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tv   Weekends With Alex Witt  MSNBC  May 25, 2013 9:00am-11:01am PDT

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collapse. the incident raises serious questions about the infrastructure. how many bridges are at risk. and we'll talk to the reporter who interviewed jodi arias. did she seem reforceful. and celebrity court appearance that can be best described as bizarre. hello, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." two freight rains collided near the town of chaffee and brought down the overpass that the trains were traveling underneath. several people were injured. the other five wounded were traveling in cars on that overpass. of course, a week ago, two commuter trains collided in connecticut right at the height of rush hour. we'll keep you up to date on the developments there. in the meantime, the soggy start. a live look at a gloomy times square here in new york. rainfall is expected throughout
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the northeast. then on the jersey shore, the beaches and boardwalks, a bit further north, snow is expected in the mountains there. and looking out west, the planes could see more severe weather and it comes on the heels of monday's devastating tornado in oklahoma. we're keeping you abreast of all of that. michelle franzen is on the jersey shore but first we'll begin with dylan for the forecast. >> it's not fun. that's for sure. especially as an unofficial kickoff with memorial day weekend. it's snowing across the northeast. in vermont, everybody skis for free. temps only in the 50s across the great lakes and also into the
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northeast. the warm stuff is down through the plains where we could see some storms today, although they shouldn't be all that severe in nature. we should hit 80 degrees in kansas city but the northeast will be about 15 to almost 25 degrees below normal. june starts next week. can you believe it? we are going to see the chance of some isolated heavy downpours moving into the chicago area but the best chance of stronger storms today would be back through the dakotas and into montana later on this afternoon. they are not on the radar just yet. this afternoon, stronger gusty winds and small hail. it's this area of low pressure off the northeast coast that is producing tons of rain. flooding concerns across parts of new england, massachusetts seeing heavy rain right down into connecticut and new york city. it's pretty light in nature. but still, enough to make it a very cold, miserable start to the memorial day weekend. we also have some heavier rain moving into iowa and that's going to fall across parts of
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chicago in another couple of hours. 80s in the middle of the country with chance of isolated thunderstorms and on sunday, cool air retreats. not bad in new york city. the sea breeze will be too cold to sit on the beach. 70s in the northeast and the rest of the country should enjoy highs in the 80s. there's a chance for a setup, earlier this week, with strong storms in the plains. >> bring on monday for those barbecues. thank you very much, dylan. we go to fischmichelle who is o jersey shore. how is it looking right now? >> reporter: well, we're still surrounded by showers and sprinkles and the sun is peaking out every now and then but for the most part it's gray and
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blustery. that's not keeping the crowds away here. certainly a very, very busy saturday on the start of the memorial day weekend and a lot of people dedicated their weekend to come here to seaside heights. of course, the reopening of the boardwalk after a revitalization and the months that follow, the seven months since sandy. of course, standing here months ago the destruction was so severe, no one knew when or if they would be able to bounce back but the businesses, of course many of them, along this stretch of boardwalk have reopened, are excited. they think that this summer will be a banner year for them. in the meantime, they want to make sure they came back for this unofficial start of summer to show their support. >> our history here as being younger people, we have to come and see. and support the rebuilding. >> new jersey is back. and like my wife said, we're
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strong and come out and support it and a lot of the parents have memories that, you know, are different now but make new ones with your kids. >> reporter: tourism up and down the shore accounts for a good chunk, $40 million in 2012. so there's a lot of ground to make up and they are hoping, alex, with the kickoff of this and as the months continue for the recovery process that they will be able to do just that. >> i'm awfully encouraged by seeing visitors there, bundled up, nonetheless, but at least they are out and we hope that they are shopping. thank you so much. let's go to front page photography and paula broadwell. >> i have remorse for the harm that this has caused. the sadness it's caused in my family and other families.
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and for causes that we belong to. >> first lady michelle obama showing off her dance moves at an elementary school in washington, d.c., on friday. she's playing a game of freeze dance with the students to the godfather of soul's hit "we're going to have a funky good time." that's one of eight schools that uses the arts to promote academic achievement. and a new report in the national journal suggests that republican lawmakers are keeping the controversies a the forefront of their local constituencies. now, all of this is a new gallup poll that finds 42% of americans are doing a poor job. politics editor, white house reporter for "the washington post," good to see you both. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. >> david, any other shoes to drop here on the irs targeting
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the conservative groups that might bring this controversy any closer to the president? >> alex, what we know right now, i don't think it's the most likely that that is going to happen. the report did not suggest that anybody in the white house was directing this, certainly not during the election. it does not appear that the white house knew about it and tried to bury it then. the biggest problem is the idea that the president didn't know about it and his aides, even when they found in april, didn't tell him. they've been on the defensive about that. i think you're going to see congress to continue to ask why that was. congress is going to continue with the oversight hearings and the employee who took a fifth, to give her immunity. but i don't see right now any evidence that it's going to be closer to the white house in terms of directing this activity. >> christina, republicans, though, plan on keeping the irs, benghazi, the doj, a.p. up and
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running. does the gop risk losing the upper hand? >> there can always be other things that distract from the political conversation here in washington. but as you point out, they are going home for a week for memorial weekend recess. they are asking about the irs scandal in particular. the irs is already an unpopular entity. everybody pays taxes and nobody likes paying taxes. and then you can mondopolize. when you look at the trio scandals in a big picture, they are all very different from one another. while everyone in washington and particularly in our organizations in the press, it's exercised over the doj subpoenas, it's not necessarily
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resonating all that much in the bigger picture and benghazi is an issue that is very, very political, people view as political, and they are not following it as closely. that's why the irs is getting a lot of scrutiny. there are still questions to answer what is happening internally. republicans really want to keep the focus. the associated press had a great story today looking at how because the economy is improving, scandals are a much safer thing to be targeting politically right now. >> david, listening to christina, coupled with the fact that earlier on my broadcast it was suggested that all summer is going to be spent dealing with these controversies, how long do you think they are going to last and do they have the potential to harm in any way the midterms well over a year away? >> well, to take the first part of the question, i think that they will last quite a bit longer. republicans want them to last. i think you're seeing a number of the leading republicans really criticizing the white house even as they try to work on immigration and other things
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with the white house. it's interesting. it's a way to maybe show their base that they are staying safe where it counts politically on the president. even of the three scandals, as christina mentioned, giving the irs in the biggest light is the administration has sort of aggressively tried to confront that, sort of make moves to get rid of some of the officials in charge. they have a new acting director coming in. the president has ordered him to take the recommendations and implement them. the white house is trying to get out in front and continue to say we're making progress to cleanup this agency and they want to make sure that they get a handle on it. you're going to see, once the president does nominate a full-time director, that person will go through a congressional hearing process and there's going to be a number of more questions. so this is going to keep going throughout the summer for sure. but, again, as christina said, all three are very different and i the white house thinks the benghazi issue is put to rest and they don't want to deal with that anymore. >> i want to switch gears and
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talk about the obama administration's move to curb sexual harassment assaults. he was at the commencement ceremony there at west point. let's listen to what the president said at the naval academy commencement yesterday. >> those who commit sexual assaults are not only committing a crime, they threaten and that's why we have to be determined to stop these crimes, because they have no place in the military honor. >> christina, do you think the military or the white house have offered any tangible solutions to these crisis or, better yet, are there better tangible solutions? >> there are a couple of pieces of legislation to really address this. it's been a prolonged standing problem in the military and it gained a lot of high-profile cases that were getting a lost scrutiny and because of a documentary that came out last
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fall and it doesn't have a chance to pass but it's important because a lot of people are paying attention to it and it's definitely probably a lot more important than political scandals. >> secretly filming teenage students in the locker rooms and bathrooms, that's not a sex assault but how can the obama administration get to the root of the problem?
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>> it's going to take a while. he brought in a week ago to the white house and other military officials and they told reporters that the military is embarrassed by this, it's a threat to national security. not just to law & order because the military is based on discipline. these are really embarrassing situations for them. the president, in the white house that day, said this is not going to be solved overnight. there's no magic bullet, said. it's going to take training and officials looking at this who are committed to it. it's going to take a long time and they are going to stay at it. you might hear the white house say, we're going to keep on this and have the white house address this occasionally. so that suggests that they are going to have to report back to the white house on progress and on what steps they are taking. >> david nakumuri, christina
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bellatoni, thank you so much. is a bridge near you structurally deficient? you're going to hear from elijah cummings, next. work off of one 18 volt battery. and with new improved lithium and lithium plus batteries, you'll get a while lot more done in less time. plus, they'll improve the performance of every 18 volt tool we've ever made. now that's getting more power for your money. ryobi one plus. the one system that delivers more. available only one place. the home depot. this ryobi one+ drill and impact driver kit, now just $99.
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some headlines out of the west coast, "the arizona sun" guilty of racial profiling and ordered the practices permanently halted. tuition set to rise 4.5%. schools will now run $8500. while tuition will be rising, plan on spending more money this fall, here is how. here's what some of you had to say. jazz shaw tweets, does continuing to playoff ugly debts
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cost the irs more? probably less, no weddings and no new babies. yes, on a na/c unit. no, i'm trying to save so i can retire. i plan on spending more money on medical bills this summer. i'm going to find out who writes for that and tell them i hope they feel better. go to @alexwitt. as americans plan to travel, millions are going to be driving over the 66,000 bridges the government has deemed structurally deficient. so what is the government doing about our nation's outdated infrastructure. joining us now is elijah cummings. as always, a pleasure. thank you for joining us on this
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holiday weekend. >> well, this bridge, this one that we're talking about with the accident rated functionally obsolete and it's still on the main route from seattle to vancouver on i-5. carrying about 75,000 vehicles a day. how does that happen? >> well, in america, sadly, about 11% of all of our bridges are structurally deficient. and that's because we are not putting what many organizations say needs to be around $8 billion a year in repairing these bridges. the president has been very strong on this. this is something that i've been pushing for a long time. that we have to take care of our infrastructure it. keep in mind, alex, that over 210 million trips are structurally deficient bridges. we're better than that. when you start talking about austerity, there's a price for
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austerity. and that's not just bridges. but in my state of maryland hopefully this will be another alarm of the congress to do something. back in 2009 you'll recall a bridge collapse and we lost 13 citizens. we can do better. >> the fact that you are focused on this and the president back in march said we've got to try to deal with all of this, deal with the red tape, will that make a difference? >> i hope so, alex. but i can tell you the climate in washington today is one that
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seems to go against spending on anything. i've said it many time, we've got to cut our spending. and when we maintain our infrastructure, that also creates jobs. this bridge in washington it's going to tie up traffic while they try to repair it and try to find the funds to repair it. we're going to spend the money we need jobs. >> we all travel over these bridges.
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and we'll stay on top of this topic but we'll also stay on the irs. lois lerner refusing to answer questions and now she's on administrative leave. >> i believe she needed to leave sooner ran than later and i was glad to see her put on leave. it's an organization that affects every single person in our country. people fear the irs as it is. if they feel that they are not being treated fairly, that only creates more problems. and so i think we're et going to the root of it. i think we are now looking at how this is started. there's no evidence that i've seen so far that this got beyond the irs, these problems. and so now i think the president was absolutely right by
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relieving mr. miller, the interim irs commissioner of his duties and now we see this young lady leaving. and i think this is important to restoration. but i've got to tell you, i had a long conversation the other day with danny, the knew irs commissioner appointed by the president and i am excited about what he's about to do. he's doing exactly what the president to do and he's looking at the irs from top to bottom and he's about to come to the i.g. to figure out all of the problems that the i.g. knows of. then they are going to hold folks accountable and make sure the irs, the confidence of the american people is restored in the irs. that's what we've got to do. >> may i ask you, being on the oversight committee, you were in that room. how did it feel for you to hear lois lerner just make a statement and then take off? >> well, i tell you, i probably
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have a different perspective as a lawyer. i've seen people do that. i've advised clients at other times. so it did not surprise me. keep in mind, i read the statement that she did make, alex. and it was just a general statement saying i didn't do anything wrong. and so i don't think that's unusual. according to my research and my experts, she didn't waive her right to assert her rights under the fifth amendment and i think she -- again, she was operating under the advice of counsel. counsel was right there with her. he knew she was going to make this statement and he felt confident that she could make the statement without waiving her rights. we're trying to find a way to work something out where she can come before the committee, give her testimony, because, again, we are in search of the truth so that we can restore trust. >> okay. democrat elijah cummings, thank
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you so much for your time today. >> thank you. accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, it's the little things that mean the most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you.
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ink from chase. so you can. tech watch now on "weekends with alex witt." just as most smartphone owners are getting up to speed with 4g, samsung has revealed a phone that is seven times faster than 4g. 5g won't be available until the year 2020. i shouldn't have even told you about it. >> it's new york city from july of 2011 to 2012. the gotham city saw an increase of 67,000 people. houston and los angeles each gaining 34,000. san antonio and austin, texas,
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picking up 25. in a new attitudes poll, americans are first in optimism about the economy over the next 24 months. japan and south korea expressing similar sentiments. angela merkel does it again for the seventh time. the most powerful woman in the world. among celebrities, oprah winfrey, top ranked and 13th overall. beyonce, 17, followed by angelina jolle and sophia vergara and lady gaga. those are your number ones. we went out and asked people a simple question:
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how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." victims of the boston marathon finished the race. they crossed the official finish line. explosions last month killed three people and injured more than 260. new video shows the moment
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an oversized truck hit the skagit river truck. a trucker was carrying drilling equipment when it happened. two vehicles were sent into the water. actress amanda bynes is in court here. she was wearing a blond wig and sweats. she claims the bong was actually a vase. the obama administration, chuck hagel called on graduates to help the administration in this fight. kristin welker is at the white house. >> reporter: i think it's an integral part, alex, and i also
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think it's an acknowledgement that this is a serious problem. it's a we are vase spervasive p. president obama said it's not just about conduct. it's about national security. the very stern words we're hearing from the president, the defense secretary, come a few weeks after a devastating report by the defense department which found that unreported cases of sexual assault in the military rose by 37% last year alone to an estimated 26,000 cases. so there is a lot of concern about this within the obama administration and a recognition that something has to be done. the president is meeting with his top military officials and they are talking about this. here's a little more about what defense secretary chuck hagel had to say. take a listen. >> sexual harassment and sexual
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military assault is a profound betrayal. a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and trust. this must be stamped out. we're all accountable to ensure that this happens. >> reporter: now, defense secretary chuck hagel has called on all military personnel who deal with sexual assault cases to be retrained and recertified and, alex, just today, military officials are telling nbc news that they are investigating yet another possible case of sexual misconduct in alaska. so this is of grave concern to this administration and to a lot of people on capitol hill as well. >> absolutely. the president has some allies in congress, shall we say, many of them female trying to stamp out sex assaults in the military. where are they in this fight? >> that's a great point. it's notable that on capitol hill the members of congress
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leading this fight are in fact women. we're seeing something that we dent usually see, which is bipartisan agreement which is something that needs to be done. you are seeing senator claire mccaskill, kelly ayotte come together, getting tough on this issue. there's an agreement that something needs to be done. most lawmakers think that it should really address victims and how they are treated and how they are getting support in the instance of a case of sexual assault but center kristin gillibrand of new york really has the boldest plan under her bill. prosecutors, instead of military commanders would handle, investigate, and prosecute issues of sexual assault, this is a more controversial idea, though, because it would essentially break the chain of command and allow victims to go outside of the military to report cases of sexual assault. alex? >> very interesting concept. thanks. it doesn't added a up. two of the three latest polls
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has president obama's approval rating at or about 50%, despite controversies that some have said are the toughest of his presidency. joining me is ed rendell and chip saltzman. governor, do these approval numbers make sense to you? >> sure. it's basically democrats rallying around the president and again it's a symptom of the republicans overplaying their hand, trying to turn it into a partisan issue, trying to place blame directly on the president when there's no evidence to support that. it's a little bit of both. it's the same percentage that voted for him in november. >> okay. chip, you look at these numbers and it's really not without precedent. president clinton's approval ratings, they skyrocketed after 63.8%. on the flip side, you have president bush who hit an approval rating just after hurricane katrina. is this a barometer of how much
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the public cares about a scandal? >> well, i think a little bit, alex, and i think governor rendell has a little bit of right. it was called the kitchen sink strategy. it came all at once. it was hard for the public to go through each one and they all came at the same time. i think for the first two weeks we haven't seen what the poll numbers are going to do. if you get another two, three weeks of this, the poll numbers are going to start going down and you added in the fact that the economy is doing pretty good and if you look inside the numbers, you see people starting to like the economy and feel good about the economy. they give obama a credit for that and that helps to stabilize his poll number gs. >> but do you think that they are for the people we talked to, that's an important issue. people die and they want to get to the real reason why these people died while there were marines on the ground that could have helped. that's one part of it. but when you talk about the irs, nobody likes the irs.
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you would think the irs scandal would hurt his numbers more. again, we've seen a week of it and we're going to see somebody resigning and lois lerner taking the fifth. is there more information to come out on the irs scandal? >> have you talked to any democrats about benghazi or -- >> absolutely. i live in the capital city, a lot more democrats than republicans. >> he says that the public can separate the scandals from the man. do you agree with that or do you think that's too much to ask of the average american voter? >> no. i think at this point that's correct. chip makes a good point. we haven't seen the full rollout on this. clearly the president had nothing to do with the irs. clearly he had nothing to do with the a.p. in benghazi. i think the american public is more interested in what happened before, why we didn't bring troops or some support for the
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ambassador. they don't care much about the post incident span and i think republicans have made a mistake by focusing on that, who was lying, what do the e-mails say. but i do think that there's a danger here for the president because they've insulated him in the white house so much. they knew about -- the white house staff knew about the irs a month before the president did. he didn't learn it from them. he learned it from the news media. the president's own attorney general didn't tell them what they were doing with the ap. gosh, that looks like we have a president who is not in command. david axelrod said the federal government is so vast, you can't be accountable for all of it. when people didn't know and the white house didn't take action, that's more of a problem as we roll out than anything else. look, i would stake everything i believe in that president obama didn't do anything wrong. should they have taken corrective action, should the president have been the person to make a decision on the a.p., i think, yes, as governor, alex,
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if people made those decisions for me and didn't tell me, i'd be through the roof. >> i was about to ask you that. when you talk about folks in the white house who knew about it, that includes the chief of staff. >> it does. >> so how hush is it that the chief of staff gets info and then says, let's not tell this to the president? >> i have never heard of it in an executive office, whether it's mayor, governor, or president. and it's too much of this legal stuff that we want to insulated the president from any legal responsibility. you're a leader. lead. you lead the government. lead. take corrective action. move swiftly. make those decisions. a decision like the a.p. to do that to the a.p., that should never have been done without the president of the united states signing off. >> so all these scandals, chip, some of the focus may have been lifted a bit by thursday's speech. let's listen to part of that. >> we must define our effort,
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not as a boundless global war on terror but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle violent extremists that threaten america. >> i'd like you both to answer this but i'll begin with you, chip. do you read that as a policy shift or a different way to label it? >> i think it's a little bit of both. he's trying to change basically the american policy on this. i think the speech was interesting in the sense of whenever obama has problems outside, he goes back to what he does best, which is giving a good speech. he's a very good speechmaker and that gave excitement to going back to close gitmo but refocused on how the use of drones is going to go against the war on terror. >> i agree with chip. it's a little bit of both. >> thank you both for being here with us on a holiday weekend. enjoy it. >> you too, alex. new controversy in the trayvon martin trial. why his family may have already gotten what they wanted.
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joy ann reid talks about her college years at harvard and i asked joy ann about the shooting death of trayvon martin. >> i think what you're seeing is the martin family and my communications with them, with their legal team, they are just relying on prayer. they feel that they've gotten what they wanted and that the activists and the marches and what they are saying is, look, our goal is to get a trial rather than to have george zimmerman exonerated by the police. so they feel like they have satisfied that part of what they wanted and now in their minds it's up to god and to the jury that's eventually impanelled. on the zimmerman side, they are
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battling this battle of perception, that george zimmerman doesn't automatically look guilty. they are fighting to push back the trial to get more time. see how we have these two public perceptions constantly battling. by the way, to reshape trayvon martin. there's been a side on the o'mara side to say, you need to take a look at who this young man was, he was not just an innocent kid. and that's caused a lot of tension from the martin side as well. >> is there a lot of tension? >> not just in sanford but in miami. the black community in miami is very tense in anticipation of the trial. there's a lot of pent-up emotion that people are pouring into the outcome of the trial, even more than the family. a lot of people from the community are hanging a lot of their sense on the justice. in sanford, it's bringing the
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circus back. this is a man who wasn't from there. he was only in town for two weeks and, you know, the initial shooting and the aftermath really tore sanford apart. this was a community that had a lot of underlying racial tension that all burst to the surface because of this case. there are a lot of people in sanford dreading having that wound reopen. >> do you think they can seat an impartial jury? >> it's going to be hard. if you think about what mark o'mara, the lawyer for zimmerman, his job is to get a jury that is not automatically sympathetic to trayvon martin. and the trayvon martin side is going to be very suspicious of that. they have very many opposing issues. >> one thing i love about our friendship, really, is that
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we're both working moms and i've met some of your kids. you've brought them in on the weekends when they are not in school. >> yep. >> talk about that, though, and the challenges and what do the kids think when they see mom on tv? >> when we first decided to come up and it was my first show -- >> i do believe. >> they thought it was really cool back then. oh, my god. mom is on tv. really? you're going on tv again? now they are over it. >> how did studying at harvard shape who you are today? >> i was a public school kid at harvard. you're there with some very elite people and you go from a big fish in a little pond in your home town to just being one of many kids who has good grades and you have to try and navigate that but it was good because it was a quit immersion, directly the open sid of where i lived. i lived in a community 80% african-american and went to a community where it was 6% african-american. so you had to deal with that.
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just learned to live with people who were not my family. i had to grow up. i had to pay my own bills and my tuition. it was a good learning, growing experience. tomorrow at this time, joy ann tells me why she thinks calling what happened in benghazi a scandal is not good for the gop. and you're going to hear from the correspondent that spoke with jodi arias this week. ♪ [ slap! ] [ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] ow! ow! [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums.
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the retrial in the penalty phase is not expected to start until july 18th but the convicted killer wants to set the record straight and on wednesday she sat down for a face-to-face with diana avular. >> i think the difference is that i am not -- i'm not still lying about lying. i've lied. that was years ago. and whether or not it's
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believable to the public is not important to me. i just need to go forward. that's all i can do. >> and diana is joining me to talk about this interview. a welcome to you. i'm curious about your impression of this woman. >> well, alex, thanks for having me on. i have to tell you my very first impression about her was, this was a 40-minute long interview and she had the most incredible emotional control i've ever seen on anyone i've ever interviewed. she kept a straight face when i even looked at her point blank and said, you killed him. she did not deny it and was able to talk about it at length. the one time she had a flicker of something across her eyes was when i said to her, did you commit a crime? and she just stared at me for about four or five seconds and then just said, you know, i don't think i should answer that. >> that's interesting. >> i was surprised at that. >> i want to play a little bit about what she said. when you asked her about the reports that she contemplated
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suicide, let's listen to this. >> was it guilt, remorse? >> that was certainly an element. guilt, remorse, just i've completely f up my life and i think i'll be doing everyone a favor. >> does she seem remorseful to you, genuinely so? >> no, she didn't. i think that's the impression i came away with was she was very careful with the kind of words she chose. she rarely said anything about travis alexander's family and i found that a little unsettling considering this is man she murdered, butchered, slit his throat, shot him and never mentions his family unless i directly brought it up and to me that just didn't seem very remorseful at all. it was a little bit disturbing, to be honest. >> here's what she said about what she called about the memory gaps about what happened that night. let's listen. >> i don't believe that travis
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deserved to die. i don't recall -- i do have memory gaps and i wish that i could take back everything that happened. i never believed that he deserved to die. i flashed and i reacted and here i am and a lot of people have been hurt in the process and if i could take that back, i would do that in a second. >> okay. given all the discussion about what happened and the pictures, the photographs, everything that was introduced in evidence in the courtroom, do you think she really doesn't remember it? >> okay, alex, here's the problem, first of all, that's what she said during that answer but then later on i asked her, do you ever relive what happened that day and she said, oh, yes, all the time. and she said, all the time, i dream about it. i don't always remember my dreams but i dream about it. so what's the answer?
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and she demuired on that answer and didn't want to answer it. the other part about it is, she was on the stand for 18 days. 18 days where she's recounting this incident over and over and over again and she said she can't remember, she had memory gaps and at other times she was full of details about exactly how it went down. so again, a little bit difficult to know what to believe when it comes to jodi arias. >> can i just ask you, we were talking during a commercial break. can you share with the viewers here, your hertz rental car anecdote? i was like, wow. >> i've been covering this trial for several weeks and they've come to know me at the rental place and i saw somebody i knew there and we started chatting and i mentioned that i had spoken to jodi arias and suddenly business stopped and six people came over to me and were peppering me with questions, what did she like? did she have any remorse? did you believe anything that she was saying? this is the kind of case that has really gripped a lot of
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people in this country and it was so interesting that they all wanted to hear what it was like to interview jodi arias. and the other thing that is interesting, this is a case that has taken over social media. i've never seen anything like it. i covered casey anthony and the big difference here is that i had so many interactions with people on twitter, many of them people that felt very emotionally tied to this case. the moment i tweeted that i was interviewing jodi arias, people were telling me that i was as bad as she was, how dare we give her more air time. it's a lot of emotion that has come up because of this case, all because of this one woman. >> yeah, it is an extraordinary thing that has really gripped this country. thank you for sharing us your experience. we appreciate it. >> thanks. the spectacular rise of the s&p 500. did the white house play a role in it?
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it's a cold unofficial kickoff to summer. kansas city should top out around 80 with isolated thunderstorms. more midwest storms as we head into sunday. the northeast does start to warm up. 68 in new york city. 50s in boston. against potted plant kind. [ clang ] my house is where plants came to die. but, it turns out all i was missing was miracle-gro potting mix. it's got what a plant needs like miracle-gro plant food that feeds them for up to six months. you get bigger, healthier plants, guaranteed. who's got two green thumbs thanks to miracle-gro? ah, this gal. boom! with the right soil, everyone grows with miracle-gro. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult.
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today. a live report in minutes. it's a washout of a holiday weekend so far for millions of americans and some places could see a whiteout. plus, detroit, is it the best of times or worst of times for motor city. and airport screeners set a new record to keep the sky safe. good evening. i'm alex witt. let's get to what is happening out there as we begin with the long and anticipated start of summer. this is a gloomy times square in new york city. rainfall expected throughout the northeast, the plains, as well as parts of texas. jersey shore is back in business after hurricane sandy. snow is expected, though, in the mountains. dylan dreir is here with the forecast. first, we'll hear from michelle franzen. the tourists are returning to
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the boardwalk. it hasn't hurt too, too much, has it, michelle? >> reporter: well, not a whole lot. people are still determined to come out here and show support on this holiday weekend. they would like -- >> we want to see what she saw there. can we get that back? >> reporter: we're seeing these gale winds. >> it was a weather thing. >> reporter: it may be a weather thing. certainly the crowds are definitely coming back out. they are enjoying this time no matter what these winds are and that's because, you may remember seven months ago, seaside heights devastated by sandy and all up and down the jersey shore. of course, a vital component of the garden state's economy. accounting for $40 million in tourism dollars. the business is here, has reopened. they've got a lot of ground to make up. six months that they have been
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sitting out. seven months if you count the storm and they are hoping that this summer when the sun comes out, that should be tomorrow and the kickoff for the rest of the summer, that they will be able to makeup that difference and certainly we've heard from a lot of people that have come here over the years and they were determined and wanted to come back here and show their support as well. they are off to a good start. >> all right. it's all good. boardwalk is back. thank you very much, michelle franzen. we go to dylan in the weather center for us. what can we expect out there? >> it's going to be cold at the jersey shore today and up and down the northeast and back into the great lakes, too. temperatures are only in the 50s. it's going to stay rather chilly as we continue through the day without a lot of sunshine. topping out in mid-50s in the northeast. heat across the plains. 87 degrees into denver. that's where all of the warm air is hiding. as for rain, we have heavier rain moving into western
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illinois. an area of low pressure right off the northeast coast is producing that northeast wind that's very strong right now, making for those almost gale-like conditions along the coast. we're seeing the rain pass back into central massachusetts and into connecticut. lighter showers across the jersey shore. you see that white stuff showing up in vermont and upstate new york, they could get six inches of snow in areas above 6,000 feet. the lift tickets are free in vermont. kicking off or ending the season there on a high note, i would say. we're seeing some heavier rain moving into western illinois but in north and south dakota, we have a couple storms popping up. we could see stronger wind gusts later on today. also, heavier downpours. today is chilly in the northeast. it stays chilly in the eastern plains moving into the midwest.
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at least that cool air will start to retreat. we should get back into the upper 60s in new york city tomorrow. and then on memorial day, most areas in the 60s and 70s. alex? >> i cannot believe we're talking about snow. it's going to be june a week from today. >> it's insane. it's been madness this spring. >> it certainly has. thank you very much, dylan, we appreciate that. speaking of some madness today, a tornado ravaged moore, oklahoma. however, high school students at the town, at least one traditional life is going on as planned. let's go to charles hadlock. we have graduation day, i understand. what's going on there? >> reporter: that's right, alex. today is graduation day here in moore, oklahoma. there are three high schools here. none of them were really hit by the tornado but a lot of the families who have kids in the school were affected by the storm. one student buried her mom yesterday and today she is
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graduated. it gives people here a chance to focus on something that is life affirming and a right of passage for so many people. the 911 calls have been released today. some of the bone-chilling calls that were made last monday afternoon. one in particular was from a man at a daycare center where he said 14 children were trapped. here's part of that call. >> we've got a daycare full of babies. we need help bad. we need help bad. we've got a daycare. they just got created. >> where are you at? >> we got -- huh? >> where are you at? >> what's the name of the -- what's the address? >> 54 south telephone. we've got tons of babies in here. >> okay. we'll get somebody out. >> all right. we need help bad. >> that is hard to listen to with all of the children
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screaming in the background. the good news is, everyone there at the daycare center got out alive. in fact, the shopping center behind me, 14 people were trapped under this rubble and they, too, all got out alive. >> the way you put that, the detailed fact that there is a student graduating today who buried mom yesterday. that is also just heartbreaking. >> yes. >> i tell you, charles hadlock, thank you very much for putting it all in perspective. a celebrity concert will be held on wednesday night featuring blake shelton. it will begin at 9:00 eastern time. here's an update on a developing story from missouri where two freight lines collided near the town of chaffee. the crash sparked a fire. according to the county sheriff, seven people were injured including a train conductor and engineer but other people injured were just in cars traveling on that overpass. just a week ago, missouri there
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was another train collision. chuck hagel taking on sex scandals in the military with a vi pointvery pointed stance at point. >> it's a profound betrayal yell, a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and sacred trusts. this courage must be stamped out. we're all responsible for ensuring that this happens. and in washington state, officials look into a temporary fix for the i-5 portion of the bridge which collapsed on thursday. it's shining a spotlight on the country's aging infrastructure. joining me now, usa today susan page and washington post aaron blake and a welcome to both of you. we'll go ladies first with you, susan. let's go to the bridge collapse
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in washington state. is anyone in d.c. using that argument for infrastructure spending? >> you know, alex, i heard the interview you did in the last hour with elijah cummings who is a supporter of more infrastructure spending and he didn't even have optimism that there was going to be any response to this bridge collapse even though we know that about 11% of american bridges are structurally deficient, that should be of some concern to all of the americans driving for the hollywood weekend. i think there's such an allergy now to additional spending, especially additional spending like this, the stimulus spending that we saw from 2009. >> aaron, elijah cummings talked about in terms of the sequester and how they need to be using the surge in skcalpel, instead f a machete, are you hearing
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anyone there about the lack of sequester funds? >> nancy pelosi said it yesterday. president obama has been pushing this issue for a long time and obviously he was against the sequester taking place. you know, i don't know that one bridge collapse is going to change the game as far as this whole sequester debate goes. one thing that would do that is these airport delays that we were talking about for a while. even those didn't seem to move the ball a whole bunch -- a whole lot as far as the sequester goes. i think that this is still something that most people don't see affecting their lives. even if most people did, they wouldn't like the alternative to what we are seeing right now. >> susan, this is heavily gets the odds, democrats regain the house in 2014. you spoke with the chair of the democratic congressional committee about all of that. so what's his take on that and what is yours? >> congressman steve israel is
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employed in that job to say that they can pick up the house. that would defy history and there are two things, two factors that comes together. one would be factors that might give democrats a bit of hope and as i said it would be unprecedented. >> they talk about one of the big targets, the democrats, and that's minnesota michele bachmann's seat. she barely squeeaked by last time. it's close, right? >> it is. there's a new poll by jim grace that shows him leading michele bachmann. that's a concern for any incumbent and especially an incumbent in what is a republican-leaning district. he's clearly in a competitive
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race there now against someone who of course ran for the republican nomination last time. he's one of the leading figures in the tea party movement in congress. >> okay. aaron, how much do you think the irs couldn't verse see might play into the midterms yesterday? >> this is a story that is going to be around for a while. i think it's incumbent on the republicans not to overplay their hand a little bit. the more they make this look like a partisan effort, the less credibility it has when in fact there are very valid questions that they are asking right now. if this is drawn out, if this makes the administration look bad, it could have an impact on the 2014 elections. as we saw in 2010, it's all about motivations for the republicans. when they had the tea party riled up and angry about what was going on, they turned out in droves in 2010 and it was a huge year for republicans. republicans need that kind of
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enthusiasm, even if the tea party wasn't going to result from all of this. >> yeah. real quickly with both of you, the big story of the week, the president's speech on the fight against terrorism, your take away from that, susan? >> i think we are going to look back and see this was a big speech and he said there is a time where we will no longer have to do that. restrictive policies on drones and gitmo. looking at the long span of this history. >> speaking of a long span, you wrote about the person that was heckling the president? >> there were three episodes where he talked her down twice and eventually she wouldn't stop
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talking and they had to remove her. i thought it was interesting that this was allowed to go on and that he engaged her in this discussion. i think it's because he has sympathy for her on this issue. in fact, her position is the same that he had, which is to close guantanamo bay. the problem is that he's run into a lot of obstacles and trying to do that. there is logistical issues with that, that make it very difficult for him. i think that the fact that he sympathized with her cause meant that he was kind of willing to hear her out and engage her in the way he did, which is very unusual. >> aaron blake and susan page, wish i could continue but we've got to go. >> thank you. a new development about the u.s. military prison at guantanamo bay and could put more pressure on congress to close it. we're going to talk with former new mexico governor bill richardson. next. h jobs mine. we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students
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here's a reason we should perhaps feel thankful for the airport screeners and there's new word that screeners this week confiscated 65 firearms and 19 had rounds in the guns chambers. 108 days of a hunger strike and just today, three more were hospitalized and four more were force fed. president obama is calling for a close but there's still a long road ahead. bill richardson who served as sea secretary of energy and ambassador to the u.n. thank you for joining me. >> thank you, alex. >> closing gitmo, as you know, was perhaps the biggest initiative in the president's speech. is it politically possible?
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>> well, it's going to be tough but i think it's possible. there's momentum towards making this change. you've got to remember, alex, this was caused, this guantanamo, by illegal detention of prisoners, by por tur in the past administration. what the president has said is he wants to have the congress eliminate the ability of the president to keep the ability of the president to transfer prisoners. congress refuses to do that. he said that we can try a lot of these prisoners in civilian courts, limited military courts, that we need to close this down not just for foreign policy reasons, this terrible image abroad. but also i think there's some real civil liberties. i think the president has seized the momentum on this issue. the hunger strike, which should not be the justification, it should be an important element here. the important justification is that this can be done in
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civilian court with appropriate, judicial screening and action but at the same time we've got to recognize what happened in boston, what has happened in 9/11. we still have a threat from terrorists. >> you said a terrible image abroad. elaborate on the impact of gitmo as well as the strikes on foreign relations. >> well, obviously in pakistan it has probably hurt our policy the most. the guantanamo issue, the drone issue. on the issue of drones, the president has also made important statements. one, no longer will they be used on the basis of suspicion. there has to be eminent threat. the department will be in charge of it, not the cia. more transparency. third, there's going to have to be some very, very sensible, special initiatives, like a
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special court whenever lethal force is used. but i think to protect our national security, because there are still threats there, it has to be used. more congressional oversight probably makes sense, although there has to be some confidentiality and secrecy. but i think he's made important reforms there, too. >> yes. they talk about preference for capture as well. the speech left a lot of things unclear. we still don't know what constitutes intent or imminent threat. did you hear substantive changes to the drone policy? >> well, i did see a lot of good changes. obviously you want to carefully define what am imminent threat is. on the past it was on basis of suspicion. that has been reformed.
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the attorney general sent a letter to congress that outlined the use. alex, what has to happen is -- i know transparency is important but some of these documents have to be classified and limited for special use because for national security protections and i think the president did take those steps that protect our civil liberties, an independent panel to look at civil liberties associated with a lot of these panels. you know, the cia has done a good job on issues like this but their job is to keep things secret. now there will be more transparency in the department of defense. >> in your role as former new mexico governor, you know about this. i'm talking about immigration here.
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earlier this week the senate judiciary committee, what is your take on the bill? >> i think it's a good start. i'd like to see more flexibility on the path to citizenship. it takes 13 years, a lot of hoops. at the same time, i recognize that there has to be more border security. i'm a former border governor. there's some initiatives in that bill but it's an important start and the president has handled this issue well. the problem is going to be not in the senate. i think the senate bill will come out basically in good shape. what's been passed by the committee. it's when you go to the house and the house republicans, i don't know what they want to do. they may want to move piecemeal, put too many restrictions on border security so the path to citizenship becomes very difficult. but i think they are taking huge political gamblie to a huge bil
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but with hispanic voters which they did horrible. there are moderate republicans that are moving in the right direction. so let's hope it works out. >> we're going to irs. we know that the white house chief of staff, dennis mcdonough decided not to inform the president about what was happening there in ohio. do you think that was the right tactic, keeping the president shielded from the information? >> alex, i don't have all of the information on that. i did read an account that the reason the white house council did not raise it with the president was she was afraid that the president would be open to attacks that he tried to influence the investigation.
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and obviously that's probably a sensible legal call, was it the right political call, not having the president in the loop, it probably doesn't look good. but i think the portland and the administration have moved forward with personnel changes, with investigations. you know, this is -- look, a lot of administrations have these problems, these scandals. i've seen presidents from nixon and johnson and clinton and ford, the bushes, this happens with every administration and you can't expect the president, alex, to know everything, every step the bureaucracy does. there has to be accountability, though. here, i think what was happening, the white house staff, the council wanted to protect the president from allegations that maybe he was trying to politically influence the investigation. that's what i saw and i think
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this white house council made the right legal call. >> all right. former governor and secretary richardson, thanks for your time. it's urban renewal by bulldozer. is that any way to rebuild the city? anything's possible, ryobi has over 50 productsols. that work off of one 18 volt battery. and with new improved lithium and lithium plus batteries, you'll get a while lot more done in less time. plus, they'll improve the performance of every 18 volt tool we've ever made. now that's getting more power for your money. ryobi one plus. the one system that delivers more. available only one place. the home depot. this ryobi one+ drill and impact driver kit, now just $99.
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[ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ♪ [ agent smith ] ge software connects patients to nurses to the right machines while dramatically reducing waiting time. [ telephone ringing ] now a waiting room is just a room. [ static warbles ] welcome back to weekend with alex witt. there is a breathless run of the stock market, particularly the s&p 500. more than 52 months after the president took office, the index is up 105%. this is just the fifth time in the s&p's 84-year history when
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it doubled during a presidency. joining me now to distill this bit of positive news, vice president and msnbc con distributor, with a welcome to you, jared, i love talking about the economy when it's about this but put it in perspective. what are the caveats here? >> well, it's a good number, particularly those people's wealth that depends on the stock market. lots of pension funds and retirees have stock market wealth but the vast majority is held by the folks at the top of the income scale. in fact, 80% of stock market wealth is held by the top 10% of markets. also, it's important to keep in mind here that the president's stock market record that you just cited benefits from starting at a very low base. it's easier for the market to grow when it's started from such a low base when he took office in 2009. but that said, certainly the
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progress of the stock market looks a whole lot better than the typical worker's paycheck. >> but that -- i guess that arch for growth started very low, should it have gone higher? >> well, it's hard to really make an argument that it should have done a whole lot better than it did. we also have the federal reserve in the mix helping to really boost corporate profits with very low interest rates and also, again, thinking about some of the president's actions. the financial market bailout gave the financial industry a real boost back then when they were hovering around insolvency. >> can you point to one or two specific obama initiatives that created that rise or has it been predominantly external forces? >> predominantly, external forces. however, i did just mention one, which was the president's implementation of the t.a.r.p., and that was actually a george w. bush program. the administration helped to boost that.
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again, it was very favorable to banks who were really hurting and a lot of people to this day are questioning where is the accountability there? these are folks that have been doing the best of everyone. and secondly i would say, for all of the stuff that you hear businesses complaining about taxes and regulations, the obama administration has actually been, i think, quite a light touch in that record. so i wrote something about this phenomena that we were talking about on my blog and called it something to the effect, obama, the world's worse socialist. >> i saw that. that was good. the rise, though, in the s&p, it benefits those in wall street and those invested in the market. do the positive effects reach the middle classes? >> look. only a very small share of stock market wealth is held by those in the middle class. about one-third of all stock market gains accrued to those at the top 1%. if you want to look at the numbers, the average stock
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market holdings is 5.3 million. average holdings of the typical middle class family would be about 10,000 bucks. now, that's not nothing. again, we should remember that if you're talking about someone who depends on a pension retirement, retirees, it does matter to people other than those at the very top of the income scale but they are the ones that benefit the most. >> you know, we talk about the economy oftentimes being based on emotion. so when you see these really high stratosphere numbers, doesn't that have a trickle down effect? >> i've always been a big discounter on anything that trickles down. i think the confidence thing matters perhaps somewhat less. it's definitely a plus. i'll give you a plus on that, alex. what matters for most people is
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their paycheck and i looked this morning, if you look at the period over which the stock market has more than doubled, which we've been discussing over this segment, the average value of the real paycheck, of the typical worker where their earnings are up 0.8%, not 8%, less than 1%, could you have all of the confidence that you want. by the way, i don't blame the president for that either. he has tried lots of measures to improve the labor market but he's been blocked by lots of conservative forces who have been trying to, in many ways, focus on the stock market and tax cuts for rich people. >> you will never be blocked for coming on this show. jared bernstein, thank you. >> thank you, alex. less than a decade ago, detroit was the middle class dream. in a new documentary airing internationally for the first time, it's a different story.
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the once proud city's glory is now just a memory. the city is struggling with despair through the eyes of residence who have refused to give up on it. joining me is rachel. i have family who lives in detroit. i am very near and dear to this story. overall, you talk about this as detroit being the fastest growing american city and now it's the fastest shrinking u.s. city. >> it's disappearing. >> what happened here? >> you know, the jobs dried up and that's really the bottom line. i think that it would have stayed robust but it was a one-industry town, obviously automotive, and that was outsourced and no one had any jobs and they had to leave. >> what was it that brought you to this project? >> well, i think if you go to detroit and you spend any time there, it is really -- it's
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surprising, almost shocking what's going on there. you can't believe this is actually an american city, let alone a city that represents the birth of the middle class and the american dream. it was a no-brainer once we spent time there. >> it always takes money to create a documentary like this. how did you get the money for this? didn't you dip into your own pocket? >> no, we didn't have to. thank goodness. >> what was your kick story to get the funding? >> well, we -- we raised money from five different sources. we got grants, television money, pbs gave us money. that's why it's going to air on their network on monday. we did raise money to distribute it in the theater. yeah. maybe that's what you were thinking. >> one of the characters declares that all that remains in detroit are the remnants of what was. let's have a listen. >> you can't find jobs because there's already 200 people
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willing to work for dirt. all that's left is a recommend nan recommend nan remnants of what was. >> do you think it's viable for a comeback? >> i see a really sort of an optimism from the people who have decided to stay which is actually significant, if you think about more than half of the population has left. anyone that has decided to stay has a huge stake in it. so i found that to be optimistic and inspiring. and i believe that, you know, that can go a long way. >> did you find in your research for this, other cities that are in danger for going in the way of detroit? >> sure. that's something that we paid attention to. this film ended up being more of a cautionary tale. i think that we've already seen other cities. jefferson county and down south
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and in california, cities are going bankrupt. municipalities are being challenged right now. pensions are draining. states and counties and cities and i think that it's a place that a lot -- that we should pay attention to. >> okay. rachel grady, look forward to watching this. it's at 10:00 p.m., right? >> yes, but look at your local directory. >> thank you so much. >> thanks. a shocking billionaire hedge fund manager's comments about fema traders who become mothers. the big three. and we're talking about that. l ? l ? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need.
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there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply. it's time for today's big three. he said what? terror, america and the world and best week. joining us is irin carmon. thank you for joining us.
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i want to have all of you listen to how hedge fund billionaire paul responded on a panel that he sat on. >> and as soon as that baby's lips touch that girl's bossom, forget it, every single investment idea, every desire to understand what's going to make this go up or go down is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience which a man will never share between that mother and that baby. and i've just seen it happen over and over. >> he issued this apology yesterday saying, "much of my adult life has been spent fighting for equal opportunity and the idea that i particularly
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women is antithetical to the ladies that i offended, i am sorry. >> i am grossed out by what he said and the term bossoms. we are the only wealthy country that doesn't have paid family leave for men and women. >> susan, we also just saw a record number of women elected to the senate. do you think this is a comment that's going to reverberate in the halls of congress? >> probably not too much. it's certainly something i wouldn't be surprised if somebody jumped on for that reason. what is particularly interesting about jones is that he really didn't want -- nobody really wanted to vilify him because of all of the charity work he has
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done. they are careful in how they approached it. what he said is absurd, talking about all women. and it goes to the beginning of your segment. he said what? >> yeah. >> morris, you're the only guy on this panel. do you think it's insulting and reflecting wall street on the whole? remind you of the company you're keeping here. >> also my mother, grandmother, and wife are watching. paul is a great guy. listen, what this really talks to me is women are sometimes smarter than men. they don't want to stare at a computer all day long. i'm here in california and i visited a great company led by a woman that's going to transform the world. maybe women want to do more things like having an impact on the world than just looking at stock market and following quotes. so i think he's wrong. i think that women want to have more out of their job than men sometimes do, particularly us
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guys on the east coast where we're only focused on making money and, let's face is, fall street doesn't have that much impact on the world. really what type of legacy will you have if you don't do what he has done. most of these guys make their money and hang out in the hamptons. >> let's switch some gears to the president's counterterrorism speech this week. the president caught flack from both the left and the ride but it was his outlining on the new set of rules of the use of drones that set the critics off here. is this the right strategy for defeating terrorism? >> well, it's a fine line. i've said on this show before that this drone policy is the scariest thing we've entered into because what do people start to do to us? i think it's good that he got ahead of this and set up protocols. we have let the cat out of the bag. if we are doing it to other people, what will stop them from
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doing it to us down the line. >> the president really renewing his fight to close guantanamo bay. this is -- he's been talking about this since 2007. so how can the president get lawmakers, especially republicans, on his side? what kind of a message does thi 2007. what kind of a message does he have to deliver to achieve the goal to get it done? >> well, it is going to be really tricky, about a third of the prisoners that they're talking about, be 56 are supposed to be transferred back to yemen, when they were cleared to go, they put the policy back on hold. they were told 86 prisoners would be transferred to prove they won't be a threat to americans. now when it comes to the other detainees, it will be hard to pass a law that they can't come on u.s. soil. so they will have to come up with a way to branch the
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military tribunals, which would allow them to be tried that way. it will be a difficult sale, especially for those who have already been cleared. >> irin, do you think -- you just listened to susan outline saying they're not coming here with the military tribunals, that seems like a huge leap, where do they go? >> again i think it has been pointed out nobody has ever escaped from the super max prisons inside our country. we have criminals and terrorists here in prison, it is a testament to the hunger strikes happening in guantanamo bay that they reached international attention. these people are starving to death to have their cases looked at. it is unamerican to hold them without a trial. i think the more attention, people would like to forget it is happening. the more attention that is drawn
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through actions, like the hunger strike, the more happy we are to see justice. >> up next, california, a winner or loser, morris will tell us, he is out there. so now i can hes a great block party. ♪ [ male announcer ] advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. [ male announcer ] advair diskus fluticasone propionate and salmeterol inhalation powder. get your first prescription free
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and save on refills at advaircopd.com. the act of soaring across an ocean in a three-hundred-ton rocket doesn't raise as much as an eyebrow for these veterans of the sky. however, seeing this little beauty over international waters is enough to bring a traveler to tears. we're putting the wonder back into air travel, one innovation at a time. the new american is arriving.
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>> we are back with the big three for the worst and best of the week. morris, you're going to go first here, what is your best and worst? >> my winner is california, the budget surplus, the state had a budget surplus, there is a new mayor in los angeles, there are great companies and great innovation in california, i think it is back, in iran, if you notice everybody that is for reform in iran has been kicked off the ballot. so we need to pay attention to the upcoming election there. >> i am applauding to myself there, your california pick. susan? >> seven months ago, nobody thought that chris christie would be able to get new jersey up and running for the memorial
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day weekend. and sure enough he has. there are two other things that fold into it. one is, a lot of people thought if he didn't do it it could be very tough for him going into a political year or elections in november. then to add to it he is having president obama back and welcoming him back on tuesday. so his poor democratic opponent is not getting a bone thrown her way, that has to be pretty depressing, a great win for chris christie. and lois lerner, worst week for her, turns out she says she did nothing wrong and then takes the fifth because she doesn't want to incriminate herself and then leaves. i think she is now also the face of the scandal. >> irin, yours? >> the winner of the week, the left and critics of the president obama policies, who finally got him to reveal his policies during a speech, the losers, we're not even given a
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vote on whether they should be able to reunite, thanks to republicans threatening to blow up the bill over it. >> thank you so much, that is a wrap of this weekend with alex witt, up next, craig melvin, have yourself a great saturday. [ female announcer ] life is full of little tests, but your basic paper towel can handle them. especially if that towel is bounty basic. the towel that's 50% stronger. in this lab demo even just one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is stronger than one full sheet of the leading bargain brand. everyday life? bring it with bounty basic. the strong, but affordable picker-upper. big time taste should fit in a little time cup. new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. always good to the last drop.
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do not drive, operate machinery or do unsafe tasks until you know how toviaz affects you. the most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. talk to your doctor about toviaz. good saturday afternoon to you, i'm craig melvin, you're watching msnbc, here is what is happening right now, graduation ceremonies are under way in oklahoma at this hour, less than a week after that ef-5 tornado that touched down, could sequester efforts cut that rebuilding effort, plus, caught on camera. the new spotlight on the country, aging infrastructure on this holiday weekend, plus? >> you need to not just deal with these debilitating and

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