tv Jansing and Co. MSNBC May 16, 2013 7:00am-8:01am PDT
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good morning. i'm chris jansing. white house damage control, day two. we're a few hours away from a president obama news conference where he'll answer questions on the three controversy dogging his administration. that noon time q&a follow tess late day release of a hundred pages of e-mails related to benghazi yesterday. an hour later, the president announcing the ouster of the acting irs chief over the targeting of tea party groups. >> it's inexcusable and americans have a right to be angry about it and i am angry about it. i will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the irs. given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives. >> right now on capitol hill, tea party caucus chair woman
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michele bachmann and other tea party members are telling horror stories about their dealings with the irs. >> almost three years later, we are still in the dark as to whether we are getting approved for 501 dr 4 startus. >> when government fierce the citizen, there is liberty. but when citizens fear the government, there is -- >> let's bring in washington bureau chief susan page. good to see both of you. good morning. >> good to see you, chris. what's happening in the white house? what's the strategy right now? >> well, the strategy seems to be to take hold of this, to grab the saddle and try to steer it a little bit. you saw where the white house endorsed a press shield law where it stands on this question
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of the ap and justice department leaks. you saw obama expressing his anger and announcing the departure of the senior officials. on that front and then on benghazi, they released this trove of e-mails. and i think they feel like what the press seems to want is decisive action, even if it's not moving the ball all that much. subsequently, it seems to have helped them a little bit, i think. >> do you think it has helped them, susan? the "new york times" appear about president obama, put it this way, he said the second term he has hoped for collided with the second term he has. >> he's not the first second term president to have that unfortunate relation. you know, i think when the president taking action, it's helpful but, you know, it doesn't include these controversies. you see republicans energized and united at the idea. and one of the things happening, we saw it in the michele bachmann tea party press conference a half hour ago is trying to unite all of the
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administration into the dangers about a big, overreaching government. i think what the president did late yesterday is helpful, but it's not going to put food into that irs scandal. this is a story that is not going to go away instantly. >> what do they do as a next step, michael? obviously they would love to get this behind them as quickly as possible. senator chambliss put out a statement. his said despite thes ig nation of the acting irs administrator, president obama continues to search for a scapegoat for his own administration's misdeeds. what's the next step? >> well, it's hard to say. i think that you could try to put more rules and regulation in place in the irs. more bureaucracy. if you follow the details of how this all played out, the
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bureaucracy appears comical. but in theory, you could create new safeguards. substantively, there's only so much you can do. people who just kind of didn't get it, didn't get how sensitive the poe litzation of the irs and how dopy they were being. >> john boehner wants somebody to go to jail. >> well, you know, i think it's not clear what laws may have been broken or if any laws were broken. i think there's some legal experts are still debating that. once my colleagues at time and time.com have spoken to you think it's not that likely that there will be jail terms. maybe if people were bound to lie to congress, i don't think that's a likely outcome.
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>> let me bring out the members of the wayes and means oversight something. not all republicans have been critical. >> that doesn't answer all the questions that remain. we have a number of questions that were not answered by the inspector general anticipates report. we want to know who made these decisions, where was the authority? who knew what and at what point in time? and why, why was the irs consistently and persistently evasive to us? >> what is your first question? you are going to be holding the firsts congressional hearing into the irs scandal tomorrow. we should point out that in this and in neither of the others is
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there any indication that the president is implicated in this. but are you looking for where -- how high you think this goes? what specifically are you going to be asked? >> well, i'm very concerned about what's been happening internally within the irs. we started looking at a number of these issues two years ago and i've had serious concerns about poor management practices, just a whole array of problems within the structure of the irs. and now with these abuses coming to light with the politization, we need to get to the bottom of this and i refuse to believe that low level officials ran completely amuck on this. i think clearly there has to be some exception. and we know that the director of exempt organizations who holds a relatively senior position in the irs knew about this but consistently failed to reveal information to us despite our
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intensive inquiries. same thing with the acting commissioner. we want to lay out the exact timeline. what happens with this? let's get the facts from the table. the american people deserve to know. >> well, i would say your colleagues on both sides of the aisle have said this about the irs, that there are questions that they want answered. but there is some concern that's been expressed that a lot of time, particularly on the republican side, has been spent on investigation. and other things that maybe the american people don't see as relevant. republicans are going to vote for the repeal of obama care, something they've spent 50% of their time on. and i want to play with you what congressman emanuel cleaver had to say about that. >> we've got so much real issues to face that it is almost a thing that we are going to lose some time dealing with a
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non-issue. and i think that the opposition has created a madness. >> and it's not just the democrats who are complaining. republicans have to watch out. they're going beyond the established fact. that was bill o'reiley. charles talked about benghazi and said you have to stop comparing it to watergate and nixon. is there a danger to republicans in overreach here? >> i've cautioned my colleagues not to overreach. we don't want hyperbole. we want legitimate oversight, vigorous oversight. that's basically what led to all of this ultimately being revealed. but we're going to get the facts on the table. consider the fact that the irs is perhaps the most powerful entity within our government. it has the power to destroy. we cannot allow abuses and so
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all of this has to come to light. we're going to lay it all out in a clear timeline. and we want to know who is responsible and how far it goes. i think it's critical to find this out. congress will continue to work vigorously. i'm glad the president has launched a justice department investigation into this. i think that's healthy. but it lieutenant deter our efforts. we have a constitutional role in this to ensure that the law is being followed without impartiality and without politization. >> thank you. it's great to have you. one is that the republicans damaged themselves with overreach. the second is -- and we touched on this, it unites the ewe divided party, particularly conservatives, the tea party attack and it strengthens them. is one argument stronger than the other? >> i can it just points out the
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line republicans need to walk if they're going to exploit this. there we saw that republicans focus on the monica lewinski scandal and impeachment of president clinton, in the midterm election in his second term, that is a model the republicans want to avoid. i think they feel energized, they feel like they have an opening against the obama administration. they're expanding it to include criticism of the health care act which we'll see the vote on later this afternoon in the house because, of course, the irs is the enforcement agency in that individual mandate that has anchored so much conservatives. >> is there anything in that hundred pages of e-mails that the white house released yesterday afternoon that indicates that there is any there? >> not really. thank you for mentioning the piece on time.com if people want
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to reads it. and i saw nothing new there to advance the story we already knew. we knew this already, but as a reminder, benghazi is more of a cia story than is generally appreciated. that facility there was primarily a cia site where they were doing a lot of work including trying to contain some of the arms they had gotten loose. the cia disputed who was in charge. at the end of the day, it was the deputy cia director morale who took out a lot of language whose deletion republicans object to. by the way, every iteration of the talking point from the first to the last included the assertion originally from the cia that the assault on the facility had originated from an anti-american demonstration. and a lot of people have said, well, the white house just made that up, it was a convenient
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narrative. that's what the intelligence community was saying from the get-go. susan rice had no role in the talking points. she was totally shafted. they sent her out with these things that she played no part in. she read them and missed the chance to be secretary of state as a result. >> marc l marco rubio was on the daily run down and was asked about security and benghazi. here is what he said. >> the security they had there was inadequate. the ability to respond to the attack was inadequate. that falls on the state department. my concern is the people who made that decision are still making those decisions. >> the irs is the story that has legs and then the ap with benghazi bringing up the rear, but it doesn't sound like marco rubio is going to let it go. >> i think there's a substantive point about why the security wasn't better at that facility.
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if the security isn't adequate at other places where we send americans to serve. i'm not sure it has the political punch of a story like abuse by the irs, but i think it is something serious and something that all of us who want to support and protect the americans who service abroad and dangerous places are going to be concerned about. >> susan page, michael crowley, it's great to have both of you here. thank you. >> thank you, chris. >> check out the scenes this morning in texas. emergency crews still searching through reblg of doesz of destroyed homes for survivors of the string of powerful tornados that killed at least six people. at least one of the tornados was about a mile wide. the hardest hit region, granbury, about 60 miles southwest of dallas. >> it's rough. very rough. everything is demolished. >> what was it like when it hit?
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>> hell. it was like hell. >> house us are no more. from a destruction from one to ten, it's probably about a ten. there's nothing left over there in harley. >> and we will get a live update from charles hadlock coming up in our next half hour. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day. there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply.
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today's two high profile convicted criminals are fighting for their lives in court. o.j. simpson in a long shot bid to win back his life outside prison walls. for murderer jodi arias, freedom knot an option, but the dealt penalty is. joining me now to talk about the cases coming to a head out west want trial attorney jami floyd. so o.j. is on the stand.
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he wasn't in 2008, getting personal saying it was memorabilia he was looking for in las vegas that day and he described a phone call from an azantance when he first learned about the things that had been taken. >> in this his words, his daughter died, pictures of your mom and dad who passed. they have family albums of your mother and that's when i got interested. >> i read so many stories from people in that courtroom. they described him as emotional, believable. how much is this about him him coming off about someone believable and likable? >> this is the testimony we should have heard in the trial. he did not testify at trial. this is the testimony essentially he would have given and it does so essentially to the law. what was his state of mind at the time he went into that room?
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but the issue here is different. the issue here is whether his ineffective assistance of council as he claims gives him a right to a new trial. >> let us talk about a couple specific points. one is that he was ill advised. they said don't take the substantial, we've already won this, which obviously they hadn't. we're going to hear that the attorney, his attorney pad paid $500,000 but his co-counsel has testified e did not analyze key reporting in a hotel room. are these the kind of things that could add up to something? >> usually this is an issue on appeal, not when asking for a new trail. this is a different kind of claim. he's not claiming so much that he was badly advised at trial, though he is saying he should is are testified. but he is claiming that he was
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advised badly about the action itself, that he was told that he could go take his stuff back and it wouldn't away violation of the law. as long as he didn't break into the room or use force. >> let's talk about jodi arias. u6 another defendant who is extremely unlikable. >> you will have her family members. the alexander family will be doing the opposite. they cannot be questioned by either side. they get up and essentially make a statement to the jury. jo did i arias, even though she
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had an extraordinary time on the witness stand, she may again -- >> what if she gets up there and says i'd rather die than be in jail? >> if she would really rather die, we might see her wave this entire proceed. >> trial attorney jami floyd, thank you so much. >> thank you. sources tell msnbc news the boston bomb er satisfy negative may have scribbled a note inside the boat he was caught. the rebombing was retaliation for what happens. hungry for the best?
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assets total between $2 million and $7 million and they're carrying a home mortgage, about $500,000 left to go on their chicago house. former congressman anthony weiner may be struggling to find advisers for his soon to be announced mayoral run. "new york times" reports among other things, the consulting firm he worked with in the pft won't work with him this time. another disgraced politician, now a congressman, mark sandford sworn in last night saying he appreciated, quote, a god of second chances. not quite what you expect to see at a grilling on capitol hill. congressman tom watts says he was baby-sitting, bringing his grandson to a meeting with eric holder. >> you're only supposed to do that as your confirmation hearing. that's when you roll out the kids. >> i'm just trying to get my line of questioning. i've been in the back listening. >> and mitt romney is adding to
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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. >> right now we're in the third day of the senate immigration hearings on the bill. but on the house side, a major threat to getting immigration reform done. republicans from the so-called gang of eight are threatening to walk away from immigration negotiations if they don't agree
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to a deal today. the sticking points include how undocumented immigrants would be covered by the new health care law. senators, meantime, have hit a rough patch of their own. senator marco rubio who is key to the bill's success may be overplaying his hands by supporting a stronger system to track entry and exit vehicles. good morning. >> good morning. >> it seemed to me, angela, months ago that this was lt a fait accompli. it was moving in the right direction. but do you think at this stage immigration reform is in real danger? >> no, i actually don't, chris. i think there are a number of contributing factors. but most importantly, this is something that the american people and all of the many people who are a part of the fabric of america really need. >> well, 90% of them wanted background checks on guns. >> that's true. >> what the american people wasn't isn'tel always the major force for legislation.
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>> what we're looking at is the alleged scandals the because of those, there's not a lot of focus and pressure for folks that are in opposition to the reform bill. i think as we go into the third day of markups, we'll see something moving. and on the house side, it may run into some additional opposition, but i do believe that we need and we will get to a compromise. >> senator marco rubio was on the daily rundown and talked about immigration. he was asked wa do us to a wavering republican? >> what's the alternative? the status quo? the status quo is to leave in place what everyone is complaining about. the status quo is amnesty. the status quo is a broken legal immigration system. the status quo is the thing creating distrust of government. we have to do something. what is that something? and i hope people will be engaged productively. >> he doesn't sound like someone who is living up on the senate side. but what about the house side? are republicans going to get this done?
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>> i don't know. let's be honest about this. immigration is on life support. there's two critical people here and that's marco rubio on the republican side and obviously president obama. president obama is weakened right now because of some of the scandals in his current administration. but the question becomes whether or not senator rubio has enough political muscle to convince his republican house colleagues that this was the right thing to do. what you hear, chris, is a lot of frustration at senator rubio's voice here. what he's trying to say is, listen, if you have a better idea, hold up your hand and move forward and let's talk about your idea. but to sit here and talk about what's wrong with my ideas, without offering any solution of your own, you're for the status quo. he's absolutely right. >> you touched on this, angela. we are in the middle of a highly poe lit sized season with these three challenges, let's call them. the president is facing. how tough will that make him to be influential on this? because we know he wants to get it done. >> well, chris, i think that the
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president this week has taken several steps in the right direction. for one, you know, addressing the irs despite the fact that the commissioner who was appo t appointed at the time already left in november. they have now accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner. with benghazi, they released several hundred e-mails to address this and i think that the best thing they could do is be responsive, you know, try to work with folks despite, you know, the rising tension and the lack of unity and just keep pushing forward. he has a proactive agenda that he has to continue to push because that's what he was elected on and he has a reactive agenda. as long as he continues to be responsive, i think he can continue to see major progress. >> and i was just going to say this, the other thing, robert, that rubio said was that he thinks part of the pushback on this is just an overall, you know, distrust in the federal government, that he believes that these other stories, the irs, the ap story, have said those concerns with many members
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of the republican party. where does he get that? >> there's no question about it that a lot of americans out there, not just republicans, are just mistrustful about the government right now and reinforced what these called wiretaps. the president is in a weakened position. and the question becomes to your question, can he get his mojo back? yes, of course he can. but it's going to take a lot of political will and a lot of hammering. not the senate republican side. this is what i wanted to say before. even on the democratic side, you have some democratic members of congress, the house and ways, democrats from maryland criticizing this president saying he's not doing enough. so you have democrats also saying listen, white house, listen up here, you have a major crisis on your hands. tell the truth, come clean sooner rather than later. >> well, we should say they said that before yesterday when he did have his news conference and the irs chief stepped down. so i think that they would say something different today.
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more to come. robert and angela, thanks to both of you. >> thank you. have a good day. right now we are following big developing news out of north texas where several deadly twisters, including the one over a mile wide struck overnight. take a look at this bird's-eye view, jaw dropping devastation. >> granbury and cleburne where the storm left many homeless and killed at least six. charles, assess the situation for us. particularly, do they think anyone out there might be missing and trapped? >> well, the latest missing number is now down to seven. it was 14 overnight, but the sheriff says they've lowered that number now to seven missing. and unaccounted for is probably a better term to use. six people died in this stormover night. about 50 were injured as the storm came through at the worst possible time, at nighttime. you can't see it coming. and even though residents said they heard the sirens and they saw the warnings on tv and some
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even got reverse 911 calls, they said they did not expect such a fierce and ferocious storms. but it did come and it leveled a neighborhood of granbury. about a hundred homes are in this neighborhood. 60 of them were built by habitat for humanity. and a spokesman for habitat for humanity says that all 60 homes in this neighborhood built by that organization were destroyed last night in the storm. we don't know any more detail other than that. they expect a tour coming up in the next hour. >> charles hadlock in texas for us, thank you, charles. >> checking the news feed this morning, six americans were killed today in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital. two were service members, four were civilian contractors. a muslim militant group has claimed responsibility. the latest update on a story
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we followed closely, there's been another deadly accident at a foreign factory. part of a shoe factory in cambodia collapsed this morning, killing at least two people, injuring six others. cambodia's garment industry ships $4 billion worth of product to the u.s. and europe just last year. this comes, of course, after the building collapsed in bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 people. new orleans police have arrested the teenager they say opened fire at a mother's day parade. 19-year-old hakim scott has a history of arrest on various charges. a police superintendent says a tremendous number of tips helped to catch him. 19 people were hurt in that shooting, including two children. several can't miss moefts moments caught on video to show you. security cam showing a stroller rolling on to the train track wes a 14-month old inside. mom jumped down and lifted the baby to safety. in pennsylvania, a deer crashed through the windshield of the bus.
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it scrambled around for a few minutes before finding its way out the door. and check out this lightning strike in st. petersburg, russia. it hit a television tower. that is the tallest point in the city. no one won last night's $360 million powerball jackpot, which means saturday's is up to $475 million. the second largest powerball in history, the third biggest of all time. the chance of winning? oh, just one in 175 million. google making hlgs once again, the tech giant launching a new music service to rival some of its biggest competitors. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. what can you tell us about the big announcement? >> it's mostly an old exit paid music streaming of $9.99 a month. that competes with pandora. it did make this announcement as it seeks to develop a conference google io yesterday. it signed licensing deals with
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universal music and sony music entertainment and, of course, those catalogs include lots of popular artists like rihanna and is bob dillon. a deal was struck earlier this year with warner music group. mind you, you've got apple working with music labels about checking a subscription service option on to itunes. so the bottom line is here, for those guys that are playing in the, like now google, as well, it's very crowded, but it does mean more choice for us, the consumer. >> and at chris at this e's, auction was how much? >> a record $26.7 million. >> for one diamond. >> it's perfect. it's pear shaped, it's perfect. it was -- it accounted for more
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than a quarter of the $102 million in sales that is rung up by christy's. southby's the day before had about $78 million. who bought it? prestigious jeweler harry winston. >> of course. >> before the quiet earlier this year by squawk group. so harry winston, the jeweler, is the lucky owner of this diamond. >> i don't know what the number is, but the average engagement ring is probably less than a karat. this was 101.73 carats. >> thank you. speaking of millions, "sports illustrated" is out with its list of the highest earnings athletes. there's some surprises. tiger woods just makes it into the top five. 40.8 million. kobe bryant fourth, drew brees wasn't on the list last year, but he jumped to number three with almost $48 million. lebron james second, 56.5 million. i thought he would be number one. but number one, boxer floyd
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right now in wug, female members of congress will see a man there, as well, led by senator kirstin jillibrand to reform the justice system. >> it's time to change the system that has been held over since george washington, that is irchl simply not working today for the men and women who are serving. >> this effort follows two high profile cases of men in charge of weeding out sexual assaults being charged with it themselves. and this shocking number from a pentagon report. it estimates a rate of about 500 women and men in the military are assaulted every week. three every hour last year. an increase of more than a third since 2010. the proposed senate legislation would take top commanders out of the process of deciding whether
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a sexual misconduct case goes to trial. joining me now, iowa congressman bruce grady it's good to see you. good morning. >> thanks, chris. >> these numbers are astonishing. 30,000 sexual assaults may have taken place last year. how would your bill fix it? >> well, i've been fighting this since july of 2008 when i first became aware of the numbers. the harsh reality is the pentagon's sexual assault prevention strategy is failing. and it's time to take it outside the chain of command of convening authorities. the latest incident that you didn't refer to in italy where a jury appointed by a commanding officer convicted, a lieutenant colonel of sexual assault after hearing the evidence and had that conviction overturned by a convening authority who wasn't
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present at the time of trial is an absolute outrage and is a symptom of this problem. >> well, there was a report in the hill that republican congressman mike turner said he had a meeting at the white house on this matter. and, quote, people pretty resoundingly indicated they are not in support of removing it from the military chain of command. what kind of opposition are you facing here? >> well, we were just out at the pentagon right before the abiano conviction was overturned. we met with all of the service branches, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs was there to reaffirm their strong commitment to eliminating this problem. the pentagon likes to talk about its zero tolerance policy of sexual assault in the military. 26,000 incident hes of sexual assault that affect men and women in uniform is not a zero tolerance policy and that's why it's time to change the system. >> well, the president is meeting with the joint chiefs today. as you rightly point out, in
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spite of the fact that a number of them and not recently have said that these kinds of things are not tolerable should not be allowed, that they have to get tough on them, again, the numbers have been going up. so what do you want the president to say to the joint chiefs? what do you think can be done from that level? >> i want the president and the joint chiefs to be as upset and outraged by these numbers as i am and my colleagues are. republicans and democrats, men and women, because 41% of the treatment for military sexual assault administration pays for treatment for male patients. that's the great unspoken travesty that nobody wants to talk about. if people sign up to serve our country and to protect and defend this country, they deserve an environment free from criminal activity which is what military sexual assault is. and until the pentagon gets serious and that is communicated up and down the chain of command and people start to lose their
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commands for failing to enforce these policies, nothing is going to change. >> congressman, we have been following and will continue to follow this closely. thank you so much for taking the time to come on the program. >> thank you, chris. today's tweet of the day comes from u.s. news and world report which tweeted out an article asking, there are roughly 9,000 service members who work in a sexual assault prevention capacity. who oversees them? we just bought our first house, we're on a budget. we're not ready for spring. well let's get you ready. very nice. you see these various colors. got workshops every saturday. yes, maybe a little bit over here. summer's here. so are the savings. not bad. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get special buys on select toro products, like this self propelled mower just $274. when you're carrying forda lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight,
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the nlrb, the board whose job it is to enforce labor law and settle battles between employees and their workers could be under the threat of dissolving completely. a hearing will be held today and there is growing concern republicans will block them. joining me with more, good morning. >> hi, chris. >> let's start with the board itself. most people may have heard of this but may not know exactly what they do.
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why was it started and why do so many republicans dislike it? >> the nlrb was started out of the great depression era law for american rights with collective bargaining. a lot of americans have never heard of it. it serves as a mediator between businesses and unions. it settles labor disputes. republicans right now despise a lot of what the board has been doing. not surprisingly, under democratic administration, it's been a lot of divisions that are seen as friendly and friendly to workers. businesses have been beside themselves in terms of what these decisions that have been coming out. some of them have been kind of open about their desire to see it inoperable. senator lindsey graham said as much. he said it would be progress.
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so i think now we're at a point where it could become feasible in a few months that if republicans choose to, that they could effectively shut it down. >> well, when asked about this, the american federation of state county and municipal employees sent a statement to jansing and company writing in part, once again, senate republicans are threatening to turn their backs on the country's men and women whose rights in the workplace are protected by the national labor relations board. an nlrb that was prevented from function would create chaos and uncertainty for workers. not only do they believe that, richard trump came out and talked about it yesterday. what's their recourse at this point? what's the administration's recourse? >> unions are making a big push on this right now. they seem very worried and i think they should be worried given all the taum talk we've seen. the labor board is a five member board. by tradition, there's three members on there from the president's party and two from the opposing party.
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right now, because of a recent court ruling, the president recessed appointments that he made to the board have been declared invalid. that's probably going to go to the supreme court. one of the terms -- they only have three members currently serving on the five-member board. that's the bear minimum for a quorum. in a few months, one of those terms expires which would drop them down to two. if they can get some of these nominees confirmed, they're not going to have enough for a quorum and they're not going to be able to do business. unions are worried because when the board is inoperable, it tends to benefit employers over unions and employees. labor disputes slly go unis he solved or get dragged on longer and longer in court and that's general lit to the employer's benefit and i think that's why we're seeing unions so worried about this. >> we're going to keep our eye on this. maybe you've come back and update us. thanks so much for coming up on. >> thank you. >> that wraps up this hour of jansing & company.
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i'm chris jansing. thomas is up next. >> good morning, everybody. in the next hour, can president obama stop the bleeding? trying oth out in front of several public relations nightmares facing his administration and threatening to derail his second term agenda. is it time for the president to go full works as one "new york times" writer put it today, we're going to ask veteran strategist james carrville. also, the president planning to meet with the joint chiefs of stat staff to address sexual assault in the military. and the military's sexuality assault survivor about what needs to be done. and can i get a higher paycheck with those fries? that's a great question, right? fast food workers are striking in five different cities demanding higher wages and the chance to join a union. we're covering that and much more. this day calls you.
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throttle damage control he kicked into action in the last 24 hours. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, president obama has finally grabbed the extinguisher and let it loose. will it be enough to slow down the fire is in the? there's an info fern your building around his administration. he took three critical steps. step one, step two, the release of 100 pages of benghazi e-mails at the white house, and step three, the most dramatic, announcing the resignation of irs commissioner steve miller late yesterday. >> americans have a right to be angry about it and i am angry about it. i will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the irs. given the power that it has and the reach that it has in all of our lives. >> and new this hour, developing words that the president could announce a new commissioner in a matter of days. tea party conserves held a news
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conference and they called for more heads to roll. we're going to hear from house speaker john boehner who just yesterday asked not who is going to lose their jobs over the irs mess, but who is going to jail. peter, let's start with that developing news that we just got in the last few minutes concerning the irs scandal and the fact that we could have a new person named head in a brief period of time, maybe later today. >> that's exactly right. i just learned that the president will appoint a new acting irs commissioner this week according to the white house. that person, of course, will replace the present acting irs commissioner, steven miller, would just yesterday the president announced said he would resigned as he was asked to by treasury secretary jack lew at the urging of president obama.
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