today." under fire. this one on politico's website. scandal politics sweep capitol hill. now, the obama administration spinning its wheels, stuck in their response, fielding volley after volley after volley. first benghazi. then the irs. now the associated mess. the justice department being blasted after using a secret subpoena to obtain months of phone records from the associated press without the a.p.'s knowledge. >> obviously, we're distressed that the justice department felt the need to seize our records and not tell us about it. >> so the very head of the a.p. firing off a letter to attorney general eric holder, saying there's no possible justification for what the a.p. is calling a serious interference. >> accident waiting to become a nuclear event. >> so the new specter of big

brother looming at the irs is being condemned by the left and by the right. a house committee planning a friday hearing to dig deeper into the tax agency's tea party probe. and in the senate mitch mcconnell said this in just the last hour. >> this morning i'm calling on the president to make available completely and without restriction everyone, everyone who can answer the questions we have as to what's been going on at the irs. who knew about it, and how high it went. >> so the white house besieged by lots of questions. in a staring contest with the so-called second term curse, could this damage be permanent? >> the question is, why does -- what are the boundaries of this administration? these two stories sound nixon ian. >> it's never good if you're an administration and your name appears in the same story as richard nixon twice in the same

week. >> nbc national investigative correspondent michael isikoff joins me now from washington. michael, explain to all of us, in regard to the associated press story so far how is the justice department coming back, responding to the questions? >> well, not very -- not very forthcoming at this point. a lot of questions about the grounds for the subpoena. why it was issued, and who signed off on it. the -- there are very specific justice department guidelines for subpoenaing records from the news media. and there's a process that has to be gone through, and ultimately they require the express approval of the attorney general. and they also say, by the way, they must be -- that the subpoenas must be crafted as narrowly as possible, covering a limited period of time. now, from what we know from the a.p., which got the letter from u.s. attorney machin last

friday, this was a rather sweeping request. more than 20 phone lines covered two months' period, multiple reporters and editors. that doesn't sound like a narrowly crafted request. so right there, there's a question about the guidelines. and then beyond that, thomas, there's the question of who approved them. the attorney general was questioned in this investigation. so normally if somebody is questioned as a witness, he would recuse himself. i've asked repeatedly last night and this morning, was the attorney general recused? who signed off on it? and as of now, the justice department has yet to answer that question. >> all right. so we wait for that information, who signed off on it. michael, take us back to the legal basis for this. explain why the justice department felt that it had the legal -- in legal terms, the right to do this and use a secret subpoena. >> well, look, there was a leak investigation, two leak

investigations, that the attorney general announced last -- last spring. this one involved the leak of information about a cia operation that foiled an al qaeda plot out of yemen to put a bomb on a plane coming to the united states. the allegation was that the leak -- the story by the a.p. exposed an operation, damaged national security. that investigation was the -- appears to be what this is all about. but what the damage was to national security is still far from clear on that. there was multiple reporting on it. and ultimately this subpoena would have had to have gotten a judicial -- a grand jury subpoena. a judge had to approve it. whether it went through those justice department guidelines are the question at the moment. i think you're going to see the attorney general having to answer today, holder is having a

press conference at the justice department at 1:00. you can guarantee you there'll be a lot of questions about this. >> michael, we're going to let you get back to work. nbc national investigative correspondent, thank you. more details emerging now on the irs scandal. the timeline in a draft report by a treasury department inspector general revealing irs employees in cincinnati began cross-su scrutinizing conservative groups that included the words tea party and patriots in 2010. that's one year earlier than the irs has admitted. the timeline also showing the irs's chief counsel was briefed on the matter august 2011. also despite testimony in march of 2012 from then irs commissioner douglas shulman telling congress that conservatives were not being targeted, the irs now telling nbc news that shulman's deputy, the current acting irs commissioner, steven miller, was informed of the targeting in may of 2012. meanwhile, new documents obtained by "the washington post" showing that the operation was not just carried out by rogue agents in cincinnati, irs

officials in washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups. two separate house committees, oversight and government reform and ways and means will investigate the irs. with the first hearing by the ways and means committee set for friday. joining me right now is the top democrat on the house ways and means committee, congressman sander levin of michigan. dave camp of michigan said news that the agency targeted american taxpayers based on politics is both astounding and appalling. he vowed to get to the bottom of this, practice of it, and ensure it never happens again. who will the committee hear from and what will it learn about what took place? >> we'll hear from the acting commissioner and also inspector general. chairman camp talked before the announcement was issued. we agreed to proceed on a strictly bipartisan basis. that's what we're going to do on friday. hearing from them first. and in terms of mr. mcconnell,

i'm sure the administration's going to make everybody available. we need to get to the bottom of this. the president said that the original targeting or singling out the tea party patriots was outrageous. we've expressed our deep, deep concern, worse than that, about what happened. we're going to find out more on friday. finding out from mr. miller and also from the other inspector general exactly what happened. we need to find out from mr. miller why there wasn't complete information given to the congress well before this hearing. we should have been -- we should have been informed completely. >> two other names, sir, i want to bring up in talking about this. we already talked about the former irs commissioner, douglas shulman. also the name lois lerner. director of the irs's exempt organizations division who let it slip last week that low level irs staffers had focused extra scrutiny on conservative groups. aren't you interested in what

lerner might say? >> absolutely. absolutely. she essentially disclosed this at an aba meeting. and the question is, why didn't we hear more of this earlier? we need to get to the bottom of it, and we're going to do that. as i said, the president said, the original singling out was outrageous. and now we need to find out exactly what happened after that. there were different formulas used by irs. and then eventually we get the facts. they should have come forth much earlier. and we're going to ask mr. miller about that on friday. >> as you said, there had been this bipartisan effort to seek answers on this. but certainly the criticism has been loud on both sides. take a listen to mitch mcconnell in just the last hour. >> what we don't know at this point is whether it jumped the fence from the irs to the white house. but we do know this.

we can't count on the administration to be forthcoming about the details of this scandal. because so far they've been anything but. >> sir, what to you make of the republican criticism on how quickly do you hope that something can be done? because heads need to roll on this, most likely. at least that's what people have been saying on the right and left as well. how quickly do you want to see some swift action? >> as soon as possible. i listened to what mr. mcconnell said. look, we do not need to politicize this issue. this is a problem of the irs. they have ob lligations to the people of this country. and we need to find out why they didn't keep us better informed. members of congress had asked about this. and they didn't come forth. so we need to ask mr. miller when he found out about this and why they failed to notify us and why it was left to lois lerner a few days ago at an aba

convention to essentially bring forth the information. i think, frankly, that was outrageous. and the president made clear from the -- at the beginning this effort to single out the patriots or tea party was outrageous. he made that clear. we're going to follow through on a bipartisan basis beginning on friday. >> congressman sander levin, sir, thanks for your time this morn ing. i appreciate it. >> thank you. so the irs's systemic targeting of certain groups brings to mind the agency's 2004 probe of the naacp. at that time the investigation came less than a month before the presidential election. the irs looking into the naacp's tax status, claiming a speech by the group's leader at the time in which he criticized then president george w. bush over the iraq war might have crossed the nonpartisan line. two years later the irs cleared the organization of those allegations. julian bond is the chairman ameritus of the naacp and was chairman of the organization during that audit.

mr. bond, good to have you here. i want to remind our viewers, play the comments the irs saw as politically charged. it was part of your keynote address at the time at the naacp's convention in july of '04. take a look. >> defenders have tried to stifle political debate. if you oppose the war, they say you don't support our troops. that's nonsense. if it was up to us, every man and woman stationed in iraq would be safely at home with their loved ones right now. >> so, sir, auditors notified the naacp it would be subject to a tax for political expenditures as well as penalties. looking back do you maintain the naacp was unfairly targeted given the rocky relationship at the time with president bush and are there parallels to what we're seeing today? >> i don't think there are any parallels to what we're seeing today. of course we were unfairly targeted. the letter sent to me said i had criticized the president of the united states. i've grown up thinking that was

my right as an american citizen. and every american citizen had that right. i thought this was picking on the naacp. it was close to the election. we're an effective get out the vote apparatus. most of the people going to turn out to vote are not by our design democrats but happen to be democrats. it was an attempt to weaken us just before the election. >> lawmakers on both sides of the aisle comming down on what we're seeing today in the irs apparently targeting these tea party groups. doing so at a time in 2010 during the mid-term elections where we saw an up rise in the tea party sweeping in the congress. is there not -- shouldn't there not be the same level of out rage certainly from the white house? i mean, at the time in '04, congressman charlie rangel called the audit a, quote, police state tactic. do you think that there might be a double standard being looked at here? >> no, i don't think there's a double standard at all. i think it's entirely legitimate to look at the tea party. here are a group of people who are admittedly racist. who are overtly political. who've tried as best they can to

harm president obama in every way they can. i don't think there are correct parallels between those two incidents. it was wrong for the irs to behave in this heavy handed manner. they didn't explain it well before or now what they're doing and why they're doing it. but there are no parallels between these two. >> chairman bond, what do you think the fallout will be for the obama administration? especially during a time where the tea party had maybe lost a little air? do you think this is going to help inflate that, especially as we ramp up to the midterms for 2014? >> i hope not. i hope they don't get anymore air. they are the taliban wing of american politics. we all ought to be a little worried about them. >> sir, do you think that's a little harsh, calling them the taliban wing of american politics? >> not at all. not at all. the truth may hurt, but it's the truth. >> julian bond, chairman ameritus of the naacp. more on the white house scandals after a quick break. joining the conversation, republican congressman mark pompeo of kansas.

britain's prince harry hits the jersey shore. more live coverage as the prince is touring neighborhoods hard hit by hurricane sandy. we're going to talk with our own martin bashir about that. angelina jolie saying she feels empower bid her decision to have a double mastectomy. we'll talk to a top expert in the field about how jolie' decision could affect women around the world. question of the day for you. stuck in scandal. has president obama's second term agenda been completely derailed by all these big stories taking up all the air in d.c.? weigh in on facebook or twitter at thomas a. roberts. atloaf recs starts with ground beef, onions and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. made with care, for you or your family. ♪ there you go. come on, let's play! [ male announcer ] there's an easier way to protect your dog from dangerous parasites.

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anything like this. >> that is the associated press, the executive editor kathleen carroll commenting on the latest scandal to hit the white house this week. right now the obama administration is is dealing with a trifecta of trouble. justice department secretly seizing reporters' phone records, irs targeting conservative groups and benghazi terror attack. mike pompeo of kansas, member of the house intelligence committee. i want to start with the a.p. story. the obama administration has been trying to cap leaks of classified information and has prosecuted six people for leaking secret material. do you think the justice department went too far in what they were doing with the secret subpoena? >> you know, i think there's an awful lot of facts that this still have to be determined. but what you can say with absolute certainty at this point is this is an administration that has a culture that runs through stop signs. that doesn't understand that there are boundaries that the constitution means something. that seizing these documents from folks who are trying to report on the administration

strikes at the very heart of our democracy and transparency. this is an administration that now has demonstrated that politics play into just about every activity they're involved in. there's very little effort put into managing and putting in proper constraints so that these really dangerous things don't happen in our country. >> meanwhile, sir, in washington, at least over the last year, we've seen the fact that from the left and the right, that the administration has been criticized for issues with leaks. last june we had senator john mccain sponsoring a resolution calling for the attorney general to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate national security leaks. do you think that that needs to be brought up once again? and how would this special counsel get its information when investigating news outlets, if so? >> i it sha-- i definitely thin a number of the things that are in the news today, whether that's going on with respect to this a.p. report or what's going on at the internal revenue service, i do not believe these are things that the

administration can do an internal report or have some ig report become sufficient. we need someone who does not work for this president investigating these. getting to the bottom of them. determining what the facts actually are. and then holding the appropriate people accountable. that's a task that can't be done inside of this the president of justice or inside the internal revenue service today. >> sir, as you talk about the internal revenue service, the president has come out about that and saying that any targeting is outrageous. but do you think that the scandal potentially highlights an even bigger issue, the citizens united decision in 2010 when the number of applications for these 501 c 4 groups spiked? >> you know, what's remarkable is the administration knew that there was an internal report coming out this week and tried to get in front of this story last week. but already what they told us in the initial release, the so-called apology that occurred last week, is already wrong. and so there's still an awful lot we don't know. and the house is going to do a

thorough job of getting to the bottom of that fact pile. we already have learned that it's broader and deeper and has gone places inside the internal revenue service that they did not admit to in their -- in their little apology. and so the president says he didn't know. i suppose we'll take him at his word for this moment. we'll keep searching to figure out exactly who knew what and when. i have to tell you that there's absolutely no confidence in an administration where for two years they're conducting a political attack on tea party groups, american patriots, folks trying to get a simple tax exception. yet this administration for two years doesn't disclose that. there's an awful lot to learn. >> republican congressman mike pompeo of kansas. thanks if your time. russia is saying it's arrested a covert cia operative from the u.s. trying to recruit a russian to spy. we'll bring you the details ahead in the news now. new reaction this morning to actress angelina jolie's decision to have radical surgery to prevent breast cancer.

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here's a look at some of the stories topping the news. russia says it will expel a u.s. diplomat it has detained on suspicions of spying after he allegedly attempted to recruit a russian agent. the russians claim the man was traveling under cover as a career diplomat and carrying special gear, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money. police in lafayette, californk are questioning a male high school student after they found a device similar o a pipe bomb at centrist high school. bomb squads blew up the device on monday after a teacher removed it from the building. new orleans police are saying they identified a man who injured 19 people when he allegedly opened fire on a crowded mother's day parade. they're looking for 19-year-old

akein scott. the pentagon will announce furloughing this afternoon for about 800,000 civilian employees to pay for sequester related budget cuts. the furlough will last 11 days instead of 14. chicago teachers planning a massive three day walkout starting this saturday to protest a plan that would close 53 city schools. a tv trail blazer has left. dr. joyce brothers has pass aid way at the age of 85. dr. joyce appears nearly 100 times on the tonight show with johnny carson, hosted her own nbc program as well. she was also the only woman to win the $64,000 question. man: the charcoal went out already? ... forget it. vo: there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford original charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill.

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return it return to its proper role as completely nonpartisan and apolitical. not a tool for an administration of one stripe to bully and intimidate those who adhere to another. >> so we're about an hour away from possibly new information on what's been a really trying week so far for the obama administration. it's only tuesday. just to mention that. it's been a trying week. press secretary jay carney will no doubt fend off questions about the irs and the justice department's recent questionable actions. and we have yet to hear from attorney general eric holder. but we know that tomorrow he's going to appear before the house judiciary committee and will likely face questions. he'll also be giving a briefing this afternoon. nbc white house correspondent peter alexander joins me. officials are really probably in the building behind you. in the west wing specifically in damage control mode trying to stay ahead of all of these -- all of these fast and furious punches. >> reporter: yeah. yesterday, certainly, it was the effort to try to neutralize at least the issue of the irs and

the benghazi issue with that press briefing where the president addressed both of those issues directly. eric holder as you noted has a briefing of his own. a press conference where the focus is intended to be on medicare fraud. he'll surely receive questions from reporters about what exactly the justice department knew and about his actions regarding misconduct in terms of what's being alleged as misconduct in terms of going after the associated press's records from last spring. another one of the questions i think jay carney's going to be hit about today, thomas, is the way the president handled the issue of the irs. and if people are satisfied that he went far enough. the president said if it is proven that these allegations are true about targeting, as it was described, then they are totally unacceptable, they are outrageous. but a lot of critics say it's not just been proven, it's been acknowledged by the irs. even just a couple days ago on friday, conceded wrong doing. that's one reason that a lot of people say the president should have come out a little bit harder on this. why the president and why this

administration has known so little. it's one of the real topics today as they acknowledge it was media reports from which the president learned about both the a.p. and irs situations. >> nbc's peter alexander reporting for us. great to see you. thanks so much. as we talk more about these scandals truly rocking the white house, it is the topic for our panel's agenda today. victoria. lee fong, wronger for the nation and author of "the machine." good to have you here. a lot to dive in on. certainly a lot to talk about. victor victoria, i want to start with you. as we're talking about the president and whether or not the subpoenaing through the department of justice for an investigation on leaks to the a.p. was really necessary, but i want to remind everybody, because it was just at the correspondents dinner that the president talked about his relationship with the press. >> i really do respect the press. i recognize that the press and i

have different jobs to do. my job is to be president. your job is to keep me humble. frankly, i think i'm doing my job better. >> making some jokes there. obviously this investigation from the doj had been going on for some time. certainly the left and the right critical of the president's administration over the last year about leaks that have happened. but do you think that there will be potentially a fall person in all of this and that it could end up being eric holder? because now the right may have enough material to see him removed? >> well, the a.p. issue is a very serious one in and of itself. again, it happens in this trifecta of benghazi and to the best of my recollection rs. if we think back to benghazi, there was no clear point person still in the administration. hillary clinton had already left. leon panetta left. petraeus for obvious reasons left. there was no one to really point the finger at. in terms of the irs we're talking about a bureaucracy.

there were appointments of these guys and gals but, again, there's no person the american public can put a name and face to. comes in eric holder. he's at the wrong place at the wrong time. even if there's no substance to this a.p. issue, which we may find out there is or isn't, but there's that public perception that eric holder has been doing something wrong in the larger environment where there are a lot of questions floating around. so i think the tenure of eric holder is a little tenuous at this time. >> all right. so the drums are beating from the right. i want to show this "time" magazine article, the irony of the gop's reaction. listen to this. conservatives are now in the opposition of implicitly defending p media's rights against the imperative of national security secrecy, a cause that didn't interest them much when the fbi sought media phone records during the bush years. it is kind of ironic when we think about who's in power in the white house and how the winds shift. but this is certainly startling certainly to proigressives out there, too, to see exactly what the department of justice is doing, why they would be concentrating on the associated

press and how they would be going about that. >> it's troubling, and we're going to find out more later this afternoon. you're right to point to the republican party. and the question i think is how will they react? i think they'll be split. you'll have people like john mccain, lindsey graham who during the election season called for investigations into these leaks, arguing that the administration was using it to bolster the president ahead of the election. then you're going to have people like rand paul who is going to, i think, use this as an opportunity to harden his libertarian brand, using this again maybe to set a presidential run in 2016. so it's kind of a tricky, i think, issue for the party. but for the country, i think very important that we get to the bottom of what exactly happened. >> certainly getting to the bottom of that. also getting to the bottom, lee, of what happened at the irs and whether or not it was targeting tea party groups all the way back in the spring of 2010. i know you've been writing about this for a really long time.

but you have some context to put this in. i know we spoke to julian bond about what they were faced with when he was chairman of the naacp in '04. but you have another group that was -- someone through the obama years that didn't get the filing status that it wanted. >> yeah. that's right, thomas. it's obviously problematic asking these tea party groups to go through a few additional questions when applying for a 501 c 4 status. we have to remember under the obama administration, the only tax exempt major political group that actually lost its tax exempt status is a democratic group. emerge america. this organization that trains women to run for office. last year the obama irs revoked their tax exempt status. you know, i'm kind of worried about this entire scandal because it's obscuring some of the bigger issues with the irs. since citizens united, we've had a huge ballooning of all these

bogus 501 c 4 groups that are basically acting like superpacs but not disclosing any of their donors. and they're play tant blatantly violating irs rules. irs rules say you can't spend more than 50% of your money on political advocacy. we have groups spending 60% and funding corporate money to elect republicans. many of them are screaming bloody murder on capitol hill today. >> as you dig down on this, if we look at the irs spending so much time on these little guys and letting the big fish, sharks just swim by, it really is a stark contrast. i do want to play as i brought up julian bond. in the last hour talking about what he went through when he was chairman of the naacp in '04. when they had their irs investigation, what he says today about the tea party and why it might be targeted. take a listen. >> i hope they don't get -- they are the taliban wing of american politics. we all ought to be a little worried about them. >> sir, do you think that's a little harsh? calling them the taliban wing of

american politics? >> not at all. not a t all. the truth may hurt but it's the truth. >> he doesn't feel that's incendia incendiary. victoria, that's going to fire up people. certainly the irs is going to fire up tea party patriots in the country. what do you think they're going to use this to pivot off from. a lot of people want to have grand conspiracy theories the government is out to get you. now it looks like uncle sam is. >> tom, the tea party has a new lease on life. over the last two years the tea party has been in decline. outside of my home state of texas and, say, south carolina, even i thought the tea party nationally is on its death bed. but after the events of these past couple of days, i think they have been resuscitated. because all of the fears that the tea party, that extreme far right fringe has pointed to about the lack of transparency in the government, about the intrusion of the government in your finances, the intrusion of government in the media, there's

some evidence that there may be something to that. so we're going to see a new tea party emerge. it's not going to be our 2010 bachmann palin party. we have new players who are eager to take the lead, eager to take the mandle. we have ted cruz. we have rand paul who we were just mentioning, want to get out in front of this issue for their presidential prospects. they are going to be going after that purple america. they know the red states are already tea party esque. they see 2014 they've got an in. >> an opportunity. thank you, everybody. i really appreciate you joining me. still ahead, can the average woman afford to follow in the footsteps of actress angelina jolie's medical lead? there are new questions about the options available for all women who are concerned about cancer or having predetermined cells for it, rich and poor, after jolie reveals her decision to have a double ma sestectomy.

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absolutely heroic. that is what brad pitt is calling his wife's decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy in order to reduce her chances of developing breast cancer. jolie revealing in a new op-ed "new york times," i chose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know they might be living under the shadow of cancer. gene testing revealed jolie carries brca 1, the gene that causes breast cancer. the actress's mom battled breast cancer for ten years before succumbing to the disease at materially age of 56. joining me now is dr. julian kim, division chief of surge oncology at university hospitals of cleveland. dr. kim specializes in nipple sparring mastectomy, including jolie's treatment in trying to save her nipples. this is certainly going to bring positive conversation to what this means to american women. certainly those that have a

history of breast cancer in their family. tell us about the brca 1 test. should women who have a history of cancer in their family flock to their doctors to get screened? >> yes. the brca 1 test is a simple blood test that can identify a mutation in a gene that can place patients at risk. in miss jolie's instance, up to an 85% chance that she would develop breast cancer sometime during her lifetime. and also about a 50% chance that she would develop ovarian cancer during her lifetime. the important thing about this test is it's not recommended for all women. so it's only recommended for women who show some evidence that they might have a hereditary risk of breast

cancer. >> as we're seeing the fact that her breast cancer chances have now been reduced to under 5%, whereas before they were roughly at 87%, explain what it means to go through this procedure, especially when we talk about the naipple sparing procedure. it's more advanced than it would be normally, correct? >> absolutely. i think that really has influenced women's decisions. the cosmetic results that are available now following removal of the breasts to prevent breast cancer are quite good. in many instances, quite frankly, the cosmetic result is enhanced as compared to prior to the surgery. so women who are opting -- who are very high risk, who are opting to have their breasts removed to effectively reduce their risk of breast cancer actually don't have to suffer, because they have very good cosmetic outcome. >> in another part of the op-ed, jolie goes on to say i don't feel any less of a woman.

i feel empowered that i made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininitfeminini. in respect to price, though, how affordable is this to the average woman who would go in to speak to her doctor. first of all undergoing the testing for this. but then having to consider the procedure and the costs to potentially save their life down the line? >> these are good points. again, i want to emphasize that this is not a procedure for the general population. these are -- this is a very small segment of our population. it might be 5% of patients who eventually get breast cancer would be positive for this mutation. so it's only a small percentage of women that would even be eligible to get the genetic testing. in most cases, if the patient does have a strong history, the genetic test is covered by the insurance company. and in patients hathat are mutation positive, i would say

in almost any case the insurance company would pay for the coverage to have this type of surgery. and i think the key point that i would like to make is the best way to treat cancer is to never get it. the best way is to prevent cancer. again, these are personal decisions. but i think the decision that she made based on her mutational status is a common decision. >> not only the decision to do this, but then also the decision to share it to help dissipate any stigma that might go along with this. dr. julian kim, sir, thanks so much for joining us. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. governor chris christie and britain's prince harry live together on the jersey shore. look at that picture right there. they're touring the damage from hurricane sandy. also, what it means for the shore and its rebounding nature right now. msnbc's martin bashir is going to talk to us about why great britain matters. it's a brand new start.

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well developing now on the "jersey shore," prince harry is touring the boardwalk and seaside heights in the wake of hurricane sandy, the recovery efforts and he's getting quite a guided tour from governor chris christie showing him some of the attractions, including the famous jet star roller coaster that will be demolished later and moments ago, prince harry telling reporters how good it was seeing the region in recovery mode. >> it's fantastic everyone coming together and making things right. >> a sense of resilience. >> always. the the governor has been fantastic and you can see how many people have come out and everyone is working together, it's good. >> the goodwill visit is one of several that harry has made in america, underlines the ongoing special relationship that britain has in the u.s. joining me to talk about it is msnbc's own martin bashir. we rarely get time to share the

telly together. let's talk more harry, because here in the states we're wild about harry. >> you're wild about the royal family. >> we like him because he's likable. not only is he dignified in terms of his commitment to the military and coming over and we see him with the wounded warriors out in colorado. now he's on the jersey shore touring the area in recovery mode. but explain to us the special relationship that we have with him. the "u.s.a. today" says the folks at the shore are wild about him, calling him a breath of fresh hair. alex wagner is over there calling him a hottie. >> yes, i was. >> yes, she was. >> what would you expect from alex wagner. but the truth is i think this is much more about how the royal family for both the british and the americans is like a supernarrative. it combines everything, it combines a bit of reality television with the history channel, all sprinkled with some pageantry and pomposity and it

serves as an alternative, a distraction and for many, a kind of entertainment away from the tedium and banality of most of our ordinary lives. this guy comes over only recently he was playing strip snooker in las vegas and we see him being photographed as an absolutely committed member of the army. one of his commanding officers, who i spoke to once said you don't know what snooker is, do you? >> i know what snooki is. >> snooker is a form of billi d billiards, played with a series of different-colored balls that you have to pot, along with a large number of reds. we call it strip snooker. someone i know spoke to his commanding officer and they said when he is serving he is an exemplary soldier. there's no criticism that can be laid against him. in many ways he's a compelling character. he combines all of that sense of being adventurous and all of his

own proclivities and interest in nightlife and so on, alongside with a great commitment to service. >> when you talk about the military service angle of things, he is always asked to be with his, you know, with his service members, not to be treated specialtily. and to be on the front lines if they're designated with those types of orders. >> i think that to some extent, the military became a second family for him, after his mother died. and so i think that it has embraced him and he has embraced his brothers in conflict and in service. and i think that's why it's such a close relationship. it's also true as well, that harry is ordinarily just like any young man, who is fit and healthy and wants to live a vibrant and hopefully entertaining and successful life. so in many ways, people do feel that that's what he's about. i would be careful about some of the criticism that's laid against him. because i think he is someone who does have a strong commitment to service and i think that's exemplified in the

way he leads his life. >> thank you for the telling look on harry and learning about snooker. >> strip snooker. >> strip snooker. >> which you don't want to play, because if you miss a pot, you have to take clothing off. >> i understand completely. we have to let you go, you have to prepare for your 4:00 p.m. show. >> you want me to go. >> i want you to stay, just quietly sit enter there, though, he'll be back at 4:00 p.m. see what happens when we make telly together? that's good stuff. that's going to wrap it up for me, i'll see you tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. "now" from alex wagner is going to save me from myself. >> i would like to tear up our rundown and see if martin is available for the next hour. >> he can teach me new vocabula vocabulary. >> to discuss pageantry, po pomposity and snooker.

gentlemen, a pleasure to share the sound stage with you. the white house today is doing damage control on a trio of scandals, both real and imagined, we'll tall api, irs and benghazi, when karen phinney, frank forward, jonathan chait and howard fineman join the show. and plus a story about tamerlan tsarnaev that you've probably not yet heard. and the white house gives new meaning to the term plan b with its head-scratching strategy over emergency contraception, we'll discuss with naral, coming up next. [ male announcer ] here at optionsxpress, our clients really seem

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one-third of house committees are investigating the obama administration. but while the white house is bailing water, the storms seem to have originated elsewhere. the latest government office under scrutiny is the department of justice, amid revelations that the doj seized phone records from 20 "associated press" phone lines over two months last year. the records included home phones and cell phones, as well as the a.p.'s main line in the congressional press gallery. more than 100 journalists were monitored. the doj hasn't given a reason for the investigation, but the timing suggests it was to determine who leaked details about a c.i.a. operation in yemen, which foiled a terrorist plot. carl bernstein, he of watergate fame, did not mince words. >> totally inexcusable, that this administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning. the object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters. this was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event. and now it's happened. >> the outrages