we are good. >> go. >> get off. >> what did you learn? >> i need some alcohol. >> tom hanks mustache. >> that was gross. >> if it is way too early. under pressure facing more heat from the hill. attorney general eric holder try. extreme weather as tornado threats still on alert. some disaster experts call for a big change in how we prepare. auredskins reject renewed calls to change the team's name. why this time it could be

different. good morning. it is thursday, may 30, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." i eric holder is fending off attacks for handling of justice department probes. in an effort to quell the controversy holderer is scheduled to begin a series of meetings with top news executives today. msnbc has been invited. the "new york times" has said they will not attend because the meetings are off the record. two top members of the house judiciary committee express concerns suggesting he may have misled congress when he said this. >> with regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that i have ever been involved in or heard of or would think would be a wise

policy. >> a week after that testimony the justice department confirmed that holder was personally involved in signing off on a search warrant in 2010 to obtain the phone records and e-mails of fox news correspondent james rosen. >> is it the administration's opinion that the attorney general testified truthfully? >> i think based on what he said he testified truthfully. the attorney general talked about prosecution. i point you to public reports and the distinction between what is at issue here and prosecution. >> national investigative correspondent joins me now with more. at heart here is this idea that eric holder never took part in any prosecution of the press. however, he did know about rosen and the investigation pertaining to that. how much trouble is eric holder in here?

did he possibly lie under oath or is this republicans trying to make it a sexierish political issue. >> there is a legitimate issue here. the justice department defense and the white house defense is that holder's response was narrowly restricted to prosecuting the press. but that search warrant that we know holder approved does call james rosen a possible coconspirator in violation of the espionage act. that was the predicate in which the justice department was able to get his e-mails from google in order to make their case. the real question here is when they wrote that, the plain reading of the search warrant suggests that they were thinking about prosecuting rosen, that they might have been prosecuting rosen. i think the defense is we didn't

mean it. we needed to say that in order to get the search warrant. if that is the case that raises questions about whether the search warrant was signed in good faith. did they mean it when they said those words? the only way to find that out is to have a real microscopic examination of the discussions within the justice department which we know included holder about what they intended when they wrote that search warrant. i don't think the justice department will be terribly forthcoming on this. it is an on going investigation of james kim. there are legitimate issues being raised. >> they have taken an extraordinary step today where the attorney general is scheduled with a meeting of the bureau chiefs off the record to talk about the doj's procedure in regards to how they perhaps can prosecute journalists. it is fair to say you have been here in this town for a while

this definitely ruffled the feathers of the journalist community. >> that search warrant for rosen is something we haven't seen before. the idea that you might criminally prosecute a journalist for getting information from a source. there are serious questions here. people in the media are upset. there is the interesting dynamic about some news organizations not wanting to attend because they don't want to have an off the record conversation with eric holder. they want on the record answers. >> the age old question off the record and on the record. new fbi director possibly in place, mr. comby, formerly of the bush administration sthai is this a play by president obama? >> absolutely. he is revered for a lot of reasons but one in particular

was standing up to the bush white house on the warrantless surveillance program where he refused to sign off on a continuation of that program because of continued legal questions. there is an aspect that ties in directly to what is going on now that is worth mentioning. the only reason we know about that warrantless surveillance program is because somebody leaked classified information to the "new york times" allowing them to expose what was going on, leading to a huge debate within congress, senator barack obama was one of those denouncing what the bush administration was doing and it led to a change in law. that is a classic example of how a leak -- that is something that should be remembered in this current discussion about the leak crack down by the obama

administration. >> thank you so much. we appreciate it. a conservative legal advocacy group filed a lawsuit on behalf of 25 tea party organizations accusing the irs and top obama administration officials of violating their constitutional rights. last night in the outskirts of cincinnati where the irs agents were based republican lawmakers told hundreds of tea party activists they expect for mr. obama to be implicated in the investigation. >> now we know it did go to the white house. the question is, how high up did it go? and what is going to be done about it? >> these agencies like irs are just following barack obama's lead. we have seen him target people, target groups. >> the irs has been used by jfk, lbj, nixon, bush, obama as a political weapon. there is only one way to fix this.

abolish the irs. that's the only way to fix it. >> ohio congressman also expressed the quit concern of some republicans on capitol hill that the gop could overreach and experience a public media back lash. >> one of the things we have to be careful of is that we don't give them that opportunity or that excuse by overreaching, going too far, going where there is not evidence. we need to stay focused on the evidence, the facts. >> and the ohio senator rob portman said a special prosecutor could be needed to investigate the scandal. he said he is not ready to call for one just yet. >> it may be necessary to have a special council. even the house doesn't have the powers that a special council has. special council can enpanel a grand jury. it is a criminal prosecution. i am not calling for a special

prosecutor now because i understand we have to let the process work out. hopefully my skepticism will be proven wrong. >> nbc senior political editor mark murray is here for more on this. welcome, sir. interesting new polls here. 76% of americans do feel that there should be a special prosecutor to investigate the irs. however, when we see it should be a higher priority investigating the issues or the unemployment and the economy? 22% say the top issue. it is an interesting gift the gop has been given. obviously americans are concerns about the irs. they can't overplay their hand. the economy has to be there. something john boehner has been saying since day one of the scandal. >> overreach is such a big issue and some republicans are worried about that. when you talk about a lot they

say the party that makes the best pitch on who is dealing with my problems and trying to solve the country's problems is a party that wins at the battle box. they are talking about irs and benghazi and the leak investigations. they are not appealing to people's pocket book issues. that i thought was very striking finding that 73% say the economy is a bigger priority than these investigations. one other piece that was interesting in the poll, when you rank the three controversies irs is tops. that confirms that was going to be the trickier issue all along. >> it has some staying power and the idea of what they are trying to do in the mid terms get the six-year itch momentum moving along. i want to put up a few interesting things. we have pictures of the nrcc and the billboards they are doing with the irs really trying to link it to thet president's health care law. the most unpopular legislation

that he sort of passed that he tide everything with that a lot of folks don't understand directly linking it to the irs. a one-two punch. the thing that won in 2010 and linking to what they think can win in 2014. >> we saw marco rubio say the way to fix irs is to repeal president obama's health care law. they are trying to link the two. implementation is going to be an issue. we have seen some good news with prices coming out of california with their exchanges. we have seen other concerns that the implementation is going to be pretty messy. i don't think we will really know until 2014. the question is, does the irs story have legs beyond the summer? we will continue to hear congressional investigations. we will hear this at tea party rallies but really does it end up having legs? the only way this does have legs if it does go to president obama, if it does go to his

people. right now the inspector general found that that criteria targeting the groups really only originated in the irs. >> gop game here is skepticism, make it of the obama administration and the democratic party. another interesting individual, ted cruz, big gop dinner, headliner. here is what he had to say. >> if you sit back and you list who are the brightest stars in the republican party, who are the most effective advocate for free market principles? you come up with names like marco rubeio, rand paul, scott walker. you have to go back to world war ii to see such a transformation for the people leading the fight being an entirely new generation

of leaders. >> it strikes me that that speech would look darn good on top of a soap box. >> there is a reason why he has 2016 speculation. he was singling out his generation, all of these tea party senators and members of congress who were younger than 50 years old versus some of the older bulls like john mccain and people calling for a conference committee on the budget. >> a real shot across at bob dole. thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. up next members of congress team up to pressure washington, d.c.'s football franchise to change its name. the redskins have rejected the effort before. ricin scare. poison laced letters sent to new york city mayor michael bloomberg and one of his top allies. a look at today's politics planner. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc.

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there is a renewed battle brewing over one of the few things that can sometimes bring unity in our nation's capitol. ten members of the house sent a letter urging the washington redskins to change their name. it is not the first time the team faced a challenge. if they ended up changing it it wouldn't be the first time a team changed its name or mascot. in 1972 stanford university

dropped the indians name and mascot. in 1994 marquette changed team maim to the golden eagles. st. john's went from the red men to the red storm. meanwhile some teams have gotten rid of controversial names all together. washington the nba team went from the bullets to the wizards after the team owners decided it was time to drop the name because of the violence invoking image. joining me now is the congress woman from washington, d.c. who signed on to the congressional letter. a recent ap poll showed that 79% of americans said the redskins should be allowed to keep their name. why do you think that number is so high? do you think this letter you

sent will be any different? we have been seeing these types of movements even in the team's hay day when they were going to the super bowl. do you think in 2013 it can have more of an impact? >> sure because it is now before the patent trial and appeals board. that board has already refused on four occasions when the franchise chose to renew red skins. it is not going to be able to do it in the future. it has been refused four times. indeed the trial and appeals board ruled for the native americans a number of years ago. it was overturned only on a technicality. i don't know what snyder is standing on or what the principle is. we understand what the principle

is on the part of native americans. i'm not surprised that most americans don't see any harm in the word. most of us have had to be educated by native americans who after all are only less than 2% of the population. they don't exactly have a microphone every day. african-americans you would know all about it. >> in your letter you equated the term red skins with the n word. dan snyder said this about the nickname. we'll never change the name. it is that simple. never. you can use caps. what do you think about dan snyder's attitude with that type of statement? >> let me tell you something about his attitude. that is what is disturbing. the man inheritted the name. this is the same dan snyder that sued a paper here, the city paper which wrote an article that was very critical of his

management of the redskins. the center piece of his suit was a photo that he said disparaged him as a jew. so here is a man who has shown sensibilities based on his own ethnic identity who refuses to recognize sensibilities of american. you can call a public figure anything you want to. this is not about the first amendment. this is about branding. whether you can use a brand that disparages an ethnic group. the fact that the ncaa now bars the use of such names and th that -- i wouldn't call it a principle.

it is never a statement that amounts to a principle. >> in regards to that letter it is a bipartisan letter. youver both with native american blood in them. i have to come back to what i asked you in the beginning. we have seen this so many times. it seems that this name is more ingrained in d.c. culture than pretty much anything we have here that so many people look to it as the great unifier. it unifies the races and the ages and the religions. do you think that people here would be preceptive to a change from this bipartisan letter? do you think the tide is shifting in that direction or is this a curfufal that we will forget about in a year or two? >> i think people in d.c. would welcome the change. look what the change would mean. a council member has suggested

the name red tails, the name of the tuskegee air men, much revered name. what would snyder lose? i think he would make a lot of money because he would have to redo all of those sweat shirts and helmets and paraphernalia that is made. >> in the immediate time it does cost money. knowing tredskins marketing the would sell new jerseys. >> i'm a big redskins fan. understand this is said with love. >> indeed. maybe some day they will come back to the city in a restractable roof stadium and we will get the super bowl. the ricin scare in new york city plus switching sides. the decision to join the democrats means. today's trivia question. who was the last independent governor to get reelected?

the first person to tweet the correct answer will get an on air shout out. the answer and more coming up. i am going to guess jesse ventura. maybe guy from maine. ♪ i' 'm a hard, hard ♪ worker every day. ♪ i' ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪ ♪ if i ever get some money put away, ♪ ♪ i'm going to take it all out and celebrate. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker... ♪ membership rallied millions of us on small business saturday

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on our radar this morning the fbi is now investigating a pair of letters that contained traces of the deadly poison ricin and threatened new york city mayor michael bloomberg. new york city police say one letter was sent to city hall but intercepted. the other was sent to the organization mayor's against illegal guns. both were sent from shreveport, louisiana and referenced bloomberg's antigun efforts. >> there are people who i would argue do things that may be

irational and things that are wrong. we have to deal with that. >> syrian president bashar al assad told a lebanese tv station he has received a first shipment of air defense missiles from russia. they are seen as potential deterrents if the u.s. or allies try to impose no fly zone. more and more have been fighting along side syrian troops and insisted the tide of the war is turning. in iraq a string of bombings have killed at least 13 people. it follows attacks on two baghdad neighborhoods that killed 30 including members of a wedding party. more than 500 people have been killed in may after 700 died in april. the deadliest month in iraq in nearly five years. the attorney for staff sergeant robert bails says his client will plead guilty to

murdering 13 villagers. the 39-year-old will recount the massacre which included slaughter of women and children some of whom were killed in their sleep. as more tornadoes threaten the hard hit midwest does the country need to rethink how we save up cash for catastrophes. we collected the big and small political events coming up in the near and not so near future and are updating it all the time. check it early, often. head to our facebook page. the conversation continues all day long. we'll be right back. from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ 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! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call.

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♪ i'll be in oklahoma tonight ♪ i'm coming back home >> boomer sooner. blake shelton, reba mcintire were some of the artists performing to benefit victims of the tornado that hit moore, oklahoma. the same area is once again under the threat of severe weather and tornadoes. what are these folks facing in the near term? another tornado risk possibly? >> definitely, luke. i wouldn't be surprised if we get one or two strong tornadoes through oklahoma. will they hit a populated area

or rural farm land? yesterday we had 23 tornadoes. we had a couple along the border of oklahoma and texas. a bunch in nebraska. many of these were in rural areas and did not do damage. we didn't have injuries and didn't have fatalities. let's hope we can continue that today. we have thunderstorms on going through much of kansas. along the southern portion that we will see new storms forming later today. we have flooding concerns and the biggest risk is tornadoes. anyone in the area of yellow you have a slight risk of storms. it is the little area of red, a moderate risk of severe storms. it does include oklahoma city, moore, the norman, oklahoma area. right up interstate 44 towards tulsa these storms forming. and then heading to the northeast as we go throughout the late afternoon and super cell thunderstorms with the potential of one or two strong

tornadoes. and then the threat as we go into friday shifts a little bit further to the east. st. louis, chicago, indianapolis. oklahoma city still has a chance of bad weather as we go into friday. i will end with this. we are having this rain in the midwest. storm after storm. flooding is a huge concern. this video is one example of the flash flooding threat from these stz. this is from a community college there. that is pretty crazy stuff. the mississippi river is going to have a major flood as we go throughout next week. that will be a big story making headlines. >> tough few days ahead in the midwest. >> thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. while the midwest and south have been dealing with tornadoes the east coast and gulf coast are bracing for the start of hurricane season. last year's storms including superstorm sandy racked up $58 billion in insured losses.

it was one of the costliest on record. three years ago chuck todd spoke to former deputy secretary of homeland security about whether federal and state governments should set aside dollars ahead of time to help cover costs. at the time the admiral was optimistic. chuck was not. >> there is a bill in the congress at the moment pending in the house. hr-2555 which would go an awful long way to creating the capability of doing a better job in prefunding and having funds available because we designed it to be there rather than depend on taxpayer bailouts in the after math of these nightmares. >> this is still not done, though. you sound optimistic that this bill can get passed. this sounds absurd that this hasn't happened yet. >> that bill died without a vote. to this day there is no national

catastrophe fund. eight years after hurricane katrina, six months after sandy and a week since moore, oklahoma was devastated by a tornado we are asking, are we doing everything possible to be ready for the next storm. with me is james lee wit, former fema director and co chair of protectingamerica org. thank you for joining me. >> when you bring up this idea sometimes on capitol hill the response from a lot of folks on the conservative side is that is what fema is for. we fund fema. why do we need this other fund to draw on taxpayers more? >> it is not going to draw on taxpayers. the fema fund draws on taxpayers. this catastrophe fund would be set up at the national level and state levels particularly in the high risk states that want to prarpt and would be funded out of the premiums that insurance industry collects. the ideal goal is to make insurance more available in high risk areas and make the

deductible lower so more people would be insured so the burden won't be on the taxpayers to continue to bail out these catastrophic events. president obama said this in a tampa bay times. when a risk is so large that the insurance market and individual states can't reasonablebly bear it is the role of the federal government to step in as we have done to ensure against acts of terrorism. that was 2008. 2014 has president obama shown enough leadership in trying to make this a reality? >> it takes president obama and congress. congressman has introduced resolution 1101. this idea and this concept has passed the house once. what we need is the people to look at this and the congressman's resolution and get

this moving because we are facing each year we are facing more events, more catastrophic than we have ever seen in the past. we can't continue this damage repair cycle without having a foundation in place for people to be able to recover. if people are insured, if they have the availability of insurance then people can recover much faster. and it is not the continued burden on the taxpayers to do this. >> do you think that folks who are living in the areas most effected, should they shoulder more of the burden? if i wanted to build a residence on part of the jersey shore, should i be paying into this fund at a higher level than a some guy on a farm in michigan? >> i think the situation is that each of the high risk states, particularly that want to participate in a catastrophic fund then the guv and the legislators pass the resolution

adopting it to participate. and then the insurance industry working together with that state and congress will help grow that fund. and it comes out of the premium dollars that the insurance companies collect. the ideal goal is to create this fund, that's the back stop for the industry that's going to create competition in these high risk states where insurance is more available and affordable with lower deductible. and they have an opportunity in each of the states that participate taking up to 35% of the earned income off that fund to do mitigation and prevention work for first responders and for individuals and schools. i think this is very important. the timing right now is critical as we go forward in the future. like you said hurricane season is upon us. there is a prediction of quite a few named storms this year. >> 11 i believe.

>> and even a prediction that we may see one hit the east coast in the new jersey and new york area again. >> we know a direct hit to new york would be devastating. it has happened in the 1930s. it could happen here in washington, d.c. or the eastern sea board for that matter. up next with the gaggle. full-court press, new tensions between attorney general eric holder and the media after major media organizations are invited to an off the record briefing. the white house soup of the day. el paso chicken and rice. you make a great team. it's been that way since the day you met. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph like needing to go frequently or urgently.

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and download our free lennox mobile app. lennox. innovation never felt so good. this day in 1806 it was believed to have begun with a disagreement over a horse ended in a pistol dual for future president andrew jackson.

jackson's opponent charles dickenson hit jackson in the chest. jackson's weapon misfired and he managed to fire again this time killing dickenson. the second shot was considered a breach of etiquette and political opponents used the dual against jackson. president obama has been trying to deal with washington's political stand offsince republicans took control of congress in 2011. he addressed the issue last night in chicago. >> we've got a politics that is stuck right now. and the reason it is stuck is because people spend more time thinking about the next election than they do thinking about the next generation. washington is not broken. it's broken right now for a particular reason but it is not permanently broken.

it can be fixed. >> let's bring in our thursday gaggle. nbc senior political editor mark murray and making her "the daily rundown" debut. welcome mj. you get the first question. we are in sort of crisis management mode right now for president obama. seems to be getting hit on all sides. the question is, how long can these scandals engulf him? how long does it play out? >> i think you are absolutely right that the doj has been rattled. it is interesting that the first real attempt to do damage control the meetings that they are trying to set up with the heads of media outlets they are running into trouble with with associations like ap and "new york times" saying we are not going to meet with eric holder if the meeting is going to be off the record. something that we all know, reporters have conversations with sources off the record all the time.

and now some media outlets are making an issue about should eric holderer hold these meetings in a trance parent way? i think that is something holder will definitely have to speak to. >> in an attempt by the administration and doj in order to try to tame this down a little bit, creating almost more controversy getting into a columbia journalism review about what eric holder is doing here. >> journalists love to talk about it. we love to talk about our industry any opportunity we get. i think the conversation is only going to continue. i will say i see very much from the times and the ap's point of view after the doj goes after the journalists i can see why they might find it insulting to say why don't you come over for a conversation off the record. it is a risky move. >> president obama once jokingly referred to journalists as his base.

he was a pretty tough one for a while getting a lot of positive coverage. nothing seemed to stick to him. this has stuck on him pretty intensely amongest the journalist community. >> one of the secrets about president obama when you go back to 2008 the people on the bus covering him there were teste relations between the press and president obama. when you are a politician you sometimes want to use the media to your advantage. at the same time you can't be that forthcoming because you realize as soon as i slip up and say something that knocks me off the message i want to say. there is that give and take there. i try to say from the very get go of this when he set out to be the president there had been a rocky relationship. >> it continues to this day. we will be right back. we have another interesting conversation about party regional differences. before we get to that we asked who was the last independent governor to get reelected.

the answer angus king of maine. who served two terms now maine's first independent senator. his hero in life joshua chamberlain. if you have a political trivia question for us e-mail us. we'll be right back. ♪ even superheroes need superheroes, and some superheroes need complete and balanced meals with 23 vitamins and minerals. purina dog chow. help keep him strong. dog chow strong.

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want to save on electricity? don't use it. live like they did long ago. or just turn off the lights when you leave a room. you can conserve energy wisely. the more you know. let's bring back our gaggle, mark murray and m.j. lee. guys, some interesting developments here. lincoln chafy, a lifelong republican who became an independent is now a democrat. and it seems that these northeastern republicans, they're a dime -- they don't really exist much anymore.

we've always talked about them sort of being absent, but you parlay that against what's happening with southern democrats, very regional parties now. >> yeah, absolutely. you see it just -- the election results after 2012, we saw it on the congressional level too, just how many house members, republican house members are in new england anymore. there are a couple in new york if you even count that as new england, but basically you have a couple of senators and that's it. it really is regional. as we talk about regional politics, i think it's important to look forward too. i don't think this is going to be in cement necessarily as we see a lot of migration, especially among minorities to the south. >> it's a good change. that's chuck's whole idea, mark, that perhaps you'll see places like wisconsin and pennsylvania become more conservative while north carolina and georgia become more democratic. >> and republicans have to hope that's the case. right now the republican battle grounds are in places like alaska, arkansas, very red states. republicans have failed to recruit folks in colorado and in

virginia senate contests. that is a very big problem for republicans. one big point on lincoln chafee, he had to make that switch to becoming a democrat. he only got 36% of the vote in 2010. needed to get into that democratic primary. the problem for him is that there are two viable democrats and he might have a hard time winning that democratic primary. >> m.j., your colleague talked about southern democrats, the difficulty they're having because of president obama, mary landieu. in 2008 obama winning virginia, north carolina, districts going to democrats they had never seen before in the south, that seems to have washed away. >> i think you're absolutely right. there is something definitely to be said about this growing regional divide. let's remember that it wasn't that long ago that we had mitt romney as governor of massachusetts and that wasn't that long ago. we had republican governors all

over new england back in the '90s. we're seeing sort of less of that trend happening where republican candidates with the reform-minded agenda getting elected in democratic states and that's a trend we're not seeing. i think chafee deciding to switch his party just draws more attention to that. >> the main reason why that's important is it gets rid of compromise because you don't have the regional compromises that you once had between the parties. shameless plugs really quick. >> happy birthday to two of my dear friends this week. katie whitesman and anna goman. my wife started a new job at the federal aviation administration. >> faa, land the planes! >> i would love to give a shoutout to my colleague, alex, for his coverage on michele bachmann. watch roy hibbert take it to the miami heat tonight. georgetown prep zone. he's playing really great. at 10:00, military channel, tom brokaw, set that on your comcast dvr if you're watching the

basketball. we've got much more on lincoln chafee's party switch, the challenge he's facing in 2014. check it out on our website, rundown.msnbc.com. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you tomorrow. coming up next on msnbc, "chris jansing & company." take care. al this time. al this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. to your kids' wet skin. neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®.

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kids! watch this. [ beep ] [ children screaming ] [ car alarm chirps ] awesome. [ male announcer ] mobile weather alerts from your home insurance? that's allstate home insurance. great protection plus helpful tools to make life better. talk to an allstate agent... [ doorbell rings ] and let the good life in. good morning, i'm chris jansing. new york's mayor says he will not give up the fight for new gun laws after authorities say he was sent two threatening letters laced with the poison ricin. this morning the fbi is trying to track down a suspect who sent the letters. one addressed to mayor bloomberg, the other mark glaze, who's the director of mayors against illegal guns. those letters were mailed from shreveport, louisiana, on may 20th and contain threats to the mayor over his efforts to pass new gun safety laws, but the mayor isn't intimidated. >> there's 12,000 people that are going to get killed this year with guns and 19,000 are

going to commit suicide with guns and we're not going to walk away from those efforts. i know i speak for all of the close to 1,000 mayors in the mayors coalition against guns. this is a scourge in the country we have to make sure we get under control and eliminate. >> last night in chicago, a city that's been racked by gun violence, president obama talked about his fight to pass universal background checks. >> we know that if we have some common sense laws that check to see if we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals or folks who have significant mental illnesses, we know that that can reduce some -- some deaths. and we know that 90% of the american people and 80% of gun owners agree with us. why aren't we getting that done? >> speaking of agreement, there's a new poll out that shows the majority of voters in three