right now on "the cycle," damage control. the president fires back on benghazi, the irs and the a.p. with the first of many congressional hearings on tap for tomorrow, at least one of these issues is far from over. >> the house is voting for a mere 38th time to appeal obamacare. >> i'm s.e. cupp. one of the priorities had been immigration. today in the guest spot, a reform advocate who claim even the toughest bill in congress won't get job done. >> i'm toure. two tabloid cases captivating america. o.j. simpson is hoping for the luck of the draw in sin city and jodi arias is feeling the heat in desert country. we'll be live outside both court rooms. >> plus, the real scandal in washington this week. the president is addressing it this hour and so am i. right now on "the cycle."

the first of the fallout hits the acting chief, steven miller is out. his resignation is effective next month. critics say he's been lying and misleading them. if that's true, making false claims to congress is punishable five years in prison for each down. speaker boehner signals he is looking for accountability, asking who is going to jail over this. >> and eric holder is talking about which statutes were violated. and president obama in a joint press we are the turkish prime minister had this to say. >> my main concern is fixing a problem. it is simply unacceptable for there to even be a hint of partisanship or ideology when it come to the application of our tax laws. in addition to sure that we've got a new acting director there.

we're also going to make sure we gather up the facts and hold accountable and responsible anybody who was involved in this. >> while miller is packing boxes, he is still going to testify tomorrow at the house, ways and means committee. the committee chairman said this resignation does nothing to change the culture of discrimination at the irs and it certainly does nothing to change the fact that the tax system is targeting honest, hard taxpayers instead of working for them. the irs has demonstrated a culture of cover-up and has failed time and time again to be completely open and honest with the american people. we will preview tomorrow's congressional hearing in a minute. first, the president today and for that we go to nbc's peter alexander at the white house. peter, the white house is trying to stop the bleeding on the irs scandal. but it is more than just the irs. what's going on there? >> it is a three-front war as we described it. there was an image that happened in that rose garden. the president and the prime of

turkey came out. they brought out the marines to hold umbrellas over the president's head. maybe the clear skies are signs of good things to come for them. the president today really tried to surgically remove some of the objects, some of the obstacles in front of him right now. i think it was most notable on the issue of benghazi that he has referred to those talking points as a side show in recent days. today white house tried to get back on offense, referring more to the real issue. the issue of security at american embassies around the region. the president before even being asked questions by reporters, calling on congress to provide more money in order to fund security at u.s. embassies around the globe saying he wants the military reaction time to be what he described as lightning quick. take a listen. >> i am intent on sure we do everything we can to prevent another tragedy like this from happening. we need to come together and

truly honor the sacrifice of those four courageous americans. that's how we learn the lessons of benghazi. that's how we keep faith with the men and women we send overseas to represent america. that's what i will stay focused on as commander-in-chief. >> so they refer to the benghazi talking points as a side show. the associate press issue, the seizure of the darrel of justice of the phone records. and the journalists. that's something the white house thinks the media will focus on. the president stood up to questions about that saying he has no apologies. he wouldn't refer specifically to that case. but no apologies for efforts to try to protect national security leaks from taking place. even connecting that to the issue of benghazi in that region. he said among other things that, make sure i get it right. he said i have no apologies and he said, u.s. military and u.s. intelligence lives are at risk making it clear he believes the american people are on his side when it comes to protecting

against national security leaks. >> all right. great reporting and great weather analogy, i might add. thank you for that. >> all right. we turn now to politico senior congressional reporter. pretty aggressive letters sent from mitch mcconnell and all 45 of his senate republican colleagues to the president saying among other things, regarding the irs scandal, this time of purely political scrutiny being conducted by an executive branch agency is yet another completely inexcusable attempt to chill the speep of political opponents and those who would question their government consistent with a broader pattern of intimidation by arms of your administration to silence political dissent. very aggressive, trying to tie a lot of things together here. do you think republicans are really overreaching at this point? 1234 i think that's the risk that they're running. what you're seeing here is the

republicans trying to broaden this scandal beyond the irs. beyond the focus targeting the conservatives to try to make it a case about the obama administration. his handling on the government. something in which they say that it is part of a larger culture that that he brought to his government. i think you will see that tomorrow at the first hearing before the ways and means committee in the house. the republicans will try to make the case that was this just the irs? or was it bigger than that? that's the focus for the party. if they don't get much ammunition, they run the risk of overreaching if they keep pushing in that regard. >> the white house is in the midst of a terrible no good very bad week. they've done three thing. release hundreds of pages of benghazi e-mails, pushing a

media shield law and of course, firing the irs commissioner. has the bleeding stopped? >> that was the moment where the president tried to get back on the offensive. change the narrative. now of course, about, we need to spend more money on embassy security. maybe taking that argument and making it a spending fight with the republicans. something that they feel they're on much more firm political ground. a lot of the facts have not come out. the vegas are still going to be ongoing. republicans are never going to be satisfied no matter what the president says. they're going to keep attacking. tomorrow will be the first public nothinging session and then after that, we're going to get into some of the fact-finding. once those investigations happen, the legislative response will take shape if there is one afterwards. so i think we'll see this play out for a while. the white house can only hope that the initial uproar has subsided. >> i'm with you. i think there is a lot more of this to come. a lot more questions to ask. preview for us, the ways and

means committee hearing where steven miller is set to testify. >> i wouldn't want to be steven miller. any time there is a controversy like this, members of congress look for a scape goat to publicly beat up on. and it you will see that. what would be interesting is how miller reacts. remember, as he bush appointee. he was just fired by the obama administration. does he have much loyalty to the obama administration? will he throw people under the bus for the obama administration or will he take blame and say this was relegated to a very small section of people and sort of neuter the republican attacks? i think we'll have to see what that. how he deal with this. we're not, this will be the first time he's really addressed these in a such a public manner and how he handles this will be very interesting to see. >> and there's some speculation that he was set to leave in a month any way. have you reported on any of that or can you verify anything like that for us? >> i'm sorry. i didn't catch your question. >> there is been some

speculation thatstein miller was set to leave the irs within a month any way. before this resignation was announced. do you have any info on that for us? he was an acting commissioner. i don't think they planned to keep him the second term so his term was short-lived to begin with. >> before we let you go, can you give us any sense of the mood down there among republicans on the hill? you had the national review today saying, be careful. the scandal is not an agenda. saying get the facts first. at least two out of three of these issues have not been directly connected to the president. so follow the facts. is there any sense of a little more caution? or is that conservative opinion leadership not making a dent yet? >> i don't think it is making a dent. republicans in the house finally fueled. they have something to go on the offensive with. they've been beaten up for

months about how they dealt with guns. they're divided over immigration. over taxes and whether they include that as part of a deficit package. they feel president has been the offensive since the beginning of his second term. this is the first time they feel they have something to really pound the administration on. and i don't that you really sense any sort of shift other than they feel like they can continue to throw bombs up here. >> all right. thank you so much. see you soon. >> thank you. up next, an issue that he also knows about there on the hill. what congress is not focusing on amid the distractions. "the cycle" roe on for thursday, may 16th. ♪ ♪ ♪

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there is life beyond scandals, real and manninged. in the spin cycle we'll look at this. the house hasn't totally given up on its work. today the white house is holding the 38th vote to repeal obamacare. is that the best we can do in. >> apparently so. >> up next. >> it is funny/sad. it is funny because it is ridiculous and pathetic and it is a ready made daily show segment. but it is sad because there's so much more the house must do, claim it knows it has to do and doesn't even try. a brief thought from john boehner say that is also self parity. >> we want to improve the economy and improve the prospects for creating joks in our country. jobs is our primary focus. that's why i continue to talk about jobs. it is our number one focus.

>> no, it's not his number one focus. >> he did have the pamphlet of the i don't think john boehner believes it. to get to the serious part in the same presentation, he didn't spend time talking about any jobs legislation. he spent time talking about benghazi. yesterday he talk about how people should go to jail. so what should we be doing? i think we should be spending more domestically. we've talk about that. another thing we have to talk about is get past dodd frank and have real bank reform. that's something they should be about. the president doesn't need to raise any more money in our captured politics. a very exciting bipartisan bill with senators vitter. what's our other friend's name? i'm blanking. >> i don't know. but i'm excited about it. >> sherrod brown. >> thank you. >> coming together to do something that a lot of experts have talked about. make the banks, hold some cash.

15% for banks over $500 billion in assets and that way we won't to have bail them out as taxpayers. we are going to have senator brown on the show tomorrow so we can talk about it. that has both parties involved that i think we should be spending more time on instead of mini scandals. >> i don't know if they're mini and -- obamacare is in trouble. that's why the president spent the last month parading around the country trying to tell why a bill that's been law is actually a good thing. just because we don't talk about it every day on "the cycle" doesn't mean it's not happening. >> what? >> what? >> that's not true. >> i'm loathe to give congress credit for much of anything but i will give them credit for what they've been working on. the gang of eight, it cannot be underestimated how hard they've been working on immigration. that doesn't mean we'll get anything but that has been a grueling slog. that they've been dealing with day in and day out since

re-election. and hopefully that goes somewhere. both sides are working on their versions of a farm bill which could be important economically. and republicans have been working on jobs. mitch mcconnell just introduced to both the house and senate version of a coal jobs protection act that could be really important in terms of e.p.a. regulations. and i have a list here of dozens of bills the house has proposed on jobs that are stalled in the senate. >> only counts if you wave it at me. >> well -- >> and highlighted. and highlighted which we know makes it official. so there is a lot of stuff going. on i know paul ryan has been working on budget negotiations. there's stuff going on. it might not be sexy. it might not be something we talk about in its minutiae every day. >> i appreciate the portion of the show where s.e. cupp defends

government. i do. >> don't get used to it. >> i do appreciate that. what you're showing there with wills that go to the senate and then die, we already had a situation where it was very hard to get anything done. and the real problem is that each of these benghazi and irs and the a.p. issues are very polarizing and very divisive. so you need some good will to get any of these items passed through the house and through the senate. and these three issues are undermining what little tiny shred of good will may have existed. but because i am an optimistic person, i'm going to go to the liberal silver lining which is that prior to this, there had been some talk of entitlement cuts, social skut cuts, medicare cuts as part of a grand bargain. at this point, particularly with the cbo coming out saying deficits are much smaller than they had originally anticipated.

they 34 estimate by $203 billion for this year. with that immediate deficit concern even less than it was, i don't see the reason for liberals to be compromising on cuentitlement. so i think that is not likely to happen now. to me that's a very good thing. >> i agree on that. last week at this time, we thought this week would be all about immigration reform and of course it's not. media has been sidetracked. as you pointed out, congress has not. congress has been working on this slowly, marking up the bill. of course a lot of the editions have been poison pill stuff and there's a lot of discussion around, what can we do for gay families? which is perhaps an intractable divide there. but this sort of recent group of scandals or scandalettes has had less of an impact than boston which gave people philosophical cover to say wait a mi

maybe we should put on the brakes. they're still working on but there is a frank i will coalition moving forward in the senate. the house coalition is far more frag and i will could shatter at any moment. >> do we want to do odds? >> he hasn't done that. >> it won't be come prehencive and it won't be as meaningful as they want it. a bare minimum. >> it is nothing if it is not comprehensive and not helping the american economy. it is worthless. >> the politics goes to something he's saying. there may be so much bad energy. bad vibes from these scandals. and the way republicans are pursuing it, it makes it hard to get together. on the other hand some of these republicans may be buying

credibility with their base as they defend the tea party and go nuts on obama, they feel they have a little more room to make some votes. i think it is too early to tell on that. i don't think this type of investigation should be rewarded. >> my concern is that when you're demonizing the president, when you're saying he is trying to chill his political opponents and silence them. it is very hard to turn around and say but we're working with him on immigration. >> they shouldn't make it about the president. that's purely for political reasons. the country likes obama. don't make it about obama. they need to make it about the scope of government in my opinion. >> you heard it here first. don't make it about obama. make it about the facts. figure out where the facts lead. i hope that's what they do. as for benghazi, the attack might not hold back u.n. ambassador susan rice from getting a big promotion. foreign policy says that she might become the next pick for national security adviser. a position that calls more flupgs than secretary of state.

she of course withdraw for that consideration from that position five months ago. as for now, tom donlan has announced his interception to leave the post but it has been assumed that he would leave about a year into the second material of obama's presidency. what do you all think of this? yes, yes, yes and yes. i think that's how she wrote it. >> i don't think that's how she wrote it. >> i was trying to get her energy. she did not deserve, i hope potus does name her. laci, i can feel your excitement. join us on facebook and let us know what you're thinking. up next, we'll dig into immigration reform.

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as we just touched on immigration remains a top priority for many americans, even if it is getting a little less attention this week amidst all of the recent scandals, issues, whatever you want to call them. scandal that's regardless of what you think of them threaten to erode voters' trust in government and make big reform an even tougher sell. >> the bottom line is it is we need to deal with immigration reform. it is hurting the country. >> the fundamental problem we have faced is that people are saying we don't trust the federal government. we don't think the plan the federal government will come up with will be good. any time people lose trust even more, it makes it harder to make that argument. >> while the senate judiciary committee marks immigration plan, they said the three prong approach is one that has already failed. according to her, creating a jobs in the countries that produce the illegal immigrants is the only way to solve the problem. in the guest spot today, a

pulitzer prize winner who spent time on freight trains with child migrants. she is the author of a book, enrique's journey. i know you are not terribly impressed with what has been offered from the gang of eight. in your ideal world, politics aside, these bills aside, what would an immigration reform plan look like? >> well, let me be clear. the current system isn't great either. so bringing people out of the shadows is very important and people live in enormous fear today in the united states. that's not a good thing either. i think we need to start a conversation or continue a conversation about how we have to tackle this exodus of people at its source in terms of helping to create jobs in what are four countries that send 74% of the folks who are coming here unlawfully. today you can make six time as

much in the united states as you can in central america. when people came from europe, it was two times as much. and there are huge factors pushing people out of these countries, especially central america, honduras, el salvador, they have the highest homicide rates in the world. a lot of that is because of our drug use in the united states and what's happening in those countries to control those drug routes. i think we spent a lot of things on thing that don't work well like border enforcement. if we redirected those and created foreign policy centered around creating a jobs in those places. it would be a long term approach. we need a foreign policy that really addresses creating a jobs and economic develop many and family planning in these countries. trade policy that's allow more goods from these companies so we can create better opportunities for people so they'll want to stay. most of the immigrants, most

want to stay where they are if they can. >> i think it is an intriguing idea and clearly the stuff that was tried in the '80s and maybe even the proposals we're suggesting now are not going to sufficiently address immigration reform. but tell me how your idea, and i think it is intriguing, tell me how your idea would actually work? if we're looking at this as a foreign policy program, isn't that the same thing as nation building? >> i think in a way it is a form of nation building. i guess that's a pejorative term these days. but i think we have a lot of things in our tool box if we really are serious about trying to reduce this. we've got 300,000 people coming in every year. the question is whether we have immigration reform or not, will that numbering up as the economy improves? and as these factors are pushing people out of especially central america with the violence.

will those numbers really go up? if we're really serious about trying to address this. i think we need to bring everything that we have to bear. nafta did the opposite of what we want to do. it flooded all this corn into mexico. and all the small corn farmers couldn't compete. so a million corn farmers migrated to the united states. i spent time in a factory scrubs in honduras. the u.s. said we can buy those a few cents cheaper in china. that factory in honduras was about to shut down. why don't we let in more scrubs from honduras from other countries if we want to reduce this flow? why don't we spend the billions that we're going to spend on that useless fence toward targeted economic development? 86% of the folks who try to get across that border today, the survey shows are still getting across. they may have to try two or three time but they're still getting across. fences do not work. the only wall that has work has been the berlin wall.

that's because shoot to kill orders and still people got across. so even if we redirect the money, we're already spending some of it toward targeted economic development. whether it is promoting micro loan or supporting governments that are willing to redistribute the wealth. in honduras, we ended up acknowledging a coup in 2009 that deposed a democratically elected government. and instead of trying to support a government that was, that had doubled the minimum wage, we supported ultimately the people who brought about the coup that did away with that government. so i think there are a lot of creative things we can do if we set our minds to trying to reduce this. >> we read your new york times editorial which was very moving. and let me say, when i talk about, when i argue in favor of comprehensive reform, i try to point out the massive economic

benefits, that even undocumented immigrants have on america. when we talk about children, it is a little different. they will need many years of being taken care of by the state before they can produce. what would be your argument, why should we take these children who we'll to have take care of as opposed to the immigrants who will be more makers than takers? >> well, i think we have an aging population. migrants put $15 billion a year into the social security fund. so you would argue, i think, that this is a great resource. immigrants are people who are incredibly motivated. they will leave everything they know and love to go into the unknown. including these children. so i think this is a resource in terms of our declining population for the future. and in terms of helping be the workers of the future. i mean, we already see that by 2020, 30% of the children in our

schools will eat be immigrants or the children of immigrants. this is the future work force. so i think as we see a declining work force in the united states, that is something that we need to focus on and educate. and what "the new york times" piece really talked about, i'm on the board of an organization called kids in need of defense. >> let me ask but that. you talk about when children get caught up in the immigration court system. and you write, while we provide counsel for free to accused murderer, we don't do that to the children who might be here in an undocumented way. >> on your last question, most people understand that most of these children are not coming of their own volition. they're not breaking a law of their own volition. in many cases they are being brought by a parent. when these children, and the number adults being apprehended at the border is at a 40-year low. last year the number of children

coming alone to the united states without a parent and unlawfully doubled. it is expected to nearly double again this year. when those kids are apprehended at the border, they're put in detention. and there are more than 50 detention centers across 12 states just for children coming into the united states alone. and they're often bonded out or released to a parent or someone else. and they're ordered to go to immigration court. when they go to court, they're not entitled to a government funded attorney. and so you see these children who are, i've seen in court in l.a., kids 12 years old in other instances, two 5-year-old children. they come before an immigration robed judge. they're supposed to argue again this trained prosecutor, it's in english and mount a defense saying i should be allowed to stay in this country legally. and so you know, this is just a

travesty. this shouldn't happen in the united states. a child should not be asked, especially when the stakes are so high. they can be deported to danger. these kids should not be in this situation. and next week, senator grassley has, or the senate immigration bill today, it offers a way for these children to be provided government appointed attorney and senator grassley is trying to shoot that down next week. so we need to rally to make sure that is approved. >> all right. thanks for raising some important issues that i think a lot of people are not aware of. up next, developing news this afternoon. two trials getting a lot of attention. live reports on o.j. and jodi next. did you know more coffee drinkers

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to tears during emotional testimony this afternoon from the family of her victim, travis alexander. as the penalty phase of her trial begins. the jury is weighing whether to sentence her to death and in las vegas, the former star athlete o.j. simpson is looking for a new trial on his armed robbery conviction. he spend more than three and a half hours on the stand yesterday pleading his case. we've got both stories covered and begin with nbc's die an an aflar. jurors spent three hours to determine her eligibility for the death penalty. what is happening today? >> reporter: well, we just got through some very gut wrenching testimony from travis alexander's brother and sister. i was expecting a tough day in court but this was so hard to watch for me, i can't even imagine what it must have been like for jurors. the brother talking about the loss that it has had on their family. him having to go to the hospital for ulcers.

sister samantha talking about being a police officer. in her 11 years on the police force, she never saw photos as gruesome of the ones of her brother. let's take a listen to what they had to say. >> he got to meet my daughter and hold her for the first time. he said, she was the most beautiful little girl he has ever seen. i never would have thought that would be the last time that i would see him. >> losing travis has completely destroyed the overall health of our family. travis was our strength. our constant beacon of hope. >> reporter: as you can see for both of them, this was such a difficult day. one juror seemed to be having emotions a longside the brother and sister. so clearly their statements will have a big impact on what the jury decides to do moving forward. i will mention that earlier we heard from the defense attorney

who says that we'll hear from one of jodi arias's ex-boyfriends and even jodi arias herself. he wants the jury to see a different side of her than they've seen all along in that courtroom. >> die ana, what did her lawyers have to do to save her from lethal injection? >> reporter: it is not clear if they can do anything. it seems the jury has been very quick, very decisive in their decisions. it took not too long to decide that she was guilty of committing murder and it took three hours to decide that it was cruel. we've hear that things could be wrapping up fairly quickly by the middle of next week. to las vegas where former football great now, felon o.j. simpson wants a new trial. he was could not vigtd of armed robbery and kidnapping in the hotel room heist and is currently serving his 9 to 33-year prison sentence. the reporter from vegas has been following the story and joins us. to borrow from o.j.'s football days, is this a hail mary?

>> reporter: s.e., absolutely this is a hail mair. this is o.j. simpson's last-ditch effort. if judge bell does not give him a new trial, he has to serve at least up to four more years in prison. his attorneys could of course appeal this at any time. if you're looking at the video, he is 65 years old right now. he is not getting any younger. he was on the stand yesterday as you mentioned for more than three hours, talking. he is fighting this hard. he is doing everything he can. he is charismatic up there. personable. and the judge will decide his fate here. there are no jurors. keep that in mind. so it is up to this judge to see if she will give him a new trial. >> and o.j. has been arguing that, excuse me, his previous lawyer inadequately represented him. that lawyer will be testifying tomorrow. what should we expect? >> reporter: a big day tomorrow. that is yale galanter, part of o.j.'s former defense team.

that is the big question right now. what is he going to say? people have tried to get comment from him throughout this hearing. and he is saying nothing. so what he says tomorrow is going to be very crucial. one would imagine to the outcome of this hearing. >> thanks very much. up next, clash from race to religion to the role of government. how can we build the very real divides between us without sacrificing ourselves. yeah, we're getting deep next in "the cycle." introducing new febreze stick & refresh with command strips from 3m. designed to stick and eliminate odors anywhere. like this overflowing trashcan. to test it, we brought in the scott family. so what do you smell? beach house and you're looking out over the ocean. some place like, uh, hawaii in like a flower field. take your blindfolds off. aw man! [ screams ] [ laughs ] that smells good. i wouldn't even just put it in the trash, i'd put it in every room. stick it to eliminate odors anywhere. new febreze stick & refresh. breathe happy.

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at a time when people are becoming more and more defined by their differences, republican or democrat, black or white, mp 3s or vinyl, ironman or great gatsby, i choose neither, our next guest says rather than fearing these differences we can and should be harnessing them. according to her, the root of most conflicts is simply the battle between independents and enter dependence. joining us now, a stanford trained, the clash. eight conflicts that make us who we are. you talk about the culture cycle and the way we are defined by the culture that we're in. unpack that. how does that work? >> all of us are parts of many different cultures. we think of cultures as these big scary thing that make us

behave one way or the other. in our book we talk about culture as a process with four levels. the individuals nested in their daily interactions, nested institutions, nested in ideas. and as these are dynamic processes that we are a part of, we can also change them by being mindful about how cultures work and our part in them. >> dr. conner, you talk about th this clash. that's part of the catholic doctrine. they talk about this, something that paul ryan has been talking about. he argues that you need both. that solidarity alone leads to rank material i. subsidiary alone leads to individualism. how should the government play a role in out that balance, if at all in. >> i think we've seen in our own politics. we have this battle of independence and interdependents.

we don't find that it leads along party lines. we see the cultural divide that animates this. let me give an example from my own life. a few weeks ago i posted a video on facebook and a dear friend of mine who describes herself as a foot washing southern baptist e-mailed me and that, don't worry about global working. god is going to take care of us. and this really underscored for me the different understandings of god among lib rat protestants and conservative protestants. conservative protestants are now the largest religious group in the united states. so the difference i see is that liberal protestants tend to use this -- sorry, they use an independent unique individual side of themselves and they have a very independent view of god. god is distant. god is abstract. god isn't necessarily playing a role in daily life. but on the other hand, conservative protestants tend to think of god in very

interdependent materials. like conservative fathers, the conservative -- there's interesting research that they children more than liberal fathers. >> interesting. >> and likewise, the conservative protestant god is a very related, connected, present and also sometimes punitive god and we see that when you look at political discourse, you often have the independent side wanting to protect independent rights and the more interdependent side wanting to protect community, religion, and family. >> in the book you write about the regional differences and that there's research that shows that people who live in dense urban areas or who are affluent tend to not only care more about attractivists but linked to their happiness. you point to research by victoria plot that i found really interesting. you can see for our viewers it shows basically that people who

are more focused on attractiveness in urban areas show that that will make them feel less happy. whereas you say in this research, people in rural areas doesn't really matter as much about attractiveness and you write that affects how they pick their friends as well. explain that. >> yeah. so once again, there are a lot of things going on in this dynamic. independence and interdependence play this role. when you're in an urban area, you have a lot of people that you can choose to be your friend and also you really want to make choices in your friendships. choices are very important behavior for people using the independent side of their selves. it allows you to have control and feel like you're an individual. like you said, either wealthier or more urban context people, they want to choose their friends but you need criterion to select your friends. physical attractiveness turns out to be a -- >> people want to be with hotties. >> exactly.

right. i felt this myself. when i moved from tennessee to san francisco, there was all this pressure to lose weight, get nice clothes, get your hair under control. and i think a lot of people go through this. whereas back in tennessee, and also in poor communities and more rural communities, of course everybody wants to look their best, but you will stand by your friends even on their bad hair days, right? so relationships are about you're usually friends with people that you grew up with or that you went to church with. not the people you picked from the wide variety of humanity because they look great. >> and dr. connor, if you could quickly, what's sort of the core principle that people should take away that will help them understand the world a little bit better from your book? >> yeah. i think the most important thing is to realize that all of us have many different cultures. no one has just one culture. all of us have these two sides of ourselves, independence and interdependence. rather than feeling like, you know, i have to be the same way all the time, if you find yourself in a conflict with

someone, try both sides of yourself and draw on your own multiculture self. we find the more people travel, the more cultures they experience, the more creative they are. so it's time for us to bring that creativity to the table. >> we are all multicultural. i like the sound of that. dr. connor, thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having me. up next, the president right now is behind closed doors huddling up with the defense secretary, joint chiefs, chairmen, and top aides on the real scandal of the week. what should happen next? krystal clear, of course.

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of six-month-old e-mails regarding critical topic of sunday show talking points. a possibly overly broad but lawful investigation of a leak that last year republicans demanded be aggressively investigated. and the activities of some low-level civil servants who used improper criteria to scrutinize groups that deserve scrutiny. congressional republicans have been awfully busy grilling eric holder, again, sending out letters straining to tie the incident with low-level irs bureaucrats to some broader scheme of the administration, to, quote, chill the speech of political opponents. calling for people to be thrown in jail and, impressively, they're even managing to squeeze in a vital 38th vote on repealing obama care. an effort that has consumed no less than 15% of their time on the house floor since 2011. well done, guys. all of this calls for a reality check. a reality check for everyone but in particular for republicans,

d.c., and the media, because there is a real scandal this week. a scandal that's a national disgrace that goes to the core of our character as a people and hurts our ability to keep our country safe. doesn't have anything to do with the "ap" or the irs. lord knows it's got nothing to do with six-month-old talking points. this week while people were generally running around setting their hair on fire, we learned for the second time in two weeks a military member who was specifically tasked with preventing sexual assault in the military had, himself, been charged with sexual assault. unfortunately, this is no isolated incident or random horrible coincidence. president obama is meeting right now with secretary of defense chuck hagel and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey to discuss the growing epidemic of sexual assaults in the military. a new report estimates about 500 of our military men and women were assaulted every week last year. that pace would mean that 71 of our brave men and women will be sexually assaulted today.

worse, perhaps, than the abuse, itself, is that after being attacked, they'll have nothing but bad options. do they report the abuse to their commander who likely knows their attacker, who may even be their attacker? do they undergo the second trauma of telling the horrifying details of their story only to be disbelieved? and for their attacker to face no consequences after all? out of an estimated 26,000 incidents of sexual assault last year, only 1,714 service members were charged and only 238 of those were convicted. or do they make the choice that nine out of ten service men, last year, made, to cope with the trauma that will be with them the rest of their lives. we're failing on a basic level to protect our men and women in uniform. thousands of men and women are being forced to undergo sexual assault with little to no legal recourse. that is a scandal worthy of

action, attention, and setting hair on fire. is our political system so far gone that if a crisis can't be tied no matter to a political opponent then it's not really worth talking about? if so, that's a real scandal. all right. that does it for us here at "the cycle." martin bashir, it's all yours. >> thank you, krystal. good afternoon, it's thursday may the 16th and the knives are out. the heads are rolling. it's republicans gone wild white house edition. >> the acting commissioner of the irs is out. >> someone needs to be held responsible. >> my question isn't about who's going to resign. >> there are calls for more heads to roll. >> my question is, who's going to jail? >> culture of corruption. every day a new eruption. >> someone needs to be imprisoned. >> americans are right to be angry about and i am angry about it. >> you don't have to be sherlock