companies don't want to discriminate, doesn't that count for something? no! because that's not the statement you were fact checking. the statement you were fact we begin with breaking news in the south carolina special election and the victory of mark sanford. the state's first district had the choice between an accomplished business woman, the sister of one of the best political sat irists and the former governor who ditched his job for a few days in 2009 to

cheat on his then wife and has a court date on thursday because he's accused of trespassing on the property of his now ex-wife. somehow this became a close race. ultimately south carolina's first district chose the devil they knew best, with 100% of vote counted, the tally stands at sanford with over 54%, colbert busch slightly over 45%. before mark sanford could take the victory lap, had to retrieve a kitchen pan from supporters so he could stand on it. really, a kitchen pan. >> i need the pan back, i need the pan back for these guys. where is the pan back here. thank you. i need it back.

>> he needed that kitchen pan. fully atop his culinary booster, in front of his campaign signs and flanked by spray painted plywood, sanford invoked the grace of god. >> i talked a lot about grace over the course of this campaign. until you experienced human grace as a reflection of god's grace, i don't think you get it and i didn't get it before. and i get it in a way i never have before, and i want to publicly acknowledge god's role in all this, not that he said you're it, but what he said was not that you win but do you learn. i was over at the beach a couple days ago, ran into a woman named jenny fowler, works at the easy go, and we got into a conversation on life. she said i'm the luckiest woman on earth. had a health scare, had a chance to go back to work at the convenience store. there from the convenience store

at the beach, you look to the ocean. she said i'm the luckiest woman on earth. i get to look at the beach each day, bring a smile to customers as they walk into this convenience store each day and i'm incredibly blessed. i don't focus on what i don't have but on what i do have in life, trying to bring a blessing to each person i run into. i think she was an angel. i just want to acknowledge a god not just of second chances, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chances, that's the reality of our shared humanity. >> we have a full panel joining me. steve schmidt. and eugene robinson, thank you for joining me. i want to go to the south carolina ns. we heard him talk about grace and shared humanity and making his bid as communing with the

convenience store worker. eugene, as someone who understands mark sanford's legacy, when he was governor did he tear about the poor and working poor, did his policies reflect that? >> not exactly, alex, not exactly, no. he is doing now what he managed not to do through most of the campaign, which is kind of make it all about him and his personal redemption. he started his campaign that way, that's how i think elizabeth colbert busch managed to get a ten point lead at one point. then he started talking about other things and kind of more or less republican talking points and that district which is heavily republican, he won. so welcome back to congress and i don't know if the people of sc

won tonight but i think journalism probably did. >> that is for sure. nia, i think it will surprise many that mark sanford wasn't running against nancy pelosi. he talked more about nancy pelosi in the recent last days of the campaign than he seemed to talk about elizabeth colbert busch, then whirled around, accused democrats of making it a national referendum. did you follow that and what did you think of that? >> i think in that speech, rather than thanking god, he should have thanked nancy pelosi. that very much worked for him. it was like he had an epiphany one night, let's make this about nancy pelosi, let's make this about unions, let's make it about all of those sort of boogy man liberal ideas and figures and it very much worked for him there, and i think you did have in colbert busch someone that wasn't a strong candidate. here was a person who i think her initial feeling was that she

could sort of campaign by not campaigning, make mark sanford get out there, trip up on the appalachian trail by himself, then he sort of turned it on her, made it about nancy pelosi, and she was left out there being the aggressor, trying to bring up his past foibles, and i think people rally around him. in some ways, the take away from this, i don't know if the people of sourt carolina won, but i think democrats won in some ways, now they have in mark sanford this poster boy and you already have democratic figures tweeting jokes about mark sanford, saying he is going to be on the foreign affairs committee, lord knows he knows a lot about foreign affairs. >> steve, following on what nia said, chris cillizza wrote that sanford victory puts him in the house republican conference. not only do late night jokes start again, more importantly,

every goper will be asked whether they support sanford, what they think of serving with him. the narrative that republicans have a woman problem already new life. little they can do about it. is it a problem for the caucus? >> i don't think it is an enduring problem, it is what it is. it is somewhat embarrassing that he is back, his behavior was deplorable, no shortage of hiking trails in washington, d.c. area, on the good side of it. it is a republican district and what his opponent didn't do in the race, she didn't differentiate from house democrats. if you run as a democrat in a republican district or republican in a democratic district and you want to be evaluated on your own standing, your own record, you have to differentiate yourself from the party's brand. she just failed to do that. this was a republican district that performed like a republican district tonight.

there's no doubt all manner of republican congressmen are cringing tonight, know that they're going to be embarrassed by this. certainly the leadership will hope that he keeps his head down, he works quietly, and through deeds, not talks, tries to restore his reputation. >> yeah, you can see the enthusiasm is perhaps less than refuse i have against house leadership. i would like to play sound from speaker of the house john boehner when asked about mark sanford earlier today. let's take a listen. >> are you worried he could be a distraction if he were to win, and would you welcome him into the house conference with open arms? >> listen, the voters of first district of south carolina will make their decision and just like any one of us or any of the 435 members of congress, we don't get to choose who they are. their electorate gets to decide who they are. >> the key phrase, we don't get to choose who they are, which would sort of suggest that maybe john boehner is not thrilled that mark sanford will be one of

his army, if you will. he tweeted this shortly after the victory. congrats to mark sanford for winning today south carolina first special election, #jobs, as if to return us to boehner's area of focus. how bummed is john boehner now, eugene? >> you know, it is going to be kind of a drag for awhile, but he would have preferred just about any other republican to win that seat. that said, i think steve schmidt is right, i don't think it is an enduring problem necessarily depending how he behaves, and depending whether again he makes his new congressional career about him. in this race basically democrats were playing with house money. this is not a district that a democrat should win in, but from the republican side, temporary embarrassment aside, better to win than lose. so they want to see. they were supposed to win it,

but they won it, so they have happy on that. >> if you look at the county map from the first district, what's interesting, it went red. there was some question charleston may go for elizabeth colbert busch. in the end, he got all of them. what do you make of that? >> this was an off, off, off year special election. usually you get low turnout for these, for democrats the same could happen in 2014, that obama coalition that showed up in 2012 might not show up in the same way in 2014, and certainly didn't show up, isn't in much existence in this district. for democrats, they've got to figure out whether or not they're growing candidates in the south to take advantage of things like this, because politics is a business where opportunities like this crop up. are they growing the party down there in places like south carolina, and places like georgia.

in south carolina, they have a democratic mayor in columbia. is that somebody who two, three, four years could run for senate or could run for governor? i think democrats put a lot of money into this, but also need to think about a strategy down in the south because that is a place where the obama coalition is in full force in south carolina. a lot of african-american voters, a growing percentage of hispanic voters as well, and certainly they have an advantage among women, too. what does it mean for the party going forward. >> steve, that's a good question. you talk about the republican southern strategy and its roots, decades old roots. in terms of democratic southern strategy, how much is this a slap back for democrats? is it a slap back? is there a chance in two years when the seat, this is a special election, that democrats could possibly take this? >> you need an extraordinary event for democrats to win this seat. even having a candidate as flawed as sanford in this race, they just couldn't get there,

and it speaks to how republican this district is. also when you went through the redistricting, a lot of the african-american votes that used to be in this district went into clyburn's district. this district is more white, more republican as a function of the redistricting process, so it's a very steep climb for democrats, but when playing in special elections, in the off years, you want to try to get that sense of momentum. you want to try to get the ball to the open receiver. democrats took a good shot. they were in the game all the way to the end. but just too republican a district to win. >> the only thing mark sanford will be climbing now is apparently kitchen pans, not the appalachian trail. steve schmidt and nia malika-henderson and eugene robinson, thank you. is there any way the military can deny they have a serious problem?

the secretary of defense and the president is spoke about a shocking report released today. and how did cleveland police miss clues and chances to find three girls imprisoned in a house a decade before one of the young women managed to break free. that's coming up. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight, with its foot-activated lift gate. but that's not all you'll see, cause c-max also beats prius v, with better mpg. say hi to the 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. the wright brothers became the first in flight. [ goodall ] i think the most amazing thing is how like us these chimpanzees are.

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the dow closed at an all time record high, 15056. you know what that means, time to impeach president obama. a conservative publication called capitol hill daily accused him of wrecking the stock market and asking readers if that wasn't grounds for impeachment. for those checked into reality, when president obama took office, the dow was over 7900. up next, chris christie's surgery and what it means for the year 2016.

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would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours. i'm at the beginning stages of this thing. so no, i don't feel markedly different physically, no, and about how i feel about myself, i feel great about myself. >> new jersey governor chris christie admitted to having secretly undergone lap band surgery. he reportedly had the outpatient surgery february 16th, registered under a false name. when asked about his motive for the surgery, christie said this. >> it is not a career issue for me, it is a long term health issue for me. i turned 50 years old and it

made me think. you know, i got confronted with, you know, your own, mortality as you start to age. so from my perspective, this is about mary pat and the kids and me, it's really not about anybody else and it shouldn't be about anybody else. everybody is going to have opinions as is obvious from this skrum of people here today, but i don't -- with all due respect to everybody here, your opinions on this issue really don't matter a whole hell of a lot to me. >> 12 days before the operation, chris christie didn't seem to have any concerns about his weight during an appearance with david letterman. >> i made jokes about you, not just one or two, not just on-going here and there, intermittent -- [ laughter ] >> how is your cholesterol? >> actually, dave, my

cholesterol is normal, believe it or not. >> that's pretty good. >> what about your blood sugar? >> blood sugar also normal. >> also normal. >> basically i am like the healthiest fat guy you've ever seen in your life. >> donut jokes aside, seems news of his surgery garnered bipartisan support. >> the challenge, chris, is to start, now you have to maintain and if i couldn't be your starter, i could help be your maintenance man. >> joining me, reverend al sharpton, host of msnbc politics nation, and msnbc political analyst, steve schmidt, senior adviser for the mccain, palin campaign and strategist for bush cheney in '04. reverend al, you're around the building, yourself discipline is amazing. your congratulations were kind and generous. in terms of what it means for

self-discipline, potential campaigning, how hard is it, how hard will it be for him to deal with this, deal with the weight at the same time he deals with other national issues, if you will? >> that remains to be seen. i mean, the discipline we'll see now in terms of his maintaining, and maintenance of what he has done. all jokes aside, keeping weight off is much more difficult than getting it off, especially when you don't do it naturally. on the political side, he is going to have to do more than lose weight to be president. i mean, the policies that he believes in and has proposed, including his reaction to obama care and other things are clearly not where the american public has been polled, so i think i congratulate him for losing the weight, it is the right thing to do for himself and his family, but i don't think he ought to think it is

going to make people that have polled against a lot of the policies he believes in all of a sudden say we're going to reward him with the white house because he decided to lose weight. >> steve, when we were talking earlier, i asked you how much of this is christie planting a flag in the ground, saying i am running. share with america, if you will, your thoughts on his potential bid at the presidency. >> look, i think that he has been an extremely effective governor of one of the bluest states in the country. going to be reelected as governor of new jersey, going to have record level of support among african-americans, hispanics, women, democrats, someone who has crossover appeal. that's important for a republican party that lost the popular vote in five of the last six elections. he is a dynamic political figure, real genuine leader, a very gifted politician, and when you look at the field of republican presidential candidates, he is somebody that can go all the way. he is somebody who can change the electoral map. now, it is a long, arduous,

tough road from announcement to inauguration. we will see what comes with it. but he has removed one of his great liabilities, because every time you talk about a chris christie prospective candidacy, the first issue talked about in the media or among private donors is the weight issue. now this liability will become an asset. people will be rooting for him, they will encourage him in his struggle, and the fact that a leader had a public struggle with something like this will do nothing but accrue to his benefit. >> it is interesting as steve brings up, reverend, we talked about the mark sanford race. here is a guy wearing his humanity and fall from grace as a badge of honor. he almost sort of ran on it to a certain degree in this congressional race. christie struggled with weight, overcoming it, being public about it would maybe seem to be an asset in running, and also we know in terms of polling, quinnipiac poll in march asked americans how they feel about an overweight candidate for

governor, the majority are comfortable with it. many cases, people prefer the overweight candidate. >> you know what, gave them some folksy kind of relating to the guy next door. i don't know whether that translates three years from now. one, we have to see if he maintains it. we do not know whether he will be able to maintain it, whether or not over a period of time the weight does go all the way down and he stays there. but second, his policies. all due respect to steve, reason he'll do some record numbers in african-american communities in new jersey because of the record of republicans getting african-american votes are so low, he would almost have to do record numbers if he is still there election day. >> right. >> so when you put that against a democratic opponent in 2016, if that's hillary clinton or joe biden or michelle obama, i don't think he will do record numbers.

i think they're being naive. i think that republicans who have been embarrassed by mark sanford want to try to overplay the potential weight loss of mr. christie. remember, he just had the surgery. haven't seen a great shift in weight yet, pun intended. >> steve, before we go, you logged some miles on the straight talk express. can chris christie continue to be the idiosyncratic no nonsense guy if he does, in fact, try to lead the republican party in the future, which is to say in the oval office as president? >> there's no reason to believe that chris christie would run as anything other than himself. i think that when you look at chris christie, one of the things that he has broad appeal about is the fact you get what you see, you see what you get with him. so i think that he is going to run as chris christie. we would see him obviously expand his policy portfolio, expand the issues he goes about

as he goes from governor to national candidate, if he does it. i don't think you're going to see someone who all of a sudden becomes a constricted, tight, fearful, timid candidate, afraid of offending this base or that. >> one thing is for certain, i think his donut eating days on letterman are over. >> a skinny bully is not that attractive. >> this is true. reverend al, it is not time for me to say that's the last word but effectively it is the last word. thank you both. coming up, the amazing drama playing out in cleveland, ohio. yesterday three missing women escaped their captors. tonight what we know about the three suspects and the potential missed clues over the last ten years. and later, the epidemic of sexual assault in the u.s. military. numbers of reported abuse skyrocket as the man who is supposed to stop sexual abuse in the air force now faces charges of sexual assault himself.

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we're just grateful that they're safe and, you know, that it is probably a parent's worst nightmare to lose a child in any way, shape or form, but i am just happy for these families that they found their daughters and that they're alive and safe. >> that was first lady michelle obama in an interview that will air tomorrow morning on the "today" show. weighing in on that remarkable

story from ohio. found alive. they all went missing at different times about a decade ago. they lived blocks away from each other. tonight, all three, plus a six-year-old child police believe is amanda berry's daughter had been reunited with their families after being held captive nearly ten years. >> let me tell you, sisterhood, women, those girls, those women are so strong, what we do out here, what we have done in ten years is nothing compared to what those women have done together to survive. >> it was amanda berry, just 16 when she went missing in 2003 who got the attention of neighbors yesterday and then made this 911 call. >> help me, i'm amanda berry. >> you need police, fire or ambulance? >> i need police. >> what's going on there? >> i've been kidnapped and i've been missing for ten years and i'm here, i'm free now.

>> as of this afternoon, the cleveland police department reports that 96 people are still missing across the city, out of the 96, 46 were minors when they went missing, 76 have been missing more than a month. nationally as many as 100,000 people are actively missing at any given time, according to national missing and unidentified person system. tonight in cleveland, residents are celebrating the safe return of three of their own. >> i couldn't be more happy. i even woke up this morning, kissed my son because you just got to be blessed for what you have. and i know that it is so happy, ain't no better feeling than knowing your child is okay, no matter what that man did to them, she okay now, that's all that matters. she's at home. that's all that matters. >> three brothers are in custody in connection to this case. nbc's ron allen has more on the investigation. ron?

>> reporter: good evening. the three brothers are held at cleveland police headquarters while investigators build their case. the police are now saying they will likely be charged in the morning. the charges could include kidnapping and rape. the focus seems to be on ariel castro, it is his house at the center of the investigation. the three brothers are ariel, 52, pedro, 54, onil 50. it is ariel neighbors new best, as a school bus driving that gave rides on an all terrain vehicle in this neighborhood. the three women that disappeared a year apart were all last seen within a five block radius, and allegedly held in his house about three miles away. the castro brothers' uncle owns a neighborhood store. >> might have been living two different lives. >> reporter: some neighbors thought the house was vacant, a place he checked on from time to time. but a few now say they were concerned.

>> wouldn't open no windows, no doors, only the attic window. >> i had family members that phoned the police and they have come and knocked on the door and nothing. >> reporter: police say they only answered calls twice on the street, once before the women disappeared, and in 2004 to question ariel castro about a child mistakenly left behind on his school bus. no charges were filed. >> people don't seem to understand these are sociopaths, they're very cunning at it and know how to avoid the police. it is sad because it could be your next door neighbor. >> reporter: turns out castro had ties to one of the women rescued, gina dejesus. >> she vanished in broad daylight. >> reporter: his daughter appeared just after she disappeared, was the last to see her alive. >> mom said no, i can't go over her house, so i told her i couldn't, and she said well, okay, i'll talk to you later.

she walked. >> reporter: ariel's son wrote an article about dejesus in 2004. and pid row -- pedro was near the search for her body last year. he told reporters the search was, quote, a waste of money. >> reporter: he was no longer a school bus driver in cleveland, he was terminated from his job in november. neighbors say they recently saw the young child who may be the young girl just rescued. >> joining me, eugene o'donnell, former new york city police officer and prosecutor. thanks for joining me. there are so many twists and turns in this story already, just a day in. certainly i think the entire community of the nation is glad the three women were found alive, but there's a lot of

questioning, a lot of analysis and some dissection about police action or perhaps inaction around the case. there were reports from neighbors that say they saw a naked woman seen crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard, another heard pounding on the home's door, plastic bags over the window, asked the police to investigate, the police showed up, never went in the house. how much of that is going to be sort of further examined and investigated in the coming days? >> this clearly is a leadership issue for the people running the police department and indeed for the city of cleveland how these things could have happened, how three young ladies could disappear and that didn't raise hackles for their safety. they weren't taken to the desert, they were a short distance away. >> from a practical perspective, the neighbors see suspect activities going on. could the police have gone in the house to investigate? do they need a search warrant? what specifically could they have done in the intervening years when reports were filed?

>> many are trapped in bureaucracy and delivery of street policing on the street where the cops actually are adept at finding clues, pushing the envelope, when they should push it, sometimes it falls by the wayside, needs to be more emphasis. the infamous case in milwaukee, jeffrey dahmer, police took somebody held by a mass murderer and handed him back to the mass murderer. hopefully the clues weren't quite so clear, but there are serious questions about whether the police are nosey enough. need to be nosey properly. sometimes they're criticized for being overly aggressive, but certainly in a situation like this, it is a horrible thing to think any of these ladies could have been rescued earlier if the police had been empowered and willing to take the extra step and go the extra mile and to intervene. >> and keep in mind, this is cleveland where in 2009, just a few years ago, 11 bodies were found in the home of a serial killer, and a lot of victims

were poor black victims, and the mayor in the wake of that recommended the city overhaul the investigation into missing persons. it seems as if that overhaul was not done or certainly there would be questions about the efficacy of that. >> it goes beyond cleveland, it is clearly a class and race problem. there's a sigma to mental health issues, people don't always feel comfortable, there's embarrassment. every police department should be dusting off cold cases involving missing persons. families tell you how hard it is to capture and keep the attention of law enforcement in the cases, but every single one of the 70,000 police departments in the country should make it a point tomorrow to go back and double check, make sure this couldn't be replicated, double efforts to the greatest extent they can. >> if there's a reason to double down for the 100,000 missing at any given time, this story is it. eugene o'donnell, thanks for joining me. the military's sexual assault problem.

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become the 11th state to approve marriage equality. before you secretly google that, we are talking about delaware. today, delaware state senate voted 12-9 to approve the same-sex marriage bill. this afternoon, the governor signed it into law. it goes into effect july 1st. last week, rhode island became the tenth state to allow same sex unions. up next, a stunning report from the pentagon. 26,000 sexual assaults in the military in one year. what defense secretary chuck hagel had to say about it next. the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone but her... no. no! no. ...likes 50% more cash. but i don't give up easy... do you want 50% more cash?

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i want them to hear directly from their commander in chief that i've got their backs, i will support them. i have no tolerance for this. >> that was response to today's shocking pentagon report that estimates that 26,000 people in the u.s. military were sexual assaulted in the last fiscal year. of the 26,000 estimated victims, fewer than 3400 sexual assault crimes were recorded. the report comes days after the 41-year-old officer in charge of the air force sexual assault prevention program was arrested for allegedly sexual assaulting a woman in a parking lot. a fact that new york senator gillibrand brought up at an armed services committee hearing. >> if the man in charge for the air force preventing sexual assault is being alleged to have committed a sexual assault this weekend, obviously there's a

failing in training and understanding of what sexual assault is and how corrosive and damaging it is to good order and discipline. >> she got into a heated debate with mark welch on why more sexual assaults aren't reported. >> i think because it is in the chain of command, this is what witnesses told us, people aren't reporting. they don't feel there's an atmosphere by which they can report safely. they're afraid of retaliation, they're afraid of being treated poorly by commanders, being treated poorly by colleagues. there isn't a climate by which they can receive justice in the system. >> did a survey in third air force in europe. 70% said they would report sexual assault if it occurred to them. that ends up not being true once they become victims. we find 16% of victims report. what changes when you become a victim? i think we all know, the things

that cause people to not report are primarily are really not chain of command. it is i don't want my family to know, my spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend to know, i am embarrassed i am in this situation. it is self blame that comes with the crime, that's overridingly on surveys over the years the reason most victims don't report, i don't think it is different in the military. prosecution rates in air force -- >> i think it is very different in the military, i think you're wrong about that. >> joining me, one of the film makers behind the documentary "the invisible war" about sexual assault in the military, amy ziering. amy, thanks for joining me. as someone who looked closely at what is happening in the military, i want to ask you to weigh in on this. is it different in the military? >> absolutely, it's completely different. i was staggered by hearing what secretary of defense hagel was saying. i mean, imagine this. imagine you're assaulted in your workplace. do you report your crime to your boss? no. >> you're referring to general welch, not chuck hagel,

secretary of defense. please continue. >> yes, sorry. i'm not seeing any visuals. you don't report these crimes to your boss, you report to the police, an impartial authority that doesn't know any of the participants. so of course it is incredibly different, hugely different, categorically different and that's why we have in our u.s. military today what we're calling an epidemic or carl levin today called a plague in which we have embedded serial predators that are preying on victims and not receiving any kind of prosecution or reprimands for their actions. >> amy, i want to ask you about the spike. if you look at the statistics, there are 26,000 incidents of unwanted sexual contact in the last fiscal year, up from an estimated 19,000 the previous year. these are estimates drawn from anonymous surveys. given this, we are talking about

reporting of 3374 sexual assaults in 2012 and 3192 in 2011. we are talking about an increase here. what do you think accounts for that? >> you know what, the statistics just came out today, i can't say what accounts for it. i can't say what accounts for the increase. i can say what accounts for it and repeat, there's an embedded serial predator problem and these crimes aren't being prosecuted, and no one is doing anything about it, it has gone on for decades and it needs to change. it will keep going when there's a mentality in the military that thinks the system isn't broken, it is clearly broken, not working. when assault rates jump 33% in one year, something is not working and they need to look at that and hear about solutions because this is preventable. this does not have to be occurring at the rates it is occurring. >> let's talk about how it is preventable. there's been a lot of back and forth about chain of command. i want to play sound from chuck

hagel weighing in on the question of whether chain of command is an adequate method of adjudication. >> i don't think taking it away, ultimate responsibility away from the military, i think that would just weaken the system. we know we've got big problems. we know that and we have addressed it and will continue to address it, it is imperfect. i think it does say something that we're seeing more and more people come forward. there may well be some new confidence starting to develop that we will take it seriously, those charges. they won't, the victims won't be penalized. we will do something about it. and we will get control of this. >> so amy, the secretary of defense thinks taking it out of chain of command weakens the system. sounds like you wouldn't agree with that. >> no, i completely disagree with that.

the system is not working. 70 people are assaulted daily in our u.s. military on domestic soil and abroad. that's not something -- so obviously the system they have in place is not effective, and what was the -- remind me, what was the statistic of how many of the 26,000 crimes that are reported yearly, how many lead to actual prosecutions? what's the answer to that question? >> i believe less than 3400 lead to prosecutions. >> yeah. okay. so is that a system that's working? no. clearly we have predators not getting prosecuted and clearly it is because there are conflicts of interest within the chain of command. as i said before, if you were assaulted in the workplace, you don't report to your boss. when we were doing our film, i can't remember the exact -- like 20% of people who chose not to report because their perpetrator was their commander. >> amy ziering of "the invisible war", thank you for joining me tonight.

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47% of americans are not paying income tax and i guarantee you those who would be made citizens via amnesty would also be in the income range where they wouldn't be paying any taxes. >> the politics of the 47% are back, and this time it is over immigration. before we talk about what exactly is so wrong with the limbaugh position on immigration, let's remind ourselves just who is in the 47%. most of the 47% pay payroll taxes and most of the people that pay neither federal income tax nor payroll taxes are low income people elderly, unable to work due to serious disability, or students, most of whom subsequently become taxpayers. and when all federal state and local taxes are taken into account, the bottom fifth of households pays about 16% of incomes in taxes on average.

in other words, most of the bottom fifth of american households pay a higher tax rate than mitt romney. here is the best part. how do states with the highest percentage of nonfederal income taxpayers tend to vote? republican. rush's in vocation of the 47% was in voekd by a heritage foundation that showed 11 million unlawful immigrants will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. >> no sensible thinking person could read this study and conclude that over 50 years that they could possibly have a positive economic impact. >> apparently jim demint doesn't believe marco rubio to be a sensible thinking person. rubio, his former tea party apprentice, told reporters today their argument is based on a single premise which i think is flawed, that is these people are

disproportionately poor because they have no education and will be poor the rest of their lives in the u.s. quite frankly, that's not the immigration experience in the u.s., and that's certainly not my family's experience in the u.s. joining me now, msnbc's joy reid. i am in a state of disbelief, we are talking about republicans alienating people of color, immigrants and back on the 47%. can you believe what's happening? >> takers. >> double down. >> i think we have come full circle. jim demint is doing to the party from the inside what he was doing in the senate. in the senate, he championed tea parties, now he is out of heritage, championing this study, even grover norquist thinks it is bunk. if you legalize the immigrants, they're going to take welfare. that's all they want. >> it is counter intuitive to be saying this. the center for american

progress, not a bastion of conservatism, but did studies on a legal immigration system says the economic benefits of undocumented immigrants granted legal status in 2013, not eligible for citizenship in ten years, cumulative gain between 2013 and 2022 would be $832 billion. >> they become legal taxpayers, and in the rubio bill, they're barred from getting obama care, can't even get the benefits you would think they would be entitled to by working. you talk about people that pay in, not even eligible to get anything back, wouldn't be eligible for any of that. all they want to do is frame it in the old 47% makers versus takers. this is why they're losing hispanics and losing rational people in the middle. keep doing it, jim demint,

democrats love it. >> could they rename heritage foundation? >> how does it work out. >> joy reid gets the last word. catch me on my show now monday through friday at noon eastern. target, benghazi. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. there have been a raft of charges that fit under the heading, benghazi. the sheer volume of them allows the one making the charge to maintain the offensive. it allows people to take glancing shots at this administration and possibly a future administration without coming up with a sharp indictment that merits hard public debate. so to avoid that confusion, i'm going to divide