that will be all over the weair waves as the nra comes to town. it features an nra member whose sister was murdered, shot by her husband. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda, advocates of gun control take their campaign to the nra's doorstep two hours from now. the gun lobby will open its annual convention in houston, an event that will draw up to 70,000 of the nra's self-reported four million members, including families members of gun violence victims who plan to hold vigil outside and read out loud the names of loved ones who have died at the hand of gun violence. now, inside, it's expected to be a celebratory, the nra fresh off the defeat of the gun control bill in congress. >> one of the things we don't do is we don't mistake battles for wars. it was a victory in a battle, but the war continues. this is in essence a family gathering for believers in the second amendment. >> causes colliding in houston as republicans in congress continue to feel serious heat

back at home after voting no on capitol hill. at least one being accused of rewriting history with this reply to the question, why no background checks. >> i really don't understand, it doesn't make sense to me. what is wrong with universal background checks? >> i will tell you in terms of a universal background check as it's been framed, i have a lot of concerns about that leading to a registry that will create a privacy situation for lawful firearms owners. >> joining me right now from washington, d.c., we have dan gross, president of the brady campaign and from houston, just outside today's nra convention, is nbc news political producer, casey hunt. good to have you here. casey, i want to start with you. we are beginning the opening of the nra convention today. attendance at these conventions, it's apparently grown pretty significantly since the president took office.

reportedly 60,000 in '04, 73,000 showing up in '09. as we look at this year in itself, the theme is stand and fight, so are those that are showing up there seeing this as a fight that's won or a fight that's just beginning? >> reporter: they really see this as a fight that's just beginning and it's really continuing to go on. the outgoing nra president told nbc yesterday that this is really, they see this as they have won a battle in congress and that's really different from the long war. you know, one of the things that's noteworthy about what's happened since newtown is that gun control advocates are viewing it that way also. even though they lost that vote in the senate, they vow to keep trying and people like vice president joe biden has pointed to the original assault weapons ban in the '90s and said you know, it took us several times to pass that. so gun control advocates are vowing that they are going to continue and the nra is responding in kind. >> one big person that's getting a lot of attention, senator

kelly ayotte continues to be this lightning rod in the gun debate because of these town halls that she has held this week. we played that sound where she said the manchin/toomey bill could lead to a gun registry, except we know that inside that bill, it expressly excludes any type of registry. so is kelly ayotte engaging in politics of distortion oir is this a bigger problem, she just doesn't understand the bill she voted? >> it's politics of distortion, the same rhetoric you've always heard. the difference is this time, it's not flying. this time, it's been exposed and everyone who voted against 90% of the american public and the overwhelming will and safety of the american public, they're feeling the heat. that's what's different about this time. you know, the gun lobby is absolutely right in that this is a long-term war. it's not a war on the second amendment and the american public knows that. the american public knows that solutions like universal background checks actually strengthen the second amendment

by defining the people that we all agree shouldn't have guns and keeping guns out of those hands. it's a war on gun violence. and the prevention of -- making this the safer nation that we all want and deserve. and the american public knows it. it's taken some time to have that translate to our elected officials feeling the heat, but because of this last vote, those winds are undoubtedly shifting. >> president obama talks about the defeat of gun control during his first stop in mexico yesterday. want to show everybody. take a listen. >> the last time we had major gun legislation, it took six, seven, eight tries. things happen somewhat slowly in washington. but this is just the first round. >> so dan, as we know, the vice president was originally put in charge of helming a gun reform task force. we know that he is planning a new push for gun control, one that he hasn't even talked with the president about yet, but biden saying he plans to travel the country to push for manchin/toomey, the background check bill, and others that have failed. but gun control advocates seem

to be making the case that this failure has been all about a lack of understanding. so is that the case or is this more a lack of cohesive unified approach? >> there has been tremendous cohesion in terms of the goal. i just want to kind of reframe what you just said a little bit. i mean, you know, progress has been made. this hasn't been an outright failure. the fact that there was a bipartisan agreement, the fact that six a-rated nra senators actually voted in favor of it, voted with their constituents and in favor of the safety of the american public. so you know, the winds have begun to shift. you also can see the polling results that have come out since the vote was taken, where senators ayotte and flake have gone down dramatically in their approval ratings and senator toomey has gone up dramatically for sponsoring the legislation. so it's really just a question of, you know, even more engaging

the american public and then making sure that we take that message to congress that we're holding them accountable. that's why we're doing things like flooding congress with calls from the american public. we have this program where you can text my voice to 877877 to make your voice heard, and to be connected with your congress person. >> when did that start? did that start prior to the voting itself? did that start prior to manchin and toomey getting together? or after the defeat? >> it started prior and it was a big part of the reason why there was such unprecedented support in recent years for this legislation. you know, why six a-rated nra senators actually listened to their constituents. but it's definitely been amped up since the vote, and you know, it shows what a watershed moment -- i was actually in the chambers with sarah brady, who, you know, was there the first time around for the passage of the brady bill, that the president was talking about. you know, she turned to me immediately after, kind of partially consoling me, saying

you know, dan, sometimes it takes a good defeat and that's really what's happened. because it shined a light on the elected officials who were not representing the american public and the very folks that we need to hold accountable and since the vote, we have put more than 20,000 calls in to the senate and now we're starting to do it while the house is back in their districts this week, flooding calls into there, making the voice -- changing that perception that the gun lobby, the small minority of extremists out there are the only ones who are willing to put their votes behind the point of view. >> we'll see if it resonates. thank you both so much. i appreciate it. new developments this hour on the investigation into the boston marathon bombing. the managing director of the funeral home in massachusetts confirming that it picked up deceased suspect tamerlan tsarnaev's body around midnight at the request of his family. it was taken to an undisclosed location. we learned more in the last 24 hours about what the surviving suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev, reportedly told the fbi during questioning, including initial

plans to attack areas on the 4th of july. and his plans for a benefit concert to assist the victims were announced this hour. we're learning families of those killed will each receive over $1 million from the one fund boston. joining me from washington, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, explain to us what you've been hearing about how and when the tsarnaev brothers changed their plan. >> well, thomas, good day. this is all coming from what he told the interrogators in those two days after he was arrested and what they tell us is that he and his brother initially discussed some kind of attack on the fourth of july in the boston area, and were planning on that, but as they were working on their bombs, according to what he told interrogators, they managed to finish the explosives earlier than they thought so they decided to move up the attack and instead go for something on patriots day, which turned out to be the boston marathon. now, we've been told by some officials that they really weren't thinking about attacking the finish line, that they drove

around and decided on the marathon and just placed their bombs without fully realizing that one of them, the first one that went off, would be roughly at the finish line and the other would be about a block away. so that's how haphazardly they planned it, according to what he's told interrogators. >> pete williams, thanks for that update. appreciate it. president obama talks immigration reform from the other side of the border. our agenda panel will join me next. plus, we're keeping our eyes on breaking news today. better than expected jobs numbers. now, big things, they are happening on wall street. look at that number. the dow crossing the 15,000 threshold this morning for the first time ever. and the s & p also breaking records. we will talk with a former labor secretary. and kentucky officials are now considering charges in the case of the 5-year-old who shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with his own gun. my first rifle 22 caliber. that leads to our question of the day. what's too young for a child to have a gun?

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as a nation of immigrants, the immigration system we have in the united states right now doesn't reflect our values. that's one of the reasons i acted to lift the shadow of deportation from what we call the dreamers, young people brought to the united states as children, and that's why i'm working with our congress to pass common sense immigration reform this year. >> so president obama brings his immigration message to students in mexico. giant steps for syria, arming the rebels. and who's to blame for the bangladesh tragedy? those are the hot topics on the minds of today's progressive panel. joining me, ryan grimm from the

"washington post," jamel brewer, specializing in campaigns, elections and public policy. then josh rogan from foreign policy magazine's the cable. he reports on national security and foreign policy. gentlemen, good to have you here. let's just start out of the gates talking about president obama and immigration. it's very interesting, i think, the optics for a lot of people to see the president cross the border into mexico city to talk about dreamers and what it means to come to this country as children and want to achieve the american dream and how the immigration reform system is broken. explain the optics of why the president feels to send that message from across the border. >> i think he's trying to build support among latino community for immigration reform and there's a lot of symbolic value in just going down to mexico and making that case. i'm not sure if it will put pressure on republicans who are really sort of the key constituency he has to get past. but as far as building public support among latino community for new immigration bill, i

think going to mexico makes complete sense. >> ryan, what's the biggest obstacle for the president when he waits with the gang of eight? what's marco rubio been saying this week? where's the stalling coming from? >> the biggest obstacle really is the tea party in the house. the latest obstacle that has been thrown up is lgbt rights. the country has gotten to a place now where it's not really acceptable to say that members of the lgbt community don't have the same rights as everybody else. but now here we are trying to do this immigration bill, kind of a holdover five users ayears ago where you're saying only straight couples are allowed to be reunited through immigration reform. you know, the other problem he has is that a lot of people are just furious with the status quo. he said that he lifted the shadow of deportation from the dreamers. that's only partially true. that shadow still hangs over all of the dreamers' parents. hundreds are getting deported

every day and sitting in detention centers waiting to get deported. >> meanwhile, the president knew going in that immigration was going to be certainly on his agenda if re-elected. the other things that have popped up like gun reform and certainly issues with syria, although that's been a crisis now for the last two years, has certainly bubbled up to be more of a priority than he thought. especially now that we're getting more information about syria and what it's doing to its own people. take a listen to secretary of defense chuck hagel. >> arming rebels, that's an option. that's an option. you look and rethink all options. it doesn't mean you do or you will. >> doesn't mean you do or you will, but it is an option and has been discussed. how publicly does the administration want to be -- or excuse me, josh, over this fact that the situation in syria is bad, but we don't have the evidence needed to prove that they've used chemical weapons in the chain of command necessary to go in without international help, so is the best option then

to hope for passive-aggressive approach by giving opposition forces arms? >> sure. thomas, you framed it exactly correctly. the administration here is weighing the risks of action versus the risks of inaction. up to this point they've concluded that the risks of action are greater than the risks of inaction. now with the chemical weapons piece added in, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. now they're actually weighing action in a way that they haven't in the last two years. they haven't quite figured out how they're going to do that, when they're going to do that, how they're going to frame it, how they're going to announce it. that's what they're struggling with right now as the syrian people continue to suffer. >> the syrian people continue to suffer. we've seen refugees fleeing the borders, up to a million people. jordan, the president having met with king abdullah last week about the growing humanitarian crisis. you broke the story earlier this week about what's being done. the humanitarian aid that's going in, obviously this is a small band-aid on a big problem. >> sure. so the administration after two years started providing help

directly to the free syrian army, those are the armed rebels. they started giving them medical kits, started giving them food. they're about to start giving them body armor, night vision goggles, stuff that can help them, but not stuff that can help them win the war. in the end, they're going to have to come down to the decision of whether or not they want to help the free syrian army defeat assad sooner rather than later. that goes counter to their strategy of negotiating a political solution, but let's face it. the political solution doesn't seem to be happening anyway. >> meanwhile, when we spoke earlier, the syrian people obviously are looking for some type of help and leadership from the u.s. to come in in some type of diplomatic capacity, if not beyond militarily. but there is no markings on the aid that's coming in. the u.s. is not really getting the credit for small amount of aid that's going in. >> most syrians believe that the u.s. is not helping them at all. that's not totally true but it's a reflection of the fact that the help is not enough and not making a difference for the millions of people who are displaced and spread out all over the region. the diplomatic and political solution goes through russia.

so that's another piece that the administration is focused on. that's a really tough piece. but these are a lot of moving pieces, all flying around at once, as the situation gets worse, and this is the jam the obama white house is in. >> the other big story that's been certainly talked about from the huffington post is the bangladesh tragedy. the garment facility that crumbled because of the way that it was made and the poor care going into it and then this makes us all think and take a double look at what we're wearing, where we're getting things and how it's coming in to the u.s. explain to all of us the bigger -- the connective tissue, that is, that we should be concerned about as americans when we look at that tragedy and realize that 500 people perished just going to work. >> right. you know, every time something like this happens, this is the worst one that's happened in a very, very long time, but every time there's a fire or a building collapse, the western world and the western brands kind of unite around the idea that okay, we're going to start

inspecting these factories in bangladesh better. we're going to make sure that they have better standards. and they put all of the blame on bangladesh, as if they kind of had no idea that this was happening. huffington post spoke to bangladeshi business leaders who finally had enough of that and they fired back at the west and said look, you want better safety conditions, you want better wages, then pay us a little bit more. a bangladeshi sweat shop owner has to run a sweat shop at a certain price because that's what he's getting paid for. we have this, you know, you said what can we do differently. maybe each one of us doesn't need 100 or 150 teeshirts sitting in our attic that we got for free for signing up for a credit card. maybe we actually do have to have slightly fewer clothes and pay a little bit more for it. otherwise, we're just going to continue on this cycle where they have dangerous conditions in bangladesh, we get cheap teeshirts here which we then donate to africa and devastate

their garment industry. >> it's all about the buyers, the western buyers, and if they do establish who they're working with, these working relationships, they got to know if these people are then going to subcontract out to substandard facilities and figure out where this is starting from. i want to thank the panel today. ryan, jamel, and josh, gentlemen, thanks so much. have a good weekend. next up, we head to california where more than 900 firefighters are ballttling a monster wildfire. the temperatures went up dramatically in just the last hour alone. plus, plan b betrayal. why some women's organizations are angry with the president over its morning after pill appeal. one writer describing it as a spit in the face. the american dream is of a better future, a confident retirement. those dreams have taken a beating lately. but no way we're going to let them die. ♪

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springs, california. mother nature isn't doing any favors for firefighters trying to get the upper hand on wind-fueled wildfires. the wildfire near camarillo scorching its way towards the sea this morning. just look at these images. its fire line is edging much closer now to malibu. that fire is one of several burning with another day of dry and hot weather ahead. eamon, explain to all of us. firefighters are completely at the mercy of mother nature right now? >> reporter: yeah, there's no doubt about it. it's an important factor. in fact, it's one of the reasons why officials are saying that this season's fire season is starting much earlier than usual. one, you have dry weather because of the very little rainfall this season. more importantly, you have the santa ana winds blowing across this part of california and that's just fueling the fires even more. they battled them well throughout the hours of late last evening into early morning but one of the key factors that you mentioned has been the

temperatures. as these temperatures rise, it just makes the conditions that much more ripe for these fires to spread. now, one of the signals or perhaps signs that officials here were looking forward to was that if the winds died down a little bit, they can get some of those helicopters and fixed wing aircraft into the air to try and put down these flames. but right now, that does not seem to be happening. that's posing a challenge for firefighters who have mostly been combatting these flames on the ground, as you see behind me, this was actually one of the front lines, if you will, along the pacific coast highway. it's a scene that's repeating itself all across ventura county. thomas? >> thank you, sir. appreciate it. coming up next, the dow jones reaches some uncharted territory today. look at this. crossing the 15,000 mark just a short time ago. that's thanks to a better than expected jobs report that came out. also, 100 plus days into the president's second term, how budget issues could impact his agenda going forward. i will talk with former labor

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all right. right now, we are watching the dow which just moments ago reached the 15,000 mark in the wake of a stunning jobs report for the month of april. that report beating all expectations. the economy adding 165,000 new jobs in april. the unemployment rate falling to 7.5%. that's the lowest since december of 2008. and more good news. jobs numbers for february and march were revised up by a combined 114,000 jobs. so when you break it all down according to race and gender, the numbers changed very little or not at all. the big question is, does this mean the economy is truly on the mend. joining me now is robert reisch, an economics professor at the university of california at berkeley, former labor secretary under bill clinton. sir, great to have you here. when we talk about the original march numbers, they came out last month, you called it a big stall. so are april -- the numbers we're seeing now, is this a true

sign, shot in the arm, recovery is happening? the immediate response on wall street is certainly telling. >> let's put it this way. with the revisions upward of the early part of this year, february and march and also april's very solid, 165,000 jobs, certainly we're not stalling, we are not heading into recession. the problem is we're still so deep in a hole, there are still almost 12 million americans who are unemployed and another seven million who are either too discouraged to look for work or working part-time, would rather be working full-time. we don't have enough oomph to get us out of this hole. we're not stalled, not in a recession, but we still are not out of the gravitational pull of the great recession. >> meanwhile, experts, you know as well as the white house, they predicted the economy would be impacted by the sequester. government jobs are the biggest drag. want to play for you what alan kruger, chairman of president obama's council of economic advisors, said earlier.

take a look at this. >> i think we've seen the impact of the sequester already. today's numbers, and other indicators coming in, show us the resilience of the u.s. economy. i think if it weren't for the sequester, the economy would be in even a stronger position. >> sir, what's your take on that? is really the rubber going to hit the road perhaps this month or in the summer months, where the effect is really going to be felt? >> well, alan kruger is correct in as much as the sequester is just beginning to take hold and that is undoubtedly a drag on the economy. we don't know and won't know how big a drag on the economy, but the sequester combined with the rise in payroll taxes that is the end of the payroll tax holiday in january, means that consumers and overall demand in the economy not nearly what it would be otherwise. in other words, if government simply got out of the way, did not cut the budget deficit, did not raise taxes, this economy would be stronger right now, undoubtedly. >> meanwhile we got the faa fixed and are looking more than

180 days into the president's second term, seeing the same battle wars we saw in the first term. from a political and fiscal standpoint, how much can the president bend in order to pass a budget and do you think the grand bargain could be revived? >> this president still wants a grand bargain, but i don't think he's going to get a grand bargain. he will get maybe little bargains if he is lucky, he will get some sort of agreement on immigration reform, but congress is in no mood. republicans particularly are in no mood to compromise. they made that very, very clear. if the president were to say all right, i'm going to give up any kind of loophole closings at all, i'm going to agree with you republicans and call them a tax increase on the wealthy and i'm not going to even seek them, maybe there could be a grand bargain but that's not the grand bargain the president intends to have. >> in the meanwhile, we'll keep an eye out for the little bargains. rename it little bargains. >> mini bargains. >> robert reisch, great to see you.

you are author of the book "beyond outrage." great to have you on. thanks. president obama is backing the fda's decision to allow girls as young as 15 to purchase the plan b morning after pill over the counter while it's putting him in a tough position with women's groups. the issue, these groups want every woman, regardless of their age, to have access to plan b contraception. here's what the president had to say about the decision during his trip in mexico. >> i'm very comfortable with the decision they've made right now based on solid scientific evidence for girls 15 and older. >> this comes just one week after the president became the first ever sitting president to address the planned parenthood meeting. joining me now is terry o'neill, president of the national organization for women. terry, great to have you here. want to show everybody what the "l.a. times" opinion writer had to say about president obama's backing of the plan b position. she says the president spit his game as the kids say, when he

spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the planned parenthood conference a little over a week ago. you're making me blush, he cooed to thunderous applause, i love you back. a week later he spit in their eye. what's your reaction to that? would you go as far as to paint his stance on that issue that way as well? >> you know, thomas, what he did was to politicize health care. it's shameful, really. there is no scientific basis for withholding emergency contraception from kids who are 14 years old and younger. in fact, the ample scientific evidence is that emergency contraception is safe and effective for women and girls of all ages, and the president's insistence that it only be available at 15 years and up over the counter is pure politics. it establishes him as a centrist politician at the expense of needed health care for young teens. these are the most vulnerable teens of all. and we think it's just wrong. >> what would you say, though,

to most children of that age that would need any type of parental consent to have any type of prescription when they go to their doctor, and whether or not a parent should be informed and involved in those types of medical decisions for someone as young as 15 years old? >> so two things. those are really good questions. first, any child can go to any drugstore and get tylenol, get diet pills, get laxatives that can be way more dangerous than emergency contraception, and abuse them. so we're already putting teens at risk and no one is questioning that. they're only questioning the emergency contraception because it involves young kids having sex. of course we don't want them to have sex. but no caring parent, i don't think, would ever tell a young girl oh, you're having sex now, i'm going to punish you but withholding essential health care. the responsible thing to do as parents, first we want to get our kids to be healthy, make

sure we prevent unintended pregnancies. then we engage in the much more difficult, long-term process of getting the girl on the right path and not having sex at a young age, and boys, too. we want them on the right path, not having sex at a young age. >> certainly, because there's no one carding young boys at the pharmacy to go buy condoms. there's a big catch 22 here. certainly a double standard when it comes to this type of preventive care. but i think a lot of parents would also question whether or not a 15-year-old would be considered a woman who has a right to make her own medical choices or a young girl that's still under their purview. >> i think what they're really concerned about is not whether they're making their medical choices. again, girls can go in and get tylenol, get things that can be very dangerous for them and abuse them. what parents are concerned about is whether they're engaging in sex. that's a completely different thing from whether they have the ability to prevent pregnancies. clearly, parents need to do a good job of making sure that their children are not having

sex at too young an age. but withholding contraception doesn't do it. in fact, studies have shown that making contraception available to kids in high schools does not increase the amount of sexual activities by those kids. so there is no causation from having contraception to engaging in sex. i think people don't necessarily want to admit that that's true, but that's the science. >> i'm sorry, we've run out of time. thanks so much. this is a pressing issue that still needs to be discussed. great to see you. today's producer pick, another team choice. she is the first woman to ever be placed on the fbi's most wanted terrorist list. joann chesimard living in cuba under the name assata olugbala shakur, a member of the black liberation army accused of shooting a state trooper in the head in a gun battle. on thursday, on the 40th anniversary of that murder, the fbi made the unprecedented move of putting her on that list, doubling the reward for her to

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candidate chris christie as speakers at the clinton global initiative conference. as one woman is possibly gearing up for another race for the white house, my next guest is wowing crowds on broadway in her critically acclaimed one-woman show in which she embodies the political savvy and incomparable wit of one of america's most beloved female leaders, texas' late great democratic governor, ann richards. >> 15 years after knocking on my first door, i found myself governor of texas. older and wiser, i had learned by then what not everyone knows. it takes one person to run and it takes quite another to actually govern. >> joining me right now live in studio, the talented, incomparable, intrepid holland taylor. >> that's from three productions ago. i do it so differently now. >> congratulations, though,

because you have been nominated as lead actress in a play for the tonys. it's incredible work. this has to be extreme validation for something that's been a passion project for you. >> it is validation. not so much of me as an actress, but of this project and the worth of it. because this was not an idea i had, you know, i'm going to write a show for myself because i can't get work, you know what i mean? it was about her, her persona had such an effect on people. i went in search of that persona thinking that if i could recreate an echo, it would be inspiring as she was a little bit, and it clearly is. so that is a hell of a validation. >> for our audience who is seeing this, we would be remiss if we didn't point out how much you do embody this role not only in the physicality of it but also the spirit of who ann richards was. why does she resonate with you or why do you think it's resonating now with audiences? >> i met her once, which certainly is not why i'm doing this, but when she died relatively young, and very

unexpectedly, i was unusually affected and i would wonder, you know, months later, what's the matter with you, you didn't know her. i was mourning. then i realized i was mourning for a loss that i didn't know i had and loss for the country. and i went to explore, because i wanted to do something creative, i went to explore what it was that moved me so and it took me years. i researched this heavily like a scholar for three years. if that's mine -- i'll be embarrassed. anyway, you know, it turns out i can say after years of this, it's not what she said, it's not even what she did. it's who she was. >> patrick and i came on opening night, we loved this play. i have never seen a play that i thought was too short except for this one. i think you were fantastic. were you worried that a political play wouldn't take off? >> but thomas, it's not a political play. think about it.

it's like a play about amelia earhart, would it be about aviation? i mean, there's planes in something about amelia earhart and there's flying but it's about heroism and the play about ann richards is about who she was, her core, her values, swirled into this incredible personality. >> it is really fantastic. you know, almost two years ago, i stole a dinner seat next to holland at an event and i love this woman. you got to go check out ann, it's fantastic. holland, great to see you. i know you will win the tony. back after this. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health

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no -- no child should predecease their parents. wish i could tell you we're not going to add any more names to this wall. i wish i could say that with certainty. but the truth add any more names to this wall. i wish i could say that with certainty, but the truth of the matter is, there will be more. there will be more. that was vice president biden a short time ago, talking about children as the victims of gun violence. he's planning a new push on background checks. it leads to our big question for you -- what is too young for a gun? we get this from katherine, if the world "child" is in the conversation, well, that answers the question, doesn't it? rene writes, the parents are the issue, leaving it out, 16 with supervision only. the conversation continue on twitter and facebook. senator rand paul, the next and last republican candidate for president and a voting rights overhaul that could be coming to a state near you.

those are two topics that our second agenda panel thought you should know about. joining us is the senior writer for campaign for america's future. author of "don't move to canada" and a reporting fellow with the investigative fund at the nation institute. great to have you here. let's get in here and start on what we have with bills, talking about rand paul and the next and last gop nominee. so let's talk about that, why do you think he could be the next and why would you say he might be the last? >> well, he could be the next, the current polling shows that he's in the top tier, neck and neck with marco rubio. if the establishment candidates fracture and the right wing base consolidates around rand paul, he can take it. but if he takes it, he sparks a huge foreign policy battle with the john mccain wing of the party. rand is calling for a reluctant restrained foreign policy. he calls foreign aid to israel a form of welfare. this drives the mccain folks over the edge and mccain gave a

speech two weeks ago, saying he agrees more with barack obama on foreign policy, than the so-called isolationists in his party. that could spark a huge row. >> the ppp poll out of new hampshire, republicans about 2016 it finds 28% of them support rand paul for this. it's very interesting. the other person that has been kicked around, lee, this week about the potential for running for president, people talking about him, ted cruz. and vice president biden and ted cruz are going to be in something is headlining dinners of their own this evening. but when we talk about 2016, and talking about a lot of these names for 2016, is it just too early to be doing that? >> well, it's very early. but look, in reality, the folks who are going to be running for 2016, they've got to gear up right now. a lot of the laws across the country, in terms of voting access, they're going to determine a lot of the factors in terms of who's going to win four years from today. so it's not too early. c-span is debuting their road to

the white house, 2016 today. so i think the media certainly is ready. >> let's talk about the voting acts, we've got this new colorado voting rights expansion bill, lee. and basically, let's describe what this bill is, it's going to provide ballots by mail to every voter, allowing people to register and veet on election day, it creates a real-time voter doob to prevent fraud. what do we make of this and the potential for it being used as a larger model nationally? >> i think this is a positive movement for the country. you know, i know folks have tried to dice this up and say it's a partisan thing. it helps colorado, it's a blue state. because historically it benefits low-income and young voters more. but i think this is just a good thing, across the board. because in a post citizens united world, where lobbyists and billionaires are drowning out everyone else, anything that gives more access to low-income

voters, college, young voters, is a good thing. i think a patriotic thing. >> bill, as we look at this year, there's been 80 new bills been introduced rolling back voting rights, introduced in 31 different states, it seems like there's a real juxtaposition and dichotomy when it comes to forward motion on proper voting rights bills. and then backwards motion in other areas. >> well, the trends with colorado, a big test for republicans, can they be a reality-based party? can they deal, can they give up the fiction of voter fraud and start competing for voters? there's this republican party autopsy a few months ago. telling them, look, we tried, they didn't put in these words, but they said, we tried voter suppression, it didn't work, it back-fired, we have to get over it. if we go after these voters and target them, it riles them up and democrats can take advantage of that. we need to compete for early voters. we need to compete for the vote by mail voter. they quicker they get religion with that, they're going to be better off.

>> bill share, executive of liberal oasis, and lee fang from "the nation" great to have you on. enjoy your weekend. thanks, thomas. that's going to wrap it up for me. i'll see you back on monday at 11:00 a.m. "now" with alex wagner is coming up. alex, we made it to our favorite day of the week, friday. >> we love friday. >> the difference is you are done and i am just beginning, but -- >> i'm with you in spirit. >> exactly. >> until 1:00. >> spirit guide. >> thanks, thomas. as the nra all-stars get ready to spike the football at their annual gun conference, we will discuss why common-sense solutions for gun safety reform still have a chance. josh green, nia malika henderson, sam stein and ben smith join me to discuss. plus, defending the homeland, in the aftermath of boston, "time" magazine's michael crowley looks at america's tangled tug of war between liberty and security. and what will the birthers

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if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. barack obama is president and ted nugent is not in jail. it's friday, may 3 rd, and this is "now." today 140 days after the shooting in newtown, 16 days after every gun reform measure failed in the senate and a day after a man opened fire at houston's intercontinental airport, the nra kicks off its annual conference in the very same city. if you consider wild mouth idealogues stars, this is an all-star lineup. including sarah palin, ted cruz, rick perry, glenn beck, wayne lapierre and ted nugent. >> we're americans because we

defied the king. we didn't negotiate and compromise with the king, we defied the emperors, we are patriots, we are braveheart. we need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in november. >> of course, nugent's attendance was far from guaranteed, given his sooth-saying at last year's conference. >> if barack obama becomes the president in november again, i will either be dead or in jail. >> this year, president obama is still president, but ted nugent remains on the loose. nugent isn't the only fortune teller. nra oracle, wayne lapierre also had his predictions, at last year's big gun bash. >> we know if president obama gets a second term, america as we know it will be on its way to being lost forever. >> america may not be lost forever, but it is changing. since the last nra convention, moviegoers were gunned down in