did this video with an amazing site called i'm from driftwood which seeks to promote understanding in a very nonpartisan way by sharing gay stories. i think that a lot of the

advances we've had recently, the advances in anti-discrimination issues, have been because more and more people are willing to be open and honest about their sexual orientation. people know that i'm gay, right. i write about it, i've worked on this issue for a long time, but they haven't really known this story and i hope that telling the story in an open and honest way would let people know that even under the most difficult circumstances, it can be a profoundly liberating and healing experience. >> i wanted to play the fact that these dad and son relationships like the portmans, we've got the sammons, the republican who has a gay son but will not change his views on marriage equality and his son matt has made or gave an interview recently and talked about his dad, why he feels he's not a bigot. take a look. >> it's probably while i was in college, when i was, yeah, at

asu, and i had just decided that i was no longer going to do reparative therapy and it was hard for him. we still had a loving relationship but it was difficult for him to accept. >> so difficult for him to accept, his father supported his agreement to do that interview. but there's a young man who grew up mormon, has gone through reparative therapy, has left reparative therapy, has said that he wants to have his own family, is okay, he said in that interview, it's okay if his parents or his dad doesn't come to support his wedding. do you see any of yourself in a son like that who wants to be supportive of their father but knows that there is a great obstacle in the way if the dad won't give his full blessing? >> listen, i think nothing is more complicated than the relationship we have with our parents, especially our fathers, especially as gay sons. fathers who may not support

their sexual orientation. so you know, i empathize with mr. salmon. i thought a lot of identification with the portman family and the choices they made which i thought was a very beautiful story which showed a lot of courage, but these are very complicated relationships, and i think we see in the story of the salmon family a son who wants to have, you know, be true to his affection for his father, despite his views but also who is struggling with the fact that his father doesn't really support, you know, the essence of who he is as a person. so it's very complicated and i think we have to have empathy and sympathy for the choices that everybody makes. >> compassion for the family dynamic. >> exactly. >> richard, thanks for being here. i appreciate it. so former president, your friend, bill clinton, listen to this, once pledged to build a bridge to the 21st century. he finally crossed that bridge and got some help from stephen

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the u.s. navy has released pictures showing a new weapon it's been testing, a ship-mounted laser cannon that can destroy a drone and disable a ship. video shows a low-flying drone that gets turned into a fireball, plunging into the sea after being hit by this invisible beam. the navy says that laser will be deployed on a ship based in the persian gulf. it will be operational by the summer of 2014. obviously meant to be a not so subtle warning to iran. another country that the u.s. is watching with laser focus right now, north korea. which is issuing a new threat, telling foreigners in south korea they should leave the country for their own safety. on state-run tv today, the north said the two countries are on the verge of a nuclear war and it looks like the north's ramped up rhetoric might be working. new pew poll out this morning showing 56% of americans think

the government should take north korea's threats very seriously while 47% believe the north is capable of launching a nuclear missile that could reach the u.s. joining me now is former state department spokesman p.j. crowley. sir, great to have you with me. analysts have said that they think an attack is unlikely. how do you see the latest threats from the north and it playing out with the rest of the rhetoric? >> well, i think it's just more of the same. they're trying to brew up a storm, they're throwing as much as they can into this pot, stirring it as often as they can, trying to get some sort of reaction, some sort of concession either from south korea or from the united states. so far, while as your poll suggests, we should be absolutely concerned about this behavior, i don't know that it necessarily changes the fundamentals of the conflict. >> when we talk about secretary of state john kerry on his way to london right now, this is on his way there because of thatcher passing away but wrapped up three days of peace talks in the middle east, he said that each of the leaders that he met with made serious

and constructive suggestions for peace in the future and kerry also addressed one of israel's biggest concerns. i want to play for everybody what he had to say about iran. >> iran cannot have and will not have a nuclear weapon. president obama doesn't bluff. he's made that very clear to me. and we hope the iranians will come back to the table with a very serious proposal. >> so as we understand it, iran said earlier today that it had begun uranium mining after talks last week broke down. is iran a bigger nuclear threat right now than north korea? >> well, actually, north korea's farther along, farther advanced in its nuclear program so i would say north korea remains the more significant threat in the short intermediate term. long range, if iran were to get an actual nuclear weapon, it potentially changes the dynamic inside the middle east. so both are very troubling over the long run, but north korea actually has a more advanced

capability right now than iran. >> former state department spokesman p.j. crowley. great to have you with me. i appreciate it. the beyonce and jay-z cuban vaca crisis continues to escalate. wait until you hear this. republican senator marco rubio now wants the obama administration to explain why the couple were allowed to travel in havana for their five-year anniversary. rubio says the trip was used for propaganda purposes by the castro regime and may have been licensed by the treasury department. neither the white house nor the treasury department are answering questions about the trip or whether it's being investigated. the republican house speaker john boehner says he's backing south carolina's former republican governor mark sanford in his bid against elizabeth busch in the state's congressional special election. meanwhile, busch just launched her first general election tv ad. >> i won't take any special interest pledges or follow any party line to create jobs in south carolina, we need a well-educated and skilled work

force and we need to get rid of government waste. >> so on the flipside of that, her famous comedian brother stephen colbert recently spent time with former president bill clinton and his annual clinton global initiative university meeting, where he gave the former commander in chief a helping hand on social media. >> 140 characters or less. >> just spent -- >> just spent -- >> amazing time with colbert. >> sound good? >> is he sane. i love to golf. ♪ [ grunts ] yowza! that's why i eat belvita at breakfast. it's made with delicious ingredients and carefully baked to release steady energy that lasts... we are golfing now, buddy! [ grunts ] ...all morning long. i got it!

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we asked and you answered, the beyonce and jay-z cuba trip overblown. one post, the whole boycott is overblown. it should be lifted. so we should all travel to cuba.

another post, of course, anything not to do with real issues and of course, they're big obama supporters and friends. keep those replies coming to twitter and facebook. ♪ ♪ so this is a new ad from a coalition of activists called the end it movement. they are using mainstream and social media to shine a light on global slavery. the campaign is backed by a-list celebs and athletes. there you see indianapolis colts quarterback matt hasselbeck and nbc's own "america's got talent" nick cannon is a host. there are 27 million people worldwide held against their will. 200,000 in the u.s. are bought and sold as sex slaves. joining me is bryson vogeltang, anti-slavery activist.

bryce, it's good to have you here. it's a good time for you and what's going on in the end it movement. i want to give everybody an idea of how big a number 27 million people is, that's the population of georgia, south carolina, alabama, tennessee and mississippi lumped together. this is a faith-based campaign movement. involving seven nonprofit groups. explain how the groups are working together to bring attention to stop international slavery. >> yeah, slavery is real. it's happening right now today. and these coalition partners are doing the work of justice. they are doing amazing work here in the united states and around the world. and we're coming together and being the voice for them. we want the entire nation to know today on april 9th, we want to shine the light on slavery. today hundreds of thousands of people are putting this red x on their hand, to say hey, we're in it to end it. we want to be the generation that says no more slavery. that's obviously a process. and these partners are doing amazing work. >> when we talk about what's taking place internationally and

you want to shine a bright light on this and using social media. a lot of people would be surprised domestically, bryson, that there's still so much that goes on in our own country, the number, 200,000 people that can fall into the sexual slave trade. >> yeah, it's true. i'm here in atlanta, georgia. and this is one of the top cities in the united states where underage girls and boys are bought and sold against their will. it's crazy. this is happening right here in atlanta. and it's happening all over the world. >> the pastor, louie giglio is a prominent pastor in the end it movement. he was part of the invocation for the president's second inaugural, but was forced to step aside, because of anti-gay sermons from the 1990s, as a human rights activist, does it trouble you that some might see his involvement distracting from the end it movement. >> louie is just one voice. the coalition partners, it's seven different partners and two of them are faith-based.

this is the thing about slavery. slavery is not a christian problem, it's not a faith-based problem. slavery a human problem and we know as humans, that slavery can't happen. no one thinks it's right. no one is for slavery. so today we're shining a right on the fact that slavery still exists and there's an entire nation that wants it to go away. >> bryson, in the last 15 seconds for people that want to get involved what can they do? >> today we're all putting a red x on our hand. hundreds of thousands of people all over the united states are doing this. and you can go to end itmovement.com and check out the #enditmovement. and can you say no more, not on our watch. >> anti-slavery activist bryson vogeltanz. that's going to wrap it up for me. ilt see you tomorrow. joining the show then, senator chris coons. now "now" with alex wagner comes

up next. the list of stuntmen trying to stiff-arm gun reform is growing. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell boards the filibuster ba bandwagon. will it be a litmus test for his party? we'll discuss. and the margaret thatcher that republicans do not remember -- we will look at the iron lady's legacy on the conservative movement and some inconvenient truths with the new yorker's john cassidy. from plan b to abortion rights, why state boarders have never been more consequential for women's rights. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. that didn't take very long, did it? this spring, dig in and save. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing.

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