isz israel says they launched air strikes against syria. were they targeting a weapons site? the los angeles area wildfire is raging on threatening thousands of homes. for one major carrier booking online could save you a lot of money, and in kentucky it's that time of year again. bring out your party hat and get ready for mint juleps, it's kentucky derby day. good morning, everyone, welcome to "weekends with alex witt," i'm maura schiavocampo in for alex. here's what's happening. we begin this morning with new news overnight developing out of the middle east. israel confirms they've launched air strikes on targets inside

syria. early reports suggest the primary target was a weapons shipment headed for hezbollah and lebanon. let's get to nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in nearby turkey. richard? >> hello, maura. u.s. officials have confirmed to nbc news that an israeli air strike did take place inside syria early on friday. an israeli official today was quoted as saying that the target was a group of sophisticated long-range, ground-to-ground missiles that were apparently bound for hezbollah. hezbollah is a militant group based inside lebanon and israel has repeatedly said that it would attack any weapons leaving syria that were chemical weapons or, quote, game changing weapons. and this is the second time that israel has carried out an attack inside lebanon, on weapons that were bound for hezbollah. the last one, maura, was in january. >> richard engel in turkey, thanks so much for that. now to the latest in the boston marathon bombing. investigators say dna found on

one of the bombs is not a match for katherine russell, the widow of tamerlan tsarnaev. russell's attorneys say she'll continue to meet with law enforcement to provide as much assistance to the investigation as she can. meantime, the death certificate for tamerlan tsarnaev says he died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma following a gun fight with police. authorities say he ran out of ammunition before his brother dzhokhar dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the seen. 19-year-old dzhokhar remains in custody at a prison in fort devens, massachusetts. and authorities have been searching the woods near the university of massachusetts dartmouth campus where dzhokhar was a student. they're not revealing what they're looking for but say there is no threat to public safety. and there are new questions today about homeland security missteps surrounding the case. joining me now for more on that is jim cavanaugh, former atf bomb investigator and msnbc analyst. jim, good morning. thanks for being here. >> good morning, maria. >> now, a criminal complaint says one of the friends accused of interfering with this

investigation by removing tsarnaev's back pack from his dorm room entered the country on an expired student visa. how did that happen? and is it fair to say that this case is exposing some vulnerabilities in this country? >> yes, i think it's true. i think we've got to tierten it up, clearly. we've god to have nobody coming in on expired visas. that's a mistake. let's tighten it up quickly and you know another thing to build on what you said is tamerlan was on a terrorist list, a large tide list which is a quarter million names -- i'm sorry, 700,000 names, maybe, and he went out of the country and while he was out of the country he expired on that list. so that's another change we could make. if you're on one of these lists, no-fly lists or the tide list, if you leave the country, you shouldn't come off because you'd be a greater danger if you were to come back in. it should sort of freeze the list in case you were to come back. >> well, you mention this list. you know, a lot of people are wondering how could this person not have been detected if he was on a list, and there were all

these questions, why is it that officials didn't examine him a little more closely? >> well, because i think the list is so large, you know, and when we look at things in hindsight, everything is just so clear all the time. but when you're looking at, you know, 700,000 people on the list, a large no-fly list, i mean it's pretty hard to tell who in there is the one you want. so, there's got to be some checks and balances built in to the system like we just discussed. so if that check was in there, like if tamerlan came back and then everybody's notified, hey, he was on the list, he left, and now he's back, then some other protocols can be put in place. so it is difficult. i think, to -- it's such a large number of people that it really can be tough. >> now investigators have been searching the woods near tsarnaev's college campus. they're not saying specifically what they're looking for. given your law enforcement background do you have any insight into what they could be looking for there? >> oh, yes, maura. in bombing cases all the time

bombers would test their bombs and test their explosives. so they've got some witnesses who've talked about explosions down there near dartmouth and they might have gotten some information from the friends they arrested last week. the college students, or from dzhokhar, that it was tested. so they're probably looking for residue from a blast, maybe from the fireworks, or a bomb possibly. could have been tested at many different levels. just the fireworks, just the explosives, maybe some bomb components. if they can recover those, that's more physical evidence for the case. >> all right, jim cavanaugh, former atf agent and msnbc analyst. thanks so much for being with us this morning. >> thanks. turning now to front page politics, president obama is renewing his push for immigration reform. right now the president is in the middle of his trip to mexico and central america, and in his weekly address this morning he stressed his support for the immigration reform bill introduced in the senate, highlighting key parts of the bill, including a pathway to earn citizenship and strengthen

security on the border with mexico. >> this bill is a compromise, which means that nobody got everything they wanted, including me. but it's largely consistent with the principles i've laid out from the beginning. these are all commonsense steps that the majority of americans support. so there's no reason that immigration reform can't become a reality this year. >> president obama is scheduled to speak to business leaders in costa rica later today before heading home to washington. we'll carry those comments for you live in our 1:00 p.m. eastern hour on msnbc. in the meantime, the national rifle association is holding its annual convention in houston and several speakers criticize president obama's push for stricter gun control measures. >> this president, flying in grieving parents on air force one, making them backdrops in his perpetual campaign-style press events, now instead of leaders who offer real solutions, we have leaders who practice the politics of emotion. >> let me make this perfectly

clear, woo will never back away from our resolve to defend our rights and the rights of all law-abiding american gun owners. >> the nra convention continues later this morning. wildfires continue to scorch the southern california hillside. some 50 miles northwest of los angeles. the blaze tripled in size yesterday on its way to searing 28,000 acres along the california coast, causing damage around camarillo springs. a force of 900 firefighters have managed to contain only 20% of the wildfire. in the meantime, a separate brushfire broke out in the northern half of the state near san jose. firefighters were able to contain that flare-up after only 40 minutes. in arkansas, weather history, snow has fallen for the first time ever in may. the historic flakes accumulated up to two inches in some areas. weather channel meteorologist ray stagic is here with the forecast. ray, good morning. >> good morning, and yeah, unprecedented for the month of may. snow in arkansas and even snow earlier this morning.

look at these preliminary state snow records for the month of may. rice lake, 17 inches in wisconsin. i'd be impressed if it was january. blooming prairie, minnesota, osage, iowa, 13 inches, all records for the month of may. as you said, even in arkansas, it's snowing a little light snow this morning. severe weather threat also today but limited. usually you'd want this over in the plains states. but look where it is today, around jacksonville, and not even a tornado threat. it's more heavy rain and we are going to see some isolated strong, gusty winds. for the derby today, boy, it's going to be close but i think we're going to get at least some rainfall as it is starting to creep slowly toward the north and just to the east now but heaviest rain showing up off to the west if you are traveling on in and plenty of moisture here in the southeast. it is rainout theater. georgia, alabama, central tennessee, with flood watches up and heavy rain in the forecast with this slow moving system today. some wet snowflakes, yeah, even possible out across parts of arkansas. tomorrow more rain heading back from the derby. rain and showers in the forecast in and around louisville and heavy rain in the south.

over 4 to 5 inches locally, 6 inches-plus in some spots. and down toward the south in parts of florida, where you already are, watering soed. we've got one inch of rainfall and the fire danger remains high with 28,000 fires still burning. 28,000 acres burning and there's your forecast for the derby today, chance of rain, 62. >> all right, weather channel's ray stagich, thanks so much for that. the president's new push on immigration and the amendment that republicans say is a deal breaker. all that coming up next. announ] 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. i had[ designer ]eeling enough of just covering up oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush.

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now back to our developing story this morning. israeli officials confirming they launched air strikes on targets inside syria. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker is traveling in costa rica with the president. kristen, good morning. what, in fig, is the white house saying about these air strikes? >> well, mara, good morning to

you. white house officials are not commenting on these air strikes. instead they are referring all questions to the israelis what we know according to u.s. officials though is that it is believed those air strikes that came from israel were targeting weapons shipments that were headed to hezbollah in lebanon. so white house officials are not commenting this morning, but president obama has consistently said he believes that israel has a right to defend itself. and i can tell you that syria has been a pressing concern for this administration. of course, president obama traveling here in latin america, landed here in costa rica yesterday, and held a joint news conference in which he got a question about the conflict in syria, and he made his most definitive comment to date about possible american military intervention. take a listen to what he had to say. >> i do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in syria, american boots on the

ground in syria, would not only be good for america, but also would be good for syria. >> so the president all but ruling out the possibility of putting boots on the ground. according to most polls, americans are opposed to direct military intervention in syria. they are war weary in the wake of iraq and afghanistan. so other possible options under consideration, united states could launch its own air strikes. also, officials considering arming opposition forces, and another option is creating i no-fly zone. so those are some of the options that are under consideration right now. but also during that news conference on friday, mara, president obama reiterated that he wants to proceed cautiously in terms of responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons inside syria. he says it is still not certain where those chemical weapons came from, or who directed them to be deployed. so he wants answers to those questions before deciding how to

proceed. but this is a question that is certainly weighing heavily on president obama. the pressure continues on him to mount. of course, 70,000 people, it is believed, have been killed in that conflict inside syria right now. mara? >> nbc's kristen welker joining me live from costa rica. thanks so much. and joining me now here in the studio for more on this, white house correspondent for the hill, amie parnes and congressional reporter for "the washington post," ed o'keefe. thank you both for being here this morning. >> thanks for having us, mara. >> let's listen to a little bit more of what president obama is saying about syria. let's start with that. >> we have evidence that chemical weapons have been used. we don't know when, where or how they were used. we are initiating on our own to investigate and get a better handle on the facts inside of syria. >> amie i want to start with you on this one, the president says he does not foresee a situation where they would put u.s. boots on the ground. but how much pressure is on the white house right now to do something regarding syria, and what do you think are the best

options? >> there is some pressure on him. i mean, you've heard a very vocal john mccain and senator lindsey graham come out and say, you know, you need to do something. this is outrageous. but you know, he's taking a very methodical approach to this. he's saying we need to find out when and where and how these were used. you don't see much changing. the only thing you saw yesterday was him kind of saying while we don't want to rule anything out, we are going to not most likely not put boots on the ground. but whether or not israel changes that factor remains to be seen. >> and, ed, the president had previously said that the use of chemical weapons would be a red line here. they're still trying to determine if they were using, and if so, to what extent. but if there is going to be some kind of intervention by the u.s., what do you think the trigger or triggers for that could be? >> well, certainly stronger confirmation that they were actually used. i think there's a lot of consternation that relying on these initial reports might set them up in a way that the u.s. government was set up during the iraq conflict. and so they're trying to get

much more confirmation on that. i can tell you from here in south carolina where i am talking to senator graham last night he actually said he agrees with the president that boots on the ground aren't necessary. but that perhaps some international coalition could set up a no-fly zone, put more pressure on the syrian government to get out of the way, there's a big concern he has, certainly, for how things might destabilize across the region, whether it's in jordan, south to israel, and of course over in iraq. so he got some initial support last night based on those comments from one of his biggest critics. >> now president obama is addressing immigration reform in his weekly address this morning. in costa rica yesterday he commented on senator patrick leahy's plans to add an amendment to the immigration bill that would let gay americans sponsor their foreign born partners for green cards. let's listen to that. >> i think that the provision is the right thing to do. i can also tell you that i'm not going to get everything i want in this bill. republicans are not going to get everything that they want in this bill.

>> republican senator marco rubio warned that this amendment could kill the immigration bill, and senator jeff flake called it a deal breaker for most republicans. amie, you write about this in your latest article. how does the president resolve this particular issue? >> well, i think what you heard him say is that while he does support this provision, and would like to see it in there, he's not going to get everything he wants. he would like to see it in there. but, of course, that might likely not happen. so -- but i think he will -- he does want to support -- he will support the overall immigration bill, even if it doesn't include this provision. and he made that clear yesterday. >> and, ed, shifting gears a little bit. your latest article is titled ted cruz speech in south carolina fuels buzz about presidential campaign. why is that getting so much attention? >> well, it was a big night. you know, we had vice president biden here in columbia meeting with democrats, and then ted cruz was headlining a dinner hosted by republicans. any time any republican comes to this state before 2016 and

speaks so publicly in such a big setting it, of course, fuels speculation, his speech came the same week that he had friends telling the national review that he is thinking about it, because he's been hearing from supporters all across the country. and he gave a pretty standard, you know, stump speech talking about the various principles of being an american, and the things that keep this country great. the type of stuff that motivates a republican crowd in an early primary state. he paid tribute to the state's various lawmakers, and didn't do anything to put to rest the idea that he might run. but as former senator jim demint, his good friend said look, he's been traveling the country, every time he invokes the name of ted cruz republicans get very excited. add him to a list that likely includes marco rubio, rand paul, paul ryan and others and you know, with 3 1/2 years to go, it looks as if perhaps 2016, the campaign cycle, at least, is under way. >> it will be here before we know it. amie parnes and ed o'keefe. >> oh, it's here. >> next the announcement that set wall street off. dry mouth may start off as an irritant.

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♪ now to our three big money headlines. all-time highs on the rebound. and frontier loyalties. joining me to break all this down retail and economy analyst hitha praf car. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with job numbers and what happened on wall street. >> the jobs numbers came in at the lowest it's been at five years 7.5%. that's down from 7.6% last year. we added about 160,000 new jobs. now that sent wall street on a tear. the dow jones closed on friday at 15,000. the s&p 500 closed in came in about 1600. and really analysts are calling that the momentum effect. so all this feel-good frenzy is coming from these great housing numbers that we're going to talk about in a second, as well as the jobs numbers, and really kind of getting these investors off the benches, and out there

investing. >> let's talk about the housing information that you have for us. what's the news on the housing front? >> right, if there's any indication that housing market is improving, this is it. the housing prices are starting to rise. now the case shiller index, which is an index that takes the home prices in 20 metropolitan cities, has gone up about 1.2%. and one of the reasons why is because inventories are so low, and people are out there buying these new houses, that's driving up the prices of these homes. now part of the reason why people are out there buying is because the mortgage rates are so low. now, they've hit a 15-year low. right now one is at 2.56%. a 30-year fixed is at 3.35%. >> all right. and shifts gears a little bit, frontier airlines is rolling out a bunch of perks, but there's a catch, right? >> right. just in time for the holiday summer season, you can go ahead and fly frontier and not have to pay anything for your baggage,

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of singing in the shower. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt" i'm mara schiavocampo. after a week-long recess congress resumes monday and one of the issues they'll likely be discussing is israel's airstrike on targets in syria and the potential impact on washington. joining me now for more on this from dallas, texas, republican congressman michael burgess. congressman, thanks so much for being here this morning. >> good morning. happy to be with you. good morning to you. >> so let's start with the news that israel has launched airstrikes in syria. what are you hearing about this, including what a possible target might be? >> well, you know, i'm hearing what you're hearing, and that the target most likely is the air defenses that the syrians have built up, promise the missile capability they have built up. not the chemical weapons themselves. because obviously that would be counterproductive to actually

disperse those materials with a bombing activity. but there has been some concern that even the ability of the -- if the united states did want to enforce a no-fly zone, which i don't think is a good idea, but if they did, the syrian air defenses are -- have become much more robust since 2007 when israel did strike that nuclear facility. >> when you say that you don't think issuing a no-fly zone is a good idea, what do you think are the best options here for the white house if they choose to get committed in syria? >> there are no good options. i do know, you know, from personal experience, my son was in the air force when the no-fly zone was enforced over iraq. i mean, it is -- people look at that and say, well it's not really like we're going to war. but, in fact, it is. i mean it's -- it's certainly seen as a bellicose statement by one nation to another, if you are, in fact, taking control of the air space and their skies. and we saw in libya, in the early days of that no-fly zone, a jet went down and we were

fortunate to get the pilot back. but, just because you don't have boots on the ground you can end up with boots on the ground, whether you intended to or not. >> now, switching topics, the nra's annual convention is going on right now in your home state. a recent survey out of rice university found that 90% of people polled in texas support universal background checks for gun buyers it shows and nationwide as many as 90% of americans and 74% of nra members support background checks. so why are you opposed to this, if it seems that the public tide is in favor of it? >> well, you know, you just look at the data that's available. this is not me, this was published in "the new york times" several weeks ago, people that actually lie affirmatively lie on their background check, the actual prosecutions of those, when department of justice knows about that, the number of prosecutions is down to like a fraction of one percent. so look, before we make it more difficult for every law-abiding citizen in this country to exercise their constitutional

rights, maybe we ought to enforce the laws that are already there. and you know, you look at some of the most recent notorious tragedies that have occurred in this country, and i find it hard to believe that putting additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens would have prevented any of that. >> you know one thing that everybody can agree on is that commonsense measures need to be taken. you hear that from the nra all the time. but if background checks, simply confirming that people are who they say they are is not a commonsense measure, then what is? >> well, look, again it's the issue of you have these measures in place, but when you do find that people are not being truthful, they're not prosecuted. so, why in the world do you create more laws that you're not going to enforce? who does that -- who does that affect? certainly not the criminal. but it does, it does put a bigger burden on the law-abiding citizen. and let's face the facts, 99.999% of gun owners in miss country are responsible, good citizens. why in the world are we making

them the targets of our -- of our legislative activities? >> all right, congressman michael burgess, thanks so much for being here this morning. >> thank you. this week's office politics alex sits down with former pennsylvania governor ed rendell, who also served two terms as mayor of philadelphia. here they talk about immigration, and whether the boston attacks will affect the timing of a bill. but alex began by asking the governor about the challenges of protecting large urban areas, including the route of the boston marathon. >> how can you have enough police to protect 26 miles? so there are some things that are probably beyond our ability to protect, except with intelligence. the key is to be able to find through intelligence about these plots and foil them and we've been pretty good since 9/11 of doing that. so, could they have done anything different in boston? who knows. the fbi did what they were

allowed to do, they did 90 days on the older brother, and didn't come up with anything. there wasn't any particular chatter. it's almost impossible to protect against this type of incident. >> but i've heard people say it's a little more frightening that it appears these two guys acted alone. barring inspiration, but literally carrying out this plot was just these two guys. do you agree with that? >> sure. >> that's a concern? >> sure. because, it -- al qaeda there's usually chatter. there's stuff on the internet. there's things that you can pick off in the intelligence. but when it's just two people randomly who just decide they want to do this, they're angry, they're ticked off at something, there's no way of detecting that and preventing it from happening. you know the internet's been a blessing to us in so many ways. it gives us so much information. it changed our lives to the good. but there's some downsides to the internet. you can go on the internet and learn how to make that bomb. al qaeda has sort of a site that instructs people on how to make that bomb. and the ingredients are such that it's impossible to trace

them. now, it's interesting, in new york, the police commissioner kelly, who is a terrific police commissioner, they have a sort of de facto agreement with virtually every retail store in new york that sells anything that could be even tangentially put in a bomb or explosive. to report anybody who comes in and asks for an unusual amount of any substance. >> really? >> yeah. and that's a process probably should be followed all over. can we ever be 100% secure? no. particularly, and you made an excellent point, the fact that these two appear to have done it on their own, because they were kicked off, and did it without any outside help, appear, that's the most frightening thing of all. because there's got to be, you know, two or three people, you know, somewhere thinking about this. >> this is obviously occupying a lot of the president's time of late. there are lots of other items on his agenda, though. do you think this stalls any of

them? or precludes any of them from getting through? immigration being one? >> no, doesn't preclude them. it delays them. the people who, as you know, i'm co-chair of bipartisan policy commission immigration task force with condi rice and governor haley barbour and henry cisneros and we put out a statement saying, look, it's okay to have a thorough examination of all the issues on immigration. no one should rush to judgment. it's too important a thing for the country. but to delay, to put the immigration bill in deep freeze because of this makes no sense at all. these were american citizens, they were legals, it had nothing to do with the illegal population. and, in fact, a good immigration bill, alex, will make us more secure, because we'll know who those 11 million people are. they'll all have legal status, and we'll know who they are and we'll know where they live, et cetera. so i think a good immigration bill makes us -- increases our security. doesn't decrease it. >> more of alex's conversation

today at twelve clock noon when governor rendell talks about the issues president obama must address before he leaves office and why he's such a huge philadelphia phillies fan. a look now at some stories in this morning's fast five headlines. search teams have found the bodies of two american crew members of a military refueling plane that crashed in kyrgyzstan yesterday. a third crew member is still missing. jurors in the jodi arias murder case will not deliberate this weekend after they began deliberating for about an hour yesterday. arias is charged with first degree murder in the death of her boyfriend. the sandy hook elementary building task force last night put off a decision on where to build a new school. it's considering rebuilding at the same location, or nearby. the tsa says airport screeners in maui confiscated a dagger disguised as a hair brush handle. the same type of dagger was also discovered in phoenix this week. and the first leg of a fuel-free flight across the country is over. the solo powered airplane landed

in phoenix early this morning after an 18-hour journey from northern california. it has four more flights to reach new york and make history as the first solar powered plane to go across country. and those are your fast five headlines. the 139th run for the roses gets under way today at churchill downs. the first jewel of racing's triple crown is known for its horses, hats, and mint juleps. but today's kentucky derby could be historic. if he wins one jockey could do something that hasn't been done since 1902. the weather channel's stephanie abrams is there. stephanie, good morning. so who is this early favorite? >> okay. so, the jocksy on golden sense, name is kevin, and he is african-american and an african-american jockey has not won since 1902. we also have a female jockey, rosie, she is on mylute. so there's a lot of people cheering and rooting on these two jockeys and these horses, as well. now, the problem is, the

forecast. the rain, it looks like it's going to get in later this afternoon. and so that could really make for a mess on the track, and of course people's bets. we spoke with donna brothers earlier, who is the nbc on track analyst, the one who rides a horse and gets right up on them right after the race and talks to them, and she said don't place your bet until right before the race, because of the rain factor. so, that is certainly going to be what everyone is talking about today. and then the beautiful hats at everyone will be wearing, mara. the good thing is, is that you don't need one of those huge wide-brimmed hats today, because the clouds are already here. so sunshine is not going to be an issue. >> well you mention the hats. and you don't need a big wide-brimmed one, and you're, of course, doing that and you look spectacular. tell me about your hat. >> thanks, doll. okay so i don't know about you, mara, but until kate and will got married, i didn't really know about the fascinator. and i was fascinated by the fascinator because this is literally just a headband. i can just pop it off like that

and stick it on. so they're just so easy to wear decides one of those hats that you knock into everybody because they're so big and hard to balance on your head sometimes. >> very fascinating. now to get back quickly to the race you mentioned that we could see the first african-american jockey winning. there's also a female jockey hoping to make history. >> yeah, that's rosie. she's riding mylute. it's the number 6 horse. and i actually picked that horse to win. because 6 is my lucky number. you know, i'm all go women, go females there. and so, i actually picked mylute to win. and i pick, you know, sometimes my horses like i pick my wines by the name and the label and everything. so i don't know anything about racing so anyone that's watching, don't listen to my picks. i don't know anything. >> all right. stephanie i know that you're working but i hope you'll have a couple of mint juleps for all of us who are not there. >> we've got a $1,000 mint julep coming on the show later. >> thanks so much stephanie abrams live at the kentucky derby. today's coverage of the kentucky derby begins at 11:00

a.m. eastern on the nbc sports network and continues this afternoon at 4:00 eastern on nbc. well, up next, a new poll sheds light on mark sanford's battle for congressional comeback. ent; how we get there is not. we're americans. we work. we plan. ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. to help you retire your way, with confidence. ♪ that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. let's get to work. ameriprise financial. more within reach. [ marcy ] it's like memory foam. [ female announcer ] the only pad made from a revolutionary material. [ erina ] it totally fits to your body. [ female announcer ] it's incredible protection, you'll barely feel it. always infinity. tell us what you think. it shows. we don't run like that.

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my mom told me that when she grew up no one even thought there would be a woman president. can you imagine? no woman president? they were all boyses. >> with this video emily's list has begun madam president, a new campaign to get a woman elected president. emily's list will spend six figures on the digital media effort and focus on key battleground states. of course the group's thinking about hillary clinton, who appears to be the strongest potential presidential candidate among democrats right now. and it's not even close. in the latest quinnipiac national poll, 65% give mrs. clinton the nod, 13% support vice president biden, and 4% go for new york governor andrew cuomo. mark sanford has picked up another endorsement for

congress, but this one's more like a backhanded compliment. it comes from hustler magazine publisher larry flynt. >> open embrace in the name of love making his sacred marriage vows was an act of bravery that has drawn my support. >> flynt also says that no one has done more to expose the sexual hypocrisy of traditional values in america today, and he calls sanford america's greatest sex pioneer. not even sure if that's a good thing. the south carolina special general election is just three days away, and recent poll numbers give democratic opponent elizabeth colbert-deutsche the advanta but a right leaning poll has the candidates died. for the first time in 30 years democrats have a big shot of winning a house seat in the deep red palmetto state. joining me for more the south carolina democratic chair. thank you for being here this morning. >> good morning. >> thank you, mara. >> right after sanford got

charged with trespassing at his ex-wife's home the state gop cut his funding. has the state gop all but abandoned him? >> well, all i can tell you is mark sanford has never probably in his history been outspent on television the way he has this cycle. but he has a core base of supporters, and it's a tight race. and we'll see what happens. but there's certainly ideological differences in the democrat party and the republican party and i'll give the democrats their due. they've made it all about mark's personal indiscretions. the mistakes he's made. and not about public policy. and so, right now it's a tight race. >> and, dick, going in to this campaign's only debate earlier this week sanford had experience on his side but colbert-busch came out swinging and she did land a few punches. how do you evaluate both of their debate performances? >> i mean i think both of them did well in parts and not so well in others. mark's problem is, it's not just the personal indiscretions, the fact when he was governor he spent taxpayer money paying for

tickets to visit his argentinean mistress. he had the largest ethics fine in the history of the state and i think most of us would concede he did nothing to advance the state on education, on economics, and that's really what's dogging him. and, i think he had a hard time during the debate defending that and i think he was shocked to see elizabeth come out swinging as hard as she did. and i think -- i will agree with katon this is going to be a very close race. this is a district that voted 60% for mitt romney, 63% for tim scott. no republican has gotten less than 60% in that district in the last 20 years. so the fact that it's so close, i think, is testament to how hard she's worked and the great campaign she's run and what a flawed candidate mark sanford is. >> now a few big name republicans like senators lindsey graham, tim scott and rand paul and governor nikki haley recently started rallying around sanford. but with the election just three days from now, is it too little, too late? where were they earlier? >> i don't know. that's a lot of big, heavy duty firepower that governor sanford

was lucky enough to bring in at the last minute. and that should make -- that could make a difference. i mean when you are down in the low country, you see six ads to one, a lot of out-of-state money, i'm not criticizing that, i'm just giving you the facts that she's running six ads to one against sanford and he's never had that kind of assault. of course he also gave the ammunition for them to make that assault on him. so it's a race that shouldn't have been won, i think dick would agree, anybody else who would have been nominated besides governor sanford probably would be a lot easier of a race and i'm not sure we'd be here this morning talking about it. >> now, dick, winning this thing may boil down to securing the female vote. but there's a big question about whether or not women in south carolina trust mark sanford. what do you think when it comes to that? >> i've seen polling numbers that indicate over 70% of the women don't like him. and there's a sanford fatigue in this state and especially in the first district. they'd like him to slink off back to wherever he was. he's got a plantation dune in

buford, sit on the dock and fish, but get out of public life. i think all of us, republicans and democrats, will be glad when mark sanford is out of public life. >> you know, i'll tell you the voters are going to have their say in the first district. it is tight. it is close. but the wonderful thing that the democrats have done is they haven't talked about a lot of public policy down there. if it was for lulu busch we wouldn't have boeing sitting down there, with the policies, so it has been i would say a race about personalities. and right now, it's going to be really tight, and whoever has the best get out the vote, not the best campaign, who's going to win that, and at the end of the day, that's what's going to happen on tuesday. >> and katon to quickly follow up on something dick just said with sanford being a flawed candidate. what does it say about the fact that he is the candidate that now is competing? does that mean there were not stronger candidates on the republican side in south carolina? >> when you're in a district like that, 14 to 16 people running, mark sanford's good at one thing. he's a good politician and

electoral politics and he won it and to the victor go the spoils. but right now we're in a race that's unusually tight that shouldn't be. very competitive. shouldn't have had the national attention it had. and i'm not here to apologize for those apologize for those transgressions but that was fair game. that's what they're doing. we'll see how the voters take it. whether they take personality over public policy is what the answer is going to be on tuesday. >> thank you both for being here this morning. >> thank you. well, federal investigators look for more clues in the boston bombing case, could friend of dzhokhar tsarnaev face eeb more? [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ♪ [ agent smith ] ge software connects patients to nurses to the right machines while dramatically reducing waiting time. [ telephone ringing ] now a waiting room is just a room.

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the department of homeland security says it's reforming the visa system for foreigners who come here to study after one of the three men charged in the boston marathon bombings was allowed with re-entry.

joining me now to discuss all this, defense attorney and former prosecutor karen de soto. it's unclear the friend of dzhokhar knew but they said they heard him talk about knowing how to make a bomb but he didn't explicitly ask them to take anything from his room. what are the legal issues in term of their involvement? >> obviously, they're being charged with obstruction of justice. a lot of their story doesn't add up in the sense he texted them. and as a defense attorney i would be very worried. he says, take anything from the room and they take back back and vas line because they didn't want their friend to get in trouble. that's destroying evidence. the best piece of evidence in

this case would have been the laptop, which they took, and is still missing. they're in a lot of trouble. this a case that could be up to five years but you can have enhancer. >> in the aftermath one officer at m.i.t. was killed and another officer critically injured, so is there a chance they could be charged with those crimes as well? >> absolutely they could be charged with connecticut spircy. with the enhancers they could be facing higher penalties. one thing to charge them with obstruction is to get them to talk, and get more information because a jury would probably not believe if they're being texted right after a bomb and removing evidence, why would you do that if you don't know more? investigators have a lot of pressure on them to start talking. >> i know saying, i didn't know i couldn't do that, is that

really a good defense? but is the amount of information they had potentially about this attack relative to how they'll be prosecuted? >> if they didn't know anything, and obviously that's still up in the air. i mean, common sense tells us if someone does a horrific crime like that, there had to have been signs, red flags. that's what they're fishing for. what did they know? how much did they know? what was talked about? someone passionate and people losing life and limbs, it's hard for americans to believe you wouldn't share that information with other people, especially friend. that may be critical to more - co-can conspirators, other bombs and other 19-year-olds at other students. >> would they serve out their sentence and be deported? >> yes, serve out the sentence and deported never to return to the united states. that wraps up this hour of

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every upgraded experience comes from listening to our cardholders. visa signature. your idea of what a card should be. morning from new york. i'm steve kornacki. u.s. officials confirmed israeli targets struck. that's the thursday strike. we'll talk more about that on the program. we're hours away from wayne lapierre's speech in houston. more on guns in a moment. but right now i'm joined by jamel, staff writer at american prospect, paul hodes,