uncer ] at visa signature, 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, and george

zornik, reporter. a genuine grass roots backlash against politicians who side with the national rifle association. on tuesday at a first town hall since voting against a comprehensive measure, new hampshire republican senator kelly ayotte was questioned about why he voted against the voter legislation be heard. >> because they haven't filled out a card. i have a question but it's based upon something that was said. >> let me just say i do every town hall meeting this way and we have a process and we'll get to as many people as we can, so -- >> you don't want to regulate

guns? >> three minutes after that she got a question from erica lafferty, daughter of the slain principal at sandy hook elementary school. >> you mentioned that day, owners of gun stores be expanded background checks. i'm just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in elementary school isn't as important as that? why is that not something to be supported? >> erica, i'm certainly -- let me just say that i'm obviously so sorry. and as everyone here, no matter our views, what you have been through. the issue wasn't a background check system. >> and our second town hall that same night ayotte got another one. >> the elephant in the living room here is gun control.

we still in addition kill thousands of people a year, every day. and can we look to congress to help at all to perhaps reframe this issue in a way that we can really get at because right now i feel congress is not willing to help this country out in this very critical issue. >> peter, certainly i think that the overall issue is obviously very complex. >> as you are about to see when she was pushed yet again on thursday at her third and final town hall of the week, she invoked fears of national registry, even though the vote

she voted against bans such a registry. >> i received your four-page letter. regarding guns and background checks. i really don't understand -- it doesn't make sense to me. what is wrong with universal background checks? >> okay. thank you, john. i will tell you in term 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 lauwful firearms owners. >> the grass root activity comes amid growing signs background check legislation may not be done yet. joe manchin said he would

continue fighting. >> our goal was to have another vote before august recess. we're going to pass this thing. don't give up. we're going to pass this thing. >> joe, thank you for bringing that issue here. >> so, we've been talking about this for a few weeks on this show now since guns came to a head and sorted of the prevailing political logic for two decades now. since the last time we had major gun control legislation that got through, the assault weapons ban, the brady bill in '93 and '94. the logic is democrats paid a huge price for that, al gore didn't win the presidency in 2000 bays of it. he lost states like west virginia, places like this. and the only political price to pay in politics is to stand up to the nra and getting highly engaged pro-second amendment activists outraged at you. what was so striking to me about watching the scene in new hampshire is you have a quintessential swing state, new hampshire, with a senator up for

re-election in 2016, first-term senator, hearing from a number of constituents who are maybe -- i'm thinking what might be going on in her mind there, maybe this is changing the incentive calculations in her mind and by extension other senators, other lawmakers? >> you can only be against something when 90% of americans are for for so long. this isn't about esoteric spending cuts. this is about people dying. this is about people dieing in movie theaters and schools. so couple that -- since you mentioned the '90s you've seen so many more sort of horrific shootings since then. you've seen so much more of an epidemic of gun violence that it's turned into an emotional issue for a lot of people. that, as a politician, is very hard to go up against, i think. >> you know, it's pretty basic. for years we heard the problem isn't guns it's the people

holding the guns and everybody's always said let's make sure we keep guns out of the hand of people who shouldn't have them. when you see in new hampshire starting in january, polls coming out anywhere between 82% and 90% of people in new hampshire across all demographic lines, across all political parties, coming together to say, let's do something about this, let's do it now, this is beyond politics. the message is clear. this is a commonsense basic message that was widely supported even by lapierre of the nra. >> i look at the town hall and say, this could have been you up. ran against kelly ayotte in 2010. i wonder if you could speak to the politics and gun culture in new hampshire because the motto live free and die, how does a politician think about guns in a state like new hampshire? >> i think how a politician in new hampshire has changed. i had an "a" rating from the

nra. i took a very libertarian, let the states decide approach to firearms. and when i saw my former colleague gabby giffords gunned down, when i saw what happened in newtown, i know something inside happened to me in a big way. i came to grips that we need to do something in this country. it's a constellation of things but we could start in congress making sure people who don't have guns, don't have them. i went through that kind of change and apparently 90% of the people in new hampshire did also. so for a politician like senator ayotte to be so out of touch with the people she represents, to be so out of touch, that she lectures the daughter of somebody gunned down at newtown about mental health issues, we're not talking -- i mean, we can talk about mental health but let's start somewhere.

let's start with background checks. >> what i'm trying to figure out -- let's take kelly as an example because i think she could stand for other senators in other states, from swing states where they could pay a general election price. i look at kelly ayotte she had a primary who nearly beat her. if she were to re-evaluate -- if she were to evolve on guns right now and change her position, is there suddenly a serious risk for ayotte in the republican party, you know, for a conservative challenge, is that participate of the calculation that's holding back republicans maybe in these swing states? >> kelly ayotte is no moderate. when she ran in 2010 she's good friend with sarah palin. she's a right wing extremist. she was then. she hid it better than candidates she ran against but she's very, very far to the

right. she's staked out a pretty clear position to the far right and on the right wing of the went party. at least if you believe the press, she's -- she may be in some real trouble in the republican party as the republican party comes a little back to the center on all kinds of issues, whether it's immigration or others, and it may be that she's going to have some real trouble in 2016. >> to me the success of the town halls and listening to the constituents is maintaining a link between the policy and the people. it is not disconnecting the politics from the legacy of the kinds of trauma those who lost family members maintained because of their presence in the town hall. the connection between how are gun stores burdened, how is that higher than that which happened to my mother, who was gunned down? maintaining that connection is really important because the question marks and critique

hasn't necessarily succeeded. the history of movement is you don't have 144 character revolutions no matter what the cycle of media would luke to thinks. this week i was in harlem watching a documentary called "triggering wound" made by young people personally impacted by gun violence, connecting the politics, the policy to the personal and saying to the politicians, you cannot disconnect the two. i think the landscape has moved. so, whether number like kelly ayotte thinks she can stand in the face of a lie when the congress says there is no registration, no registry, and continue to repeat it, the voice of the people is going to shift her. not even other own vested interest but she absolutely stands to lose. >> i'm not sure that landscape has shifted for republicans. i think that's certainly the case for a lot of different kinds of politicians and maybe in different states but kelly ayotte still has to deal with the fact that if she were to

adopt a position on gun control that runs counter to the republican base, she'll face a tea party challenge enger, face somebody that will knock her out and she'll probably lose. this is a problem you're seeing for republican candidates throughout the country. i don't think it's aye surprise ted cruz of texas who's become superstar among right wing conservatives is also someone resolutely opposed to any sort of gun regulation. in fact, introduced a bill that would loosen regulation on guns. we're in this unusual situation where you have one party that's more or less responsive to public opinion and another party that has just gone off the rails when it comes to the media in america. >> the question then when you have that reality is, it's the people in between those who spaces. as you said, if kelly ayotte stands to lose, you stand to lose even more when you go against the people because that's the only leverage you

have. >> in the state of new hampshire you have a block of independent voters, and on this issue certainly they've swung. their voice has been heard. the independent voters are saying, we're for universal background checks. we want something done. >> there are -- i guess the question, how many states like new hampshire are there out there right now? we can put some numbers to that, and i want to do that when we come back. with an irregular he. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib

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sew kelly ayotte got the most attention, but there was some polling affecting other senators who voted no, other noteworthy polling. we can put those up on the screen. rob portman from ohio, swing

state, republican. approval rating, compared to last october, a lot's happened but down nearly 20 points. lisa murkowski, alaska, down february since february. ayotte, down 15 point. and mark begich down six, and not sure if you can read much into that but the question we were posing this last block, they were 60 votes, not that far off. i can look at this and say, maybe you can put ayotte, maybe heller, maybe begich is scared of some issue, and then this whole issue of a republican-controlled house of representatives where you have almost none of those republicans coming from districts that president obama kaertd last year. what do he we think of universal

background checks being passed this year? >> i'm bullish. say the senate passes something, it would have to have republican support and it's focused on john boehner. you don't have to say yes, but will you let the congress vote on this? hopefully at some point he would say yes. and then you have to have 16 republican votes. given the momentum that would come from a technically bipartisan bill out of the senate, emotionally -- you'll have the nra's power, in a way, weakened by the senate passing this out. power in washington is about fear. people will fear the nra less if they are not able to hold the line in the senate and so it kind of emboldens the republicans, moderate republicans in the house, saying, well, the senate has done it -- >> that's the new model.

rack up the big number in senate, isolate john boehner and hope he's not too scared of mutiny in action. this is government in 2013. >> fear is a great motivator. i think the outpouring of sentiment in new hampshire and other poll numbers you've seen on the screen, are not going to be lost on house members coming up in 2014. ayotte figures, maybe they'll forget about it but if you're up for election in 2014 and they're looking at those poll numbers and the senate can move on this and get it through, you have to be thinking, where am i? do i want to keep my job? >> the question for the movement, the grass roots campaign is sustainability, is maintaining this kind of pressure in a cycle when we become the greatly great, or

nongreat event and how do you sustain that pressure in order that an ayotte recognizes the weight, the lens, the scrutiny of the constituents we saw in the town halls even as we proceed closer to 2014. the nra relies on something else and the dissipation of energy. if it can maintain that's about organizing action, what they can do maintaining connection between the people and the legislation and not letting pure power and money interrupt that process. that's a challenge. >> on the other end for boehner, though, he only has so much political capital, right? he can't pull this move all the time. the question is, how much can you get behind the senate vote.

it would have to be 70 or 75 votes for boehner to feel genuine pressure to say it would be in our best interest to just do this and avoid the pressure. if a senate passes with bare minim minimum, i'm not sure. boehner is looking out for himself as well. >> it's a good question for the movement to consider, if you bring it back in the senate now, necessarily it would have to be a compromised bill. you have to weaken it, send it to the house and maybe it gets weakened again. the question for the gun control bill is to have a better bill five, ten years from now, are you better waiting, hammering republicans, see what happens in the next mid term and next -- >> i'm curious, what would you -- it was already pretty watered down and narrow to begin with. they had that provision in there to try to stop the talk of the national registry there was an automatic 15-year prison term.

maybe you could up that to the death penalty. what is the further watering down of this and still make it meaningful or then it becomes beating the act of the nra is the -- >> that could be the thing, knocking the nra for the first time in decades would really give enthusiasm and energy to gun rights activists -- or not gun rights but gun control activists to push something through origin working on something later on. i mean, this will be a long battle. it took the nra a very long time to get to the point where politicians were afraid of it. it will take gun control advocates if not as long, perhaps longer. >> look at the lbgt movement, the dreamers, all movements are marathons. i think the other challenge in term of the content of the bill is to mitigate against the power of the life because the reality is, there is no -- the registry,

and that is specifically stated in the bill. but the currency of the lie overwhelm the truth of what was in the actual bill so i think part of the work outside of the activists maintaining pressure is democrats being much more willing to push harder on the truth of the bill having the same kind of currency the lie created. kelly ayotte is standing in front of people still saying, my concern is this is going to become andrej industry when we know she knows that's a lie. >> you talk about the importance of activists keeping this on the agenda. for gun control advocates there is some reason to be optimistic because something struck me about the debate. c-max two. that's a super fuel- efficient hybrid for me. and a long range plug-in hybrid for you. now, let's review.

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of women, in particular mothers, a lot of this i think came out of sandy hook but i've seen a lot of mothers -- we had a mother from virginia tech on the show a few weeks ago. you know, i saw an ad, there was an ad being run, a radio ad in new hampshire clearly aimed at women going after kelly ayotte for voting against background checks. the nra has picked up on that trying to win back some mothers out there. this is an ad they were running about kelly ayotte defending her in new hampshire this week. >> kelly ayotte is not just a senator, she's a mom who cares about protecting our kids. she knows the only way to prevent tragedies like sandy hook is to fix our broken mental health system that's why ayotte brought republicans and democrats together on a bipartisan solution and why kelly had the courage to oppose

misguided gun control laws that would not have prevented sandy hook. >> it does sfrik me, look, the nra sees a clear threat in term of mothers on this issue and it's trying to respond. it strikes me, maybe that's something a little different this time. if mothers are mobilized, that's a group that gets attention. >> that's especially true in new hampshire. qu women voters are a powerful force. you can look to women to see who got elected in 2012, who got kicked around 2010. it was around women's reproductive rights. so, in new hampshire women really matter. >> i just want to add as well that i think this is a crossroads movement thinking about women, not mobilized against guns but in urban communities for a long time but minus the national attention that sandy hook received. so, in terms of sustainability

and how does the movement maintain the pressure, this could be a really important movement to connect the dots between mothers and also kids who are losing folks in the urban communities together because what you have this is the privileging of location in terms of this should never happen in an area like this. like the language around sandy hook. and the absence of national outrage at the vast majority of killings so often done on the streets of south side of chicago, detroit, new york, l.a. what you do right now is have a moment to connect those spaces. bring the young people who have lost so many extraordinary friends. like i said i was watching a document called "triggering wounds" the young man that made the film lost eight friend in gun violence. they're a mobilized focused group putting down guns, picking up cameras. so that capital should also be

harnessed. for too long they've been outsiders because this country, in so many ways, practices the policy of the privileging of one set of lives verse another set of lives. but in this gun safety legislation moment is an opportunity to connect those spaces. so, mothers have been organizing for a minute but to marry those spaces, it's to potentially create the kind of movement that cannot be -- it doesn't have the investment in political capital and power and money that the nra does, all the politicians and they just don't care. they're like tunnel vision, focused, let's do something more than accept this rhetoric of paralysis and, quoun unquote, mental health. >> think the issue of 2014 sets up for guns so critically. there's also a price to be paid if i vote against gun control,

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one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving. a garden of pure -- >> do you remember this commercial? come on, i think you do. it's the famous big brother ad from when a new company apple launched this thing called the macintosh personal computer. the ad was a pretty big deal, actually. apple spent a fortune on it, got ridley scott to direct it, even screened it in movie theaters. only aired on once but about the whole country saw it because it happened to air during the super bowl. it was the ad that made super bowl the thing. when tens of millions of

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kerry. markey dropped out and waited for another day and waited and waited and waited a little more until three decades later, just last december, kerry, now almost 70 years old, was picked for secretary of state and gave up his senate seat. this time markey didn't have much problem as he won by 16 points. so the only thing standing in front of ed markey is to beelt gabriel gomez june special election. it's an election happening in the bluest state in america. democrats hope this rate is a slam dunk and it should be. when you're talking about a state where only 13% of the voters are republicans, every election is supposed to be a slam dunk for democrats. yet, every once in a while we'll get moments like bill weld winning the governor race in 1990 and '94, paul solucci in

'98, and mitt romney in 2004. this is the kind of thing that happens in states where one party runs everything. every so often there's something in the air or something about a particular candidate, for some reason triggers a popular vote. when weld won he did it by playing up candidates against mighty president of the state senate. romney did it a decade later by railing against what he called gang of three, they were insiders, democratic insiders who supposedly ran the state. now ed markey's opponent, gomez, running against markey's longevity. >> i want to take you back in time. the year was 1976, 37 years ago. gerald ford was president. me, i was just playing little league baseball.

and that is when ed markey got elected to congress. >> 37 years is a long time. as best i can tell, no one has ever served in the house that long and then gone on to win a senate seat. if you follow politics closely you know ed markey is a conservative voice but a more casual voter in massachusetts that may not be what you think much when you see him. he's been in washington since the 1970s. he has a house in chevy chase, maryland. he bears some markers of insiderdom to trigger revolts that happen in massachusetts and there were hints in this week's primary. the green are ones ed markey lost this week. voters there tend to be democrats but more on the conservative side. democrats willing to turn on their party, democrats who have turned on their party. they helped elect scott brown in

2006. the places markey lost this week are the places brown won. this new poll, ed markey's lead is only four points. i'm not saying democrats should panic. there were some special circumstances in the ed markey election earlier. i would still put all of my money on ed markey but think of the candidacy as a one-party rule. when every officeholder in the state belongs to one party, that party's bench tenldz to friese freeze in place. and democrats are betting voters in massachusetts won't be too bothered by that and it's probably a good bet but this week's poll numbers are a stark reminder, it's still a gamble. president obama said some things this week that may have been a lot more revealing about

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in two major statements this past week, ambassad barack obam sweeping statements. first, there was last saturday when the president spoke at the annual white house correspondents' dinner. what grabbed headlines were his jokes, which were very funny. what got less much attention is the message he closed with a high minded exer tags for those in the media to reach for a higher purpose. >> those of us in the room tonight, we are incredibly lucky. and the fact is, we can do better. all of us. those of us in public office, those of us in the press, those who produce entertainment for our kids, those with power, those with influence, all of us,

including myself, we can strive to value those things that i suspect led most of us to do the work that we do in the furs place. because we believed in something that was true. and we believed in service and the idea we can have a lasting, positive impact on the lives of the people around us. >> so, that part of the speech, which went pretty much unnoticed caught the attention of national journal editorial who wrote, it may stand as one of the most rhetorical moments of barack obama's presidency, the clearheaded indictment of four national institutions coupled with a prescription for revival. by tuesday president obama was dragged down into the mire of politics. he was asked whether he still had the juice to get his agaend through congress whe.

>> you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there had no responsibilities and my job is to somehow get them to behave. that's their job. they're elected, members of congress are elected, in order to do what's right for their constituencies and the american people. >> at the table we have jamelle, with us, joining us is ann holmes, maureen and monica potts, a senior writer at "american prospect." so, i guess there's a disclaimer on the clip we played from the corporates' dinner last week. i know it's sort of customary, the people who go to those things and presidents who speak at them take a lot of chiding for being at this clubby, insider sort of thing and so there's always that moment where

they step back and talk about something more grander, more purposeful. in a way that's the obligatory part of president obama's speech. when you contrast that with the press conference, it's a contrast of obama who confronted the scene in 2004, inspired so many in 2008, and part of a partisan washington national politics he's butted up against for more than four years now where he still is this sort of inspiring guy. he can be this inspiring guy. he's almost saying at that press conference, what do you want me to do? >> i think -- i think the two things actually fit together quite well, right? because part of the problem of the last four years is that the political press, i think, hasn't done a great job of quite identifying why things aren't happening. ron in a column later that week even said what you need to do, obama, is knock some heads together, get those republicans -- you've got to

beat them. there doesn't seem to be any real push from many reporter at all to simply say, republicans have agency. they have their own agendas. they have their own reasons for doing things. and they should be held responsible, too, for when they don't act. i think obama in his own way was trying to say, listen, i'm not the only person in government. there are these -- there's this entire other political party, this entire other institution of government. you should cover them more and you should pay more attention -- not pay more attention but also acknowledge that they themselves have agency. >> yeah. i guess what you're talking about is it's known -- a lot of people reef to it as the green lantern era of the president obama. maureen dowd does basically, the president's the leader. we're viewed to see the president as a singular all-powerful figure. if congress isn't working it's automatically the president's fault. it did strike me in the

immediate, yeah a lot of people wrote about what you exactly just said. i wonder if maybe we're seeing a bit of a reassessment of media and opinion-shapers in this country of what exactly the presidency is and maybe it isn't and maybe we're going to a place where there's a realistic understanding where we live in a system and congress is powerful. if it's controlled by the parties and the parties are so polarized, how much is possible? >> i think one of the problems the press faces is what is actually happening is hard to explain. the rules of congress are arcane and uninteresting. when you're talking about people on a news cycle every day where they have to have stories exciting and interesting to normal people, i think that's a real challenge. i think that's why you see them slipping into a horse race or leadership kind of story. >> it's easier to pick one person, which is why you have the executive office so you can have one person who is not a figure head but someone on whom hopes can rest. it's harder to pinpoint which senators are not doing what they should be doing, which senators

are not playing nicely. >> yeah. when telling a story, you usually want to have a couple of lead characters. in this case obama is considered to be the lead character. congress is kind of this nebulous entity. i think it might be more effective for media -- for the media, for the white house, to explain more of congress' intransience instead of naming just congress. but naming real names. mitch mcconnell, john boehner, et cetera. >> even when you start talking about the leaders, what strikes me about john boehner over the last couple of years is he is sort of, to me, a uniquely unpowerful speaker. he has the title, they give him a chauffer, all the perks that come along with the job but we were talking about this in the gun segment, when it comes to actually doing what the green lantern people ask president obama to do, crack heads

together, he can't do that to his own republican conference these days but he's led by them much more than he leads them. there's this whole other wrinkle which is probably difficult to explain, too. i want to get into -- i sort of teased the marureen dowd thing. it makes me laugh so i want to share it with you. are baked with brown rice and sweet potato! triscuit has a new snack? no way. way. and the worst part is they're delicious. mmm, you're right. maybe we should give other new things a chance. no way. way. [ male announcer ] we've taken 100% whole grain brown rice and wheat, delicious sweet potato, and savory red bean... and woven them into something unexpected. the new brown rice triscuit line; with sweet potato and red bean varieties. a new take on an old favorite. like other precious things that start off white, it yellows over time. fact is, when it comes to your smile, if you're not whitening, you're yellowing. crest 3d white whitestrips go below the enamel surface

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of course, everybody has plenty of advice. maureen dowd said, i could solve all of my problems if i were more like michael douglas in "the american president" and i know michael is here tonight. micha michael, what's your secret, man? could it be that you were an actor in an aaron sorkin liberal fantasy? >> that's the president at the correspondents' dinner last week. i am now going to read what amounted to maureen dowd's response and try to do this with a straight face. how can the president star in a

white house correspondents' association dinner satirical film pretending to be daniel day-lewis playing barack obama in steven spielberg's movie "obama." the parallel she's drawing there, i can't tell which one i -- which annoys me more, obama should learn from lincoln, obama should learn from lbj. make lincoln, lbj deal with the partisan polarization obama is dealing with now and get a grand bargain. >> look at the scenario presented for lincoln. there's a war. he has claimed tons of executive power. his party claims both parties by a huge margin and he still struggles to pass a bill that's broadly popular. pretty popular with this party. like, that is a case study in institutional constraints.

lincoln was lucky enough to get past them but those are the things that foil presidents all the time. even lbj. everyone forgets lbj, the democratic party had huge majorities in both chambers of congress. after democrats lost seats in the '64 -- '66 elections -- eventually i was going to hit the right number, lbj ran into a great wall. i don't think people want to recognize in which these presidential figures were themselves achievement a product of the fact their party controlled congress. >> to me what the dowd column highlights more is how obsessed we're getting with the narrative. like we can't -- this is a particular maureen dowd tick that she's more about fining the right metaphor. maybe that's what president obama meant when he was

indicting the media and getting out problems with big business. he was alluding to the way our obsession with the narrative can get in the way of the actual process. >> we treat the presidency the way maureen dowd did, not to pick on maureen dowd, lots of people treat the presidency, it creates expect takings, unreasonable expect takings and leads people to sort of invest so much hope and so much energy in the success of the individual president they're electing. you probably saw a lot of that in the movement to elect obama in 2008. when the president comes up against what obama has come up against, the result is disappointment and maybe disillusionment with the system, and that becomes a permanent cycle where george w. bush is going to change the culture of washington. doesn't change the culture of washington. barack obama comes in and it's wait a minute, not as much as we thought. we're talking about all of this polarization. the president this week talked a little about how he might get around that polarization and still get something big done.

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hello from new york. i'm steve kornacki with jamelle, maureen malone of "the new republic" and monica potts also from "the american prospect ". we were talking about partisan grid lock is a term in congress and how that's stalled, president obama up against a republican congress who says it's better not to negotiate with him, not to work with him, and he can't pass anything and, therefore, not get any wins -- anything described as a win. with that in mind the president this week at his press conference talked about that and described how he thinks he might be able to get around it.

>> their base thinks compromise with me is somehow a betrayal. they're worried about primaries. and i understand all that. and we're going to try to do everything we can to create a permission structure for them to be able to do what's going to be best for the country. >> okay. that phrase "a permission structure," permission structure to allow republicans to do what's best for the country. i've seen a lot of interpretations of it. the republicans have had cynical ones, things about big government. but what does it mean? do we know? >> incentive? i mean, it's a kind of difficult phrase and doesn't mean much to me and i assume the average american. so i find it a bit confusing. i understand what he means by it but not in a particularly compelling way to get his point across. i think he should just use the word incentive. >> i think it means a way for republicans to vote as they feel

or vote as they think would be best and not worry about a primary. that doesn't have to mean they have to support the president's agenda in every circumstance or even most circumstances but, come on, right now the mere act of barack obama signing a piece of legislation means republicans can't vote for it, which is -- i don't -- i don't know how you run a government like that. >> brian boller, his read was basically it had to do with grand bargain. obama is pursuing this balanced deal with republicans more tax revenue for entitlement cuts, that sort of thing. he's saying basically the idea is to get republican and democratic senators talking. that's what these dinners are all about that obama has been hosting to get reasonable republicans and democratic senators talking and to let them do the work, negotiate it and keep as far away from it as he himself, obama, can, so if they strike a deal it doesn't have

obama's fingerprints over it and republicans have permission to side with the republicans who negotiated with it, which i guess we're talking about the green lantern theory and power of presidency. the less the president does, the more he has a chance of enacting something. >> i think that's right. to the republican base obama is so toxic so the fact of him supporting anything would rile him up. at the same time i'm skeptical of this idea that republican and democratic congress need to get together. the tea party caucus is so ideological. and they know how washington used to work and they know there were back room deals and camaraderie. they're not interested in that. they're interested in following their own ideals and not allowing government to work. that's where the problem rests. >> if you look at the phrase it implies have you no power. why would you want -- there's an article in "the times" today saying there are 13 senators who aren't going to run for re-election. people aren't stepping up to fill those jobs. those aren't attractive jobs

anymore. if you just, like, game it out, why would you want a job when -- not only do you not have power but you can't get done what you to want get done for your constituents. >> i read that article as republicans are scared if they get in these races, fitz the party leadership enticing them in -- in iowa there's this race where tom harkin is retiring, if the party leaders entice them, they can't run because we're in the era where chris o'donnell wins, when sharron angle wins in nevada. we have a chart that puts the partisan polarization into effect. this breaks down the democratic and republican members according to did their party's presidential candidate carry the district they were elected in. you see 217 republican members of the house, one short of majority, 217 come from districts that mitt romney carried. so that just screams to me, there's your problem right

there, because if president obama is pursuing any kind of a deal with republicans, in 217 of the 218 districts that make up a majority, that's not the majority position of the voters. >> there's no reason for those congress people to support president obama's agenda, and they don't. i can't really blame them. i keep on coming to the fact that maybe what's needed to make washington work is a full-scale overhaul of the rules. i think i'm like a lot of liberals, i really like the constitution. all right, okay. what i mean is there's often a lot of talk about how there are parts of the constitution that are completely ante quated and we need to get rid of and i'm not sure that's the case. but there are norms and rules that are extra constitutional that probably need changing and updating for a more modern era. there's just no -- i mean, there is the conversation about filibuster forum and that sort

of slowed down. it pops up every once in a while but there probably needs to be more than just filibuster reform to get this -- to get things moving smoothly begin. i do not mean to impugn liberals. >> i mean, isn't the influx of huge money which comes from, you know, recent supreme court decisions, hasn't that had just as much of an impact and, you know, the constitution has had the same structure for however many years and that's what's new, you know. >> right. >> maybe that's a place to look. >> i think money plays a part but i think it plays a part in sort of the permission structure, the incentives of individual lawmakers, but not all of them. i'm sort of -- i'm also a little skeptical that money is the driving thing because these trends -- these trends for polarization started before the era of big money in politics. it's sort of a long -- a long-term thing that's happening, that we as a country have not really tried to deal with or even understand what it's doing to our politics.

>> well, we also have other really broad scale changes in society. we have an increasingly -- this is a situation in which the republican party is still the party of a constituency that really isn't as powerful or as there as it was. it's rural, white, older voters. they have to decide whether they're going to continue to be that party or be a party that can compete on a national level. >> it seems to me there's an even more fundamental decision that needs to be made by republicans. are they interested in governing? we were talking about this in the break but i think it's a good discussion to have. if you think back to when we had a similar situation working the other way, when george w. bush became president in 2001 and democrats a few months later were able to get control of the senate, democrats were willing to cooperate. they still opposed george w. bush. there were still a lot of heated things said about george wncbus.

you got no child left behind. democrats put together an agenda they were interested in implementing. if you have a president of the other party saying, i'm tolg maybe compromise with you on education, democrats are willing to work with it. on the other side republicans seem to be operating with a pure basic political calculation here. if we don't do anything, he can't accomplish anything and then we can blame him for accomplishing nothing. and there doesn't seem to be any room there for a policy agenda. >> what do you think the difference is between then and now? is it a temperament issue? just that republicans think and feel that much differently than democrats? >> to me it's like, you can look back to the clinton presidency and almost find the same thing we have now in terms of republicans just dug in their heels. in 1983 and '84, deputies had overwhelming majority but republicans dug in their heels. there were a few issues they had

incentives to work with bill clinton, well form reform. i guess what i'm struggling to see immigration reform, where is the policy agenda from republicans? >> it's not just that they don't to want work with obama, it's what do they want to do? what do they want to do with their power? it's not clear. it's hard for the president to extend olive branches. if there's nothing you want to do and they hate the president, it's hard to see how anything gets done. this is a question i have, too, and i don't really have an answer, but at a point you have to -- have you to struggle to figure out what's going on. like why -- why don't they want to make movement on anything at all? is it because of obama in particular? is is it because, you know, you can make a lot of money on the right hawking your opposition to things? again, look at ted cruz who has made himself into a star by doing exactly this.

he's been there for four months. yeah, i don't know. >> well, i think it's also a question you can ask of democrats, too. it's like, is there anything they're willing to sort of put on hold for political gamesmanship purposes? we saw it the air traffic controllers bill to get rid of the impacts of that, the sequester on that. so, you know, they could have held out and said, no, we have to deal with the whole sequester before we deal with this air traffic controller issue that's impacting the entire country and that people feel and see, but they actually do care that people feel and saw that. they do care that hurt businesses and hurt people. so, they cared about governing and maybe lost a political chip. >> i want to thank jamelle, anna holmes, monica potts from "the american prospect". jason collins became the first active player in a major sport to come out of the closet this week. we'll talk to one of the few people in the world who knows what that experience is like next. girls don't talk about pads... but they do talk about always infinity. [ marcy ] it's like memory foam.

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american culture changed on monday and changed with 12 simple words -- i'm a 34-year-old nba center. i'm black. and i'm gay. the first story of "sports illustrated" cover story written by jason collins. now for the first time ever, there's an openly gay athlete in one of the four major pro sports leagues. not of course that collins is the first gay man to play a professional team sport. it's been almost four decades since the now defunk evening star ran a story there were several prominent nfl gay players in the nfl. in the closet, of course. and running back came out in 1975 and he wrote a book and talked about it on the "today" show. >> let's talk about teammates, generally speaking, how did they

react? >> they don't react in a public sense. they have in a private sense. it's been a quiet kind of support, so what? that's what it should be, like, so what? >> so what was largely the reaction from kopay's fellow players. one who did not remain silent was john ameche in 2007 was the first male professional basketball player to reveal he was gay. he retired from the sport but there was still a strong reaction. >> there was a fuss. i didn't realize there would be the magnitude of fuss but the debate has been for the most part informative. >> like collins he was a centerman, and a journeyman and he spent plenty of time hiding who he really was from the teammates and fans every night.

joining us is a man who knows better than what life has been like on the planet and that's john amaeche. i know you flew over from england. you've been quoted all over the place this week. one thing that jumped out is you had been talking to jason collins before this story came out for a few weeks. >> yeah. he contacted me about -- i've known about him for some time. i've known his family for some time. i played with his brother in utah. about a month ago i got a call out of the blue. i'm still wondering how people get my number, not really asking for advice. i think people have overblown the fact i'm some wise yoder but from someone who's been there, how to steel himself and make sure he does the maximum -- this is key, he wanted to do the maximum amount of good right off the bat. >> what was the advice -- or not

advice, but to do the maximum amount of good. >> really, i told him -- i wanted to hear his story. i tell me, what you're going to tell everybody. he recounted his story, what he planned on saying. i said, this is going to have an amazing impact, young people especially are going to look at this and be transformed by your words. it's absolutely what happened. i gave -- i sent him a text the other day. it can't have been six hours after he made the announcement, after the article was online. and i sent him a text because i started getting e-mails, facebook messages, twitter messages from young people all over, literally from a young man in doha to a group of people from eastern europe as well as from, obviously, north america saying they felt safer and more hopeful because of what jason had done. i thought he needed to know he was having the impact he wanted to have. >> you came out six years ago. your playing career ended 2003, basically a decade ago. if you had revealed this in 2003

versus 2013, do you think it would have been a radically different reaction? >> i think so. i'm heartened by the changes i've seen. so, the fact that the response from players has been so positive, and not contrived, either. the tweets i've seen from players don't look like, oh, dear, i better check with my pr agent and say something. they look like they're from the heart. and i believe that. i spoke to david stern about another player, but they were talking about -- he was talking about his absolute support for this. and not for a warm and fuzzy reasons. he wants the best league in the world. he wants the best athletes in the world. he knows the best athletes in the world can only perform at their peak if they feel safe, secure, supported and if they don't have to hide. that's why he's interested in this quality issue on the whole. >> you've been quoted this week saying you've been aware of them

and you've talked to other players in jason collins' situation. do you expect the flood gates are going to open? >> yeah, the flood gate question is one i struggle with because jason is just one part of this equation. the nba and what i think is their warm and positive response is one part of the equation, especially with the back drop of america. there was a difference for me when i could run away home to england where we don't have laws that criminalize gay people. where we're about to have marriage equity in total fullness. the idea that jason alone is going to lead this is part of it. i think he sits on the crest of a wave of public opinion. i think when you look at the pulse, it's very clear the kind of inequality, the kind of prejudice against the lbgt community that's been happening is seen more and more as unacceptable. he's a positive be vanguard but there are legislative hurdles we need to overcome as well. >> the other piece is the reaction has been, like you say, overwhelmingly positive this week. he's 34 years old, a journeyman.

his statistics -- he's not going to be in the hall of fame, we can say, at least not for his stats on the playing floor and now the question is, will he get signed next year? his profile, if you take this issue, it would be iffy if he would be signed again. how do you see this as being successful he'll get signed again? >> this is key, your language, to be seen as successful. i think the media will require him to be re-signed. not for reasons of his sexuality. the biggest problem of him being signed is not his sexuality, it's 20 years of wear and tear on his body. it's the fact 18-year-old croatians can take the nba minimum and take his spot. that's the real challenge. but he does bring other things to the table. if we were having this

conversation a week ago before we knew, he is dedicated and passionate about his sport, he works hard, brings day. at the same time he's a settling influence. if you ask his teammates, a settling influence in the locker room. these are not inconsiderable qualities for a basketball player. if you know about how teams are successful. if you want to look and dissect the lakers, outside of their injuries and the fact this team never really came together, people like jason collins help with that. i believe he'll be re-signed for those reasons. >> i want to ask you about the culture of sports and the culture of basketball because a big issue in sports in the last few months has been the story of this ex-coach at rutgers, mike rice, who was fired when these videotapes of practices were thrown where he was throwing basketballs at players, saying nasty things. one aspect is he was shouting home moe foe homophobic slurs. nobody is taken aback. in your your years of playing,

were you exposed to that a lot? i wondered how you responded to that. obviously, no one knew about your situation. did it go off your shoulders because you hear it all the time? >> there is an element -- i don't think how clearly the language of homophobia is the language of sports. even when it's the words we cannot publish, the language around women, the language around gay people is always derisive. for me personally i always felt it was a death by 1,000 cuts. at the end of the day i wondered why i felt so exhausted after practice. i was in great shape. it wasn't the fact that practice had been that owner us. it was those words again and again and again weighed on you. you had to reserve bits of energy that should have been used for last-second layups, boxing out, the minutia of basketball, but that had to be

passed off to protect your ego from these constant assaults. that's another reason to create these atmospheres. if you have players on your team impacted by those words and have to pass off resources, that's not available for going to the playoffs, and you need that. >> i want to bring in some other folks, including a black state legislature who just came out on the floor of the state senate right after this. hey everybody, hi mom... streaming live with a tour of my new place... knowing you can still reach out. ... and now you've seen it. that's powerful. verizon. get mom a lucid 2 by lg for free.

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jason collin. i had a chance to talk to him yesterday. he seems like a terrific young man. and i told him i couldn't be prouder. you know, one of the extraordinary measures of progress that we've seen in this country has been the recognition that the lgbt community deserves full equality. not just partial equality. not just tolerance, but a recognition that they're fully a part of the american family. >> obviously it's great to see the president, you know, being supportive of him like that but a couple things struck me. he went out of his way to answer that question. he was leaving the room, wanted to answer it, came back. he had personally called jason collin. this came on the heels in president obama's inaugural address back in january, he specifically invoked stone wall rights, the iconic moment for

gay rights in america. it strikes me in politics how much has changed so quickly really in the last year. if we were having this conversation a year ago, if jason collins came out a year ago, that's when president obama didn't support gay marriage, he was still evolving on the question. the calculus of a lot of politicians everywhere, we have to keep a certain amount of distance in this issue. what i've seen this week is that distance is melting away. >> or when he said he didn't support it, right? because it seems apparent now, if you look at the reaction, i think a lot of us thought, well, this shouldn't be a huge issue but i'm sure we'll see a lot of negativity. there wasn't a lot. at least officially phrased negativity. it got to the point we were so as a culture, the nba establishment or people who wanted to defend jason collins were so eager to jump on anyone who said anything wrong that they were pulling out people from pretty obscure places who said boo about jason collins'

reaction and condemning them. i think what we saw out of the president shows not just how much we've changed in the last year -- remember in 2004 the bush administration put a lot of gay ballot measures on the ballots in ohio. i don't see that stuff plays. i began this week to question the entire idea of the culture war. i don't know if it's over or just overblown. >> it's certainly evolved in a big way. kelvin, you just lived it in nevada. >> slulg. absolutely. going back we did that too, in 200 and 2002 there were a lot of measures to ban marriage equality in nevada and now here we are 2013, and actually reversing it or down the road to reversing it. the senate passed it in nevada. now it's in the house. so, we are looking at a huge shift as well. >> the political calculation really has changed. you see, i'm based in north carolina and just last year they

had the amendment to the state constitution which reaffirmed the only domestic legal union being between a man and a woman, and then just this year senator kay hagan, a democrat having a tough re-election race next year, come out for same-sex marriage realizing the political calculation has changed and it will probably help her in the state, particularly among grass roots. >> you talk about how maybe the culture wars are over a little bit. one thing that struck me this week, within the sports world, there was a comment i kept hearing repeated over and over again. it wasn't hostile to jason collins, it wasn't overtly hostile, but i noticed a number of prominent commentators going out of their way to say, i don't know why we're talking about this, i don't care at all. this is mike a sports talk radio host here in new york, used to work for cbs. he's a big-timer in the sports world. let's play him. >> now we have a player in jason collins who has been a -- you

know, a journeyman player in the nba. now admitting, as he looks to stay in the league f he doesn't stay in the league it will be considered he's been run out of the league. but admitting now that -- or at least now coming forward with the fact that he is homosexual. why? i have no idea. i guess i'll have to read the story. i guess i will when i get a chance. i mean, i have the story here. i have no -- i'm not compelled to run and talk about it or read it. i really don't care. >> i have something to say about this and i want my guests' reaction right after this. the recent increase in cafeteria prices is not cool. when you vote for flo, we'll have discounts. ice-cream discounts. multi-cookie discounts. pizza loyalty discounts! [ kids chanting "flo!" ] i also have some great ideas on car insurance. [ silence ]

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[ 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. we just heard from mike francesa, sports radio host and he's making this -- i don't want to talk about that. there is different readings on this. this shouldn't be something

anybody has to talk about. the ornish, i can't remember who wrote this, but a good column but somebody saying this is the new way for people who used to say, i don't like this, i don't want this around me, now to say -- where political correctness is, this is what you have to say. >> that column was written by john lavigne of slate. it's why do you put it in my face? it might be ignorant maybe if you said a few things to people who said that. they would say, oh, yeah, i never thought that. there's a huge difference between the de facto assumption of the heterosexual world but what i heard mike say speaks to demographics. he's in his 60s. he's uncomfortable with it. i don't think we should jump down the throats of people who express honestly being uncomfortable with it. the average age of the nba is 26.7. i think that's why we see a lot of nba players saying, don't

care about homosexuality but i would support a teammate. >> i think it's more damming to suggest that he talks like this because he's old. than it is the truth -- than to say the truth which is, this is a translation -- a passing off of the language of, i don't like this, into a different thing. you know, the idea that somehow old people -- older people don't keep up with the times, can't accept their grandchildren, et cetera, is just nonsense. he's simply refusing. he's a dinosaur who refuses to evolve. fair enough. >> i've never seen polling so generationally stark, 70%, 80% for young people but there is still widespread opposition -- not to say the whole generation is bigoted but there -- >> i wouldn't dispute the difference in the polling. i would say we have to really question, is it -- it's simply the fact that people are digging their heels in as opposed to just learning. right now there are older people

using ipads and ipods and all kinds of technology. the idea these people cannot come up with the times is not the truth. the idea they may be resist ant to that, i get that. his language is transparent. >> the other issue jason collins raised, we had the 12 issues, i'm gay, i'm black he raised. he talked about first being raised in a religious family as well. kelvin, maybe you can speak to this a little bit. there's a particular struggle there within the black community being gay. >> it's a huge struggle. i think that the black community is one of the last communities to embrace it. and i use those same terms, but i used them before jason collin, but it is. it wasn't necessarily calling attention to i'm black. i think it was just dealing with the fact that we have dealt with so much, and now this is something else. now this is something else the black community is one of the last to embrace while every other community has already begun to embrace it.

we're kind of late at the table. and, you know, as john said earlier, well, i'll have to go back and say that i do find more of a age differences with accepting it because older african-americans are really, really not as accepting. >> i do think there's a nuanced view about that. i think that many african-americans look at the civil rights struggle. in his own column in "sports illustrated" he talks about his grandmother being afraid that he's going to have people attack him because of that, because she has seen that. and also i think to give the black community credit, you can't say the black community, but many people felt that obama's support of same-sex marriage would hurt him in the vote. and you saw a lot of folks said, no, not really. we may have disagreements with him on some issues. even places where there have been referendums on same-sex

marriages. there have been a nuanced view. some black ministers saying maybe i wouldn't mary a man to a man in my church but this is discrimination and i can't be for something discriminating a group. i don't think they feel shunned in certain ways. so, i think it's simplistic to say black folks are homophobic. >> it should be noted after president obama completed his evolution on gay marriage, there was a ballot issue in maryland with a large black population, like 30% of the state, and public opinion among black voters in maryland swung dramatically in the wake of that. it seemed it was a moment not just necessarily following president obama's lead but the issue -- we were forced to confront the issue more directly than they had been before. >> i think people want to be decent and i think people want to believe history bends towards justice. and i think maybe someone of an older generation or make the black community, there's more baggage to overcome. how much of the messages people

that grew up in the '50s and '60s where homosexuality was deviant. probably a generational difference and people within the community itself. if you were never told this was bad or a lot of messages that people are people, you're willing to accept a gay teammate, a gay person, a gay politician. >> there's one other issue i do want to get to here as well because jason collins talks about being a christian. i know in the sports world christianity plays a large role. i want to ask a little about how christianity and the religion of his teammates will mix with his revelation this week. changing the world is exhausting business. with the innovating and the transforming and the revolutionizing. it's enough to make you forget that you're flying five hundred miles an hour on a chair that just became a bed. you see, we're doing some changing of our own. ah, we can talk about it later.

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christianity is a big part of the sports culture. it's got to be, i assume, represented in every locker room that jason collin has ever been in. i wonder how those two things will mix. >> i think it's difficult because a lot of christians don't recognize the kind of hyperbolic christianity that happens in sports. they don't see that as real. because it's inconsistent. you look at some of the jason collins' teammates and just in sports in general, he's not the distraction. they are. i sat in locker rooms with people talking to me about how homosexuality is disgusting while telling me the two women they slept with last night who weren't their wife. so, for me, i'm interested in consistency of conviction. for people like chris broussard and others who have made a statement, it's not that they shouldn't be allowed to have a opinion, but where was your outrage at the gambling, the man who beat up his partner, all these other events we could rattle off and run a line below

us, where is the outrage there and why now at this time? it's consistency of conviction. and surely if you're a christian, that's what it should be all about. not cherry-picking bits of the old testament to protect your quibbles. >> that's a great point. i've heard that a lot over the last two weeks. why do we choose some people's sin to focus or hone in on and why do we choose one to demonize people over? let people live their lives. it's this whole christianity thing but also christianity teaches we shouldn't judge. it's kind of a mixed pot but one that will continue even after this discussion. >> and also anyone with an ounce of christian or whatever feeling, you could look at that article in "sports illustrated" and see the toll it took for him to hide and to keep his true self from the people he loved, from his twin brother, he was

engaged. you see when he can talk about the person he is, how he's free, how he's relaxed. he is his true self. he can be honest. how can you not be moved by that if you say you have an ounce of christian feeling? >> and people -- real quick, people have said that even to me the last two weeks, gosh, you seem so much happier. i didn't notice there was a huge difference in me but other people have. you know, again, if you're christian, how do you not embrace that? >> well, it does -- you know, there was a poll, now it's probably two years old but it jumped out at me, surveyed attitudes, the generational thing, you could see it there. evangelical -- when you talk to evangelicals 18 to 29, the stats stuck with me, 44% say they support gay marriage. you're see generational movement there so maybe that will be reflected in sports. what do we know now we didn't know last week? [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually

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in just a moment what we now know we didn't know last week. first, a quick update on two stories we told you about last weekend. in north carolina where republicans have taken control of the governship about last week. the gop is advancing a number of hard lined proposals, including a requirement for residents to show photo i.d. at the polls. the bill has already passed the state house. it appears likely to become law. on the head of this program on sunday, the head of the north carolina chapter announced plans to protest the voter i.d. bill. the next day protesters held a pray in there. 17 of the demonstrators were arrested and taking away in handcuffs. they were all released the next morning on $1,000 bond each and have been charged with second-degree trespassing and other related infractions. last week we told you about a hunger strike.

more than 100 are refusing to eat and could soon starve to death. some have been held without trial for more than a decade. president obama was asked about it on tuesday and reiterated his call to close the prison. >> it lessens cooperation with the allies. it's a recruitment tool for extremists. it needs to be closed. so far congress has blocked the president doing that. what do we know now? screwed this one up. my first major flub on the air. one more thing. what do we know now that we didn't know last week? we now know that president obama supports the fda's recent decision to make plan "b" commonly known as the morning after pill available over the counter to women and girls 15 years older. at a press conference on

thursday, president obama said i'm very comfortable with the decision made based on solid scientific evidence. this decision and the president's support is a positive step for reproductive rights, we know that just a day before the obama administration announced they would appeal a federal court's order that the fda provide emergency over the counter contraception to women and girls of any age. the decision was also based on solid scientific evidence. the ruling dates back to an unprecedented and politically move by the white house during the 2012 presidential campaign where they blocked the women from getting emergency contraception without a prescription. we know the morning after pill is safe for women of all ages and if the president is serious about making policy decisions based on science and facts thean he should not make exceptions for convenience. we now know the fight for real filibuster is formed. the champion of reform is

proposing legislation to speak on the floor, as senator rand paul did with drones. merkley joins with democracy for america and launched an online petition called reform the filibuster. the renewed fight after a january bill championed by harry reid and mitch mcconnell made modest adjustments that have done little to remove unnecessary gridlock. the minority has the right to propose legislation. but at the very least they should have to tell the american people why. and finally, we now know april was the deadliest month in iraq in five years. the u.n. mission says in april 700 people were killed. most of whom were civilians. we know that sectarian violence is increasing in iraq and united fears of war. as the drum beat gets louder, we should consider the reality today.

now i want to find out what my guests know. survive that had screw up barely. mary, we'll start with you. >> what do we know? well, north carolina is the center of the political universe. you had anthony b. fox. congressman mel on the finance housing agency. you had governor pat mccory featured in your segment, delivering the republican address this week and there is pushback in the state. so just because we have great competition from south carolina with that race with mark sanford and elizabeth colbert-busch, they haven't given up the place in the spotlight. >> we forgot to say north carolina resident. >> we know this marriage equality issue is going to continue. and that we have a lot of work to do. that it is going to our law house and we have to support it

and it will be coming back in 2015 to the legislation for us to pass before it goes to voters. and i think that we learned that our state is progressing. >> we know the stereotypes around identity can be blown out of the water by an individual. jason has managed to do that. his eloquence, his thoughtfulness is the antithesis of what a lot of people think of black people. it's really good to have these people who blow the boxes out of the water. we are talking about tall people. i would like to talk about tall buildingings. this week the number one world trade center was topped. it's a spire that functions as an antenna and looks like an antenna. it's an architectural plat pus. if it's an antenna, the 1776

foot height is not official. if it's an antenna, the committee on tall buildings and urban habitats will not. i watched the people from chicago trying to call it antenna because they want the sears tower to maintain the status as the tallest building in the united states. >> i can hear them working in chicago right now for the sears tower. i want to thank mary curtis from the "washington post," and nevada democratic state senator and mike of npr. thanks for getting up and thank you for joining us today for up. join us tomorrow, sunday morning, at 8:00, when we look at the gop's latest hope for 2016, senator ted cruz, and coming up next is melissa harris-perry on today's presidential politics. is president obama having the second-term blues. are farmers being manipulated

and should creationism being taught in louisiana schools? that's all from melissa harris-perry. we'll see you here tomorrow morning at k a.m. thanks for getting up. [ jackie ] it's just so frustrating... ♪ the middle of this special moment and i need to run off to the bathroom. ♪ i'm fed up with always having to put my bladder's needs ahead of my daughter. ♪ so today, i'm finally talking to my doctor about overactive bladder symptoms. [ female announcer ] know that gotta go feeling? ask your doctor about prescription toviaz. one toviaz pill a day significantly reduces sudden urges and accidents, for 24 hours. if you have certain stomach problems or glaucoma, or can not empty your bladder, you should not take toviaz. get emergency medical help right away if your face, lips, throat or tongue swells. toviaz can cause blurred vision, dizziness, drowsiness and decreased sweating.

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this morning my question. what do we owe our veterans? and still getting it wrong on katrina. and we try to get to the bottom of the usda settlement controversy. first, president obama has got the second-term blues. ♪ good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. what a difference three days makes. fewer than 72 hours passed