the new american is arriving. john tower has a couple of. >> richard w., deckham saves best bicycle kick for last. david beckham is sending to sacroheaven will he'll reside with the other soccer gods. >> a good one. i liked end it like beckham which was was a good one too. thanks, john. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪

i ask no one needs to avoid scandaling more than you. you're more popular with americans than exercise. don't get me wrong. i understand if you do your job perfectly, irs, no one will give you a gatorade shower but you have to try a little hard. >> i mean, really? they only keep you around to let the dmv look good. >> you're the turtle. obama, you said you heard about the sandal when you heard about it on tv? you found out about it on tv? i don't have to live in same world that you have the same sources as my aunt! >> good morning, may 20th. great to have you here with us. msnbc and "time" magazine political analyst is mark halpern and professors are here. >> i feel a little smarter already. >> political analyst and visiting professor at ngu and

former democratic congressman, harold ford. >> new york writer for "the new york times" nicholas and in washington, former white house press secretary and msnbc contributor robert gibbs. >> who, by the way, mika, was at the billboard music awards last night. >> did you see j. lo last night? >> i think i was probably comfortably asleep while that was on. not a wild and crazy guy, i'm not. >> i was watching with my daughters. we were thrown off. taylor swift was great but j. lo had a wardrobe malfunction action. >> her boots were falling off. >> her boots with a "t." >> she started pushing hearses into the camera. crazy! >> your daughters are discerning viewers. >> yes. carly? absolutely. we have a lot of ground to cover this morning. we have the commuting nightmare that was friday evening.

how could this happen? we are going to look into that. about 70 people injured and the trains were going 70 miles an hour. also parts of the midwest. >> they were going 70? were they derailed? >> incredible. severe weather in the midwest following tornadoes breaking out in the great plains. who won that? >> i don't like this lottery system. it's gambling. having said that. >> amazing. so they win like eight gazillion dollars and, fortunately, they are in the state of florida so they will not be paying like state income tax on it. >> can you imagine? >> move to florida, my friends. >> more live shots from the one publix than any other publix this weekend! >> that's why we have you here! how much did they end up winning? >> almost $600 million. >> is it the biggest one? >> i'm not sure.

>> it's gambling. i don't gre with it. >> there's no split. could be the single biggest winner. >> what do you do with 600 million dollars? >> buy that publix outright. >> okay. >> i don't grdream big. >> in light of obsessed i found this story. i love it. this woman lost 150 pounds while her husband was serving overseas and he didn't even recognize her when he got back. >> are you kidding me? >> yeah. it's kind of nice. let's get to the headlines now. despite the irs scandal lingering questions over ben ghazi and justice department's use of secret subpoenas. now polling shows president obama's approval rating hasn't suffered a bit. according to cnn, 53% of americans approve of obama's job. >> he's going up! >> exactly. >> he is going up. i had one republican this weekend say he is just an intern

short of 60%! >> come on! what are you saying? >> i'm just saying. >> ridiculous. >> anybody who thinks the scandals will make his numbers collapse weren't paying attention from 1998 and 1999 and 2000. there is this sort of rallying around the fact. certainly the base. put the numbers up again for one second. >> all right. >> 53%. you're basically getting into the territory of where he was when he won the election. >> exactly. >> you got a lot of democrats coming home and a lot of independents coming home. >> what do you make of it? are you surprised by this? >> i am. >> why? >> i really am. you know, because his approval rating has dropped down from times into the mid-40s when there is a bad economic report. and this is a frustrating poll for a lot of people that democrats should be able to look at this poll and go, hooray! but then other parts of it that are going to cheer republicans as well. it's just as confusing as

everything in washington. on the irs scandal, 71% find the agency's behavior unacceptable. just 42% are satisfied with white house's handling of ben ghazi. a majority of americans believe the outrage on the right is justified. 54% say republican lawmakers acting appropriately in response to the irs scandal. >> that's not a surprise. >> 59% believe the same is true on ben ghazi. >> robert gibbs, that is a surprise for people inside that white house and this is only a snapshot and only one poll but in the cnn poll, close to 60% of americans now very concerned about ben ghazi. that number, of course, has jumped up 15, 20 points and americans weren't paying attention before. let's talk about the totality of this, though, first. the president's approval rating is up. why? >> i think it's just largely unchanged because my hunch is as i think mika said, you're at

about the point in which the president got for re-election. i think in times of these certain scandals, especially when it becomes a partisan food fight, people tend to go to their partisan corners. i think the numbers are largely unchanged to say sort of where they were around the election is not altogether unsurprising. >> robert, looking at these three scandals and you look at the numbers now. again, is it a scandal? what do you call these thee event, first of all? >> i would separate them a bit because i don't think they are all of the same piece, right? i think you got, you know -- i would put them into basically three buckets. right? the irs, that is clearly something that has to be better dealt with by everybody. >> and scandalous? that is a scandal. >> absolutely. i think what the irs has done, nobody would make an excuse for.

i'm surprised that -- i think the number on the poll that you put up 26% think it was okay for the irs to do that. who exactly are those people and can you now raise your hands? >> yeah. >> you know, the ben ghazi event, obviously, a huge tragedy. i think most americans, quite frankly, are more concerned about what we are doing to secure our embassies and that this tragedy never happens again. >> right. >> we haven't had a ton of new information. >> let's pick this apart one-by-one. critics are continuing to hammer the obama administration over the irs scandal. republicans say they are imperg up for more congressional hearings on the matter. white house senior adviser dan pfeiffer says the conduct by the irs was wrong even if it wasn't legal. >> what does the president believe? does the president believe that would be illegal? >> i can't speak to the law here. the law is irrelevant. the activity was outrageous and

inexcusable and stopped and it needs to be fixed so ensure it never happens again. >> you don't really mean the law is irrelevant, do you? >> i mean whether it's legal or illegal is not important to the fact that it's -- the conduct doesn't matter. the department of justice has said they are looking into the legality of this and the president will not wait for that and make sure it doesn't happen again regardless of how that turns out. >> mark halpern? how was his performance yesterday? >> he did five shows. and i thought mostly he was good because the fact of the matter is -- i can -- i can argue both sides of sort of the macro status of these three flap scandals tragedies but the reality is america can and should walk and chew gum at the same time. there should be investigations by all of these things by dan pfeiffer who was strong in bringing us back to the reality which the country has a lot of other business to do and no reason why we can't be sensible investigations and bipartisan where sensible and also try to

do the people's business on bigger issues, jobs and economy the things the president is focusing on. i think thought dan did a good job of making that case. >> one guy will figure out how far the senate goes plays a key role is mitchell mcconnell how much focus on legislating and these investigations. >> yesterday on "meet the press." mitchell mcconnell went after the president and his team for the handling of the scandal. >> there is a culture of intimidation throughout the ghins. the irs is the most recent example. no wonder that the agents and the irs sort of get the message. the president demonizes his opponent of the unit and demonizes dog. >> a leap you can make as an argument but you don't have fact to back it up. >> well, the investigate -- >> you can talk about a culture. do you have any evidence that the president of the united states directed what you call a culture of intimidation that the irs to target political

opponents? >> i don't think we know what the facts are. >> then why are you saying that? because red meat has been put on the table by the -- >> that's why you have investigations, mika. >> yeah. but you usually -- well, i would you would have an investigation and then make a conclusion but whatever. that is mitchell mcconnell. shall we go to peter? >> i don't know. i feel the need to talk about harry reid now for a while. >> i am just making comments. >> with us is peter alexander at the white house. the president's numbers look slid but, at the same time, hounded all weekend over at least three big stories. >> if it's 6:00, it's also the leaf blower so excuse us if he rolls in behind me a matter of moments behind me now. the gist on this issue is one of the headlines making news today is what is giving this story some legs and exactly what the white house lawyer, the council kathy rumler knew on april 22nd,

a few weeks before the president was informed on this. reporter from "the new york times" and "wall street journal" we have confirmed she had been informed at that time that conclusions were now basically almost done on the audit of the irs and a small number of irs employees at the time, i don't think they knew where were targeting conservatives. what we initial understood the white house alerted to the audit and not to the specific details and raising in the eyes of some some questions about why the white house would not have been notified specifically the president would have not been notified a little bit earlier. i as for to a senior administration official a short time ago saying this is nothing different than what we have been saying on this. the president in this weird position. people are wondering who is manning the store? should he not be better informed of this stuff than hearing it from us on news reports? and at the same time, not inappropriately meddle in the eyes of senior advisers and members of the administration if

he tries to get involved into an investigation that is currently taking place. >> nick, you've been looking into this and reporting on in terms of what was known, high levels of the white house and when. and it's always easy to say after, my god, why wouldn't you inform the president about this? but i would think this would be one of these things you raise a flag on and give us a sense of when people at a high level in the white house and how high a level actually knew about this. >> as far as we know, you know, the irs -- last few weeks is perk later up and they say we have this audit. if you look at the irs website you can find publicly. >> there was away there was targeting and something wrong going on? >> at first did the white house know when it started. did the white house know in 2011? did the white house know in 2012? at the height of the election year. if they knew a few weeks ago as the report was finalized it

doesn't surprise me. i think the real unanswered questions at the beginning of this time line how did it start. who gave the order in cincinnati to say we should look at these groups. >> look into it and we don't know that yet. >> we don't know. if you look at the time line in this long report the one thing redacted at the top is the first thing that happens in this whole thing. you don't really know what happens. >> how it started. harold ford, we keep going back and forth talking about this off camera. what is worse? if the president knew a little bit at the beginning or if the president time and time again found out for the first time while he is reading the newspapers like seth myers is say. rather not have a president when these big things happen, i didn't know until you knew. i was watching tv. >> perhaps it was an inartful choice of words. i hope the president is focused on things a lot of bigger than this. as this story comes out, to

nick's point, i think questions will continue to be asked about the president's management style if, indeed, he learned when we watched on television or if, indeed, his chief counsel which it appears was aware that these findings were coming and got a heads-up and what they may look like. what steps are being taken to prevent this kind of activity going forward. i think people will know in a specific way and behoove the treasury secretary and president to make that clear. two, likely others will be held accountable in the white house for these actions. i'm interested to hear nick's point at some point on his thinking at spoke point on others will lose their job. it has nothing to do with irs. a big day in the house where my dad turns 68 today so happy birthday. >> happy birthday, dad! >> that's nice. >> it's his birthday this morning and i wish him a happy birthday. >> tracy great. quickly, robert gibbs. would you be warning your

friends in the white houses if you were in that business to be careful about trotting out that line, hey, the president just found out last week about this? at some point, it starts to sound like ronald reagan and iran/contra in 1986. >> let's be clear. you don't have to -- you don't have to imagine much of what mitch mcconnell would have said to david gregory conjuring up not letting the facts get in the way had the president known about this, had kathy couprumle tells the president then several weeks before the report is done. mick mcconnell saying if the president knew before the report was done what proof do we have that the president didn't meddle and soften what the attorney general report came up with. you read that report and no good

answer in terms of do you tell the president now or wait? >> no good answer, robert, but he has the same answer on a.p. and the same answer he has on -- >> but, joe, do you want the president so say, oh, sure i had a long conversation with the attorney general about the subpoena? >> no, a long conversation between having a conversation with the attorney general and being in the dark. i don't believe any chief executive is in the dark and claiming the lives of americans and the president stumbling around a year and has no idea the largest news gathering operation is having subpoena duces tecum thrown all over them and having unprecedented seizure of their phone records. is there a middle ground. it doesn't have to be black or white. i don't think this president was totally ig nort of what was going on in the justice department regarding the associated press or what was going on in this irs cincinnati field office. as nick said you could go online and see the investigations. >> what is better answer? >> this is one of the only --

>> better answer is he didn't meddle. >> the best answer is -- hold on one second -- is that he wasn't completely ignorant about it but i didn't meddle. you can't have two things at once. i wonder if the white house is too clever. did this president find out about these two stories for the first time when he was watching tv? are they afraid to tell the truth that, hey, he knew what was going on but he wasn't meddling in the investigations? >> i think in many ways, these are questions that will be asked and will be nit-picked on. i think, quite frankly, and the poll shows what people are more concerned with and more concerned with in two weeks or two months or two years, has somebody looked into and fixed the irs so that this sort of thing never happens again? i think whether or not the president was told, you know, on april 22nd or april 29th is sort of -- it doesn't much matter. >> if you are the president only

one of two agencies he only gets to appoint the top two people in the entire agency and a reason for that. you don't want the president calling up, you know, the i.g. in that office and saying what is going on with your investigation? how is it going? what you want him to say here is what is happening and be told what is happening and perhaps be ready for it but it's not meant to be a political agency and it shouldn't be a political agency. >> right. >> we have so many agencies involved. you're talking about the irs? >> the irs, yeah. what i'm talking about. i think with the a.p. you think if you're subpoenaing the largest news organization in the country or, you know, you think he would know something about it. >> i agree completely. you don't want the president calling the i.g. and you certainly don't want the president calling the attorney general going, hey, how is the investigation going? i don't buy this line that the president of the united states, as brilliant as he is, with mr. magoo stumbling around the white house and he popped in front of a tv set last week and said, my

goodness, this has been going on? i don't buy it! >> how do you notify him without raising mitchell mcconnell's suspicion in that conversation something improper was done? >> again, i'm not telling the white house how to do their business. i'm just saying that most presidents are active enough that they would not be completely blindsided and get this sort of news from tv. have an aide coming up to you and saying, mr. president, the investigation is going on about the leaks. in the case that we are so concerned about, an investigation is going on. i'm not going to get into it, but it's -- and i find it absolutely hard to believe that the president was completely in the dark until last week on ghi of this stuff. >> we will gate back into this must reads. right now hit this other headline. tornado season has gone from quiet to deadly in a matter of days. over the weekend, tornado after tornado struck the middle part of the country and the pictures are absolutely stunning. this is video of a tornado that

struck right outside wichita, kansas. a weather chaser captured this photo, the same storm, in oklahoma. four separate tornadoes hit across the state. look at the damage. the governor has declared a state of emergency in 16 counties. one person killed and 21 injured. nbc affiliate shot this video of a semi truck apparently blown off a highway overpass. that tornado was reported mile-wide ef-4 which touched down not far from oklahoma city. there was also widespread flooding as far south as georgia and 7 inches of rain did heavy damage there and the biggest cities in the midwest could see more severe weather today. >> look at that funnel cloud and that tornado. harold, you're from? >> tennessee. >> i lived across the deep south and especially when i lived in meridian, mississippi. you always get these warnings. these are the most frightening things in the world.

unlike even hurricanes where you can look at a map and see where they are coming they pop up and destroy neighborhoods. >> as a child, that thing scared me more than any natural disaster. >> i ran downstairs. >> i couldn't watch it. >> they are horrifying. >> let's get the latest from msnbc meteorologist bill karins on this. >> an amazing afternoon and so many storm chasers out there. watching the monster tornadoes live on tv or on the internet as they were happening and going through and heading for these towns. it was incredible. the one tornado we are showing you this one right here was heading for downtown wichita, kansas. it was heading directly for our nbc station ksn. >> this storm bears down on the city of wichita. it appears it is time for all of us to get to shelter. get to shelter right now! ryan newton! ryan newton, right now, ryan!

everybody down below! let's go! >> they literally had to evacuate the studio because that tornado was heading for the station directly and we could see it outside their window. by the grace of whatever god or whatever else, it lifted the second it got right to the tv station. so they were all safe there. but they did have a lot of damage through wichita. in all we saw almost 50 tornadoes over the last three days. today will be day four of our tornado outbreak. yesterday was a bad one. today could be equally as bad and it's going to be widespread. we are talking the areas of yellow could see severe storms and isolated tornadoes all the way through the northern great lakes including chicago today, indianapolis, back down to dallas. it's the area of red that is the greatest risk for the big powerful tornadoes like the ones we just showed you. they will form about 4:00 to 6:00 this afternoon and spread towards springfield and joplin later on tonight and hopefully dissipating wind damage. amazing the helicopter pilot for our nbc station in oklahoma

he'll be up there later today if there is big tornadoes again he'll be about a mile south of them shooting these amazing pictures. >> unbelievable. >> okay, bill. >> that storm line, we were in actually minnesota, great event last night. >> yes. >> lots of hope. and they had horrible storms all around. bois rough weather this spring. >> we will be following that. peter alexander, thank you. >> thank you for braving the elements there. the blowers, leaf blowers. >> look at him! just go with it, peter. >> thanks for having us. >> coming up on "morning joe," the president on the sound sill on foreign relations richard haass and glenn hubbard and kay hagan and deepak chop rah ra is

with us. >> we will talk about the train derailment. >> a lot of injuries there. up next, governor chris christie is working to bring tourists back to new jersey after superstorm sandy but the critics are accusing him of mixing personal ambitions with political. of course, he is! you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. >> what? only because he loves america and jesus and apple pie! it's monday.

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♪ restaurant in san francisco called bacon bacon has been order to do close after neighbors complained about the overwhelming smell of bacon. and it's going to be really tricky to walk up to a cop and complain that something smells like bacon! >> that's funny! 28 past the hour. time to take a look at the morning papers and start with the "the washington post." united airlines resuming service on its 787 dreamliner today.

after being grounded for four months. >> seems like blow up when turn the engine on? >> due to battery fires. flights begin with shorter domestic trips before resuming full internet service in june. >> you talk to rattner who is an expert on airplanes regarding aviation to see if fires are bad. >> stop. move on. >> virginia pilot two fbi agents killed off the coast of virginia beach in an accident during a training exercise. two men part of the hostage rescue team base inside kwanands still under review. >> commuters are asked to stay there in new york city rather than returning home to home state and follows a commuter train collision on friday evening that knocked out service along the highly traveled corridor and it will take days for crews to repair the lines and official in connecticut are

urging workers to carpool and warning if the 30,000 train commuters take individual cars to work the highways will look more like a parking lot. friday's train collision injured 72 people is still under investigation. >> that is really -- >> one of the trains literally flew off the tracks and collided into another. a nightmare. >> we have so many friends that commute on that line. that is frightening. as far as the roads looking like a parking lot, i've got bad news for the governor. >> what is is that that? >> i-95 already looks like a parking lot. >> maybe we should give him a little tour. >> every day! any time of the day or night! let's go to my home state of florida. the florida times union. largest powerball jackpot in history for total $590 million. >> crazy. >> the winning ticket sold at a publix supermarket around tampa,

florida. >> chances 1 out of 79 million. >> what would you do? >> i'd buy your jet. >> really? >> i would buy t.j. actually a wig. and a new set of clothes. >> that's nice of you. >> and book explaining to t.j. that polyester went out. >> that's nice. would you do anything fun for yourself? would you quit your job? >> no. i never do anything fun for myself. that is sort of what i do. i work. and hang out with my friends at politico. all i do. >> that's sad. joining us now with the politico playbook, mike allen. >> never sad to hang out with mike allen. i might actually take a three or four-day vacation. >> really? >> maybe so. mike, did you have a good weekend? >> fantastic weekend. was down in suffolk, virginia into wedding. peter and laura. yesterday, i went to charlotte,

north carolina. nephew evan is a lacrosse all-american and last night played in the top 38 high school of lacrosse players in north carolina and he won! >> congratulations! very good. hey, let's go to a sound bite. this is new jersey governor chris christie who is facing a backlash over 20 million ad campaign he promotes tourism to his state. >> what is wrong with that? >> nothing. i want people to come to my ad. >> he appears in the ad. >> we do this in florida all the time. we have a tragedy and people say we can't go to florida. no. you saw we are open for business. >> and families should join us. >> roll the tape. >> thank goodness he did this. ♪ it's in our blood our dna ♪ who we are we are here to stay ♪

♪ because we're stronger than ever ♪ >> the jerseys shore is." aye. >> the word is spreading because we are stronger than the storm. >> you bet we are. >> the guy loves jersey and he doesn't hate his family. what is wrong with that, mike? he is proud of his family! >> i'm saying bring it on if i'm chris christie. reminding voters of one of cris's strongest issues and now he handled -- not how he handled sandy but the fact it gave me the opportunity, the excuse to work with this white house to work with president obama and interestingly enough in the first christie ad of this campaign which we saw first here on "morning joe" he makes this point that he is reaching out. this is a state that is a blue state in presidential politics so it helps him that he has had this issue where he can reach

out. democrats have been trying this for months. back in january, some democrat said -- democratic legislative leader said christie prayed for a storm and he apologized but that but shows democrats are chewing this rag for a while. >> they should spit it out and be grateful that jersey -- >> one way of putting it. >> my grandma says this takes the rag off the churn, doesn't it? but, you know, the thing is chris christie was a big part of this recovery. of course, nick tells me that george pataki got in trouble when he was promoting the state for having himself in there. but strong leaders attract people to states. that's just a relate of it. >> no. that's right. and it gave the governor a big substantive nonidio logical issue. it's harder to run on teachers union and pension reform and

controversial things and harder to run on. this is something, as a governor, you demonstrate competence and what people are not showing in their leads right now. >> and a point of pride in the way it's done. politico mike allen, thanks. >> congratulations to your entire extended family. a heck of a weekend for the allen household. >> and congratulations to mika, the upcoming issue of "the new york times" book review "obsessed" debuting on the list. >> thank you. >> ahead, chuck todd of "the daily rundown." and a.o. scott. i read his piece this weekend. fascinating. says a lot about materialism and what american audiences are looking for. plus marisa myer dropping a bill

bucks on the website tumbler. is that good or bad for yahoo!? and a 26-year-old who dropped out and started a company in his mom's apartment. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ we take care of our own we take care of our own ♪ with the spark cash card from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business. can i get the smith contract, please? thank you. that's three new paper shredders. [ boris ] put 'em on my spark card. [ garth ] boris' small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase every day. great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. read back the chicken's testimony, please. "buk, buk, bukka!" [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase every day. told you i'd get half. what's in your wallet?

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david beckham's professional soccer career came to an end over the weekend in paris. >> that was sad. >> like my sendoff to cnbc. very close to it. >> it was close to it. >> was he good? >> he was amazing. >> he was great. >> he was amazing. >> obviously master of the corner kick. got a little emotional when it came out in the 81st minute. >> started 20 minutes before and, you know, the emotion start kicking in and it was hard to -- it was hard to run and even let alone kick a ball. it was an emotional into night to see the reaction of the players and the fans when it came up, it was special. >> he got a standing ovation after his team took a 3-1 win. he had an assist in the victory.

>> yeah. you asked was he good. that has been debated. >> i've seen topless shots of him in the shadow and silhouette and flexing his muscles. >> one of the reasons why he never got the respect that he would have gotten if he were as ugly as john terry. no, he was a great player but he never, ever got the respect that he would have gotten if he weren't a supermodel in a football uniform. >> yahoo! it appears will tumbler. a bold move by ceo marisa myer but concerns that yahoo! could smother the popular site to an attempt to lure younger users. in 2010 tumler was valued at 1.1 billion. they hosted geo cities in 1999 for 3.6 billion and

broadcast.com for 5.7 billion and -- >> i'm sure that was -- flickr in 2005. >> mark cuban, the billionaire he is today that deal. >> the david carp will be fabulous weathery. compared to mark zucker berg worth 13.3 billion. his worth is 200 million. >> 200 million and started in his mom's apartment. >> no profit and only 13 million in revenue. they are trying to yet gunning and hip and a blogging site and great on mobile but the tumblr

think it's showered with ads and facebook think it's ruined by it. >> just aren't ads on tumblr. >> up next the must read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. your children's health can affect their gpa. yes, exercise and education go hand in hand. so make sure your kids are active 60 minutes every day. you'll help them feel good and even perform better in school. the more you know.

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time or not. i did not know the topic. actually, i do not know that. would have to look back at my notes on that. >> you've got notes on that? >> i'd have to try to find them. >> why did you say you had notes if you don't think you had notes? >> sir, please. >> i don't. >> please. >> please. do you have notes or don't you have notes?rephrase it. >> i don't know. i don't believe so no. i don't know that sir. i don't know -- i don't think so. and i say that as though, i don't know. i was not we'aware of that, sir >> that from our friends at buzz feed who cut together a mashup of steven miller's testimony at the white house -- at the house, ways and means committee on friday. he just doesn't know. this is like asking bernie during the height of the clinton

administration questions. nobody knows nothing. >> and this cluster of stories doesn't help the fact it's not just one. "the washington post" david ignatius addresses how washington works and he says this. the hundred pages of ben ghazi e-mails relieved this week tell us almost nothing how four americans same to die in that elabora libyian city. rather than reading these messages for their substance on ben ghazi and which official were clueless three days after the track how about the bureaucracy responds to crisis especially when officials know they will be under the media spotlight. what you find is a 100-page t novella of turf had been battling and backside-covering. >> the squeezing of every single

word, robert gibbs. a cia operation from the get-go. >> when you have so many departments with so many different equities. look. i will say when i saw there had been twelve revisions to the talking points i thought they did that in only 12 revisions? you've got the cia, the state department, the department of defense, the white house. i mean, look. you know, to construct public talking points on what was clearly -- what the cia was an ongoing and continuing investigation, not easy to do. >> i'm looking at maureen dowd. it was pretty effective. did you see maureen dowd, robert gibbs, yesterday? >> i don't normally read maureen. >> oh, yes you do. >> no. >> yes, you do. >> i do largely because it's sort of largely the same column for the last like eight years. >> really? >> wow. >> really? >> sorry.

>> all right. i'm going to read it. >> what did she say? don't tell me. let me guess. >> read it. >> i'm trying to find the best part here. >> one time seems like a sad sack trying to bounce back from a blistering array of sins not even his fault. he went to baltimore on friday to talk about jobs but no one was listening. everybody in the country who hates the irs so then everybody was listening to the acting irs commissioner who had been ousted steven miller tell a house committee he didn't know who was to blame for the scheme to unfairly scrutinize conservative groups with words like tea party and patriot in their title. >> she talks about the clintons. and basically says, robert, you'd expect this from the clintons but you just wouldn't expect this from barack obama. she says -- >> even -- >> her money line in here is that hillary eats scandals for

breakfast. so is that the same maureen dowd column you've been reting for eight years? >> more or less, yes. >> so what do you make of the complete ignorance? what do americans think when they have this irs scandal and they hear the president learned about it on tv and the acting director saying he basically -- he is colonel clinic. he knows absolutely nothing. >> i think it's why it's so important that we have a robust investigation by the inspector general. they can get through these problems and get to the bottom of them and figure out -- again, i think the american people are going to be focused how it happened as we have talked about here and not necessarily when somebody at the white house told somebody else in the west wing and, most importantly, in several months, we need good assurance this isn't going to happen again. let's be clear.

501c4 as nick can tell you st. louis social welfare organizations that under the rubric of these things a continued proliferation of them not a minimizing of these types of groups. so the scrutiny on this is only going to get harder at a time in which we don't want people taking advantage of the tax code. >> robert, stay with us. >> can i ask a question? do you think this creates a way for perhaps some form moderate to comprehensive tax reform to get done? >> i hope so. nothing was getting done before this and i'm afraid this kills so many pieces of legislation. >> no tax reform? >> i would hope it would but right now i don't know that anything passes for a while. it's depressing. everybody, stick around. chuck todd is coming up. more "morning joe" in a minute. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but

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every day. moving to news now. a group the u.s. classified as a terrorist organization is fighting along the syrian group and others are waging war against them. have things gone too far for the in this community to intervene? richard haass will join us at the top of the hour! >> he is brilliant! ♪ ♪ snowe it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

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when something doesn't go

your way, you just got to adjust. you've got to dig deep and work like crazy and that's when you'll find out what you're really made of during those hard times. oprah was demoted from her first job as a news anchor. now, she doesn't even need a last name. and then there is this guy barack obama who lost -- i could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but he lost his first race for congress and, now, he gets to call himself my husband. >> welcome back to "morning joe." harold ford jr. and mark halpern are still bus along with robert gibbs in washington and joining us now president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. he is the author of new book

"foreign policy begins at home the case for putting america's house in order." it's doing well, your book. >> i hope so. >> good to have you. >> and especially if it's paired with us. you buy this and people often buy "obsessed." >> they are gorging and eating when they read your book. its a culinary movable feast. >> we should have a joint event and make all of the sense in the world. >> they are from the "morning joe" collection and why do you think we put game change over the top? >> that is so funny. my father is going to be horrified. >> i was worried your father had a eating disorder! >> that's great. my father is going to cringe. >> he is. if j. lo didn't turn the channel. a lot to talk about this morning. once again, horrible weather breaking out across the midwest. some tornadoes in wichita.

we were up in minnesota yesterday. the house of hope. a wonderful event. but we had to get out of there pretty quickly because bad weather was going there. tornado warnings and watches all over the place. across wichita and central part of america some rough stuff and also i-95 corridor going up to connecticut is going to be even more of a parking lot now than usual. train derailment. >> don't come to work unless you can car pool. >> they are saying go to new york and stay there. to do we have pictures of the train derailment? you tell me these trains rush hour friday night, fairfield, which is the headquarters of the general electric, that the trains were going 90 miles an hour? >> no. >> i mean 70 miles an hour? >> about 60 or 70 injured at this point. if not more. and those trains are packed with commuters. obviously, at that time on a friday. that must have been harrowing. one train literally flipped off the tracks and careened into

another. >> so many people have families in connecticut and how they get in and out of work every day. harrowing stuff. did you win the possibwerba jackpot? >> i didn't. i think it's garble imbling. >> the odds were so good. >> 1 in 175 million. despite the irs scandal lingering questions over ben ghazi and justice department's use of secret subpoenas, new polling shows president obama's approval rating hasn't suffered a bit. according to cnn, 53% of americans approve of obama's job. that is up two points from air. -- april. majority believe the outrage on the right is justified. 54% say republican lawmakers

acting appropriately in response to the irs scandal. 59% believe the same is true on ben ghazi. >> mark halpern, are you surprised? 53% approval rating. the president has actually gone up since these stores hit last week. it has been nonstop negative coverage. what is the effect? are democrats just coming home? >> well, look. the reality of his time in office, he has a ceiling on his support which has kept him from being the fully transformative figure he wants to be but a floor under him has is very solid. republicans have not, as just a matter of stage craft, have not managed these controversies perfectly in order to do damage to him. i think every day inside the bubble of the political media culture these things are a big deal. none of them are simple and each the irs story is not simple. and i think the longer term if the president keeps focusing on the things people care about, i don't see him dropping that much in light of the current events.

>> we were surprised about the cnn poll came out. first of all, the president's numbers went up but also that 58%, 59% of americans think ben ghazi is a serious story. if you go back a week, week and a half ago, who is down in the low 40s, people weren't foefcus on it. can we put that poll up again? . you were surprised by that number? >> i am. again, i think as sort of talking to people out in different places that we have gone including st. paul yoed, they want to talk about it actually. >> 59% of republicans because the media story line as we keep this up, the media story line, robert gibbs, has been that the republicans are overreacting to ben ghazi, that these are just extremists on the far right. you look at this now about 6 in 10 americans believe that republicans are acting appropriately and takes away the narrative from a lot of people

in the national media and certainly a lot of democrats. >> i think the hearing that was held had some compelling voices in it. going to mark's point, it will be interesting to see the staying power because when he says that republicans haven't managed these things well the difference between the sort of calm witnesses that were relaying their testimony and republicans who quickly go to impeachment or go to the fact that, well, the president didn't send a military response because he doesn't care about whether the country is protected from terrorists, that is when people start to flee and when the republicans lose. the question will be as this goes forward, what is the dominant voice among republican speakers on this? is it that calm voice of the witness or is it do they want to just go quickly and use the word impeachment? >> exactly. that overreaching you also have now inside the republican party republican leaders quietly

talking to their members saying, don't use the word impeachment. don't use the word watergate. don't overplay this scandal. it's going to play itself out very well. you say a lot of people whose political opinions i respect the past week, yourself, howard dean and others say the irs scandal is what is going to hit them. richard haass take a look. we showed this last hour. a buzz feed mashup. heard the white house and president knew nothing. now a guy running the irs what he said he knew, steven miller. >> i'm hearing, i don't know, i don't remember, i don't recall. >> i don't know. could have been either. >> i don't have that information. >> don't know that. i don't know that it was -- i'm sorry, sir. i'm not going to be able to answer with particularity there. i don't have names for you, mr. brady. i don't know if we knew at that time or not. i did not know the topic. actually, i do not know that. would have to look back at my notes on that. >> you've got notes on that? >> i'd have to try to find them.

>> why did you say you had notes if you don't think you had notes? >> sir, please. >> i don't. >> please. >> please. do you have notes or don't you have notes? >> i don't know. can i rephrase it? >> no. >> i don't know. i don't believe so no. i don't know that sir. i don't know -- i don't think so. and i say that as though, i don't know. i was not aware of that, sir. >> wow. that is amazing. richard, you've written about government and the challenge we face from within this new book. watching that testimony, how is that in any way inspiring -- i would argue on either side for those of us who want to believe in government and the country. two, would you have sent the former irs commissioner out if you were in charge determining -- i don't think the white house had a lot to do with this but, at the same time, who does this serve? who won listening to people and

congress and learning more and the administration moving away from some of this, what is your estimation of this? >> this was not confidence building. you got two scandals if you will the irs and a.p. scandal which is about potential abuse of governmental authority. ben ghazi is different. questionable decisions and judgment and people reacted and shocking enough and you know this from government few people come off second best in their own e-mails and we used to say in the state department no one sent in a reporting telegram the other guy took me to the cleaners or our agency did the worse and the other agency did the best. all of these taken together which i thought you were going, not the kind of thing will make the best and the brightest one to government. nothing about this is appealing or attractive and humiliating testimony you saw. did you take notes? i don't remember.

i don't know the details but it's hard to feel good about the entire process. >> even a liberal or progressive democratic president will take a lot of power in a lot of circumstances and represents are right to ask questions about all three of these things. in each one of these stores still questions we don't know the answers to and it's proper for republicans to ask. mostly they have asked in ways -- >> you talk about the stage craft. was there a more effective way to do it. i think these questions -- >> on the irs? >> yeah. >> they need to keep asking them for the public interest and politics takes care of itself. >> if we are talking about the ways and means committee, the republicans on that committee -- >> they did a great job. >> they did a great job. >> normally grandstanding. >> there is but we talk about equal on both sides. i tell you what, on friday, ways and means, my gosh. >> well-run hearing. >> once you learned this, what do you do to stop it and prevent

it from happening again? that is what i not heard from anybody. don't get me wrong. i think it's important to mow what they knee awe when they knew it but what have they done to prevent this from happening again? the only question i wish had been asked by one of the committee members. >> let's move along. mika, on sunday, quickly, talk about the a.p. story as well. >> we heard from the ceo of the associated press for the first time. he went on bob schieffer's show, gary pruitt. this was the first time he talked since, of course, it was revealed that the justice department seized two months of the news organization's telephone records. do we have that sound bite, alex? really? okay. >> it was very good. a.p. -- i was telling mika, you could pick a lot of news organizations to upset. you could pick somebody other than mika to upset and your life

would be much better. you could pick a lot of news organization -- this white house. i think this is going to be -- the white house has a couple of different problems going. one, the irs with the voters. second, the associated press with people who report on them every day because as ron fournier pointed out brilliant last week. the white house wasn't true. the a.p. told on to hold up its story because they wanted to get the story out first. fournier is tight with the associated president, this white house is going to have a rough ride with the a.p. moving forward. >> the a.p. is kind of that granular kind of journalism. not in a negative sort of way but it's all over the place and the whole governmental approach was indrim nationiscriminatndis.

to get something to vacuum that many people has to bequieting. >> here is gary pruitt talking yesterday on bob schieffer's show. >> the rules require them to come to us first but in this case they didn't claiming an exception if they had it would have posed a substantial threat to their investigation but they have not explained why it would and we can't understand why it would. they think they went about it the wrong way. so sweeping, so secretively and so abusely and harassingly and overbroad that it constitutes -- that it -- that it is an unconstitutional act. if they restrict that news gathering apparatus you're right. the people of the united states will only know what the government wants them to know. >> pruitt has first experience on issues related to the

constitution. earlier in his career he served as first amendment lawyer for mcclatchy newspapers. >> one of the things mr. pruitt said yesterday is so important for everybody in the country, they are already finding some of their sources don't want to talk to associated press reporters because afraid they will be caught in the government looking at the phone records. we have to have a free press in the country. whatever balance was made by people in the obama administration they have sent a chill already and it's bad for the country and besides resolving this case and the policy going forward they need to figure out how to resolve this. >> the chill, though, robert gibbs, plays to the white house advantage. we are getting exactly what they want. whistle-blower inside agency is not going to talk to the associated press. they are going to be afraid to talk to anybody because they have been chilled. >> complicated thing. let's sort of try to separate a few of these pieces out.

a whistle-blower like, let's say, somebody at the irs said, boy, he had been asked to look at something like this, to scrutinize conservative groups more, i think there is a difference between what you would consider a traditional whistle-blower and somebody who is clearly part of an investigation that everyone has said relaying the fact that a terrorist activity had been broken up, puts lives in danger is probably based on the source and method for how that information came out and i think, in some ways, we have to separate this. i do think this. i think the onus is clearly on the justice department. i know it's very difficult for the justice department to do this type of thing when i'm about to suggest but i think somebody needs to come out and talk about why this is important to do and what was -- what was needed in a subpoena that is this broad because, right now, we have been stuck by the fact

that nobody has explained why you needed such a broad subpoena, why so many people's records were subpoenaed. again, i know it's difficult in the middle of an investigation but i think, quite frankly, it's something that sort of largely owed to the american people. >> all right. robert gibbs, thank you very much. up next, chuck todd joins the discussion and jim miklaszewski and senator indicakate hagan. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. ♪ it's monday.

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♪ what a beautiful morning at 21 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us from washington now we have nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily rundown" chuck to do and from the pentagon is jim miklaszewski and kate hagan is

also here. mick, i'd like to start with you as we take a look at the sexual assault crisis in the military if i can put it that way. can you give us some perspective on the story first of all? >> sexual salt in the military has been that silent secret all along and everyone knew it was going out but the service didn't want to grapple with it. i think as the number of women in the u.s. military increase so did the number of sexual assaults and more women will willing to come forward. here is the brunt of it. in the military, they have this sacrosanct organization called the chain of command. that is where from the general on down to the specialist, the army specialist grunt in the field, that they want to maintain that chain of command, to maintain what they call good order and discipline. now, a bill before congress that would take sexual assaults outside of that chain of command and put them in the hands of a

special prosecutor. some of the military argue against that claiming it would undermine good order and discipline, but if there has been a sexual assault, it's too laid, guys. already a breakdown in good order and discipline. here is the problem. women are afraid to go through the chain of command because of that old good old boy mentality and we just seen recently where two air force generals overturned jury convictions on sexual assault of two separate individuals and, therefore, women don't have the confidence in the legal system and if you have just a moment, i'm going to -- this is particularly damming. there was a woman marine who we featured in a nightly news spot last week in rock center also featured and she was sexual assaulted and brutalized off base by a marine captain. she called her brother, a navy officer, who said, go to the base hospital immediately. well, had he a friend who was a

naval investigator, part of the criminal investigation service, so he immediately called this criminal investigator and this is where the damming part comes in. this criminal investigator visit advise that brother get her out of that hospital and don't let them touch her and send her to a civilian hospital where the chain of evidence is preserved and some confidence that there will be a trial and conviction. that marine in the civilian system was eventually convicted and served time and her remark was the only thing that makes my story remarkable is i got justice and women now a vast majority of them were sexually assaulted are not getting justice. >> that account frames how severe this crisis is and how it's so deep within the military that you would not even be able to think about how you can turn this around. yet, how do you get to preventive measures? we have to have a zero tolerance policy but women have to feel they can come forward. so many different layers of problems here.

what bills before congress actually really address this? >> as you're saying, it is a huge problem. think of the stig thma attached it and their career advancement. do they report or not report? i've been to bases in afghanistan and talked to women who are serving. they shouldn't have to be worried about their personal safety. think about it. they are carrying all that have gear and women have actually told me they limit the intake of fluid in the late afternoon/early afternoon so they don't have to use the latrine late in the middle of the night because they are worried about sexual assault and why we have got a number of bills coming out. there is a murray ayotte bill that looks what we did in the civil criminal courts 20 years ago and we had special victim units. >> we hear about the officers are supposed to be monitoring

sexual harassment and using sexual harassment. >> this is a crime. this is not a cultural phenomenon. it is a crime and the military code of justice needs to address it as a crime and take action. >> is it being addressed as a crime as it stands now? >> they are not being reported and, two, the commanding officer can negate a jury verdict? what does that say to a woman if she is going to report? >> she is no longer in the united states of america. >> even if i get justice from a jury then a general can overturn it. why would i take that chance. >> the military institution is based upon your ability to trust the person next to you. this gets at the heart of the military's ability to function. the joint chiefs and others will recognize and tell you this is one of the biggest challenges they face as an organization. the real question i have is how do you change the culture?

it's a criminal question after it happens. before it happens it's a cultural issue and how do you get at military culture? >> you start from the top and go all the way down and they actually had a unit, at one time, that put forward posters, media, public relations how to prevent this. one poster actually said "ask her when she is sober." that is terrible. >> are you kidding me? >> that is unbelievable. we have to address this. it is a crime and the laws need to address that and need to be enforced. just think about the fact that this one case where the commanding officer negated the trial and that individual is still in the military. that woman still has to salute the man who sexually assaulted her. anybody that should be convicted has to be kicked out of the military. that addresses a lot of these issues and i think these are the bills that we have got to be addressing and putting forward. last year, in the defense authorization act we had three

things and independent review board that should be stabbed to investigate and prosecute. a special victims counsel and looking at how data is collected i've actually asked secretary hagel to report back to me on what was in last year's defense authorization act and what action has been taken. >> chuck, let's move on to some other developments in washington, d.c. first of all, let's talk about the president. obviously, he has been buffetted by negative stories the past week or so and new poll has him sitting at 53%, ruffle the same number he got elected by in the fall. could be a lot of democrats coming home. but there's another side of this poll that talks about americans actually thinking the republicans are taking the right steps on the irs and investigations. also the a.p. story, as well as surprisingly the highest number of republicans get approval for, ben ghazi. that's about a 15-20-point jump. what is going on? >> i think the public is

rightfully skeptical what is going on in washington in general and i think that if the poll is sending any message, it's basically saying, well, the president, we don't think he is a corrupt guy. we like him and think he is a decent guy but, boy, washington is not working very well and we need to figure out how washington gets working. >> are you surprised by 59% of americans think the republicans response to ben ghazi is appropriate? that goes against the media narrative and democrat ic narrative. >> i guess i'm surprised the number is that high. that said talking about four americans who died so i don't think there anybody thinks that you look at this and there is ever an overreaction looking into four americans dying but i think the larger issue here is what is worse for the white house? if the excuse is scandal or if the excuse is incompetency or is the government too big to run? i think incompetency and the

idea the government might be too big to run some of these things, to handle some of these problems, is actually a worse outcome for the president. >> chuck, it undercuts him in the same way that when you have anti-regulation. >> right. >> anti-regulatory move and you have a gusher in the gulf or wall street scandals and suddenly americans go, wait. the americans cut regulations too much. this is the other side of that story which is this is a government that can't function appropriately. do we want to turn all of these things over to it. >> exactly. let's peel back each of these stories. ben ghazi. so there wasn't enough diplomatic security and wasn't enough communication. let's set the scandal accusations aside. just that story is not a good story. why isn't this better? why aren't we running this well? are we not that capable of

protecting our diplomats? second story. irs. they were overwhelmed with these applications. you're about to ask the irs to start enforcing health care. that seems to be a potential problem if they are struggling with the increased amount of 501c4 applications. the veteran affairs office is an issue for years but here is a helping veterans has been an important point for the president, the first lady, the entire obama administration to bring up all throughout their five years in office. and throwing all of these people at this problem and they still can't deal with the backlog of veterans. look. i think the scarier part -- if i were dan pfeiffer and dennis mcdonough i would be more

fearful of this growing sort of narrative of the president's inability to manage the federal government. >> senator hagan, obviously, you come from a swing state, north carolina. thank you very much for your vote on background checks. courageous. you siding for 90% instead of 3%. >> must have been hard. >> it was a courageous vote for you and we thank you for that. but let's talk talk about i know when you're in north carolina you hear people talking about ben ghazi and hear them talking about the irs right now. what should the government be doing to make sure that this never happens again? >> you know, obviously, there is committee hearings going on in the house and senate on the irs situation. there is a criminal investigation going on at the department of justice. we need to follow through with this. we have got to be sure that our embassies overseas are well protected, to protect our american citizens who are serving us abroad. and talking about the v.a. backlog, that is a terrible

situation right now. in my state, we're a military state and close to a million veterans living in north carolina. the wait time to have their benefits analyzed is increasing instead of decreasing. some have waited over two years. so we have got to address this issue. one of the things i'm really focused on is jobs and the economy. in north carolina, we hover around 9% unemployment rate. some of my counties are 17%. we have got to come together, democrats and republicans, help make -- take action and work together and negotiate and take difficult votes but get it done. >> yep, no doubt about it. >> chuck, thank you very much. we will see you coming up on "the tale rundown." jim miklaszewski, thank you as well. and senator kate hagan, great to have you on the show. robert gibbs, thanks for being with us this morning as well. >> thank you. up next update on the severe weather impacting a big portion

of the country. bill karins is watching the storms 3and he'll join us when "morning joe" comes right back. ♪ we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of tim and laura. it's amazing how appreciative people are when you tell them they could save a lot of money on their car insurance by switching to geico...they may even make you their best man. may i have the rings please? ah, helzberg diamonds. nice choice, mate. ...and now in the presence of these guests

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over the weekend, tornado after tornado struck the middle part of the country and the pictures are just stunning. this is video of a tornado that struck right outside wichita, kansas. in oklahoma, at least four

separate tornadoes hit cross the state prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency in 16 counts and one person killed and 21 injured. the reported wile wide ef-4 touched down not far from oklahoma. let's get the latest from nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> yesterday was the worst of the tornado outbreak. we started on friday and now had to up 50 tornadoes the last three days. we will probably have another 10 or 20 later today as we end our four-day twister update today today, it doesn't look like much different than yesterday and yesterday was scary. we had four cities that were threatened. oklahoma city down here with numerous tornadoes to the east side of town and des moines, iowa, threatened as well and wichita, kansas was threatened by one of the twists. watch as the twisters was bearing down on our nbc station.

>> this storm bears down on the city of wichita. it appears it is time for all of us to get to shelter. get to shelter right now! ryan newton! ryan newton, right now, ryan! everybody down below! let's go! >> scary moments in downtown wichita. thankfully that tornado lifted right as it approached the tv spared and much of the downtown wichita but steextensive on the west side of witchchita. the severe weather goes from the yellow in central texas all the way northern portions of wisconsin and the northern great lakes. but it's right where that warm air from the gulf meets that cold air coming down out of the rockies that we will watch the best chances of tornadoes. the area of red forming 4:00 to 6:00 this afternoon from oklahoma city to wichita falls

and denton and travel northeast over the red river through portions of oklahoma and eventually tonight arriving in springfield, joplin, and ft. smith and hopefully, by that time it's just a wind damage threat. i do expect more damaging tornadoes. yesterday as bad as they looked, we got kind of lucky. they mostly avoided a lot of populated centers and hopefully do so again today. >> up next, glenn hubbard explores the great powers of the past and what it takes america from following the same path. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ when you walk to the room so i try to be like you ♪ mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004.

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oh, yeah ♪ >> joining us is the dean of columbia business school glenn hubbard. co-author of the new book "balance the economics of great powers from ancient rome to modern america." >> richard, do you call him dean hubbard? >> dean hubbard. >> do you call him dean? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> so dean hubbard, you compare the united states and its economic standing against a backdrop of other failed empires. roman empire. the greeks. tell us where do we stand right now and what is our greatest threat? >> well, balance is about a couple of points. one, it's not a declinist book even though a book about failures of the past and much the u.s. can do. failure happens when politics don't keep up with economics and what is happening in the u.s. today. the entitlement crisis is the

clearest example of stealing from our future and having programs that would gut our built to do nanything else and e can fix that. >> you're not talking about short-term deficit but long-term debt. >> politicians are fixated on this year's deficit when the peel rob is longer term entitle many programs. true on both sides of the atlantic and it's politically hard. >> you look at people on the left, richard haass, the past couple of weeks that short-term deficits are going down. guess what? we were saying six months ago that short-term deficits go down and back up at the end of the decade. no surprise. people are saying because the budget is doing what we knew the budget was going to do we don't have to worry about long-term debt any more. >> the cbo report takes the pressure off and peel are saying

relax and we solved the problem. wrong. >> yeah. even in the cbo report you look at the ten-year number it barely moves and beyond the ten years explosion of debt. >> where is the hope? >> i think the hope is, first of all, that people understand that this this is the problem and can be fixed and, second, we change our budget processes to really get at that. tim and i talk about rule changes we think would help do that. unless we do that we have a lot to learn from the great failures of the past. >> what are your thoughts on two things. one, simpson/bowles and ryan plan and this entrepreneur system what role does growth play in submerge from this moment? >> growth is the big story. we talk in the book will how to measure economic power and one of the reason greats stumbled in the past they figure what wealth

came from. it's not gold and silver but the imagination of entrepreneurs and innovation and it's front and center. simpson-bowles and ryan concept is important for the american people to have but in and of itself i don't think they will fix the problem. we have to change the rules in washington. >> i think the obama administration hasn't done anything to take care of long-term debt. deficits are coming down in the short run. but you talk about how the seeds for our fiscal destruction were planted even before barack obama was sworn in. >> sure. >> what role does george w. bush play in this story? >> certainly the medicare expansioned and spending growth are problematic too. the issue facing the country is not a democrat or republican problem, it's how to get our political leaders focused on the need to get debt under control. and it's not having any green

eye shades view. back to you question, about gronel and h growth and how to get the country going again. >> richard, how long is it in the long term but the short run the united states having power across the globe? >> absolutely. we have to put our house in order. to lead across the word we need our house in order to set an example. tying into what we are talking about here. when we don't function politically how do we persuade any other people to adopt what we have what we can't make it work in the united states? >> go ahead. >> when you look at european countries and ask the question why they can't take the role on the international stage in terms of defense and sof soft power leadership they don't have the wherewithal to do it and we still do but could blow it. >> people say if you go to on am zone you should buy this book. >> and this book. >> the book is "balance the economics of great powers from ancient rome to modern america." dean glenn hubbard, thank you so

much! >> my pleasure. >> still ahead one of the world's most plob athletes hangs up his cleats so what does david beckham's retirement for soccer mean around the world? the football frenzy with roger bennett is next. ♪ i automatically go there. at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. if you want to save yourself time and avoid a hassle, go to angie's list. at angie's list, you'll find the right person to do the job you need. and you'll find the right person quickly and easily. i'm busy, busy, busy, busy. thank goodness for angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust. oh, angie? i have her on speed dial. all stations come over to mithis is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one.

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>> started 20 minutes before. you know, the emotions started kicking in and it was hard to, it was hard to run and yet alone kick a ball. but it was an a emotional night. to see the reaction of players and see the reactions of the fans when i came off. david beckham and with us, his close personal friend -- >> look at his socks. >> look at roger's socks. >> we have a lot to talk about. pretty boy. here's a guy who actually, brian asked a question before, mika or somebody asked, was he any good? he was great but never got the credit that, i said, if he were as ugly as john terry, people would have given him more credit. he was just a pretty boy and never got the respect he deserved. >> very similar characters. we look great, but as soon as we open our mouth we become rather frightening. he is a very, very good player,

indeed. who was also -- >> who also liked to model. >> the first player to fuse football's global power and become a world billboard. >> this is his retiring from the french team. >> he just learned that one of his, that his wife was a member of the spice girls. >> his wife was key in this because he fused kind of global sports, television with pop culture marrying kind of posh spice and he had a terrific right forth. he was the englishman to win the league in four different countries. he'll always be known as the man who fits a pair of underpants. >> how ironic that sir alax and beckham both quit on the same day. sir alex who just embarrassed him in public. >> been just a slew of

retirements at the end of this season. been a little bit of sequel to "cocoon" the movie. his statement was fascinating. i would like to be known as a hard-working footballer. which is what his legacy wants to be. what he does next is interesting to watch. rumors that he will become co-owner and very cozy with the gulf states. i would like to see him take over for barbara walters on the couch on "the view." >> let's talk about a couple games that mattered yesterday. arsenal, this is a team who is not owned by other fabulously wealthy people. yet they qualified again yesterday for the champion. >> it's not entirely clear who even knows he owns the team and they have a sense of fiscal responsibility that the shaeiks that all above them don't have. the roger clinton, fourth place.

>> you're comparing to roger clinton? joey compares them to -- look at this. goal. >> glimmer of hope for this beautiful shot. very hard to do this. even harder when you have his hair cut. the gentleman looks like a porcupine. dash their hopes and putting the ball back in there and arsenal, once again, as they do every season it's like watching over and over and over. >> 16th year in a row they qualified for the champion's league. it is amazing. the best coach. >> on their fiscal budgets, amazing achievement. manchester united ran away with the league. arsenal in the fourth place. we have to wait 77 days when the league comes back. >> nbc sports, baby. >> it is ours now. >> so, mika, mika drank too much

vodka one night and then she stumbled up to john miller's office and she shouted, bring me the head of the epl. and here it is. i am so excited. 77 days away from nbc owning british footbal british futbol. >> they are going to be invading london. >> thank you, roger. >> be like the second world war. >> i was going to say, i mean, here we are 70 years later and the chairman is going to finally cross the channel. took him long enough. >> okay, all right. up next, the white house may have faced plenty of tough questions this past week, but new polling shows president obama support actually growing. we'll show you the numbers, next on "morning joe." i have low testosterone. there, i said it.

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>> irs, no one needs to avoid scandals more than you. you're less popular with americans than exercise. don't get me wrong. i understand even if you do your job perfectly, irs, no one will give you a gatorade shower, but you have to try a little harder. >> i mean, really, the government only keeps you around to make the dmv look good. in the entourage of government agencies, you're the turtle. >> really .

>> really. >> obama, you found out from tv? i don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt. good morning, 8:00 a.m. on the east coast and 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. live look at new york city. look who is on set with us. >> mark halprin. >> the professor who wears tennis shoes and in washington robert gibbs. let's get to the headlines now, despite the irs scandal, lingering questions over benghazi and the justice department's use of secret subpoenas. new polling shows president obama's approval rating hasn't suffered a bit. according to cnn, 53% of americans approve of obama's job. >> he's going up. he's going up. >> exactly. >> i had one republican this weekend say he's just an intern short of 60%. >> oh, come on. >> his numbers are going up. >> what are you saying? >> i'm just saying. i'm just saying anybody that thinks these scandals are going to make his numbers collapse weren't paying attention from

1998, 1999 and 2000. there is this sort of rallyying around the facts. put the numbers up, again, just for one second. >> all right. >> 53%. i mean, you're basically getting in the territory of where he was when he won the election. >> exactly. >> you have a lot of democrats coming home, a lot of independents that are coming home. >> what do you make of it? are you surprised by this? >> i am. >> why? >> well, because his approval rating has dropped down from times into the mid-40s whenever there is a bad economic report. this is and the isis a frustrating poll for a lot of people that democrats should be able to look at this poll and go, hooray! and then there are other parts of it that are going to cheer republicans, as well. it's just as confusing as everything in washington. >> well, let's move forward on the irs scandal. 71% find the agency's behavior unacceptable. just 42% are satisfied with the

white house's handling of benghazi. a majority of americans believe the outrage on the right is justified. 54% say republican lawmakers acting appropriately in response to the irs scandal -- >> that's not a surprise. >> 59% believe the same is true on benghazi. >> that, robert gibbs, that is a surprise for people inside the white house and, of course, this is only a snapshot and only one poll. but close to 60% of americans now very concerned about benghazi and that number has jumped up 15, 20 points. americans weren't paying attention before. let's talk about the totality of this first. the president's approval rating's up, why? >> well, i think it's just largely unchanged because my hunch is that as i think mika said, you're at about the point in which the president got for re-election. i think in times of these certain scandals, especially when it becomes a partisan food fight, people tend to go to

their partisan corners. i think the numbers are largely unchanged to say sort of where they were around the election is not altogether unsurprising. >> and, robert, looking at these three scandals and you look at the numbers now and, again, is it a scandal? what do you call these three events, first of all? let's get a definition. >> well, i would separate them a bit because i don't think they're all of the same piece. right, i think you've got, you know, i would put them into basically three buckets. the irs, that is clearly something that has to be better dealt with by everybody. quite frankly. >> that's scandalous. i mean, that is a scandal. >> absolutely. i think what the irs has done nobody would make an excuse for. i'm surprised that i think the number on the poll that you put up, 26% think it was okay for the irs to do that. who exactly are those people and can now raise your hands? you know, the benghazi event,

obviously, a huge tragedy. i think most americans, quite frankly, are more concerned with what we're doing to secure our embassies to ensure that this kind of tragedy never happens again. >> right. >> we've certainly had a lot of heat around these hearings, but quite frankly, not a ton of new information. >> let's pick these apart one by one. critics are continuing to hammer the obama administration over the irs scandal. republicans say they're gearing up for more congressional hearings on the matter. white house senior adviser dan pfeiffer says the conduct by the irs was wrong, even if it wasn't legal. >> what does the president believe? does the president believe that would be illegal? >> i can't speak to the law here. the law is irrelevant. it was stopped and needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens, again. >> you don't mean the law is irrelevant, do you? >> whether it's legal or illegal is not important to the fact that it's -- that the conduct

doesn't matter. the department of justice has said they're looking into the legality of this. the president is not going to wait for this. >> mark halprin. >> he did five shows and i thought mostly he was good. because the i can argue both sides of these scandals and tragedy. investigators of all these things and dan pfeiffer was strong in bringing us back to the reality. the country has a lot of other business to do and no reason why we can't have sensible investigations, bipartisan were sensible and also try to do the people's business on bigger issues. jobs, economy, all the other things the president is trying to focus on. i thought dan did a good job of making that case. >> one guy who is going to

figure out how the senate goes and hero is mitch mcconnell on how much focus on legislating and how much focus on these investigations. >> yesterday on "meet the press" mitch mcconnell went after the president and his team for its handling of the scandal. take a look. >> a culture of intimidation throughout the administration. the irs is just the most recent example. it's no wonder that the agent and the irs get the message. the president demonizes his opponents ahead of their unit demonize people -- >> that is a leap you can make as argument, but you don't have fact to back it up. you can talk about a culture. do you have any evidence that the president of the united states directed what you call a culture of intimidation at the irs to target political opponents? >> i don't think we know what the facts are. >> then why are you saying that? >> well, that's why you have investigations. >> put on the table by -- >> that's why you have investigations, mika. >> yeah, but you usually, well,

i would think you would have an investigation and then you'd make a conclusion. but, whatever. that's mitch mcconnell. shall we go to peter? >> i don't know. i feel the need to talk about harry reid now for a while. >> no, just making comments. the white house and nbc white house correspondent peter alexeneder. how does the white house begin the week this week. the president's numbers look solid, but at the same time hounded all weekend over these three big stories. >> yeah, well, if it's 6:00 it's also the leaf blower. you'll excuse us if he rolls in behind us a matter of moments from now. the gist on this issue, one of the headlines making news today is what's giving this story some legs is exactly what the white house lawyer, the counsel new on april 22nd, a few weeks before the president was informed of this. there is some reporting from "new york times" and "wall street journal" we were informed that she was informed that

conclusions were basically done on the audit of the irs and a small number of irs employees, at the time, i don't think they knew where, had been involved. we understand that the white house was alerted to the audit, not the specific details which is raising in the eyes of some some questions why the white house would not have been notified. specifically the president would not have been notified a little bit earlier i spoke to a senior administration official a short time ago who said, this is nothing different than what we have been saying on this. but the president's in this weird position where people are wondering who is manning the store. should he not be better informed of this stuff than hearing it from us on news reports and at the same time trying to not inappropriately meddle in the eyes of senior advisors and members of the administration if he tries to get involved and do an investigation that is currently taking place. >> nick, you've been looking into this and reporting on it. in terms of what was known, high levels of the white house and when and it's always easy to say

after, my god, why wouldn't you inform the president about this? i would think this would be one of the things that you raise the flag on and give us a sense of when people at a high level at the white house and how high a level actually knew about this. >> well, as far as we know, you know, the irs, it breached jack lew a while ago and the last few weeks it perkcolates up. >> they were aware there was targeting and something wrong going on? >> at first it was like, did the white house know when it started? did the white house know in 2011? did the white house know in 2012 in the election year. if they knew a few weeks ago as the report was getting finalized, doesn't surprise me. the real unanswered questions are really at the beginning of this timeline how did it start and who gave the order in cincinnati to say, we should look at a these groups. >> we don't know that yet. >> if you look at this timeline

and in this long report, it's the one thing at the top. the first thing that happens in this whole escapade. we don't know how it happens. >> how it started. herald ford, we keep going back and forth talking about this off camera. what's worse? if the president knew a little bit at the beginning or if the president time and time again found out for the first time while he's reading the newspaper? it's like seth myers was saying, we'd rather you not have a president that when all these big things happen comes in, i didn't know until you knew. i was watching tv. >> perhaps it was an inartful choice of words. i would hope the president would be focused on a number of things beyond this and perhaps a lot bigger than this. as this story comes out to nick's point, questions will continue to be asked and mika alluded to it to the president's management style and if, indeed, he learned when we watched on television or the chief counsel was aware that these findings were coming and got heads up on

what they may look like. two things in addition, what steps are being taken to prevent this kind of activity going forward. people will want to know in a very specific way and the treasury secretary and the president to make that clear. and, two, it's likely some others are going to be held accountable in the white house for some actions. the part that is redacted. i would be interested to hear his point and if others are held accountable and may lose their jobs. totally unconnected to this. has nuthing to do with irs. my dad turns 68 today. happy birthday. it's his birthday this morning. >> happy birthday. congressman ford. really quickly, robert gibbs, would you be warning your friends in the white house if you were in that business to be careful about trotting out that line, hey, the president just found out last week about this.

at some point it starts to sound like ronald reagan and iran contra in 1986. >> let's be clear. you don't have to imagine much of what mitch mcconnell would have said to david gregory conjuring up and not letting the facts get in the way. had the president xoen about this, cathy who is as smart as anyone i worked with tells the president then several weeks before it becomes public or several weeks before the report is done, mitch mcconnell would be saying, if the president knew about this well before the report was done, what proof do we have that the president didn't meddle and soften what the inspector general came up with? you read that story and you understand that you really, there's no good answer in terms of do you say, do you tell the president now or do you wait? >> no good answer, robert. but he has the same answer on ap and he has the same answer -- >> but, joe, do you want the president to say, oh, sure, i had a long conversation with the

attorney general about the subpoenas for reporters. >> a big difference between having a long conversation with the attorney general and being completely in the dark. i just don't believe that any chief executive is going to be in the dark about a leak that everybody is claiming may have caused the lives of americans and the president stumbling around for a year and has absolutely no idea that the largest news gathering operation is having subpoenas thrown all over them and having an unprecedented seizure of their phone records. there is a middle ground. it doesn't have to be all black or white. i don't think this president was totally ignorant of what was going on and the justice department, regarding the associated press, or what was going on in this irs cincinnati field office. as nick said, you can go online and you can see these investigations. >> what is the better answer? that he didn't know? >> this is one of the only agencies that didn't meddle. >> the irs -- >> the best answer is -- hold on one second. is that he wasn't completely ignorant about it, but he didn't

meddle. you can't have two things at once. i wonder if the white house is being too clever. did the president really find out about these two stories for the first time when he was watching tv? are they afraid to tell the truth, hey, he knew what was going on but he wasn't meddling in the investigations. >> i think in many ways these are our questions that will be asked and will be nit-picked on. i think, quite frankly, and the polls show this. what people are more concerned with and will be more concerned with in two weeks or two months or two years is, has somebody looked into and fixed the irs so that this sort of thing never happens again? i think whether or not the president was told, you know, on april 22nd or april 29th, it doesn't matter. >> if you're the president. only one of two agencies where he only gets to appoint the top two people in the entire agency and there's a reason for that. you don't want the president calling up, you know, the ig in that office and saying, hey,

what's going on with your investigation? how's it going? you want him to hear what's happening and be told what's happening and perhaps be ready for it. but it's not meant to be a political agency and it shouldn't be a political agency. what's next, mika? they're known as positions, authors and teachers. now they're exploring two other roles they both share. brothers and immigrants. how the two men took different paths to where they are today. also, the film "gatsby" may seem worlds away but tony scott says they might have more in common than you might realize. bill karins tracking the tornadoes. >> today, unfortunately, watching the storms pushing, once again, through the same areas that got nailed yesterday. these tornadoes yesterday were your weaker low end variety. these are the ones that can take out towns. thankfully most stayed over

rural areas and two really big ones. this one just outside of wichita, kansas. literally formed ten miles outside the city limits heading for the city. a very scary period of time when the tornado sirens are going off and everyone in the city of wichita thought this beast was coming. thankfully it lifted right at the city limits. i mean, it easily could have trekked through town, but it did dissipate. now, this one, this is just, it's back lit there, almost looked like a photographer set this up. this is stove pipe tornado. this is just a beast of a storm. this is the one that killed the one person. took out that mobile home park and this one we're also lucky. looked like it was headed towards shawnee and just dodged to the northwest of that and just missed the downtown area there. so, you know, as bad as it was yesterday, as bad as it looked, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been. let's hope we can dodge it again today. here's what we saw yesterday's severe weather and now the ingredients are the exact same as yesterday. storm spinning up on the border

of iowa and nebraska. no tornado watches yet. starting into the evening hours, we could have tornadoes at any time. the tornadoes, the best chance of them is the area in red called moderate risk of severe weather and the areas in yellow, including chicago, chance of severe storms today. even as far north as wisconsin and indianapolis and including st. louis. but as far as the tornado threat goes. the chances of getting the big tornadoes that could kill a lot of people, the best chance of those, they will form 4:00 to 6:00 tonight. oklahoma city and down i-35 and then track to the northeast over areas of the whole eastern half of the state of oklahoma, including mccallister and tulsa and then late tonight, those storms will head up towards joplin and springfield and ft. smith, arkansas. again, it's going to be another big outbreak. probably 10 to 20 tornadoes and some on the strong side. it looks like spring and feels like spring and humidity is up and hopefully we'll be able to dodge those nasty storms

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>> like an amusement park. >> shall we? >> did you get an invitation? >> people aren't invited to gatsby's. >> i was. seems like i was the only one. >> who is this gatsby?

>> he was a german spy during the war. >> a german spy? >> no, no, no. he's the kaiser's assassin. >> kills for fun. >> free of charge. certainly richer than god. >> don't really believe he killed a man, do you? >> let's find him and you can ask him yourself. that was a scene from the new film "the great gatsby." one of the movies reviewed by tony scott and tony joins us now. you like it. >> "the great gatsby" and the great tony scott. >> no one knows who i really am or where i got my fabulous fortune. >> we don't know if you killed a man or not, but know this, there will be nobody -- >> thanks. >> so, you were just saying something fascinating about the two "great gatsby" movie. this was so over the top. when i first saw the first trailer a year ago, tim burton

does the "the great gatsby" the first one with redford was too faithful. >> i think it shows how when you go to adapt a well-known book in hollywood, you can't always win with the critics. >> this is just a well known book. this is a great american novel. >> this is some people think the great american novel. by the way, all the dialogue we just saw is in the book. so he is trying to be faithful to the story and to the characters. what some critics have objected to, what i find fascinating about the movie is just how big and colorful and lavish and kind of over the top it is. it's more, really more like an opera or a big musical than what you think of as a kind of literary adapitation of a book. >> you said it shared similarities with other movies that you would not expect "the great gatsby" to share similarities with. >> like? >> excess and rampant

commercialism. >> pleasurable access. that's whaut's interesting abou this movie. i wrote a piece in yesterday's paper where i was free associating between this movie and "pain and gain" with mark wahlberg and duane johnson and "spring breakers." and "the bling ring "based on a true story of teenagers who broke into celebrity houses in hollywood and took a bunch of their stuff, but also wanted to vicariously live their lifestyles. what links these movies is this relentless desire to acquire stuff and to measure your own value and whether you're a winner or not in the world by how much fabulous stuff you have around you. >> are we done making gatsby? is this it? >> there will always be gatsby. as long as we have capitalism, we'll have gatsby. >> in your piece you write this, the movie's view, its visual

presentation of american materialism is not moralistic but pornographic. it traffics in the sheer libidinal pleasure of money and what it can buy intentionally or not. and in doing so, updated it in a radical and troubling way. the results may be vulgar, but it's also an honest reflection of contemporary values. the same ones captured with equally shocking and thrilling refusal of morallism by "spring breakers" "pain & gain" and "the bling ring." this is how we live, greedily, enviously, superficially in a state of endless self-justifying desire. this is the pursuit of happiness, mirrored in the pleasure of these movies provide." >> i couldn't have said it better. >> you could actually shock or

thrill the audience by showing flesh. those days are gone. we're in a pornographic age. you can go on the internet and see that. now, the new pornography, interestingly enough, not a breast shot, but a pile of beautiful shirts. that famous scene where daisy looks at the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. >> exactly. what -- >> explain that scene. >> i think the new pornography, the lust in these movies is about stuff. i mean, you know, "spring breakers" yes have a lot of young women in bikini as in it. the most sort of intense scenes involve consumer goods. same thing in "the bling ring" and same thing in "pain & gain." cars and big houses and jewels and watches and that's where some of the vicarious pleasure of watching these movies comes from. just seeing all of these -- >> i haven't seen "great gatsby" yet but you do say and give the director a lot of credit.

he is getting the heck kicked out of him right now. you say those are the most beautiful shirts you've ever seen. beautifully filmed 3d. >> that's what's interesting and troubling about it, too. it does communicate this pleasure. it is beautiful to watch this movie and look at this stuff. >> not to get overly academic. we talked off camera, thomas cole, the course of empire. you talk about all these films. in some ways a real troubling social commentary that maybe we're on the back side of greatness when you think about all the things we're obsessed with. is that conscious by the moviemakers or just your interpretation of what we're seeing? >> i don't know whether the moviemakers are intending to social criticism with these movies. but i think what they're trying to do is to tell the story in a way that makes sense for this time and to reflect something about how we live. and what they do reflect sometimes intentionally, sometimes not, this sort of pleasure in consumption and i

think you're right. it gives you a little bit of a chill. it's a little bit troubling because you think, what other values are there that are being left behind or emptied out by all this acusition. >> strip it down for us, out of five stars. "the great gatsby"? >> 3. i think it's a flawed movie, but really, really interesting movie. there's a lot in it. it's very entertaining. but it also, as an interpretation of this book, i think it has some interesting things to say and it's in its way very timely. >> and decap rio is always fantastic. >> he's terrific. really good. >> tony scott, thank you. the great -- >> i love it. up next, brotherhood brothers team up on a new book chasing the unique obstacles each faced in the search of a better future.

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34 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now global and spiritual leader deepak chopra

and "destiny and the american dream." it looks fantastic. i'm being told, of course, the benefits of coffee. >> it's good for you, right? >> yes. >> coffee is health. i love it, fantastic. so, when did you guys come to america? >> i came in 1970, he came in -- >> i came in 1972. followed his footsteps. >> did he bring you over here? >> yeah, pretty much so. >> talk about your lives. first of all, great shot. this is in vermont on a ski trip. you guys very dashing, by the way. >> why did you come here? >> we both came here after school and we both ended up training in boston. certain point, you know, we get so competitive, i said, you take care of the body and i'll take care of the soul. >> that's the best way to do it. >> yeah. >> now, your father was,

obviously, a prominent man in india, right? >> yeah. >> our father was a physician. he was a professor of medicine. he was a dean. he was the physician to the president of india. but, more importantly, he was a brilliant clinician and he was the most compassionate and saintly person. >> all right. i'm going to read from an excerpt here from "brotherhood" the two of us chose to leave india with no money or property except the intellectual property of a medical school diploma and some dreams. india didn't want us to leave. the government had banned the written examination that a doctor needed to pass before america would grant us work visa. only pittance -- as young and eager to prove ourselves as we

were, we heard tears being shed behind us at the airport and not just by our parents. our choice to step away made us not fully american or fully indian, we have seized a double fate. >> that's part of our life. >> does that make you stronger? more empthetic person? >> it does because you realize the broader, the bigger your awareness, the more tolerant and more forgiving. >> right. do you feel the same way? >> yeah, you know -- >> not american nor indian. >> well, you know, talking about dreams. one of my favorite quotes is from the great danish e isise i philosopher and to dare is to lose one's footing momentarily, not to lose one's self-i think

we have in a way fulfilled our dreams. it's been an amazing journey for us. our kids, our daughter when she was 6 years old once came back from school and said, dad, i have to talk to you. i said, is everything okay? she said, i want to ask you a question. are we christian or are we jewish? the reason she asked that is because it was around hanukkah and christmastime and all her schoolmates were celebrating. we celebrated the hindu festival of the valley on the weekend and i told my wife after this next year we have to take a day off and go celebrate. they went to school and all their classmates said, what happened yesterday? and very proudly she said we were celebrating the valley and explained the festival of lights. >> obviously, you guys related and a lot of similar history. but what differentiate you? what is different about your outlooks on america, medicine and life?

>> i think we are very similar in many ways and sanje being the dean of education at harvard has me give a talk there, which i would never dream of otherwise and we're gaining acceptance because of his credibility. my grassroots we're bringing the holistic view of medicine to this country. >> what was the toughest part of being an immigrant? >> the toughest part of being an immigrant was assimulating and forgetting about cricket and learning about baseball. >> that, for me, was the toughest part. >> i didn't even bother learning about baseball or anything. i was so focused on trying to understand why i felt american training no matter how good it was, was incomplete. and my training helped me to see the connection between the mind and the body and peer into the

deeper realms of spirit. >> it is amazing how so many years after you started talking about that you could go to some of the best physicians in america who talk about east and west and the concepts coming together. and how important that is in the healing of the body. >> the good thing that happened is it used to be called alternative medicine and now we're calling it complimentary. we're calling it integrated medicine. >> exactly. the book is called "brotherhood". >> it looks great and so timely, too. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. good to see you, again. up next, marissa good move yahoo! or will it go down alo alongside it other acusitions like geo cities.

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>> we havant seen you in a while, america. you haven't changed a bit. >> i have liquor breath and i want to be your friend. >> i got a new cologne, it's called venom. it's pretty much 100% snake venom. >> happy easter. >> no, brick, you need to say something fun about the movie, we're all saying it. a little individual thought, almost like a fun catch phrase. >> always make sure the parents are around if you hug a child. >> just say hello. >> hello. okay. it's coming up. >> i can't wait. >> mark halperin. "washington post" has a story out, do you call it spying,

surveillance? >> another case of the justice department, fbi engaged in an aaggressive leak investigation. not just looking at it from the government side but they looked very aggressively at his personal information including e-mail and his past going in and out of the state department trying to figure out who the leaker was. >> when he came in, his badge, everything. i mean, so, if you do a story the white house doesn't like and you're a reporter, you can expect your e-mails to be looked at by the justice department? >> the other chilling thing about this, the story says that they're looking at him not just to get information about a government leaker, but suggesting that a reporter can break the law by reporting on classified information. again, in a free society you've got to have the ability to do reporting on the government. check on the government's power. >> what would this have done to watergate reporting? what would this have done to vietnam reporting?

if lyndon johnson had been doing this, going after reporters and -- it's unbelievable. >> robert gibbs said earlier, the government is going to have to explain this. a balance, always, between the national security of the country and the reporters' ability to do their job for the public. but the lack of explanation is really chilling for people to say, can you talk to a reporter if you have information that you think the public should know? >> yesterday on bob schieffer's show "face the nation" the head of the ap is already saying that it is having a chilling effect. >> because it makes no sense. >> people don't want to talk to ap reporters any more off the record. they're afraid of sources. so, this allows the government to run amuck without the press being a safe guard. now, you've got another reporter who's actually, because he is suspected of writing a story that the white house doesn't like of having his e-mails, his personal e-mail seized. we're going to be hearing a lot more about this. >> this underscores they can't

keep their own ship tight. i mean, we still don't talk enough about them finding the source of the leaks on the inside. so, they're just pointing to the outside to solve a problem they can't solve internally. >> during the middle of the campaign, this white house itself was suspected of leaking top classified material that would help the white house politically. in fact, the cia a, there are a lot of people in the cia that were enraged at the fact that the white house would selectively leak things that would make the president look like a tough commander in charge and he had a kill list and he did this and he did that. and, so, there are leaks that they like that they don't investigate and now they're seizing people's e-mails. >> differentiated between a whistleblower and someone who wants to share information for some other reason. not up to the government to say which kind of people can disclose things. >> this is shocking. >> let's go to business before the bell, mika. >> cnbc brian sullivan. i can't be mean to him any more. his daughter, shay, so sweet.

>> cute girl. >> thank you. >> how are you today? >> look how nice you are. that's why i brought her out just because i figured if you met my kid and you wonder where she came from, your hearts would melt. >> she's perfect. despite you, so, what's going on? >> well, you know what, i have business before the bell but i want to chime in on your last conversation. it's 2006, a lot of people forget this. didn't make huge national news. hewlett-packard, remember, their board was basically implicated in a phone pretexting where they hired security investigators to tap or get the phone records of a number of journalists and the chairwoman of hp at the time, patricia dunn lost her job. so, this not limited to government. a big scandal in the business world about a similar type of thing back in 2006. the business before the bell today, yeaahoo! tumbler. buying the social media site

tumblr. high school drop out, not only a college dropout, but high school dropout make $250 million personally off this deal. a story in "wall street journal," basically big employers are realizing that they can offer bare bones, health care plans on to a new health care law. essentially a loophole, if you will, because you're only required to off aer preventative services and in some cases companies are being pitched with health care plans that may not even cover hospitalization. >> whoa. >> it's a loophole in the law for smaller companies that you have to be given everything but over 50 employees, you can say, we'll just give you the bare bones preventative and you may not get essential services if you're in need. so, another twist in the health care law that i think regulators are going to have to look into this morning, guys. >> brian sullivan, thank you very much. >> thank you. tomorrow on "morning joe"

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do you recognize that man? >> like an endorsement.

>> it was an endorsement. i can't believe it. those guys, jack, thank you very much. he did fall asleep reading it. >> i don't think it was because he was reading it. >> really? because i think he was and he fell asleep. >> jack falling asleep reading my book. >> what? are you serious? >> all right, fine. well, the point of it is -- >> the great publisher. >> really great for this next story. >> the great publisher falling asleep while he is reading the book of our time? can i see the picture? >> look, he was reading the book -- >> contemplative. >> is that what you call that? >> is it sitting on his gut? i don't know. we'll see. all right, an army soldier deployed to afghanistan had quite a surprise when he returned back home to wellmingten, north carolina. without knowing it. his wife lost more than 150 pounds while he was overseas for

more than a year. at one point misty schaefer weighed more than 300 pounds. she told a local news station to keep her weight loss a secret. she kept pictures off facebook and when she did send photos to her husband, they were from the shoulders up and he's been happy with the way his wife looked since day one but proud she reached her goal. there is his 3-year-old daughter. >> really cool story. >> really cool story. what, if anything, we learned today.

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we're putting the wonder back into air travel, one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving. oh, that's so nice of him. >> so much because it puts him to sleep every night. >> he is obsessed. he is obsessed with "obsessed." >> what did you learn? >> i think j.lo needs to talk to her wardrobe people. i do. maybe i'm alone here, but these boots were falling off at the billboard music awards last night. i was watching with my daughter and then she -- >> come on! come on! >> i don't even know how to describe that. >> and then -- >> and i'm going to tell you,

it's not just old me. it was my daughter. what happened? >> defending the irs. >> okay. >> go back to mika, it's not always safe to have good seats atten an award show. i don't know who miguel is -- >> it's horrible. oh, he crushed a lady! dude, look at her. you can't do that. >> she was okay. it looked like wrestling. >> holy cow. dude, that was a rough show last night. here's chuck todd, he's got "daily rundown" and will not leap across the studio. damage control. president obama's team tries to tamp down the outcry over the irs and other outrage sending a top adviser to the sunday shows to face down