the east coast. 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." developing news out of moore, oklahoma, where on this memorial day weekend residents are in cleanup mode as they prepare for president obama to tour their devastated community. right to charles hadlock who has the latest. there has to be a lot of and s anticipation. tell me what the mood is like there today. >> reporter: hi, alex. the streets have been open so traffic is flowing. i was driving around a little bit this morning and one thing i noticed is that most of the church parking lots are full this morning. this is a faith-based community and they're relying on that faith to get them through this disaster. of course president obama will be here on the ground within the next hour, and he will tour the devastated parts of the area. a lot to see here, the devastation path is 22 miles long, a mile wide at its widest point. the president will meet with some of the victims and he'll also thank the first responders who saved so many lives in the first few minutes after this

disaster. alex? >> yeah, you can imagine the sight for him as he will be on approach on air force one as he heads to the air force base. from the sky, charles, it still has just this very defined mark of where exactly that twister went through, doesn't it? >> reporter: it's a scar. it's a scar across this part of oklahoma. and it's very similar to the one that was in 1999, the may 3 tornado that killed so many people. that's probably the last time a president was here in moore, oklahoma. that was president clinton back in 1999 who came to tour the devastation back then. one thing the president will see here, a lot of american flags on the side of the road and even in the rubble. people have a strong sense of patriotism here even among all the debris here and amid this disaster. >> and let's hope those attending church certificaservi receiving comfort and

inspiration from that. let's go to front page politics. new reaction to the major counterterrorism speech. the president established new guidelines for his controversial drone program limiting its scope and putting more control in the hands of the military. well, today republican senator paul whose fill bibuster on dro cast a spotlight on the issue for many gave his response. >> i was pleased with his words, and i was pleased that he did respond to this. however, there still is a question in my mind what he thinks due process is. could you due process to most of us is a court of law. it's a trial by jury. and right now their process is him looking at flash cards and a power point presentation on terror tuesdays in the white house. >> meanwhile, following president obama and secretary hagel's comments the past two days on the shocking rates of sexual assault in the military, republican senator lindsey graham of the armed certificase

committee weighed in this morning. >> i want to salute the with women who serve and are putting up with way too much crap. this needs to end. when a victim comes forward, they should have an advocate to walk them through the justice system and commanders who allow this to continue to flourish, quite frankly, should be fired. and the president spoke well of this problem. it is a disgrace to the united states military. >> let's get more reaction now today on the president's war on it terror speech. kristen, a good sunday to you. senator graham went so far as to call the president tone deaf in his speech. so what's the latest reaction to that? >> reporter: well, alex, senior administration officials are saying that the president is still going to pursue the united states enemies with the same vigor and aggressiveness, but they say that a new approach is needed. they say that this term war on terror is outdated, which is what we essentially heard the president talk about in his speech last week. and they say part of that is because al qaeda has been

weakened and the troops are coming home from afghanistan, so they say a different approach is needed. democrats also fanned out on the morning shows today to defend the president's counterterrorism policy. this is what chuck schumer had to say. take a listen. >> there are new types of threats that we have to be vigilant about, but he said under this long-term war on terror where small groups of individuals can hurt us, we need some rules. we need some rules. we need some transparency. so american citizens and the citizens of the world know we're not just going willy-nilly. >> reporter: and, alex, one of the key parts of this debate is just how strong is al qaeda? if you talk to some republicans like representative peter king from new york, he believes that al qaeda hasn't been decimated as the white house is arguing. so that's really where the tension lies. if you ask foreign policy experts, many of them agree that, look, caal qaeda has been weakened to a large extent. top leaders, top officials have

been taken off of the battlefield. however, there are still pockets of strength. you heard chuck schumer refer to that particularly in areas like yemen. so that is really the concern moving forward. and on the drone policy, you started off by talking about drones, a number of lawmakers also calling for this administration to be more transparent in its use of drones as it moves forward. alex? >> okay, kristen welker at the white house, thanks for that. so joining me for more front page politics, dana millbanks and the author of the soon to be released "prisoners of the white house." we wish you good luck with that, ken. dana, just hearing from senator rand paul who said the president's speech did not clear up the questions about due process, what do you think? >> well, it's interesting. the president gave a speech and the republicans are all eager to criticize. the problem is they can't agree on the criticism so you have the libertarian response coming from rand paul saying he's taking a

step in the right direction but hasn't gone far enough in terms of the civil liberties aspect of things. and then you have lindsey graham representing the more hawkish front saying he's gone way too far in terms of walking away from the war on it terrorism. it sounds like the president has probably struck the right balance certainly in terms of the words he spoke. the question, can you implement that sort of policy or get anything through this congress and get the military to go along with it as well? >> ken, i spoke with bill richardson yesterday, of course the former governor, former secretary, and he said that there are some things the public should not know about what the military and cia does. are we asking for too much transparency on drones? >> well, that's a good question. this is always a conflict about what the public should know, and the idea of keeping things secret to make it more effective. the polls i've seen indicate the

drone policy is actually quite popular with americans. people feel that it cuts down on our casualties. it does result in casualties and deaths amongst civilians but people are willing to accept that because they feel that the terrorists have been decimated by the drones and it's working. now we don't know a lot about the drones but they do cause a tremendous amount of hard feelings in the countries where they're used because so many civilians are hurt and killed. but i think there's also some democrats who are not comfortable with the drones, too, because it's not quite clear how often this is being done, how careful our government is being in doing this. and i think it's a case with the drones and some of these other things, president obama might not really understand the intensity of the opposition that develops. i think you've seen these other scandals come up. benghazi and the irs, the media spying. and i don't think he quite senses the intensity of the opposition, part of that

insulation, that isolation that presidents have. he might not, i think, understand the kind of reaction particularly from the republican right to the drone policy. >> i'm also curious about the tenor of things on capitol hill because, dana, we all remember rand paul's many hours long filibuster, but is the debate about drones as fierce inside congress as it is in the public and among journalists? >> i don't think it is, alex, for a couple of reasons. one is the ones who would normally object to this sort of thing, the secrecy of the work, would be the democrats. those are the ones who are howling about the secrecy, the threat to civil liberties that was done during the bush administrati administration. now it's one of their own, are a democrat. they're not going to do it. republicans are not going to be critical because they like the policy. they like a more hawkish, aggressive stance here. they're not particularly concerned with the exception of the rapid paul libertarian wing about the secrecy aspect of it. so that's why you have this dynamic and except for the odd

rand paul filibuster there's not going to be a whole lot of public opposition up there even though we in the media howell about it. >> okay. another topic here i'll begin with you, ken, a democratic senator, dick durbin, from the armed services committee weighing in on the military sexual assaults this morning. let's take a listen. >> there are several things we need to do but i want to salute the women of the senate, both democrats and republicans who are stepping up on this issue and in a determined effort to stop what is truly a scourge on the military, we need to make certain those who are victims step forward knowing they'll be protected and have a chance too much their day in court, a court that they can trust. >> so the good thing is this is an issue that seems to be beyond po politics. have you heard anything yet that would make a substantive difference in getting those results? >> well, i think it is a cultural thing in the military. i guess i'm one of the few journalists left who was in the military a long time ago.

i was in the army. things have changed an awful lot in that time, being respectful of women and understanding women have an important place in the military equal to men in many ways and i think that the problem is there's still this residual sense of sort of how do women fit in in the culture of the military. i think you're seeing that in these incredible numbers of thousands of these sexual assault and sexual harassment case that is have just been discovered. >> can i ask you, ken, having been in the military so you understand the military mindset, the concept of taking out the legal haranguing about military assaults and putting it into a civilian court, something like that, taking it out of the chain of command for the military, do you see how that might actually accomplish things and get things done is this. >> the military has always felt that the things that happened in the military, the military is not like civilian society, people give orders and expect it to be carried out. there's not a the lot of choice there.

it's not a democracy. and that's what was drummed in our heads. i think the military is very resistant. they feel this is something they can deal with internally, not in civilian courts. i would be surprised if anything like that happened. i think it has to be what they call command influence, making sure that this doesn't happen, this is a top priority, and that's what you see from secretary hagel, lindsey graham and other people. >> do you get a sense these commanders are getting the message and something can be done? >> i think they're getting the message. the question is whether they're going to be accepting of legislation, whether it's coming from senator gillibrand or mccaskill, will they allow that interference or resist it? there's always going to be some level of problem there. they clear ly have a cultural problem and they need to adjust their procedures. there's going to be a lot of tension between the military brass saying we'll handle this ourselves and then congress trying to do it for them.

>> good to see you both. >> thanks, alex. flash floods in texas turned deadly after two women were swept in a the water in san antonio. a teenager is also missing. the floods have caused several evacuations and power outages for over 12,000 customers. the weather channel's jen carfagno is here. >> reporter: good day to you. we're watching weather from all over the country from all four seasons. hanging on to winter in the northeast, 7 1/2 inches of snow fell yesterday in the greens and the whites up in, northern new england. today still gloomy, still below average and still windy making it feel raw in the northeast. you can thank this dip in the jet stream for that. but we will see improvement coming as early as tomorrow and really by the end of this upcoming week. today temperatures running well below average. 15-20 degrees below average. fast forward to next weekend and now we're talking summer. 92 in burlington. 88 in boston and new york city heading up to 88 degrees by next week. meanwhile across the midwest we

are feeling summerlike or at least late springlike with showers and thunderstorms, some with heavy rain, and that will be one of the biggest storm threats. the risk for severe weather, hail, damaging winds. there is a tornado threat tomorrow as well. and the threat for storms extends way up into the midwest. by tuesday the middle of the country stays active. the southeast hangs on to high pressure. beautiful weather the entire memorial day weekend today and into tomorrow as well. high pressure remains in control and it's fabulous beach weather here, kick off the summer right. we have 80s and sunshine in your forecast. then to the west, and we're going to see much of the same. the pattern continues in the west to bring the showers onto the authority west coast. we'll see rain in seattle. nice and warm in vegas and phoenix. in fact, heading up to 97 in phoenix for today. that's a look at the weather, alex. we'll send it back to you. >> jen, thank you so much. the legal battle of a former child actress takes another strange turn. the accusation she reportedly made on twitter. ♪ c'est aujourd'hui ♪

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new reason today for the u.s. to worry about what's happening inside syria because for the first time the terror group hezbollah isn't just talking about support for president bashar assad, they are declaring a commitment to fight. hezbollah's leader address ed followers via video promising victory against rebel forces. the most direct admission yet that hezbollah is fighting alongside assad's army. i want to bring in vermont democratic congressman peter welch who joined a delegation in turkey this month as well as afghanistan and pakistan where he looked at the impact of the syrian crisis and representative welch, give me your takeaway from the trip and how concerned you are about hezbollah's bold commitment to defeating rebels? >> well, it's a tragic

humanitarian catastrophe and it creates a the lot of additional political instability. but what hezbollah is doing is not news really. they're just admitting what we've known they've been doing all along, and that's aligning themselves with the repressive assad government with iran and frankly with iraq, the shia leadership in iraq. so what you've got is a caldron of enormous factionism that is very unstable and very dangerous. a humanitarian ka tcatastrophe. the real challenge, is this something where the united states could get militarily involved either with the no-fly zone, with boots on the ground, or trying to discern which rebels we should arm? and, frankly, i do not see this as a situation, tragic as it is, that really lends itself to our shooting our way to a solution. we've seen what happened in iraq and afghanistan. >> right. before getting to the u.s. involvement just this week three of europe's most powerful governments, britain, germany, france as well, they say they

want the eu to classify hezbollah as a terror organization. now that is a move the u.s. made decades ago. if the eu goes through with it, how does that affect hezbollah? >> well, i think it further isolates hezbollah, and i hope the eu does do that. the big question here is, is there some military solution that we can take? there's enormous gravitational pool to want to do something definitive and that usually argues for something military but, in fact, the military option is very limited. i mean, there is enormous historic divisions within syria. assad has repressed them with his autocratic rule and the rebels are somewhat united against assad, but if they bring him down, then it will be score settling time with them. i actually think secretary kerry is on the right track here, the most promising is to try to get russia to work with us and with the eu and with the arab states

to see if there's some kind of political approach that we can take to restore some stability. >> but with regard to coalescing and figuring out an approach, the syrian rebels themselves, sir, can't even coalesce around one leader. so how does the u.s. become influential in trying to help that at least happen? how can you back up rebels if you don't even know exactly what the plan is and what the protocol is from one particular group to another? >> well, see, i think you're 100% right. there's no way we can micro-manage the outcome and, in fact, the facts on the ground, i think, are going to be much more relative whether the parties that are killing each other want to come to a political solution, in which case the outside powers, not just the u.s. but the soviet -- russia and the eu and the arab states could then play possibly a constructive role. i think you've identified

exactly what the problem is. this is a long-standing escalation of a civil war, and the last thing america should do is take steps that would americanize what is a brutal and tragic civil war in syria. >> we're going to change gears here now and speak about the irs and alleged targeting of groups. in a press release last year you said you encouraged the irs, and this is chess close to the quote, whether organizations affiliated with super pacs such as the karl rove backed. why did you make that push and, in hindsight, do you think you may have given them the authorization to single out those with political leanings? >> the letter we sent would apply whether it was a karl rove letter or not. we sent that letter, as it turns out, a year and a half after the

irs had already done this. i have two concerns, one, we do have to get to the bottom of what happened at the irs. if they are targeting a group, that's totally unacceptable and people who did it have to be fired or prosecuted. our campaign finance system is a mess. this is a case where the irs was doing its job very badly but should they be doing its job at all? should nonprofit organizations be used by folks who have legitimate political agendas? should they be able to run their operations through nonprofits? it doesn't really make a lot of sense. so i think actually we should take the irs out of this business and not provide that avenue for liberal or conservative graups basically to be hiding their donors and funneling the money which, in a way, is a rip-off the taxpayers. >> where do you think the investigation goes from here and how do you think americans will define justice having been serve ed? is it just with the firings? is that going to quell the uproar? you need more than that. >> no. here is what i think we need. we need to follow the facts

where they go. and we have to come on the basis of that investigation to a conclusion as to whether this was mismanagement and sloppy work, in which case folks who are responsible should be fired, or was there a higher up political motivation, political agenda and political operation that was targeting folks in which case there should be prosecution but people have to, at the end of the day, have can have did dense that the irs and any other governmental agency will apply the principle of equal enforcement of the law and protect free speech. >> representative peter welch, many thanks for your time. have a great memorial day. >> thank you. >> thank you. a new call for calm after more arrests in a terrorist attack in britain. ♪

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." headlines it at the half, actress samantha bynes claims she was sexually assaulted after police arrested her for throwing allegedly throwing a bong out of her apartment. bynes alleged the arresting officer assaulted her. internal affairs is investigating. the power is still out in part of terminal one at san diego international airport. a transformer blew. ground crews had to drive stairs to planes to allow passengers to disembark. and the car in today's indianapolis 500 has been officially renamed in honor of the victims of the deadly oklahoma tornado. buzzy lazier's car, 91, renamed spirit of oklahoma to pay tribute to the 24 killed in last week's twister. in london british police made three more arrests in connection with the gruesome

murder of an off-duty soldier on a london street in broad daylight. officials and religious leaders are also calling for calm after protests and escalating threats begins muslims. the two men who attacked him justified the attack for retaliation for military deployments in muslim nations. offi officer rigby's widow who arrived to lay down wreaths and flowers for the slain soldier. mar martin fletcher joins me with the very latest from london. first to the arrest today. what do you know about that, martin? >> reporter: alex, it was a 22-year-old young man from north london arrested. armed police went into his house. he has not yet been charged apparently, in the same way as up to eight people have been arrested in the last few days since the killing. none yet have been charged. the key question the police are addressing and they've appealed for help from the public in pursuing this is the main question they're facing was this a conspiracy or was this a lone act by these two suspected

killers? that's the key question scotland yard is facing at the moment and they are appealing for help. they are examining cc it tv footage. they have forensic evidence. according to witnesses collecting as much cell phone footage as they can. it's still very early stages, they say. the police at least say the investigation is proceeding well, alex. >> yeah, and the two suspects that were arrested, what do we know about their background, the extent to which they had been flagged by security. >> reporter: well, this is another key question. the british parliament is getting involved. the committee with oversight of the british secret services have said they want a clear investigation. it does appear that both men were on the watch list of the secret services and have been for a number of years. and the claim by one person who was then arrested after he appeared on the bbc a couple days ago after his interview, he said in his interview that the -- that one of the suspected

murderers, the man seen on film with blood on his hands, he said he had been approached by the secret services and asked to work for them a few years ago, and he said that this man said no. now his family members have repeated that claim in the last couple of days. there's another piece -- interesting piece of information is that this young man was seen a couple years ago in kenya arrested by the kenyans apparently on his way to somalia with other people. he was leading, so the kenyan police say, the group of young men who were going to go to somalia to join al qaeda. he was then deported back to britain. the question is, if so much was known about him and he was so suspicious, how come the police weren't keeping a closer eye on him? of course the police say, and in all fairness it's true, there are thousands of people who fit that description. and that's the danger. >> which is frightening right there. may we quickly talk about what happened right on the helts heels of this in france, a french soldier attacked with a knife, he got stabbed in the

neck. he was just on patrol. is there any connection, anything there or is it just another sort of attack maybe inspired? >> reporter: well, you know, obviously it's very suspicious and the timing is very suspicious and the british police warned about the so-called -- possible so-called copycat attacks. of course they were presume play talking about britain. now this happened in france. was it a copycat attack? did it follow on the heels of the british one where they inspired? we don't know. the french police say they're investigating. they don't know yet of any connection but the attack was very similar. a soldier on patrol attacked from behind by a man with a knife who in that case ran away and has not yet been found, alex. >> martin fletcher, thank you very much, from london. in today's office politics, we sit down with the managing editor of the grio, joanne reid. we discuss the continuing coverage of the certificate for black leaders to follow in the footsteps of president obama. but first i asked joanne about the fallout from the benghazi attacks and if it's legitimate

to call that mess a scandal. >> if you can't explain the scandal in two lines, it's probably not sustainable. it's sort of like pitching in hollywood. two lines or you're not getting your movie made. the problem republicans are having, they're not able to explain what they're kay accusing the white house of doing. if it's the talking points, that story has been undermined by what happened with jonathan carl. the fact that the smoking gun turns out to have not been factual, the e-mail from ben rhodes out of the white house that was supposed to contain defense of the white house really didn't. unless republicans can explain really clearly and succinctly the average american is not going to understand what the scandal is. i think the white house can sort of sit back and watch this one play out. i'm not sure it's going anywhere. >> reporter: the president's approval rating in three national polls is up. it is over 50% having increased by at least a couple points in

each of them. what do you think is driving that? >> well, you know, i think in jep the economy is getting better. if you look at the unemployment rate, and we do that here, breaking it down by groups, if you look at white male and female it's in the 60% range. it's really minority unemployment that drags the number. if the majority of americans feel like the economy isn't great but it's getting better, they feel better in their personal situation, that resounds to the benefit of any president. >> you have a theme right now you're looking at black leadership. where is it going to come from? >> if you look at the democratic party, some people will ask the question, well, who is the next barack obama? it's hard to say. the bench from the democratic side has typically come from congress, from the house, where you run in a district so you don't have that statewide experience. okay then, who are the black candidates who have the same experience as barack obama? there have only been eight black senators ever, like ever, in american history. so where is the next obama going

to come from? it's challenging. you do have the attorney general of california who people are looking at, cory booker. >> apparently very good looking. >> we're not allowed to say but is quite good looking. and we do have cory booker, obviously, who will run for the senate in new jersey. it's the lack of immediate in rush of other black candidates who can sort of fill in and be the next barack obama. and then the republican side, there's this other kind of challenge. you have e.w. jackson, the reverend, now the lieutenant gubernatorial candidate in virginia nominated in a small convention by a small number of people but he's pretty far out there. alan west from florida who was seen as extreme, herman cain. there is a challenge on the republ republican side of finding viable candidates who can do for the party when they hope a rubio can do with latinos. >> what are you most proud of?

is. >> i am proud of my team. i think people here are outstanding. we have just some of the best writers. our editors are fierce and intelligence and they've just really grown. and so just watching that growth and being a part of it has been really great. >> next weekend my office politics interview with nbc's natalie morales. putting military wives to work one purse at a time. with the new staples rewards program you get 5% back, on everything. everything. everything. everything. everything. everything. everything? [ all ] everything? yup! with the new staples rewards program you get 5% back on everything. everything? everything. [ male announcer ] the new staples rewards program. get free shipping and 5% back on everything your business needs. that was easy. [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop!

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we teach cutting-edge engineering technology, computer information systems, networking and communications management -- the things that our students need to know in the world today. our country needs more college grads to help fill all the open technology jobs. to help meet that need, here at devry university, we're offering $4 million dollars in tech scholarships for qualified new students. learn more at devry.edu. remembering our heroes during this special weekend. rosie was a symbol of inspiration for women working during world war ii. now she is a source of inspiration for a company founded by two military wives which helped support service members and empower the economy. a year ago they started r. riveter that employs military spouses to make handbags. their one of a kind handmade purses are made of military

material, tents, blankets, each telling a unique story. before we get to talking about how fabulous these things are, i want to talk about the jobs that you are both providing for this military. how important is that to you? >> it's really huge. it's a personal struggle cameron and i dealt with, every new job we felt like we were reidentify ing ourselves and i never really felt like i had my own sense of purpose or like i belonged anywhere. so it was huge for us to create r. riveter as a way to provide military wives with something they can take with them as they move toast 30 post. >> that's a great inspiration. >> she embodies just about everything we really strive to represent and so she is the cult l ral icon we can do it and that we can do attitude and the connection of the rosies of yesterday really standing up to do their part and in the war efforts and then what we were trying to do today to stand up

and help the american economy and do what we can do. >> you know what i think is cool, each bag's style, correct, is named after a military wife, right? >> it is. >> that's pretty neat. do you have current ones you look at as well or are these only historical figures? >> well, we named it after military spouses that paved the way for us, so we wanted to honor them by naming bags after them. we wanted to, also, open up the naming of bags to your viewers and the military spouse community. >> how fun. >> we'd love to have people submit stories and a name of a spouse that really inspired them. >> how can they do that? >> please e-mail or touch base with us on facebook. >> we talked about the upcycled materials. what are these? the second you girls sat down and showed these, i went, there does have a military feel to it. there definitely is. so tents and different types of materials you use? >> we use all recycled military

materials so these are actually old shelter hats. and when we talk about the manufacturing of an r. riveter product you are talking about a story and a coming together of a lot of pieces and parts. like this tent was hand dooifed, hand washed, hand pressed by a military spouse and then we also use a very high quality hand leather that goes through a dyeing process and then all the pieces and parts coming together from across the nation made by military spouses to come together and make a very unique one of a kind product. >> so it's not just -- i know you both -- they're based in georgia so it's not just there on your base. you're pulling together a community from around the country. >> correct. there are military spouses that make the parts and pieces and so our story is being told by military spouses across the country. >> that is so youawesome. how many different styles do you have, and if people want to buy one, how can they do that? >> we have, i want to say, nine handbags styles. we're continuing to grow. we do retail on our website so you can go to rriveter.com, take

a look and buy a bag if it's on your heart. >> how about the price point? about how much do they cost? >> well, we have a variety starting at $115 going all the way up. >> okay. these are absolutely beautiful. they're wonderfully made and thank you so much, both of you. i appreciate your time. i hope you have great success with this. it's bringing in some good economic benefits as well. good luck. >> thank you. it's been wonderful to be here on this memorial day weekend. >> it was perfect to have you. you've enhanced the show. thank you. here is what we've been asking all of you this memorial day, what does it mean to you -- i want you to keep talking to me on twitter @alexwitt. i believe we have a live shot right now, the president there on air force one making his way into oklahoma and has successfully landed there at the air force base. tinker air force base. he will be deplaning shortly. we're going to keep a close eye on this, of course, from our control booth.

we know he is going to spend some extensive time there on the ground, even at that military base talking with first responders, talking with those who have been most devastatingly affected by the twisters in moore, oklahoma, that took place on sunday night and into monday. so we are going to follow this. we know the president will be making a statement as well. so we'll bring you live pictures of the president's activities there in oklahoma. stay with us. mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

bringing you live pictures from tinker air force base in oklahoma. the president has just arrived. he'll, of course, be visiting the tornado damage there after the deadly tornado on monday aft afternoon. he is meeting with affected families. he will also be thanking first responders in the town of moore tod today. there you see governor mary

fallon awaiting the president's arrival. we're going to stay on top of this and bring you all the live pictures and the president's remarks a bit later on. meantime, in strategy talk today, are natural disaster relief use d to be one of the last sacred nonpoliticized votes in congress. in the wake of hurricane sandy when the vote for aid was stalled on the hill, new questions about that are on the table. today oklahoma's republican senator talk about the need to get the right request to the hill without added pork. >> we ought to make sure the money is actually for the emergency at hand, not for four or five years later. and not allow bills to be actually loaded up with things that have nothing to do with the emergency at hand. >> joining me now white house correspondent, jill duckman and republican strategist noelle. and, ladies, thank you to both of you. jill, so far no indication the democrats, the white house, or any of the northeast lawmakers plan to play this game of an eye for an eye. do you expect they're going to

put politics aside and get money flowing to oklahoma victims as fast and furious as possible? >> alex, yes, i think they will. i think congress knows that this -- these disasters could fall on any one of their home districts or states at any time and they need to be supportive when it comes to one of their colleagues. >> so, noelle, my colleague chris jansing asked james inhofe about his vote against a hurricane sandy aid package. >> that was totally different. they were getting things, for instance, that were supposed to be in new jersey. they had things in the virgin islands. they were fixing roads there, putting roofs on houses in washington, d.c. everybody was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place. that won't happen in oklahoma. >> so, is that a legitimate response? he's basically echoing the exact sentiments of his fellow republican senator from oklahoma saying the same thing, that they're loading this stuff up with pork. >> that's one of the unfortunate

things about politics, you know, in the midst of disaster, sometimes we have to hurry and get something through, you have a lot of people adding pork, adding little things to it so, no, we need to help the victims of oklahoma. this is horrible. this is what we need to do. we need to do it fast and hopefully we're not going to play darned politics with people that are actually in need, americans in need, of help and help now. >> right. jill, no shortage of government controversies lately, but does oklahoma given the president and also the ability to get the pictures? he's going to be there shortly meeting with people. does it give him a chance to change the tenor of things and look the hero again? >> well, alex, every time there is one of these disasters, americans expect their president is going to come out there and show his support. and that's not a partisan activity.

and so anytime you can have a president acting in, essentially, a nonpartisan manner, are that's a good thing and that's good for his image. he's doing this because it's what you have to do. it's what we expect him to do. and it's what he wants to do, go and be with people who have been badly disrupted in the last few days. >> then there's always the monday morning quarterbacking. noelle, we had the president this week, or he will be this week, planning a visit to new jersey. he will see how that community is rebounding half a year plus after superstorm sandy. it's really hard to investigate the images of the president, standing by chris christie. this was a rare show of bipartisan solidarity. there are those who say christie paid the price. he wasn't invited to speak at cpac, he was shunned by conservative peers. christie says, i'm not worried about this at all. do you think he should be? should he be for reasons that he's going to get fallout and should he be because it's the right thing to criticize him or

not? >> oh, alex, this has been a huge deal within the gop. i am in fund-raising mode and i will tell you that a lot of people within my party had given so much hell and so much grief to christie for appearing with the president obama at a time in need when his state was at an all-time disaster. this was horrible. and a lot of people said thanks to that chris christie romney lost the election. really? do you really think somebody was about to vote for romney and because they saw an embrace of the president and christiee they were going to vote for obama? i would like to meet that voter because that's a very odd -- that a photo-op would cause someone to vote something different. so, you know, yes, i'm sure that the gop, every political junkie, every pundit like me will be watching every move and, you know, were they real close? did he smile at obama? this couldn't be a worse time

for obama to be there for the lady that's running against chris cilliz chris christie because she's a democrat running against chris christie. it's a bad day for democrats. >> except for the president, jill, because after he was buddying up there with chris christie, all of the side effects were good ones. all the poll numbers went up in those names before the election. the president got some really good press, bipartisan really. do you think we should expect more of the same? >> i don't know. look, let's remind everybody that the president is going to be with governor fallon today in oklahoma and she is a republican. oklahoma is a republican state. and nobody is having a heart attack about this today. the fact he's going back to new jersey to see what progress has been made i think is perfectly appropriate. i think it's the right thing for both the president to do and governor christie to do.

when it comes to the state of new jersey governor christie has shown he's going to do what he thinks is in the best interests of the state and not worry about national politics. >> all right. well, ladies, thank you very much. we want to bring everyone some more pictures coming up shortly from tinker air force base. that is where the president just arrived. he will be touring the devastation in oklahoma. he's expected to make a statement just over an hour from now. we'll bring you those comments live. [ male announcer ] someone said that it couldn't be done. but he with a chuckle replied that maybe it couldn't, but he would be one who wouldn't say so till he tried. ♪ somebody scoffed, "oh, you'll never do that." "at least no one has ever done it." but he took off his coat and he took off his hat, and the first thing we knew he'd begun it. there are thousands to tell you it cannot be done, there are thousands to prophesy failure. there are thousands to point out to you one by one,

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survivors of oklahoma's deadly tornado will get an up close and personal visit from the president shortly. in fact, at this hour the commander in chief has landed. he's on the ground in that state. he's going to get a firsthand look at the devastation some six days after the massive ef-5 twister killed 24 people and laid waste to an estimated 12,000 homes in the town of moore. all of this is happening as the residents there face more hard

work this memorial day weekend of cleaning up the debris, picking up the pieces of their lives just trying to get back to some sense of normalcy as we give you a look there. the president, of course, still on the tarmac and he will be meeting with first responders and also victims of the tornado but that is what he saw as he came in on air force one. it is a huge scar that has been cut right through the town of moore. good day to all of you. it's just past 1:00 p.m. here on the east coast. 10:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." the president's visit comes as we hear new concerns about tornado safety from oklahoma's leadership. nbc's charles hadlock is live for us in moore, oklahoma and, corrales, fircharles, first off what are people saying? >> reporter: i can tell you this, that air force one flew down the path of the storm. they flew right overhead. a lot of people stopped what they were doing for a moment, looked up and saw the beautiful plane fly over this horrible landscape here. landed at tinker air force base about ten miles away.

they will be here on the ground and will visit with families who have been affected by the storm. 1,200 homes were destroyed by this tornado last monday. another 12,000 were damaged so there is a lot to see. he's also going to talk with the first responders who rescued so many people in the first few minutes and also he's going to thank the forecasters, the weather forecasters, who predicted this storm four days out. the national severe storms laboratory is about ten miles away in norman, oklahoma. some of those forecasters will also meet with the president and he will thank them, too. alex? >> charles, before we let you go, you talked about this as being the scar and i borrowed your phrase there. we're looking at that right now. do we know where the president -- as we take a look as well at the president climbing into his motorcade and he'll be leaving the tarmac from the air force base, do we know if he is going to go a set route or if the president may just say we've got to take a look at all

these different things because it seems like around any given block you might have a complete ly different set of damage or then maybe something next to it that miraculously is still standing. >> reporter: and that's what he will see, exactly what he will see. there's a pair of radio antenna from a radio station just a block away from the devastation. that tower, in fact all three of them, are still standing. just things like that that you'll see all over this region. even if you go inside some of the broken homes as we have done, you'll see a shattered room, the roof is gone, but yet the china cabinet is left untouched. you'll see those kinds of things. the president is going to motorcade through a lot of neighborhoods here and people have set out american flags remembering that it's memorial day. this town is a patriotic town and they're glad to see the president here putting a national spotlight on the disaster that's happening here. >> yeah, this on the heel of high school graduations, three of them yesterday in nearby oklahoma city. all right, thank you very much, charles hadlock, for more.

i'm delighted to bring in craig melvin in studio here with me. you were in the very same spot where charles hadlock was just standing and you were covering for a couple can of days. the devastation, we talk about the radio antenna that's standing, are the china cabinet next to the obliterated kitchen and bathroom, it's just insane. >> and it speaks to the randomness of not just this tornado but any tornado. he is pe especially with this one as you alluded 0 to it, you would see a complete block of homes destroyed and then across the street you would see three or four homes that were just fine, the roof might be peeled back a little bit but we spend some time in what was a bowling alley, although it took time to figure out that's precisely what it was. this bowling alley was deployed. this is a daycare center, a daycare center where we spent some time, our first day. this is the owner showed me around the daycare center and also showed me the restroom, the

bathroom, where 16, 17 kids and their teachers huddled and prayed and miraculously they came out just fine, but all of the walls around them, the roof, gone, as you can see there. had they not been in that bathroom, are the death toll in oklahoma would have been higher. and this is what a lot of folks have been talking about over the past few days local municipalities, local municipalities there should require homeowners, should require business owners, should require schools to have safe rooms. >> it's hard to believe given where they are and what they experienced before in moore that everyone isn't required to have some sort of a cellar. the power of this ef-5, it didn't necessarily keep the doors on some of those cellars. there were people inside, whoopt, they would fly off. with regard to that daycare center, i want to go back to that. we were listening yesterday to a 911 call from a daycare center.

and the terror people experienced trying to protect these young babies and children. what did they tell you about that? >> i talked to one of the teachers at this particular daycare center. she was 19 years old 0, 20 years old. and i asked her, what did you do? you've got these kids around you. she said the youngest was about 8 months, the oldest was 4 or 5 yea years. what do you do when a 2-year-old starts to scream or cry and you have these other kids that you're trying to keep calm? and she said, three things. she sang songs. they recited the lord's prayer and she read a children's book. i said, really? you were raeding a children's book? yeah, you know. and some of the younger kids especially, that soothed them. you know? the teacher is reading a book, then things can't be that bad. and it worked out, but she was, as you might imagine, two days after this still shaken. shaken to the point she could not go on camera and talk about

it. apparently we have some sound here from the daycare owner as he was showing me some of the damage. l let's take a listen to that. >> had those kids and those teachers not been in those two rooms -- >> they'd have been dead. >> no doubt? >> no doubt. >> when you look at this, i mean, those are literally the only rooms left standing. >> yep. and that was the plan. that's why we always -- we had drills and everything else all the time to get them all back in there. and strangely enough -- and that's something i always told my teachers. if they will stay calm, the kids will stay calm. but one little boy asked when it was going on, asked the teacher to read him a book. so they were all pretty cool about it. >> they were all pretty cool about it.

this is something, we talked a little bit about this this week. in tornado tornado alley this has become sort of routine that they have lots of rehearsals, that they practice from time to time. it came in hand yip last week. >> to say the least. well, craig melvin, thank you for that. you'll be up at the top of the hour. >> carrying the president's speech. >> you'll have that in your hour. i appreciate you coming on with me. we want to remind all of you that a celebrity benefit concert will be held wednesday night in oklahoma city. this is going to feature the likes of blake shelton, carrie underwood who donated $1 million to recovery efforts, a host of other artists. nbc will carry that live beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern. we're going to switch gears and go to front page politics now. on this memorial day, john allen, who commanded the war in afghanistan, reflected this morning on the troops lost on his watch. >> i think about it aumt time and there's a moment of reflection about the 5 61 empty chairs around dinner ables when

families gather for christmas interest now on or they gather for easter and some precious member of the family, they're gone forever. and that's a generational loss. >> new reaction today to president obama's major terrorism speech on thursday. the president said al qaeda is now a shell of its former self. tom coburn had this to say. >> this war is going to continue and we have still tremendous threats out there that are building, not declining, building. and to not recognize that i think is dangerous for us in the long run and dangerous for the world. >> joining me now is democratic congressman adam schiff, member of the intelligence committee whom i give tremendous thanks for coming in on a holiday weekend. i appreciate that. >> you bet. >> president obama saying in his speech the administration prefers to capture terrorists rather than to kill them in a strike. when is the last time we

captured a high value target? >> i'm not sure when the last time was. i think what the president is expressing is when we are able to capture these high value detainees we can gather intelligence from them and that helps us protect the country. that is always to be preferred. obviously sometimes that's not always possible when you have high value targets in dangerous places as they most often are and it would risk american lives to put boots on the ground to try to capture them. oftentimes it's simply not possible but when we can, that is the preferred practice so that we can gain intelligence. >> mm-hmm. the president's new policy guidelines say that lethal force can only be used when a terrorist poses a, quote, continuing imminent threat to u.s. citizens. what does the government define an imminent threat to be? is that clear yet? >> this is always going to be the challenge, and i don't know that you can define that with precision. ultimately at the end of the day it's something the commander in chief has to decide, is this threat imminent enough? and i think the key thing in

thames of the redefining of using drones is now it's no longer going to be sufficient that it affects a u.s. interest. it has to affect the safety of a u.s. person, of a u.s. scitizen. so that's a very significant change. it means we won't be using them to protect allies or the pakistani government from its own people, the pakistani taliban. so that's a very sizable shift. and i think what the president is saying in the speeches, the threat we face from al qaeda hasn't gone away and some are overstating what the president's remarks mean, but rather it's changed. and we see that in the attack in bost boston. we see that in the attack this weekend in london. obviously drones are very limited value when you talk about home grown self-radicalized terrorism as it looks like we had both in boston and in london. plainly this challenge, the threat isn't over, but the core of cade kay has been seriously deter rated and we have to deal

with these al qaeda franchises. >> there are two sides to every coin and what if it another country were to carry out drone strikes, if they abided by the same standards laid out in the president's speech? what if if that were to happen hear on u.s. soil? i mean, is that up for discussion? do people consider that there on capitol hill when talking about this? >> well, i think this is part of what's driving the president's remarks and thoughts on this. we are not going to be the only country that develops technology, drone technology, capable of doing this. there are others that are not that far behind. and so we want to make sure that our program is on solid legal footing and hold others to the same standard. i don't think there's a lot of risk that people use drones to kill people in the united states, foreign countries, that is, but there is certainly a chance you could see a china or russia using a drone technology, maybe in a place like chechnya or maybe in a place against the chinese, against other people

considered to be a threat. and i think what the president is thinking about in terms of his legacy is not only how people view the united states but what precedent we're setting for the rest of the world. >> a congressional delegation is heading to russia had week to investigate the boston bombing suspects. what are they hoping to find? >> well, i think they're hoping to encourage the russians to be more cooperative and reveal more information about why they had certain people under surveillance, what they can tell us about these brothers, what they can tell us about family members or other people they may have been in contact, the elder brother may have been in contact with. i think we have to be realistic about what we're going to accomplish through this congressional delegation and other high-level administration meetings. the russians have very different interests than we do and, yes, there is an overlapping concern about terrorism. but as we see in syria, for example, the russians are in a completely different place than us. they don't have much trust in

us. we don't have a lot of trust in them. on many foreign policy issues we're at great odds with them. i think we need to be mindful of the limitations of the cooperation we're likely to get. >> all right, representative adam schiff from the intelligence committee, thank you very much for your time and a happy memorial day to you and your family. >> to you, too. mark sanford did it but can anthony weiner do it, too? in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our history matter to you? because for more than two centuries, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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quite a reversal of fortune in the golden state. "the new york times" today says there is a debate in california now about what to do with a surplus of somewhere between $1 billion and $4 billion saved to offset future deficits or spend or restore cuts and that is amazing when you consider california was looking at a deficit of about $60 billion just three years ago. and the late mr. rogers of pbs

fame is the subject of a petition on the white house website. it is asking the president to declare fred rogers birthday, march 20th, a national day of certifica service. so far it's generated only 142 signatures, about 99,000 needed by june second for that petition to be considered. so if you're interested, just saying. to front page politics now with the national journal saying not so fast to anthony weiner and his mayoral bid and the white house controversies continue to dominate in washington. eleanor clift for "newsweek" and the daily beast and steve, se senior white house correspondent and editor. hello to the two of you. >> hi, alex. >> eleanor, the national journal says anthony weiner should not expect too many similarities to mark sanford's comeback because south carolina is heavily evangelical. in fact, they profess starting over trends -- starting over tends to be easier because a

core tenet of evangelical christianity is repentance for sin. being able to start anew, fresh. they are willing to forgive if it's heterosexual fallenness but new york city is more of a community effort and then there's the guilt. do you buy into that? >> well, i think there's some element of truth to that. president clinton made good use of the fact he was a southern baptist and that forgiveness and everybody is a sinner and we all forgive each other and god forgives, that was an important part of his recovery as a leader. and he also rather publicly brought in spiritual leaders to the white house. anthony weiner did confessional in "the new york times" sunday magazine, but i don't think unless i've missed it that he has been seen in photo-ops grappling with what went wrong

in his life and the nature of his behavior people can understand mark sanford running off with a woman and falling in love and came across like a lovesick puppy whereas congressman weiner, what he did is a little more puzzling, and he's also said that there may be other pictures out there, which i think is very unsettling to anyone who wants to back him as a politician. >> well, absolutely. steve, do you think that is really what lies at the crux of the difference here? you have, you know, the fallen mark sanford. he fell in love with someone. it's a relationship thing. you know, people can't necessarily get into the dynamics of a husband/wife relationship. each one is different, not that it's good what he did. i'm just saying. then anthony weiner is sending pictures of his genitalia to strangers over the internet. the judgment call there, it's different, isn't it? >> it's very different, alex. this democratic primary has a

lot of confessional in it. a lot of counseling sessions. there have been a lot of people writing and talking about alcoholism and bulimia but this is different. all those other issues have to do with themselves. this has to do with something he sent to women unsolicited. it borders on harassment if not crossing a line. the yuck factor is fairly pronounced in this case. >> yeah. and, eleanor, we should make note anthony weiner's wife is very close to hillary clinton. but both hillary clinton and form earp president bill clinton are staying out of this race. does that surprise you or does it say to you they just don't want any part of it? they say that they have connections to many of the people that are involved in the new york mayoral race but still. >> well, yeah, it's a primary and so you can always say we don't take sides in a primary. the clintons are taking their clue from his wife and i think she did her part by staying with

him after this all -- his behavior was revealed. she was pregnant at the time. they now have a very young child together. and she's basically telling him you're out there on the diving board by yourself. take a chance and maybe -- she lives with the guy and must know how important it is to rehabilitate himself and that's what he's trying to do. >> this first ad, steve, that is out there, to eleanor's point, she is front and center sitting right by him looking at him adoringly supporting him and making a comment that you should vote for him. >> well, she is saying i stayed married to him and that's between them. she's not publicly campaigning for him at least not yet. eleanor is right. i'm with you. at least personally i've forgiven you but politically this is up to you to do, between you and the people of new york. >> i want to go through something joe scarborough said.

he has a comment in politico how republicans should handle the white house controversy and here is what joe writes. the gop congress handled bill clinton's impeachment trial so badly they turned him into a sympathetic figure. 12 years later let's hope fw op leaders ignore the wolves outside their windows howling at the moon. they should keep their head down, gather evidence and bring that information to the american people. have republicans reached that point yet? >> they're close, some are. michele bachmann, senator jim inhoch of oklahoma have started talking impeachment. this sets up for an obama win. take the irs scandal. it's a scandal even if it's contained within the internal revenue service. you don't have to connect the president. but by overreaching and immediately saying we're going to demand to tie this to the president, they then set it up that if it's not tied to the president, the entire irs scann

scandal disappears and is seen as insignificant. very big danger of overreaching. >> steve thomma, eleanor clift, happy memorial day. >> same to you. should the text messages and photographs of trayvon martin be allowed as evidence in the trial of george zimmerman? two legal experts weigh in. 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. now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. are you still sleeping? 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. siemens. answers. see, i knew testosterone could affect sex drive,

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my legs got tired and i couldn't do it anymore. >> that is why this world war ii veteran asked for some help and local boy scouts helped plant flags, something he had done for memorial day. the scouts say they will carry on the tradition. it is time to get right to today's ups and downs and, first, we have farmers trying to make up for the lost time because of all the bad weather this spring. experts say corn farmers are planting a record crop this year. they are expecting to earn more because of increased demand. now to a flagstaff, arizona, resident's wallet. $105,000 water bill no mistake.

the meter shows the home used 9 million gallons in one month. there was an apparent leak but no one knows where that went. the city is trying to figure out how to settle that bill. the summer travel season is almost here. more are expected to travel by air, the most since 2008. steady. go! >> oh, yeah. "fast and furious 6" opened in theaters and hollywood needs it to live up to forecasts of $100 million opening weekend and so far pretty good. full disclosure it is a universal picture, part of nbc universal. the movie's industry is reeling after revenue being down 30% and the spring wasn't too much better with receipts off by 18%. and those are your ups and downs on "weekends with alex witt." i. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol.

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at 31 past the hour, syria has agreed to attend next month's peace talks proposed by the u.s. and russia aimed at ending the syrian civil war. syria's foreign minister announced the news after arriving in iraq today. in a gut wrenching moment in london today family members of the murdered british soldier visited the scene of last week's horrific attack. the widow of lee rigby laid a wreath among hundreds of other tributes to her fallen husband. police arrested three more suspects. authorities in france are not connecting the london attack of yesterday's stabbing of a french soldier just outside of paris. the suspect remains at-large, though, while the soldier recuperates from a stab wound to the neck. the marathon winner says he will return his winning medal. and the los angeles galaxy of major league soccer has signed robby rogers. he becomes the first active openly gay male athlete in u.s. team sports. rogers had retired three months ago when he came out publicly.

he changed his mind about quitting. rogers may play for the first time tonight if league paperwork is completed. and those are your fast five headlines. with just two weeks before the controversial murder trial of george zimmerman scheduled to begin, his defense team has released text messages and pictures of the victim from trayvon martin's cell phone including a close-up picture of a gun, also text messages where martin talks about fighting, smoking pot, and shows an interest in guns. now it's unclir whether this new evidence will be admissible but a key hearing has been set on it for tuesday. joining me now former prosecutor wendy murphy and nbc news legal analyst and former federal prosecutor kendall coffey. i want to start with the new text messages and pictures. how much do you think will be permissible in court? >> well, you know, it's a tough question to answer at this point because it really is a fact driven analysis. in other words, the judge is going to say, well, what issues

are going to be in dispute at trial and how much probative value is there in these texts? now i think one of the wonderful things about our legal system is that it does allow sort of, you know, the full disclosure of this information so that we know what was really going on behind the scenes with these two guys even if the jury never hears. and, you know, remember that trayvon martin's lawyers have been putting out there the fact that george zimmerman himself has a history of domestic abuse, for example, and they want that to be presented to the jury. so on the one hand you have this public perception that, well, if he was violent in the past, that's relevant. well, you know, george zimmerman's lawyers are saying if we're going to let in past bad behavior of my client, then we have to let in the past bad behavior of the victim. >> so, kendall, if that's really the one or the other look at it, what do you think happens? do you think a judge allows this in court? and, if so, how does it be used

then? >> i think it's devastating as a lot of this information might be in the court of public opinion, most of it is not going to be allowed in a court of law. where self-defense is claimed as in this case, if the alleged shooting victim, trayvon martin, has a reputation for violence, that would be something witnesses can come in on the stand and talk about. but the other things, the texts, the photographs, that had nothing to do with george zimmerman's state of mind. he'd never seen this young man before and it would be so poisonous on the jury's state of mind that i think the judge is likely to keep it out. >> is there a precedence for this, kendall? >> there's a number of cases. well, let me jump in and then, wendy, if that's fair. florida has pretty clearly laid out the rules in this kind of a area. if the shooter, in this case zimmerman, knew about prior things of trayvon martin, that could probably be talked about because, again, it would affect

his state of mind at the time of the shooting. apart from what zimmerman actually knew, it's going to come down to a reputation for violence in terms of florida. and i think the state is going to be able to show there are not people in trayvon martin's community that believed he had a reputation for act iing violent. >> wendy, i want too much you listen to this. this is how george zimmerman's lawyer explains why he believes this new evidence is important. here is this. >> it shows that he has the propensity towards violence and that he was acting in a very similar way previously that he acted on george because, of course, the evidence suggests that he hit him in the face, got him on the ground and, accord ing to the eyewitness, pummeled him mma style. >> so does he make the case? >> it's a tough question. i'm going to leave it at that in terms whether he's likely to prevail. i suspect he may prevail with regard to some of the information, maybe not all of it, reputation evidence has long been admissible. in massachusetts we used to have exactly the rule kendall

described. that as long as the victim or the defendant, i should say, knew about the victim's propensity for violence, then it would be admissible because it goes to the state of mind, how afraid were you that you might, in fact, be killed and so why did you hit as hard as you did, for example? that law changed several years ago in massachusetts. even if the defendant had no knowledge of the victim's propensity for violence, they didn't know each other at all, the specific incidence of past aggression are admissible because our supreme judicial court said it's relevant to understand the dynamics between the people and what kind of people they are and what kind of people -- you know, what might have been in their minds at the time they confronted one another. >> here is something else, kendall. there's all sorts of laws out there that are protecti ining juveniles. what about teenager privacy of those text messages and things like that? trayvon martin was a teenager when he was killed. >> he was a teenager and

normally that kind of privacy would apply. but where the stakes are this high as a second-degree murder case, if if the defense can establish its relevancy, and wendy was talking about some very technical differences and different state laws. it's certainly not going to be the easy thing for the judge to make decisions on this, but if the defense can establish the relevancy, we're hearing the word probative value, the ability to prove things, then i think the right of a fair trial, like it or not, is going to trump a teenager's privacy rights in terms of what the jury may consider. >> well, you know, wendy, the defense has filed that request for a six-week delay. what is the likelihood he'll get the delay? that a judge might say i agree? >> the new discovery of information that the defense hadn't had access to can and often does justify at least a brief delay because it may adjust your trial strategy. you might need a few more weeks to consider not only whether it's likely to be admissible or not or what your arguments might

be in favor of or against admissibility but how does that affect your plans and your planned strategy and the things you've already talked to your witnesses about in terms of what they're going to testify to at trial? i wouldn't be surprised to see a brief delay, but the defense is going to have to say, we need the delay because all of this information is new and important and my client can't get a fair trial unless i have time to understand this information and the role it might play in this case. >> kendall, what happened in april when zimmerman waived his right to a pretrial stand your ground immunity hearing? can the defense invoke this during the trial? >> well, that's a fascinating question. haven't seen it done before in florida. and the key thing is going to be whether or not george zimmerman is guilty. whether he can create a reasonable doubt as to his self-defense argument. that's still going to be decided by a jury. i think what the defense is attempting somewhat creatively to establish this, look, if the

jury acquits george zimmerman, can't the judge based on that same evidence determine that george zimmerman, again, if acquitted by a jury, is entitled to stand your ground immunity? that has a lot of other implications including it would eliminate the risk of a civil lawsuit if the judge were to impose stand your ground immunity. >> lots more to come on this case and we'll be speaking with you both again. thank you. >> you're welcome. investigators are looking at a newly released surveillance tape that shows the exact moment the washington state bridge collapsed this week. the back of your screen there, you will see that bridge falling. now investors hope it will shed some light. investigators, rather, hoping it will shed light on what may have precipitated that disaster. and the ntsb in southeast missouri says it may take up to a week to complete its investigation into yesterday's train collision. it caused part of a highway overpass to buckle and collapse and rail cars slammed into some support columns. seven people were hurt but none seriously. president obama is now in oklahoma. he's touring the devastation and will provide some comfort to the

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time now for the big three, today's topics, consoler in chief, the gop's weekend plans, and this week's must-reads. my big three ponl, doug, a democratic strategist and former national press secretary for the dccc, emily heil from "the washington post" and joe, a republican strat the gist who served as a white house aide to president george h.w. bush. so with a welcome to all three of you, i will begin with you, doug. we have the president, of course, in observiklahoma right meeting with residents of moore who are just beginning to deal with the massive devastation in last week's tornado. the president has done far too many of these consoler in chief trips. how effective is he in this position, though? >> alex, it's great to be with you. he is very effective. i think it's important that he comes back -- he goes to oklahoma and makes sure the folks know the nation is standing with them. more importantly, though, we finally have an effective,

well-run fema by the administrator there, craig fugate has really gone and cleaned house there, really made reforms. there's already 450 fema officials on the ground. they've already distributed over 40,000 meals, hundreds of thousands of liters of water and a lot of the preplanning they did with local officials probably saved lives. so that's really important along with the president going down there and consoling families. >> we were showing the president having met with craig fugate, he met him there on the tarmac less than an hour ago. he will be touring with the president today. emily, oklahoma senator tom coburn weighed in on the possibility of all that pork being attached to the observikl recovery dollars. let's take a listen. >> we ought to make sure the money is actually for the emergency at hand and not for four or five years later and not a lot of bills to be actually loaded up with things that have nothing to do with the emergency at hand. >> are you hearing any whispers

of that this time around or maybe a democrat playing eye for an eye after the fight over the hurricane sandy relief? >> you know, i haven't heard of anything certainly specifically anyone wants to attach to this bill. i don't see it getting as big perhaps as the hurricane sandy bill did. but then again, i don't have a hair trigger response to pork as senator coburn does. he seems to have a nose for it so maybe he knows something that i don't. but i think that people do want to keep this as a narrow bill, to move more quickly than the sa sandy bill. even some conservatives who oppose that bill the first time around now sort of regret at least the very optics of the vote getting and actually the aid getting delayed because of concern over offsetting the aid and offsetting it for the budget. and i think what this kind of underscores is just how difficult these decisions have gotten. a very knee-jerk reaction, you know, a disaster would happen in congress would pass a bill and

now these things get caught up in the talk about offsetting and deficits when really disaster spending is not with where you're going to look if you want to cut deficits. that's just not where those decisions happen. but folks like senator coburn have staked out very consistent positionses on this. and so you're going to get these fights time and time again. >> you know, joe, you know me well enough to know i don't necessarily always go here but it's going to sound cynical. politics can be that way. does the fact a tornado hit a bright red state mean the house is going to be more forthcoming with dollar aid? >> i don't think that's what it is. i think the good thing for a lot of people in politics and certainly the president who is leading this afternoon, when it comes to natural disasters that hit americans in any part of the country are not talking repub c republicans or democrats. they're talking about americans, human beings, and the whole idea is to make sure they have the aid that they need and deserve and the president certainly means like this in every instance. i've never seen him go to a disaster in a state he wasn't as

supportive as in other states. he goes to those places that have been devastated with an eye how to help, how to comfort abdominal console people hit by disaster and that's the right attitude. the same is true with members of the house and the senate in this case. the fact that oklahoma is a republican state led by a great republican governor is not the issue as much as it is let's see how we can get aid to those who deserve it. >> let's hope that is indeed the case. switching gears here, an interesting article with you, doug, in "the national journal. "it says republican lawmakers are spending this holiday weekend in their home districts reminding voters about the white house controversies with the irs, the justice department, also benghazi. and that they're not letting up on this. how big do you think the fallout will be in the midterms? >> i think this just shows the policy shelf for republicans is completely bare. and they are having problems with the immigration reform debate that's going on. the house has already said that

they won't pass the senate bill when it comes to them. they're having problems with the budget. the budget they've been yelling and screaming about for two months. they won't authorize a conference on the budget. this is really all they've got, and i don't think it's much. we've already seen there's really no evidence that the white house was involved in either the irs issue and certainly the benghazi issue has been litigated for almost a year now. so i think this is just a party that's desperate. their brand -- excuse my terminology here but in the toilet. they really don't have anything else. this is a big, shiny object that's a life preserver they're grasping onto. i don't think it will really benefit them in the long run. >> i'm curious, joe, do you think that is really what's going on? and i also want to reference a blog that my colleague joe scarborough wrote about when he said, look, he was in congress when they were going after president clinton. the impeachment, the gop, look

what happened in the midterms. they did pretty well and he says the democrats did. lessons need to be learned. i mean, it will not serve the republicans well if they go after these three controversies and keep beating these drums, he doesn't believe, in the midterms. do you midterms. do you agree with him? >> i think joe scarborough makes a very good point. i think he's for sanity and reasonableness on the part of everybody, and certainly on the part of republicans. these unfortunate incidents ought not be used as an opportunity to get people into office. i think the republicans will do very, very well in the midterm elections, anyway, without regard to these issues. and the issues on their own merit are certainly important issues that need to be considered and examined and investigated, but not as a way to try to go after the president or to go after secretary clinton or other people, but because certainly in the case of benghazi, four americans lost their lives, and obviously things did not go well, and americans deserve to know what

didn't happen correctly and how we can fix it. >> yeah. >> from that standpoint, it needs to be investigated, and not with an eye to try to get anybody, but just get at the truth. >> emily, what is it about baseball? you wrote a bipartisan group going to a nationals game coming up. >> yes, apparently this bipartisan group being led by one democrat and one republican in the house, they're just going to a baseball game together, and this kind of thing rarely happens, which is so fascinating to me. you always talk about why things are so partisan in congress, and part of it, at least old-timers will tell you, is because republicans and democrats really don't hang out together socially. they're only here for a few days a week, they go back to their districts, they're not living here, their families don't live here so they don't socialize, so this group is actually trying to get at that a little bit by trying to carve out some time for folks to hang out together. >> maybe having a dog and a beer

together, that will bring them all together. whatever it takes, anyway. you guys sit tight. ko coming up next, the two big must-re must-reads, including myths. e g. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief!

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we are back with the big three for this week's must read, so doug, you're up first. what's yours? >> there's a must-read about the budget. it's an interesting back and forth between susan collins and john mccain and tea party folks like cruz and marco rubio. >> sounds good. emily, how about you? >> i've got bob kaiser, my colleague at the post, and he's got an article about why congress doesn't work. part of it is partisanship. i think i talked about that a little before. but part of it is congress sort of created this culture that keeps it dysfunctional. members of congress really

aren't subject matter experts anymore. they sort of outsource that to their staffs, and there's really not a lot of robust debate. so it's a good look at why congress has gotten to where it is. >> interesting. okay. last but not least, joe, what's yours? >> well, maureen has a piedowd piece in the post about the spins between democrats and republicans and who loses in the long run when mythologies collide. >> thanks to all three of you. have a good one tomorrow, folks, on memorial day. that is a wrap-up of this sunday edition of "weekends with alex witt" and don't forget craig will be following the president as he is right now in oklahoma. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh!

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have androgel 1.62% testosterone gel. the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. >> i want you to know that you are not alone, that you've got folks behind you. obviously the damage here is pretty hard to comprehend. our hearts go out to the families who have been impacted, including those who have had loved ones who were lost. and that was true for the

parents of some of the children here at plaza towers elementary school. there are a number of people i want to especially thank because they've engaged in some heroic efforts in dealing with this disaster. first of all, governor mary fallin, thank you so much for your quick response and your outstanding work. mayor glen lewis, the mayor of moore, who has been mayor here before when there was a disaster, and because of his strong spirit and sense of community has been able to help lead the community through this disaster. we very much appreciate your work. representative tom cole, not only is this his congressional district, but more importantly, this is his hometown. and so for him, this carries a special sadness but also a resolve in terms of trying to make sure that the city of moore bounces back.

mayor nick cornett, oklahoma city, a neighbor and friend. we appreciate him being here. craig fugate is here, and obviously we're very proud of the work that he and his fema team have done. suzie pierce, superintendent of schools here, thank you for your leadership. amy simpson, i want to especially commend plaza towers elementary school principal as well as shelly mcmillan of the briarwood elementary school principal. they were on the ground when this happened, and because of their quick response, their keeping a level head, their putting kids first, saved a lot of people. and they're still going through some tough times. you know, i can only imagine being their husbands who were here and the panic that i'm sure they were feeling when the tornado first