expected. >> something you don't usually hear on "morning joe." >> i found out why you didn't make the law review and that was important to know. >> yeah. >> played too much music. >> you guys have a great weekend. thank you so much for watching this week. we really do appreciate it. mika is still recovering from what she saw. >> oh, no. i'm good. >> if it's way too early it's "morning joe." stick around now. the legendary luke is straight ahead. with the attorney general still trying to put an uproar to rest, president obama tries to break a streak of tough summers. starting today with a push on student loan interest rates. coal case. with less and less used in the u.s. energy companies are looking overseas for customers. we'll tell you how one country in the northwest corner of the u.s. could be crucial for the future of the world economy and the environment. and the gangster who spent 16 years on the run and once called alcatraz home is about to go on

trial for multiple murders. we'll talk to the boston globe reporter who knows his story better than anybody. good morning from washington. it is friday, may 31st, 2013. this is the daily rundown. luke russert in for the great chuck todd. the fbi is questioning an army veteran in texas about whether he has any knowledge of a threatening letter sent to the white house and addressed to president obama. it's the third letter that the bureau has found containing a form of the deadly poison ricin. two previous letters were addressed to new york city mayor michael bloomberg and his gun control group. the fbi says the letter to the president is similar to this one sent to bloomberg. it's type written, a note that makes threats against gun control advocates and says, quote, you will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. >> the letter in essence complains about gun control and says that anyone who comes for my guns will be shot in the face. >> that letter was intercepted a week ago at the facility that

screens mail bound for new york city's city hall. a third was sent to mark glaze. here in washington he runs bloomberg's advocacy group mayors against illegal guns. all three letters share a shreveport, louisiana postmark and were mailed nearly two weeks ago. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now with the latest. pete, what do we know about this individual who law enforcement officials are questioning? se directly tied to this matter? >> i think it's going to be a long time before they say whether or not he is, luke. they're questioning him and his wife. they've taken materials out of his house. they've looked at the place where he works. but the fbi is moving very slowly on this. very concerned not to create a repetition of what happened last month when someone was wrongly accused of sending ricin letters from mississippi. so they're moving very slowly, very cautiously. >> and then on a followup on a different issue pertaining to attorney general eric holder,

perhaps some new rules and sort of the subpoena power into how journalists operate. >> that certainly appears to be what the justice department is thinking about, changing the regulations. if not, asking congress to change the law that applies here. in terms of two issues, number one, whether and how the issue should be reviewed at the justice department before seeking e-mail and phone records from reporters. then secondly whether they should rethink the policy of going to news organizations and giving them a chance to contest subpoenas for materials that are already in somebody else's hands such as phone records or e-mail records that a third party keeps, the phone company or the e-mail provider. if you tell a news organization in advance that you're going to go after those records, the news organization can't expunge the records because they're not the news organization's records. so should there be a different attitude about that. and then on the issue of the

law, to some extent the government is saying that some of what it put in the subpoena, this controversial subpoena for information about the fox news reporter, that it had to describe him in a certain way. it had to say that he was a suspected coconspirator, possibly aider and abettor to meet the standards of federal law, the privacy act that applies to these records. should that law be changed. so all of this is on the table according to the people familiar with what is going on there. >> and it's something we'll keep a close eye on here in washington, d.c. pete williams, thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> you bet. just about an hour from now the president joined by some college students in the white house rose garden will kick off a summer campaign on student loan rates. launching another battle with congressional republicans over an issue the obama campaign used to their advantage to rally students last summer. the white house previews the, quote, don't double my rate drive in a video. >> some of you may remember last

year when president obama slow jammed on the news. >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. >> once again on july 1st the interest rate on subsidized student loans is expected to double. if you're one of the 7 million students who borrow money through the subsidized loan program sometimes called the stafford loan program this affects you. >> nbc's kristen welker is live at the white house. kristen, it seems that it's not ironic this is scheduled today. the president really trying to shift focus on anything aside from the irs or sort of the things that are causing him headaches. this is an issue the white house thinks they can win with, right? >> that's right. he is shifting the conversation, luke, to something that is popular, student loan rates, as you point out, trying to shift the conversation away from these recent controversies that have really roiled his administration like the doj and irs investigations. today he will be flanked by

tsunamis in the rose garden calling on congress to pass a bill to keep student loan rates low at their current 3.4%. if congress doesn't act they will double to 6.8% on july 1st. the partisan bickering has already begun, luke. as you know. because the house has passed a bill that would keep student loan rates low. the house's bill, the president's bill fairly similar. or i should say the president's plan. they both tie the interest rates for student loans to the yield on ten-year treasury bills so that is where they're similar. here's where they're different. the president's plan would lock student loan rates in place. the republican plan would set a cap on student loan rates. house speaker john boehner released this statement in response to today's event through his spokesperson brendan buck. i'll read you a little piece of it. it says, quote, it is obvious the white house would love nothing more than to change the subject from its growing list of scandals but scheduling this pr stunt reeks of desperation picking a fight out of thin air

where there's policy agreement isn't going to get the white house out of trouble. the white house has threatened to veto the house bill. some say it is good washington is taking on this issue of student loan rates but they say it is not the largest issue. the larger issue is the rising cost of education, which since 2003 has increased by 85% for public school. educators say it should be focused on that issue. president obama should hold more events where he is focused on things voters say are still their number one issue like education and the economy. >> one of those complicated issues when you look into it but politically it works darn well for the president. it will be interesting to see how long they stay on this track. turning now to our 2016 round up when it comes to hillary clin n clinton, republicans have finally come back home according to the new quinnipiac poll just 8% of republicans support clinton in a hypothetical match up against former florida

governor jeb bush. 10% of republicans backed kentucky senator rand paul. overall clinton continues to dominate the 2016 field leading bush 48-40 and ahead of paul 49-41. her favorability rating is down from an all-time high of 61% in february to 52%. 40% view her unfavorably. the pro clinton super pac, ready for hillary, launched its national finance council this week led by three democratic megadonors. clinton also hired a former state department aid to join what is now called the bill, hillary, and chelsea foundation. the week began with two famous residents. don't forget new york governor andrew cuomo. he has a home there as well marching side by side at a memorial day parade. speaking of political dynasties jeb bush was asked about his presidential prospects at the macinac policy conference in

michigan this week and whether he agrees with his mother that, quote, we've had enough bushes. jeb bush said we all have mothers. yesterday's republican party makes a re-emergence this morning in "the wall street journal" where mitt romney announces a plan to rejoin the national dialogue. yesterday after his wife ann talked about who she and mitt would pick next time around. >> there are some great candidates out there and, you know, i think mitt and i are always very, very partial to paul ryan, but we don't even know if he is going to run. >> in a speech to new york republican fundraisers texas senator ted cruz announced he thinks republicans are and should be the party of the 47%. touting his generation of conservatives, the children of reagan. new jersey's chris christie made sure voters in his state saw him playing arcade games with the president this week. and tried to humanize his effort to lose weight with a spread in "people" magazine.

that won a deep political discourse. vice president biden got one of his first 2016 endorsements from jack markel on this show. he made stops in trinidad toe bago this week as well as colombia on a world international tour that took him also to brazil. nbc's senior political editor mark murray is here and joins me for more. a few things that jump out at me here. hillary clinton it seems that some of this mud that was being thrown during the benghazi hearings trying to attach her to this controversy seems to have res mountainado wi resonated with some republicans who say we don't like obama but hillary is doing great on the world stage. >> you can actually see that. i think it was inevitable the republicans would always come back home and hillary's numbers kind of come back down to earth a little bit. it is important to note this is just one poll showing her favorability numbers going down. a recent "the washington post"/abc poll had her approval rating at 62%. it is interesting to see if this

quinnipiac poll is part of a larger trend or it's just one survey that's out there. >> an interesting thing that i got from that ann romney sound bite where she said, well we're kind of partial to paul ryan, we were talking yesterday about ted cruz and he sort of said, the future of the party is in people like rand paul, mike lee, scott walker. he left out paul ryan. >> he did. and of course they are the same age generation. >> yes. >> they are a different generation as far as when they were elected. cruz, scott walker all came in the 2010 or 2012 elections. paul ryan as we know is elected back in the late 1990s. >> right. >> even though he is very young he has been on capitol hill for a while. i think what cruz was trying to do is draw a distinction between the folks who were fueled by the tea party who were elected in the last two national election cycles versus folks who had been on capitol hill for a little bit of a while. >> something that we've all done is try to walk away from our mother's rash comments at the time. that is something jeb bush seems to be doing here. he says moms say a lot of

things. in michigan obviously a very important state in the republican primaries. one that his brother did not win in 2000. what are we reading into jeb bush? he certainly seems to be doing the right things but it does come down to between him or marco. both can't go. >> right. one thing is that jeb bush is laying certainly more ground work than he ever did going into 2012 or even in 2008 and i think he sees as a lot of folks do it is good to have your name talked about. even if you decide not to run. i think you chat with a lot of strategists out there, i think there is some doubt about him running. precisely for the reason his mother raised that maybe there are too many bushes. >> imagine another bush/clinton matchup in 2016 after 1992 you get into the whole dynasty argument. last but not least chris christie talking to "people" magazine. we love pupus and we'pies and wg weight. certainly this helps his

election in new jersey a blue state in terms of presidential politics but is it sort of the kiss of death moving forward in republican circles? could he mount a real sort of gop primary campaign? when you have people like rand paul and ted cruz who would be so popular in the early stage? >> luke, you don't know what is going to happen long term but first things first. he has to win re-election in new jersey and if he ends up doing that and does it decisively like say winning 60%, 70% of the vote, he might give some republicans and conservatives an opportunity for a second look saying, gosh. maybe if we end up having somebody like chris christie we could put new jersey in the republican column in a presidential contest. that is much easier said than done. there would be a big, ideological battle in 2016 on the republican side but it is an argument he could make -- >> primary voters like governors. they like pragmatic governors a lot of the time. you saw it in the last campaign with mitt romney. we saw it with george w. bush. >> an outsider helps. >> thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. learning curve. can the president's push on student loans help take the summer heat off the white house?

that's neck. plus a life of crime. i'm so fired up i can't stand it. a nationwide man hunt and dark cloud of corruption within the fbi. it's all front and center as whitey bulger one of the most notorious criminals in u.s. history goes on trial. but first a look ahead at today's politics planner. don't forget to check out the political planner on our website. we have collected all the big and small political events coming up in the near and not so near future. you're watching the daily rundown only on msnbc. i'm the next american success story. working for a company where over seventy-five percent of store management started as hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. when

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while we welcome that house republicans have paid attention to this issue this year their

proposal unfortunately does not meet the test. it fails to lock in low rates for students while also eliminating a safeguard that provides middle class families most in need with lower interest rates for student loans. >> president obama will try to turn the focus away from the recent troubles plaguing his administration and push congress to act on student loans today. surrounding himself with college students in the rose garden in the next hour. the president will pressure republicans to approve his plan to prevent interest rates on loans from doubling on july 1st. joining me now is indiana congressman luke messer president of the republican freshman class. always good to have a fellow luke onboard. >> not a lot of us. >> in terms of the differences in plans between the gop and the president's plan, the gop does want to add 2.5 percentage points to the market rate. why do you guys want to do that? >> we don't want to add 2.5 percentage to the market rate. there is a cap on the high end of the bill. frankly there is a lot more in agreement between our plan and

the president's plan and some of the rhetoric you hear out of democrats. the president has said he wants to tie the plan to market rates. there have been times in the last ten years where rates would be lower than the government set rate if it was tied to the market. there may be times when it's slightly higher. >> could go up to 8.5 percent which is a huge burden on a lot of students. >> it is but a lot of this is a distraction. not only a distraction from issues like benghazi and the irs and department of justice but a distraction from the fact that the real threat to college age students in america today is not a few more dollars on their student loan but the fact that the explosive growth of debt, the fact that the jobs in this economy for young people entering the market place have been the people probably most hurt by the obama policies. the president wants to distract them from that and talk about a few dollars on student loans. >> as president of the freshman class though is this group of republicans in the house right now you saw the president had extraordinary large margins of victory amongst young people in the last election. this issue is a central tenet

amongst others. when it looks like the republicans are on the side of letting rates go up to 8.5% and the president wants to keep them lower in the 3 to 4 range that is problematic for you guys is it not? >> it is. the bottom line is you're saying the president is an effective politician and does a good job of distracting people from things they ought to be focused on and sometimes focusing them on things that ought to be important, none of us want to see student loan rates spike, are only part of the larger problem. republicans have to do a better job of explaining how our ideas apply to young people. sometimes it sounds like he is selling ice cream and we're selling spinach. i think personal responsibility is pretty cool. there is nothing out of date about freedom. and we need to have the policies that get this budget back in line, stop the explosive growth of spending. spending that will be paid for by this generation. we've got to do a better job explaining that. >> elizabeth warren had an idea which said, look. big banks pay an interest rate of 0.75%. why not give students the same rate as big banks? what is the problem with that? >> the problem is it gets back

in the business of government setting rates and kind of having the rates set by the next mud wrestling match. now i agree we probably give big banks too good of a deal. but i think the best way to do that is let markets determine what the appropriate risk is for students. the reality is that the markets where rates go up for students are going to be rates where the economy is growing. folks are investing. and so the cost of the dollar is more. >> let me turn to the debt limit. obviously something that is very important amongst a lot of house republicans. it seems most likely this fight will be in the fall the president saying he won't negotiate on the debt limit. speaker boehner saying i want to adhere to that boehner rule for any increase we have to have matching cuts. from feeling out your freshman class do you see the possibility of repeating the summer of 2011 where the u.s. is bond rating actually went down because of the build up and brinksmanship

up to raising the debt limit? >> i don't think anybody wants to see a sort of fiscal cliff kind of fight where we all go to the brink but i think the debt limit is a big deal not just for house republicans but for our entire country. and back where i'm from, in the 6th district of indiana, people believe it is immoral to keep spending money we don't have. we need to have a plan that gets -- bends the cost curve and gets spending back in control. >> are you confident the rank and file members, though, understand the dynamics of the debt limit? that is something a lot of the gop readership folks will say and some of the more establishment folks will say is these guys don't get the econ 101 of this and don't understand what is happening here. they see it in black and white too easily. it is much more important than just, you know, we can't take out any more debt. this is what we need to have -- do you think that point is lost on some of these folks or do they get it? >> i think they get it but it all matters. it matters that we have a social security and medicare program that's broken. and going to go bankrupt in

medicare for example if we don't do anything by 2023. not in some distant three decades from now. and so it all matters. the truth is this debt limit is one place where we can bring the president to the table and hopefully require him to take a look at the tax reform that can jump-start the economy. take a look at the kind of reforms that would help fix entitlements. those opportunities don't come every day. the debt limit is probably our next opportunity this fall. >> we appreciate it. patriots fan. good luck to them. up next a small town with a very big vote ahead. why the coal industry and environmental groups and even foreign governments are paying very close attention to one county's local election. plus, vulnerable arkansas democrat mark pryor under pressure from mayor michael bloomberg's gun control group goes up with his first ad and he is not pulling any punches. but first, today's trivia question. who was the first president to have full-time secret service protection? the first person to tweet the

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see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? tucked away in the furthest northwest corner of the country is a battle. it's brewing over what could have national, even international ramifications of the fate of the u.s. coal industry. facing increased economic political and environmental pressure in the u.s., coal producers are now looking for ways to ship their product overseas. to do that, a seattle company is proposing to build a huge port along the pacific coast of washington state in whatcom county. once completed it could become the gateway for shipping some 48 million tons of u.s. coal to asia every year. standing in the way the whatcom county council a seven-member board that will vote on permits

for the $600 million project. but here is the key. four of those seats are up for grabs in the next election. an election now drawing national attention. coral davenport is the energy and environmental correspondent for "the national journal" and wrote about this recently. she joins me now and also has the greatest name in journalism, if i were casting a movie that needed a female reporter they'd be named coral davenport. welcome. fascinating story here. a lot of outside interest groups are lining up for this fight. it seems to be very much a microcosm of the environmental fights we see in general. but for a county race we could be seeing millions upon millions of dollars. >> we definitely will. already the league of conservation voters which spent $14 million in the 2012 presidential elections has this on their radar. on the other side there is a coalition called the alliance for northwest jobs and exports representing the largest coal companies in the u.s.

peabody arch coal, major lobbying groups, national mining association. they're represented by et lman which is the largest pr firm in the world. these are groups that are already on the ground and engaging in whatcom county about the fate of this terminal. >> and folks running for the council have been sort of told not to talk about this main issue because there will be some sort of legal lawsuit. so it is an interesting election. a ton of money pouring in and no one necessarily clearly knows what side the candidate is on. >> it's a really quirky election. it's the kind of thing that happens in small town politics. the board that will vote on it, the whatcom county council, seven-member board, a quasi-judicial board. it is like a mini court. so if you think about the supreme court or a court the voting members can't reveal, can't say which way they're going to go. they're supposed to take in the information and then vote behind closed doors on what they're

going to do. and so, you know, these candidates are now running to sit on this board that is going to have really outside influence on the coal industry, on u.s. trade relations with china. and the voter is saying we don't know necessarily which position these candidates will take. >> this could be a 4-3 decision over some multimillion dollar coal exporting facility. what about the state politics, the governor's level and how sort of the state senators look at this. i mean, are they prepared to sort of give the power to the local jurisdiction or is there anything they could do to perhaps stop it or advance it? >> so that is what is so fascinating. the governor of washington state is very engaged on environmental issues, very engaged on global warming. he wants to move forward to end coal electricity in the state entirely. this is a huge issue for him. but based on the state and local charters it is actually this

county council that has outside influence, so the state and even -- and federal level aren't getting involved because ultimately it is up to the seven members from whatcom county. the governor won't really be able to have a say even though we know what his view is. he can't step in. >> that is remarkable. it is absolutely remarkable. literally one county person could be behind this. last but not least an interesting element here. the tribe up there is very against this. they say it could hurt the salmon. even nonnative americans up there agree they should protect the salmon. how much influence do they have? >> they will play a role. their voice will be heard. under federal law, federal tribes absolutely will have a say. the army corps of engineer will have a say as well. but the biggest sort of

outside -- it will come down to the county council and these outside groups that are already weighing in to influence this. >> imagine some local county guy with hundreds of millions of dollars right in his hand or her hand. unbelievable. coral davenport, million dollar article, million dollar name. thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. after 16 years on the run notorious boston mobster whitey bulger will finally face the music. the trial is set to begin and digging into his life of crime, ties to one of massachusetts's most powerful politicians. we'll talk to the guy who knows his case better than anyone. ready? happy birthday! it's a painting easel!

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xand didn't know where to start. used a contractor before at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. no company can pay to be on angie's list, so you can trust what you're reading. angie's list is like having thousands of close neighbors where i can go ask for personal recommendations. that's the idea. before you have any work done, check angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust. i love you, angie. sorry, honey. the highly anticipated trial of notorious gangster and boston crime boss whitey bulger is expected to finally get under way next week. bulger is accused of murdering at least 19 people while he ran

an underworld empire with the help and protection of political allies and fbi agents. when the feds finally closed in, bulger fled boston. he stayed on the run for 16 years until a nationwide man hunt finally led to his capture in 2011. by that time he had become a national figure and a legend in his hometown. quote, in his own bloody way whitey bulger's life was fused with the modern history of the city. during his career he became one of its most recognizable icons. bonnett is the city of john adams, john kennedy, and ted williams but there are few names better known or more deeply associated with the city than bulger's. certainly he is boston's most infamous criminal. that's a quote from the book "whitey bulger" and is written about a pair of outstanding boston globe reporters. thank you so much for joining us. very fired up about this. i was up late last night. unbelievable stuff. i got to start out with the first question to you. whitey bulger doesn't want you

to testify at his trial. >> i'm on his witness list. >> you're on his witness list. >> it just came out yesterday. the defense submitted 78 potential witnesses and shelly murphy and i are among those potential witnesses. that is absurd. the idea that i would get up and give anything that would be vaguely ex-cull pa tri for whitey bulger would be like, it's like michele bachmann having rachel maddow as a character witness. >> two different people. >> not going to happen. >> interesting things in the book. number one bulger claimed the fbi gave him a license to kill. that he was allowed to kill in exchange for the information he gave them. is that true in your opinion? >> the problem, that is what he is claiming that the fbi and the justice department gave him a license to kill. the problem is the flip side of it he is saying he was not an informant. >> right. >> he wants to have it both ways. >> he very much was an informant. >> we've seen his informant files. over 700 pages. he would have you believe that

john conley his friend from south boston. >> who was the fbi agent he protected. >> he grew up in the same housing project as them. he would have you believe that conley made all this stuff up but anybody with a remote understanding of the underworld would realize that this stuff in the informant reports only whitey bulger could know. >> which is fascinating because one of the tenets of his existence was loyalty, loyalty. he was willing to sell out a lot of people close to him. >> anybody that professed or showed loyalty to whitey got ruined. his brother billy who was the president of the boston college -- also it was then the president of the university of massachusetts, he lost his job because he had actually spoke out defensively and said he would never turn his brother in. his brother jackie was loyal to him. his brother jackie was the juvenile court magistrate. he lost his job and his pension and actually was convicted in federal court of helping him. >> let's talk a little bit about the myth of whitey bulger.

obviously you had -- i went to school in boston. this guy is so ingrained in the fabric of the city. i tell people the day whitey bulger was captured it was like the kennedy assassination, like bin laden. people in boston knew where they were. talk about his grip on that town, the folk hero status he had, and how even to this day you can go to south boston and i've spoken to old women there that said he kept the drugs out of southeast. he kept the drugs out of southeast. >> i'm here to tell you he did not keep the drugs out of south boston. he made millions of dollars off the drug trade. jimmy bulger as we know as whitey bulger was great at one thing and that is sophistry. he says he was not an informant because he never testified. he says he was not involved and never sold drugs but he made millions by taking tribute from drug dealers. i lived in south boston in the '80s and 1990s. there were more drugs per capita in south boston than any neighborhood in the city. it was all over the place. lives were ruined and he has blood on his hands for those things. there are people who believe that he -- people say -- we talk

about american exceptionalism. this south boston exceptionalism. people in south boston think it is the greatest place in the world. it is a wonderful, beautiful neighborhood with a lot of good people but there are a lot of people who are totally delusional. i would throw billy bulger his brother in there, too. he was always in denial about how bad jimmy bulger was. he never pushed him away. he was always a welcome member of that family. there were people who to this day would tell you that he, whitey made it a better place but the reality is whitey murdered people. whitey made money off drugs that ruined a town. >> put the culture of fear in place. >> when i was there in the '80s there was a lot of intimidation. >> i want to talk to you about an interesting pair dogs. you write in the book whitey bulger is someone who could go to sleep fine at night after killing somebody but couldn't bear to see a sick dog put down. >> right. >> which is an interesting part of who he is as a person. what do you feel about your reporting on him and getting that type of access that you were able to produce a sentence

like that? how has that reporting changed you over the years personally? this guy was sort of, i mean i don't know if you're married or have kids but this guy was pretty much your life for 20 something years. >> professionally he was a big part of my life. we wanted to, lack of a better term, humanize this guy. i think he has been portrayed as sort of a one dimensional monster, a psychopath or whatever. the guy isn't. he could not have survived, beyond the fbi corruption in which the fbi protected him he could not have survived in his chosen profession had he not been charismatic, a man of contradictions. as you said he is charged with shooting people in the back of the head and then going upstairs and taking a nap. in louisiana when they had to put the dog down he couldn't watch. when the shot was fired he started weeping. >> remarkable. last but not least quickly i was struck from reading the book, the role alka terracatraz the f

prison in san francisco played in his life. he went there. he seemed to like it. he enjoyed the food, working out there. stayed out of trouble mostly. talk about that. because he is pretty much one of the last of the mohicans in terms of being in alcatraz. >> we call that chapter the university of alcatraz because that was where he really used his time in prison to get smarter, to get an edge. as you say, most wise guys do you know who machavelli is, yeah, i think he is in the cleveland crew. they wouldn't know. jimmy read this stuff and learned from it and used it as a criminal. he understood you play people against each other and you survive while they ruin each other. >> kevin collin writing the book whitey bulger with shelly murphy. we can't thank you enough. i give this my full endorsement. a great book. i was up late last night going through it. coming up, prior engagement. arguably the most vulnerable democrat in the senate becomes the party's first candidate to hit the airways for 2014. first, the white house soup of

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androgel 1.62%. daily flashback to this day in 1913 when secretary of state william jennings certified the 17th amendment as part of the constitution forever altering the political landscape in this country the 17th amendment provides for the popular election of u.s. senators shifting voting from state legislators to the state's voters. there was a controversy about that, rand paul if you guys remember that. tribute time. we asked who was the first president to have full-time secret service protection? the answer teddy roosevelt. the secret service was originally created to combat currency counterfeiters but after president mckinley's assassination the agency assumed full-time responsibility for protection of the president. congratulations to today's winner patrick derocher. if you have a political trivia question for us e-mail us at daily rundown@msnbc.com.

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arkansas senator mark pryor is now the first democratic senator to hit the air waves ahead of the 2014 midterm election. pryor is defending himself against attack ads by new york city mayor michael bloomberg's gun control group. >> i'm committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our second amendment rights. i'm mark pryor and i approve this message, because no one from new york or washington tells me what to do. i listen to arkansas. >> let's bring in our friday gaggle, "the new york times'" jackie com, sarah faegen, and

angela rye. thank you, all, guys, for joining me. i'll go to you right off the bat. this ad by mark pryor, trying to sort of tie himself that i'm the anti-new york city, anti-mike bloomberg. does this sort of help him in a red state like arkansas? how do you guys exploit that? >> it helps him in a red state, for sure. it helps both republicans and democrats in the middle part of the country when they attack either coast. it's a classic strategy that has been used by both parties for many years. having said that, i think it's more of an example of how some democrats look at the president as a challenge for their re-election. and the truth about the gun control debate is that it wasn't the republicans that couldn't get gun control done, it was the democrats in the senate. because with so many of them up in tough states, republican states that mitt romney won, it's a real challenge for the president. >> so you're -- i'll let angela respond to that in terms of saying, it's harry reid's fault

the gun control didn't go through? >> no, i think that gun control or any gun safety measure is going to be a challenge. you live in a different day and age, where big money has a lot to do with this and is controlling this. so the senator from arkansas as well as the other senators who had grave challenges in voting for or against this bill had the nra to come up against, as well as balancing the needs of their state citizens. so i just, i don't know that it's an obama problem or a harry reid problem. >> the quinnipiac poll has out obama disapproval 49, approval, 45, in terms of -- for his job approval. 2012, obama, somewhat unexpectedly, though, provided some decent coattails for a lot of people. democrats certainly did well in the senate races, they did in the house races. they increased their margin. this time around, 2014, is there -- are there obama coattails at all, or, similar to 2010, do people have to really

keep their distance? >> well, it always depends on the location, but a midterm is a whole different animal, as they saw in 2010. and he's not on the ballot, just as he wasn't on the ballot in 2010. and to the extent he had coattails in 2012, a lot of that was because he's got, had, one of the best grassroots -- >> the data-mining extraordinaire. >> -- ground game of anyone. so that will still be in play somewhat. but you're not -- there's no chance they're going to bring out the same number of people. >> 20 minutes from now, the president will go not rose garden and talk about student loans. for the republican party, this is a very tough issue, because we were talking earlier, is that both sides sort of agree student loan rates, they have to go up to some degree, because they're too much of a driver of the debt. but the president will go out there, he'll be with young students who like him and will basically say, the big, bad republicans are trying to up your student loan rates, i'm trying to keep them down. that's tough politics for the gop. we had luke messer on here

earlier, it's like, we're trying to sell them spinach while the president's trying to sell them ice cream. >> this is an important issue, baa he's talking about the wrong issue, which is the cost of education. which has gone up over 80% in recent years. so, the student loan rate is something that he's trying to take control of and to shy away from some of these recent scandals. he's trying to change a narrative. that's what presidents do in the tough fight that he's in. but i don't think it's going to work very effectively for them. >> can this work? can it have legs? the irs, 74% of americans think there should be a special prosecutor involved on that. does this give him a little bit of cover going into the weekend welco or can it drive a wedge? >> the public wants the president to focus more on jobs and the economy. this is a perfect issue for young people, because not only are student loan interest rates potentially going to double by

july 1, but you have folks in the youth bracket, the black and brown communities that are underwhelmingly still underemployed. we've got to keep costs down while the economy continues to rebound for the least of these among us. >> this student loan issue is one that worked for the president and his party last year, better than a lot of us inside the beltway even appreciated. and i think, you know, it's just one of these issues they hope will galvanize some of the younger vote, but, you know, again, he's not on the ballot next year, as we were just saying. >> indeed. and it's going to be interesting to see. going to get out of this tailspin, looking for anything. shameless plugs, angela, start us off? >> my dad turns 71 on sunday. so happy birthday. >> eddie rye jr.. >> two friends and former colleagues both have great columns out this weekend. >> always read gerson. >> since you can't plug it or won't, i'll plug your mother's foundation. >> one laptop for child in

colombia. it's very good stuff. last but not least, i'm going to plug this book that i had the interview, the whitey bulger book by kevin cullman. go out and get it. it's freaking fantastic. by the way, we've got much more on senator pryor's new ad plus the roundup of all other big senate developments this week. check it out on our website rundown.msnbc.com. and don't forget to head over to our facebook page. the conversation continues there all day long. that's it for this edition of the daily rundown. thanks for having out with me. thanks for having me here. chuck and the go team will be back on monday. coming up next, chris januasing and co. have a great weekend. here's a look at your weekend forecast. still tracking severe weather on saturday, through the ohio valley, back down through areas of arkansas, possibly even towards dallas. by the time we get to sunday, we finally get a dry day, with

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a good friday morning to you. i'm richard lui in for chris jansi jansing. in 20 minutes, we'll go live to the president speaking about student loans. but topping this hour, the fbi questioning someone about the threatening letter the president received laced with

the poison ricin. mayor bloomberg getting similar type-written threatening notes. and this morning, michael bloomberg saying he feels perfectly face. while speaking on his radio show, he says he faces more danger from lightning than from anything else. let's get to pete williams. what can you tell us about how who officials are talking with now? >> what the mayor says right to me, the lightning isn't screened at an off-site facility and his mail is. it's important to point out that these letters were never actually received by the white house or by city hall, because all the mail to the president and the mayor and many other government officials is screened at off-site facilities. none of these letters, it's important to emphasize, presented the any kind of threat to the people that they were addressed to. the only letter that did get through was the one to the government official -- or the official of the gun rights organization, thgu