>> chemical weapons have been used, but we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. >> this is not a president who wants to start another war, but you got to do what you got to do. >> when i am making decisions about america's national security, i've got to make sure i've got the facts. >> the next bomb that goes off in america may not have nails and glass in it. >> it's important for us to do this in a prudent way. >> i think we have our priorities a little bit skewed here. >> the notion was somehow that we had exaggerated the effects of the sequester. >> is the president exaggerating? >> absolutely. >> i hope and believe the republicans will allow sequestration to go into effect. >> it's hurting folks all across the country. >> both houses of congress moved quickly. >> a few hours after voting, members headed to the airport. >> they don't care about meals on wheels unless it's rolling down an smed to suggest my job is somehow get them to behave. th

we begin with a wide ranging press conference by the president of the united states, coming 100 days into his second term, and at a moment when the challenges facing this administration grow more serious by the day. the president who just three days earlier delivered a humorous speech to the white house press corps now reverted to commander in chief. addressing some intractable problems both here and overseas. starting first with the issue of syria and whether he was satisfied that chemical weapons had, in fact, been used. >> we don't know how they were used them. >> the president was then asked about the boston bombings and the issue of intelligence. after robustly defending the fbi and all those who responded to the tragedy, he said that his head of national intelligence would be conducting a review. >> we want to go back and we want to review every step that

was taken. we want to leave no stone unturned. we want to see, is there, in fact, additional protocols and procedures that could be put fue tentl attack?ur ability to the >> but it was on issue of the sequester that the president began to express exasperation, and with good reason. he wasted no time in condemning last week's shameless vote that resolved the issue of flight delays so members of congress could get home quickly for their latest recess but did nothing to save programs that serve the poor, the elderly who will lose their meals on wheels, the tens of thousands of low-income children who will soon be thrown off head-start. >> a lot of members of congress were suggesting that somehow the sequester was a victory for them and this wouldn't hurt the economy. what we now know is that what i warned earlier, what jay stood

up here and warned repeatedly, is happening. it's slowed our growth. it's resulting in people being thrown out of work. and it's hurting folks all across the country. >> and he then chastised congress for their lack of discipline and failure to address the serious issues that now face the nation. >> you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. that's their job. >> if only they would do their job, mr. president. joining us now is is representative chris van hollen, democrat of maryland, and the ranking member on the budget committee. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, martin. >> congressman, may i first thank you for not selfishly voting for that disgraceful resolution on friday which awe allowed members of congress to avoid flight delays? why did you decide to vote against it? >> well, martin, because i don't

think the way to deal with the sequester is to do it one piece at a time, because when you do that, what you're doing is relieving the sequester for the most politically powerful groups. or the groups that may have the strongest lobbyists. and you're leaving everybody else behind. you're leaving behind over 70,000 kids who won't get head-start. 4 million meals on wheels that won't be gived. cu delivers. cuts to important investments in bioscience research to find to find cures and treatments for things like cancer. so all that would still get hit by the sequester and cost us 750,000 jobs this year alone. my view is, let's look at the whole issue at once. let's get rid of this anchor around the neck of the economy rather than providing sort of specialized relief to politically powerful groups. >> but congressman, is it any

surprise that congress is held in such contempt when members won't bat an eyelid if the elderly, as you say, lose 4 million meals won wheels, or 100,000 children lose their places under head-start. but if you delay house majority leader eric cantor at the airport, then he will pass legislation quicker than he pockets money from the nra. >> well, martin, there's no doubt about it. look, all these members of congress were leaving the capitol for a week to go home when we should be here working on fixing the entire sequester. and, in fact, four times this year i've offered an alternative to the sequester on behalf of house democrats. four times. you know how many times we've gotten a vote on that proposal? zero. so my view is, the members of congress, now that the airports are more convenient, should get right back to the capital and pass legislation or at least have a vote. an up or down vote. >> that's laughable. >> a proposal to -- >> congressman, that is

laughable. they won't do that. now, we know that the president, much to your own discomfort on issues like social security, has tried to reach an agreement with speaker boehner, but he simply won't do it. and here was the president's response just a short time ago. take a listen, sir. >> the only way the problem does get fixed is if both parties sit down and they say, how are we going to make sure we're reducing our deficit sensibly? how are we making sure we're investing in things like rebuilding our airports and our roads and our bridges and investing in early childhood education? all the basic research, all the things that are going to help us grow, and that's what the american people want. >> congressman, who does speaker boehner serve? because we know he listens to the tea party. we know that he has an "a" rating from the nra. but does it ever occur to him that millions, millions are being devastated by this sequester and he won't do a thing to stop it?

>> well, the speaker has not lifted a finger. he hasn't even allowed us, as i said, to have a vote on a proposal we've got in the light of day. if you want to vote against it, if you want to vote against relieving the sequester, go ahead. at least let us have a vote. what we said was we should get rid of some excessive agriculture subsidies. we should get rid of some of the tax breaks for millionaires. and by doing that, we can replace the sequester. get the same amount of deficit reduction without hurting the economy and without having this grinding impact on important services around the country. but the speaker has not even allowed a vote on that, and martin, the other thing is, we're trying to finish our budget, and he refuses to take the next step in the budget process. as you remember, with great fanfare, the republicans said, no budget, no pay. >> yes. >> what they didn't tell the american people was that they only meant the house had to pass a budget, which doesn't resolve

the question of budget for the u.s. government. we now say, let's get together to negotiate the next step, bridge the differences, as the president's talking about, and they refuse to get together in the light of day. they refuse to have that meeting which is the next step in the process, even though they're violating the congressional budget act by delaying. >> but what's your reaction when the president rightly says, it's not his job to discipline the congress. it's not his job to make them behave. it's not his job to make him serve the american people. that's what you were elected to do, wasn't it? >> well, that's right. and the problem we have now, especially in the house of representatives, is you have a republican party dominated by the tea party caucus that is totally unresponsive to the overwhelming majority of the american public. because of congressional redistricting, these guys are more afraid of the tea party candidate running to their right

than they are afraid of anything that the president of the united states can do. and so they're kind of immune and hunkered down and the result is very bad for the country. the result is 750,000 fewer jobs by the end of this year. the result is 1/3 slower growth this year. again, not my number. the nonpartisan congressional budget office. >> yes. >> so the damage to the american people and to the country from this incredible obstinance and refusal -- >> dumb self-injurious stupidity. that's what we have here. >> well, and it would be -- it would be kind of laughable if the consequences were not so bad. in terms of jobs, in terms of themy. economy, in terms of our kids' education. and all the consequences of their position they've taken. so really the president's right. we need for the american people to fully engage in this debate.

just like we need them to fully engage when it comes to common sense background checks on the gun safety issue. because if members of congress feel no consequence, if they feel they're not going to be held accountable by people, then they respond to the people on the extremes. and that's what's happening right now with republicans in congress, unfortunately. >> congressman chris van hollen, as ever, sir, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. next, the president tries to slow down the headlong rush to war. stay with us. a few hours after voting, members left capitol hill and headed to the airport for a week-long recess. >> oh, right. oh, right. because it's the problem from the sequester that affects them. they don't care about meals on wheels unless it's rolling down an aisle. [ male announcer ] running out of steam?

♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. that's not much, you think. except it's 2% every year. go to e-trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert: it's low. it's guidance on your terms, not ours. e-trade. less for us. more for you. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] there are hybrids. ♪ then there are turbo hybrids. introducing the first hybrid you'll actually want to drive.

that's the power of german engineering. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. all aboard. ♪

calling the situation in syria a blemish on the international community and saying the u.s. is already deeply engaged in finding a solution there, the president still warned against rushing headlong into that country's civil war. despite a stated red line on the issue of chemical weapons. >> we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them, and when i am making decisions about america's national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, i've got to make

sure i have the facts. >> the president said as early as last year he asked the military to provide him with options on syria and chemical weapons are not the only reason. >> even if chemical weapons were not being used in syria, we'd still be thinking about tens of thousands of people, innocent civilians, women, children, who have been killed by a regime that's more concerned about staying in power than it is about the wellbeing of its people. >> pressed for specifics on what a game changer would mean in practice, the president would only say that it would lead to a rethinking of u.s. options. joining us now are two ace journalists from the "washington post," columnist eugene robinson. also msnbc analyst and columnist, dana milbank. dana, you were at the press conference when the president rebeeted the use of chemical weapons by syria would be a game changer, but he doesn't appear to be in any hurry to say what that game change would be. does he?

>> no, it was a little bit frustrating. i mean, in the one sense, if we look at the contrast between this administration and the previous one, it's a little bit refreshing to see somebody not jumping to conclusions there and to admitting this is what we know, this is what we don't know. there have been -- >> we're actually looking for some facts rather than believing speculative nonsense that ends up being untrue. that's quite a relief, isn't it? >> factually. he sai he said weapons have been used. don't know who used them for what purpose. you don't want to go rush in with a ground invasion. he's been cagy about his red line. the notion of a game change is kind of frivolous. this isn't a game, they're actually talking about warfare here. so i'm not sure if i'm the syrian regime that i'm feeling terribly threatened by what the president is saying, but at the very least we're getting some level of candor. >> right. eugene, as you note in your

column today, the humanitarian toll in syria is staggering. more than 70,000 killed. a million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. millions more displaced inside syria. cities in rubble. and yet you caution against u.s. intervention. why? >> well, to those who say we must do something, i ask what? and i cannot -- cannot figure out what it is that the united states could do that we can be even reasonably certain would produce an outcome that advances u.s. interests. >> senator mccain says that we might consider air strikes against assad's air bases, for example. >> well, that could be considered. that is not a teeny-weeny task, right? because he has a lot of air bases and a lot of aircraft and robust air defenses that are fairly modern. now, we could wipe all that out, but, again, that would certainly

reduce his ability to fight. i suppose, which rebels, who are the rebels? and which sort of syria, the rebel, if indeed we did something like that? would that even be successful in driving out assad? would we not be in a position of mission where the next step and the next step and the next step leads to boots on the ground? i just think you have to be very, very cautious about jumping in to this situation. >> dana, in a "the new york times" poll out today, 62% of americans say the u.s. has no responsibility to engage in syria. how much do you think is that a war-weary public, factoring into the president's calculous at the moment? as you say, somewhat diffident today and very cautious. >> well, it's a combination. it is a war-weary, but as gene

points out, there's a very good reason for it and it's not at all clear what can be done here. i think what you're also having is the absence of sort of the neoconservatives beating the drums of war. yes, there's bill kristol and a few others out there. even they're being sort of vague as to what they would actually like to happen. i've been to hearings up on the hill. they're all eager to criticize the president for not doing anything. nobody is very clear on what they would like him to be doing that he's not doing already. there is truly no good option to be pursued here, and the public grasps that. >> to eugene's point. eugene, the president wases asked about another thorny issue today. the hunger strike at guantanamo bay. the military says 100 of 166 detain thees are now participat. here's what the president said. take a listen. >> the notion we're going to continue to keep over 100 individuals in a no-man's land imperpetuity. i don't want these individuals to die. obviously the pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best

as they can. but i think all of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this? >> gene, the president says he's going to go back at it with congress. but once again, congress is in the way of this man every step of way, isn't it? >> well, yes. congress is going to stand in the way, and they're going to pass resolutions and perhaps laws that prohibit him from bringing the detainees in here, and it's going to be very, very difficult. in retrospect, i think the president when he first took office, remember he did promise to close guantanamo and ultimately found that more difficult than it had seemed. in retrospect, he should have pushed ahead in those early days and just shut down the place before congress could organize this resistance. but i don't see how he's going to get it past them now.

>> indeed. eugene robinson, dana milbank. before we go to break, disturbing video of a plane crash at bagram air force base north of kabul. captures a civilian 747 as the plane first stalls and falls to the ground in a fiery explosion that left seven dead. the ntsb has dispatched a team to the base in afghanistan to investigate the cause of the crash. next, the president weighs in on what it means to be a role model. stay with us. e absorbing the calcium they take as well as they could because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

[ babies crying ] surprise -- your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise -- your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense.

from td ameritrade. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. it put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression

or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, or if you develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. with chantix and with the support system it worked for me. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. professional basketball player charles barclay famously said, i am not a role model. at a press conference earlier today, the president set an example set by jason collins who became the first openly fwrgay athlete in sports.

>> i'm still 7 foot tall and can bang with shaq and deliver a hard foul. and for i think a lot of young people out there who are, you know, gay or lesbian who are struggling with these issue, to see a role model like that who's unafraid, it's a great thing. >> stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up.

i've always had to keep my eye on her... but, i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

what that's great. it won't take long, will it? nah. 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. didn't take very long, did it? this spring, dig in and save. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. keep you yard your own with your choice lawn insect controls, just $8.88. from a sanford stunned and a squishy mr. cruz, to false flags challenged. here are today's top lines. >> do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this congress? >> maybe i should just pack up and go home. >> he came out as black and gay. >> i think it's a great thing.

>> once we allowed major league soccer, it would turn all the other sports gay. >> talk about protecting the taxpayers. it doesn't mean you take that money we save and leave the country for our personal purpose. >> i couldn't hear what she said. >> president obama took time out of his very busy golf schedule. >> i'm taking my charm offensive on the road. a texas barbecue with ted cruz. >> now we all look like a bunch of squishes. well, there is an alternative. you could just not be a bunch of squishes. >> he's not lying about democrats. he's lying about his own party. >> some interesting things about what's going on in congress. it turns out absolutely nothing. >> a gun reform bill, no, i didn't have a chance to get to it, i was busy drinking bottled water. >> they don't care about meals on wheels unless it's rolling down an aisle. >> female dna found on one of the bombs. could it be the widow of tamerlan? >> just one other note regarding the female dna. they say it could actually be just a hair. there was a lot of hair that

day. >> it is a frightening looking picture. when i was over in auschwitz trying to figure out did this happen? you weren't allowed to look outside. if you came to the window, they killed you and your whole family. there's no way this is going to happen in america. you can live in your dream world. >> what you say is dangerous. i'm sure everybody here loves to hear the fbi fblew up the [ bleep ] marathon. >> we have the photos. >> you have [ bleep ]. >> what you just saw there was a ca cambridge, massachusetts, native, attacking one of the reporters, i use the term loosely, for info wars. run by alex jones who among other conspiracy theorists supports the idea that the government may have been behind the boston marathon bombings. and we'd like to welcome the individual who made that tape. he is roger nicholson. good afternoon, roger. >> hey, how are you? >> what was it about this

reporter that sparked such anger? why did you decide to give him such a piece of your mind? >> well, i had been hearing him hijacking these news -- governor deval patrick was making press conferences and he kept hijacking them with these questions. and i had a dear friend of mine who was at the marathon when the bomb went off. she was about 20 feet away. her name's tracy monroe. she ran, at first, and then saw a young girl with her leg blown off and ran to help her. and i was very affected by her, what she had experienced and by the people who, you know, were at the marathon and i felt very -- i just felt very angry at "infowars" came to my town to start creating show material over this tragedy of people that were affected and it offended me. >> it obviously did offend you. because you launched a series of

expletive s against this individual. you were clearly very, very angry and annoyed. >> yeah. well, i've seen these "infowar" people on and off and been ignoring them, doing a good job doing that. to me "infowars" has become the westboro baptist church, and they're un-american and hysterics and they're not helping this country unify. >> your community has obviously been through an enormous amount of pain. you, yourself have. you spoke to your personal friend tending to somebody, a child, who was severely injured. is there anything you, yourself, would like to say to mr. jones obviously within the parameters of decency? >> of course. everyone is worried about me slipping and saying something untoward. alex jones is the david caresh of broadcasting. he's -- i can't even get into

it. i don't want those people in my neighborhood or coming around my community. cambridge, massachusetts, is one of the greatest places in the world. i have friends from all over the world from all kinds of cultures and i really like the diversity and i appreciate what we have. i think cambridge is doing it right with the community. and i don't like seeing people trying to come into our community and make some kind of sensational show about something such as a conspiracy theory, like the fbi blew up the marathon. >> it is a risible theory. roger nicholson. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> thank you. and for analysis, we bring in ryan grim, washington bureau chief of the "huffington post" and jonathan alter, a columnist for "the bloomberg view" whose new book is "the center holds: obama and his enemies." matt drudge called this the year of jones, calling his media show

one hell of a broadcast. for those unaware of mr. jones' theory, here is the man explaining the events of the boston bombing. >> i have never seen a false flag provocateured staged event by a government come apart faster than it is right now. >> john, what do you say to that? >> well, you knows honestly, the idea that anybody would be giving this guy who's just seeking more publicity for his show, trying to expand his far right-wing empire any more attention -- we've had trash, lies, slurs, in this country for a long time, but what's sickening to me about this is that there are a lot of people still in the hospital. >> there are. >> who have limbs -- >> there are. >> -- that were severed by these bombs. when you see these folks, it just churns your stomach. i think anybody -- my actual view is he should be boycotted and anybody who listens to his

broadcast, who advertises on his broadcast, should be boycotted. >> ryan, not everyone on the right is amused by, with mr. jones. two weeks ago "red state's" erick erickson tweeted, "i hope drudge stops linking to "infowars" and today "national review" sums it up this way, "it's all fairly consistent, too bat feces crazy, but essentially consistent." how big a theory do these people pose to the gop as it continually tries to re-brand itself? >> they're a huge problem. all you have to do is go back and look at the birther conspiracy to see what the problem is. they made the republican party a laughing stalk. erick erickson doing it, that's the kind of thing they need to do to get control of the message again. back in early 2000, a lot of progressive sites including

"daily kos" and the "huffington post" said we're not going to publish anybody who's doing 9/11 truther nonsense. we're not going to get into it. it's a free country, big internet. create your own "word press" blog and write whatever you want about it, but you're not going to talk about that here. the right did not do that when it came to birthers. and so all of a sudden you had this combination of them not believing the quote/unquote liberal media. you know, they don't trust the media as an institution. a lot don't trust the government, either. ruby rich. all that stuff. >> right. >> you get that toxic combination and establishment figures in the republican party backing up this birtherism. then you have these e-mail chains whipping around the country and they would use as validatio validation, they would say, you haven't seen this on the mainstream media, therefore it's true. the fact the media would not validate it, to them, validates it. >> incredible. >> right. we need people like erick

erickson to step out, say, look, this is crazy. >> john, earlier we played sound of glenn beck linking what happened in boston disgracefully to auschwitz. let me show everyone a picture of that. you can see beck. a picture of botthis new book a bottom, about the truth about gun control. in the end, this is about peddling books and advertising their brand, isn't it? >> of course. you know, eventually it got beck fired even from fox because they started to lose advertisers. in my book, which isn't out yet, but it's coming out in a month, i explain how at one point steve jobs, the late steve jobs, heard that glenn beck had called obama a racist and he ordered all apple ads off of fox and he said, no, it can't wait until monday. this was on a friday it happened. they had to go out to a transmission facility and pull

out a digital file to make sure all apple ads were off fox. not long after that, beck was fired by fox. these kind of boycotts undertaken by other companies at the time of glenn beck, this is what needs to happen. otherwise as ryan indicated, it does leak into the mainstream media. the reason that the president released his birth certificate a couple of years ago is because the birthers were on "meet the press." >> yeah. >> you had politicians talking this nonsense in the mainstream. so the republicans and the conservatives have to discipline their ranks or be subjected to crippling boycotts that will hurt their bottom line. >> but john and ryan, jones has been pushing this bogus security about dhs buying up ammunition so americans won't have any, and now, would you believe it, house republicans have asked the homeland security secretary about it. and senator jim inhofe is trying to move legislation to cap the amount dhs can buy. i mean, this is exactly what

john has just said, isn't it, ryan? >> no, that's exactly right. and a member of congress, a republican member of congress, told napolitano, i have seen this on "the drudge report" and credible media outlets such as "the drudge report" are reporting this. so you need to respond to it. and she said something back like, well, i'm not exactly sure that i would agree with you that that's a credible media report. you know, that's a problem in washington. that people do rely on "the drudge report" to kind of get their traffic signals of where they ought to go. believe it or not. if you show somebody this site who isn't involved in the media they think they've been transported back to 1997 or something. it's hard to convince them, no, actually, this is an extremely influential and powerful site here in washington run by this guy down in south florida, wherever the heck he is, and he puts up whatever he wants to. and so next thing you know, you have republicans asking the

homeland secretary why are you buying up all the bullets? the federal government hates guns so much that they're going to just buy them all up and hoard them. you know, it's -- you don't know where to start with this stuff. >> drudge is a tip sheet for fox. a lot of times there's a conservative media food chain. you'll see it in these wacky blogs. then it goes on "drudge" then fox and comes out of the mouths of senators and they always use the cover-up, we're just raising questions. >> of course. >> to hide behind that. >> john alter and ryan grim, gentlemen, thank you so much. >> thanks. coming up, viewers react to our push to get sarah "great moose hunter" palin to lead the nra. stay with us. we're getting to the point where these homo fascists are going to force us to wear it on their sleeves some kind of identifying marker. >> yes. soon christians will be forced to wear some kind of symbol so everyone can see who we are. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers.

you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word... if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts... well muddlers, muddle no more. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour one on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour three. zyrtec®. love the air. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. that was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again, and now i gotta take more pills. ♪ yup another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪

[ male announcer ] this may, buy aleve and help those in need.

♪ everybody has different ideas, goals, appetite for risk. you can't say 'one size fits all'. it doesn't. that's crazy. we're all totally different. ishares core. etf building blocks for your personalized portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal.

the fbi performed its duties. it's not as if the fbi did nothing. they not only investigated the older brother, they interviewed the older brother. they concluded that there were no signs that he was ingaug engn extremist activity. >> the president a few hours ago addressing the question of weather united states is moving backwards on national security in light of the terror attacks in boston. this in response to news the director of national intelligence, james clapper, has ordered a review of how information was handled in the weeks and months leading up to the bombings. let's bring in nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff live with us once again from boston. mike, the president said today that director clapper's order of an intelligence review is, "standard procedure around

here." do you think, though, that the president may be disappointed with his intel officials? just, perhaps, not wanting to show his hand? >> reporter: well, i think he actually did show his hand a little bit, if you read between the lines of what the president actually said. it's not as if the fbi did nothing. it performed its duties. the department of homeland security did what it's supposed to do. not exactly a rousing endorsement of their actions here. it's sort of the minimal things he could say, and clapper's -- the review clapper ordered is not exactly standard procedure. it's an inspector general review. and those are pretty serious matters in the law enforcement and intelligence community. they're conducted with great rig rigor. i can tell you quite a few people in the counterterrorism community are not happy this is an inspector general investigation or review.

they expect inevitably as these reviews do, they're going to find fault and problems that need to be fixed. and if you take everything we know at this point, there are some serious issues here. while it may not be clear that anything could have been done that would have stopped the marathon bombing from taking place, clearly there was not as much information sharing as you would liked to have seen. the fbi didn't share the information about its initial investigation with the cia which then got that second report from the russians in 2011. the cia was not happy about that. when tamerlan tsarnaev leaves the country in january 2012, a homeland security officer at the joint terrorism task force in boston is notified, but it's not clear that he shared that information with others in the jttf. now, all that said, you know, what could have made a

difference? if the fbi, the jttf, everybody in the intelligence community, had known about that trip in russia, known he was gone for six months, knew that he went to dagestan, a hotbed of islamic radicalism, then perhaps when he came back in the summer of 2012, some more follow-up, some more monitoring, might have been tone. they might have noticed that youtube account where he had set up with all these radical jihadi postings. and then at a minimum, even if it wouldn't have stopped the bombing, when the bombing did take place, he would have been, tamerlan tsarnaev might have been toward the top of the list of people they were looking at right away as potential suspects. >> nbc's michael isikoff in boston. thanks, mike. next, as we watch another rush to war, two veterans of the war in iraq weigh in on the cost to america's bravest men and women. stay with us. ♪

[ male announcer ] from the way the bristles move to the way they clean, once you try an oral-b deep sweep power brush, you'll never go back to a regular manual brush. its three cleaning zones with dynamic power bristles reach between teeth with more brush movements to remove up to 100% more plaque than a regular manual brush. and even 76% more plaque than sonicare flexcare in hard to reach areas. oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush. life opens up when you do.

the president took time out from a very busy schedule today to speak on behalf of veterans who've returned from war only to find that their employment prospects at home are much worse than those who've never served at all. >> and as we saw during the attacks in boston, as guardsmen and as veterans were racing toward danger, they put that courage and experience and skills that they've earned serving in our military to use every single day. >> joining now, former congressman patrick murray of pennsylvania. and mr. saltz of votevets. both are veterans. i want to get to the issue of unemployment. first as a veteran, what goes through your mind as you see the country enter yet another debate about a potential war in the d middle east?

>> well, if it was up to the republicans, martin, it would be like what, it's deja vu all over again. here you have republicans especially in the senate basically beating the drums to rush into another war. and we can't let that happen again. martin, you know as well as i do, it's a civil war contained within syria right now and it's basically hezbollah versus al qaeda. we can't pick either side. that's a lose/lose situation. what we can do, though, martin, is we can help our allies in the region such as jordan, who have really taken the brunt of the refugees. there's been about 1.3 million refugees leaving syria into jordan and lebanon. there are riots in these refugee camps. asserting ourselves in the middle of a civil war, that should be a no-no. >> sean, you have personal experience with syria. >> well, i've been there as a

civilian in late 2008, but in northern iraq in 2011, i was embedded training, and i was on a small iraqi army base where we had the third iraqi division. what i found fascinating about the debate in washington right now, the people who wanted us in iraq, to stay, and train the iraqi army, some of the republicans, they've been for a long time calling to arm the syrian insurgents that are frankly radicals. in iraq, alawi is not in charge. these have killed members of the third iraqi unit which my unit was tasked in training in 2011. which side of the war are you on? in one token you want to put u.s. troops embedded in serious situations, train an iraqi army that's, quote, pro shia, and the other circumstance arm insurgents inside syria that six weeks ago -- >> wanted to kill the same troops. john, moving on, the

unemployment rate for veterans, it is falling but it's very high. the va says for the 9/11 generation the unemployment rate is 9.2%. at today's joining force news conference, the white house announced hundreds of thousands of veterans have been trained or hired with pledge for hundreds of thousands more. what successes have you seen in getting veterans and deploying their skills in the civilian workplace? >> look, i think that's great the president talks about putting the veterans to work. i think it's great the g.i. bill. but people like patrick and myself who've got master's degrees or law degrees, we're going to find jobs in the force. the question is, for the people that are enlisted troops, who have not graduated from college, who are guard and reservists and come home and their job doesn't exist. a lot of members of the guard and reserve, a lot of members of our military used to flock to public sector jobs. the postal workers. the letter carriers. you know, people who work for the american federation of government employees. building trade unions. these jobs don't exist. when public sector jobs are

under attack from sequestration, that's great we maybe dropped veteran unemployment by 2%, but unions like the united association, they can do all these programs to get veterans and piping created but if there are no jobs for the veterans to come back to at the enlisted side for our people who don't have college degrees, we're in a tough spot still. >> congressman, very briefly, if you can -- >> real brief, sequestration hurt 55,000 veterans and 44,000 service members. it's wrong. we need to make sure we stand by our veterans. leave no veteran behind. that should be our country's motto, whether you're veteran or not. >> congratulations, speaker boehner. patrick murphy, john saltz. thank you, gentlemen. and we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] running out of steam?

♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ where does goddess begin? it begins with your skin... revealed by venus for a confident glow the whole world will notice. venus & olay -- gently exfoliates with 5 blades.

plus olay moisture bars help lock in moisture for less dryness. only from venus & olay. any venus cartridge fits any venus handle. that's the beauty of venus.

and finally, i wanted to convey our gratitude to you, our viewers, your continuing the conversation on our various digital platforms and particularly after yesterday's

broadcast where we discussed the latest ludicrous comments of sarah palin following the white house correspondents' dinner. we featured this image of mrs. palin with an empty space for you to insert your thoughts and plenty of you did so. richard sil burberg offered a lyrical response from a 19th century poet writing "give me your tired, your poor and i will shoot you a moose." others decided to fix on mrs. palin's hand gesture. "hi, russia." vicki groom suggested mrs. palin was appealing for attention, "over here, remember me?" others were not so charitable. marty wrote "insert raspberry here." cindy mcneil said, "i wish there was a dislike button on facebook." gene sergeant offered a note of sympathy. "this woman, herself, is a horrible joke. i feel badly for her family and the entire state of alaska."

we're always glad of your input. so please continue to use our facebook page. or tweet us @bashirlive. thanks for watching. chris matthews is next. stop the guillotine. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. there are people in this country, believe it or not, who believe the best way to get rich people to work harder is to give them tax benefits. the best way to get the poor to work harder is to cut their benefits. got it? give the carrot to the better off, give the stick to the worse off. and so in america today the guillotine is coming down on programs to get meals to the elderly. give a head start to the young who need it most. and as that guillotine comes down again and again, the well-off enjoy a government that looks out for them. in fact, races to look out for