. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there. the old college try with a july 1st deadline looming. president obama picks another fight with republicans over skyrocketing student loans. >> the house of representatives has already passed a student loan bill. and i'm glad that they took action. but unfortunately, their bill does not meet that test. it fails to lock in low rates for students next year. that's not smart. it eliminates safeguards for lower income families. that's not fair. it could actually cost a freshman starting school this fall, more over the next four years, than if we did nothing at

all. full court press -- attorney general eric holder tries to quiet the uproar. by promising new limits on prosecutors in leak investigation. arms race in sirria secretary of state kerry warns russia today, that sending missiles to assad's regime threatens the entire region. >> we ask them again not to upset the balance within the region, with respect to israel and the weaponry that is being provided assad whether it's an old contract or not. it has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region. >> bringing home the bacon -- more women are the family's top earner. what's behind the dramatic shift. k-n-a-i-d-e-l.

knaidel. >> you are the champion. >> and spellcheck, we have a winner. but he is not heading to disney world. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington, president obama is drawing a line against the republican house fix to prevent student financial aid from doubling. it boils down to a fight between fixed rates and floating rates so who's right? joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and nbc's david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." david let's talk about this. this is an argument over capping the rates, letting the rates float or fixing the rate. not, preventing it from doubling on july 1st as it's supposed to. who is correct here. because "the wall street journal" among others on the republican side say he's just picking this fight. but why doesn't he split the baby and come up with a negotiated solution? >> there may be room for a negotiated solution.

i think the biggest point about all of this is what the president is trying to do here and what he ought to be trying to do, according to a lot of supporters, which is steer his conversation and his second term back to the idea of the economy. and benefitting you know people like students who are coming out of college or dealing with loans, getting into the private sector and finding the job market so difficult. this is his sweet spot. in terms of what to build a second-term agenda around. and i think it's whether he finds a negotiated solution or not. it's what he wants to be talking about. >> chris cillizza this is a sweet spot for the president. it certainly was successful last year. but critics would say where was he all these months. they have not been dealing with the house or the senate on this issue. and now we face the deadline. >> you know, andrea, i think part of this, this broad dynamic we see with this president, is this is not someone who has spent a lot of formative years of his political career in the house or senate. it's someone who has polite relationships with congress.

but sort of does not see congress in the way that some, lyndon johnson would for example. so i think what you have is that health care, more of a struggle than president obama certainly thought as it related to congress. stimulus, same thing. fast-forward to this term. gun control, we thought at least that a final package would get a vote. it wound up not. he is a very good messenger outside of washington. both campaigns have proven that i don't think there's any debate about that. he is someone who really can connect well and speak well to the middle of the country that you need to win elections. the issue is, can he work within the bounds of congress on immigration, on student loans. on, and this is the big one, debt and spending as it relates to the debt ceiling and our budget deficit. can he do those things that inside plays that he's been less good at throughout his, you know, five and a half, six years in office. >> of course, the white house website also had this video,

which reprised his slow jam with jimmy fallon last year. >> some of you may remember last year when president obama slow-jammed the news. >> not is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh yeah! >> so of course, it never hurts to put that out there when you're talking about student loans. more broadly, this is a demographic fight as well, politically. david. >> well you know, younger voters, key to the democratic constituency right now for re-election, these are young people who are coming of age. and again, going into this economy. i think one of the biggest issues that the government faces, that the president faces is how does america get along. how does america become more competitive. how do we really move ahead. this is something that he wants to be a major part of his legacy. for all of the issues we've been debating, economic restoration

is the thing. it's the most important part of the picture. in front of his second term. and he has not really dealt with it in a, in a fulsome way. this is at least a part of it. but he wants to be out there talking about jobs, talking about what brings the economy back and what makes america stronger and the rest of the world is an economic engine. and so it's not just that core constituency. it becomes a broader tablo. >> those of us concerned about what the leak investigations have led to are eric holder's meetings, today he met with the broadcast networks, but only abc among the broadcast networks went because it was billed as an off-the-record meeting. nbc said on this topic it would not conduct off-the-record meetings with the attorney general. >> the "washington post" did go to yesterday.

>> that's significantly above my pay grade in this news room. but what, look, i think i can speak broadly about what he's trying to achieve, which is the department of justice and the administration is well aware, whether or not they think they are within their legal sort of boundaries and what they've done as it relates to the a.p. and james rosen and the leak investigations. that it has soured an already not-great relationship with the media. these sessions are an attempt to say, by eric holder and the doj staff to say, look, this is why we did what we did, here were the stakes, we don't want these things reported. which is why they've put it in this sort of off-the-record context. you can characterize, i suppose the tone. but you can't talk about what went on there. these are goodwill sessions. i think, andrea the question i have, is, and this isn't just about the department of justice. is it too little, too late in terms of the what they've done versus what they say why they've done it. >> well, i think if they had

framed it, david and chris, as this is national security. these were leaks in major cases, everyone knows how unpopular the media are, far more unpopular. the american people have said in a number of polls how they feel about this. they feel that national security is more important than first amendment freedoms. it was not framed very advantageously. >> this is the chief law enforcement in the land who said this is a crime and that they're going to try to prevent these crimes. and he did what he did and he signed the affidavit and they went after james rosen as a co-conspirator. and now he has remorse about it, reading about all of this in the newspaper? i don't understand why he's folding on this. as a political matter. not on the substance of it. we don't think that this ought to be happening. but as a leadership matter, it's striking to me that a progressive attorney general, who is nevertheless the attorney general, seems to be letting his political views affect his views about cracking down on this kind

of crime. and i think that goes for the president as well. the president came out and said, these are big crimes, that we cannot let this -- >> he offered no apology for it. >> and now he's saying we should review all this stuff. and the attorney general is saying we should change all this stuff. i don't get it. >> i think what it comes down to is they realize now that they should revert to their past policies of notifying the media, negotiating a solution, giving the media time to fight a subpoena quietly and negotiate how these stories get withheld or not. >> why didn't they do it because they're responding to republican pressure? that's what was going on here? these are the questions about holder's leadership and ultimately going up to the president. it's not about the president interfering in the investigation. my question is who a republican administration have done this? would they have said to the press, hey, sorry we did this, let's talk about how we could not do it again. i don't think they would. >> i'm sure you're going to be discussing this on "meet the press." >> absolutely. >> we're going to talk to mike

rodgers, chairman of the house intelligence committee. >> former fbi. >> and also chuck schumer in a great round table including david axelrod and others about the president's leadership on this. >> david axelrod, a former journalist. not entirely comfortable on this subject, judging from "morning joe" today. david gregory, thank you very much and chris cillizza. joining me now for more on the political battle over student loans, california congresswoman karen bass. congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us. i know you've been a leader on this. is this too little, too late? why is the president returning to this issue now, we've only got a month before these rates will double, if nothing happens. >> well, i actually think he returned to it quite a while ago. the press conference was today of course, but you know, i'm just really concerned. i hear from students every single day. one is because i have a piece of legislation that would cap the interest rates and would also allow students not to pay more than 10% of their discretionary income every month on their student loans. and after ten years, if they've been paid consistently, a good chunk of those loans would be

forgiven. and so, i just think this is a critical issue. but i don't think the president is just raising it today. this has been a discussion. >> what's wrong with the house republican approach, which would cap it? >> well, what the house republicans essentially do, is allow the student loan interest rate to be a variable loan. which means it has to be set every year. and then they do have a cap on it. but you know, for example, what the loans are today, 3.4% and we know that they're set to double by july 1st, if the market fluctuates, then who knows where the student loan rate will be next year at this time. so i think it needs to be capped. i don't think that students should be subject to the fluctuations of the market at all. >> and these are the stafford student loans, student loans, the subsidized student loans who affect the students who need it most. but some educators are telling us that the real issue for most college students, are the tuition levels that cuts in

federal and state funding for public institutions have led to tuition increases that are just killing our students. >> oh, absolutely. >> and you know what, i agree with that completely. and i do remember in the president's state of the union address, he talked about the fact that colleges need to get together and figure out how to lower tuition, period. because that is of course, what's underneath all of this. but you know, the other thing that is happening, in the republican budget, they are calling for cutting pell grants. so you know, at the same time as they want to have the student loan rate be subject to the fluctuations of the market, they're cutting grants for the lowest income students. and it just seems to me to all be consistent with the whole argument of protecting the 1%. people who are millionaires, they don't really need stafford loans, subsidized, unsubsidized or pell grants. and the issue should be about how does our economy lift people up. and i think that proposals that would increase funding to pell

grants and cap student loans, period, is the way we ought to go. while we're working to decrease tuition. which is absolutely the case. >> and the pell grants, the student loans, could become really critical, depending on what the supreme court does on the pending cases on affirmative action. which do affect access for diverse students and for minorities who are so reliant on, on all of this education aid. i wanted to ask you as a member of the judicialry committee, also about the pending confrontation, eric holder has been given by the house leadership on the judiciary committee. until next wednesday to respond with all sorts of background information and prove what they claim are false statements. you know, prove that he didn't mislead the committee or even commit perjury. in a worst case. when he was explaining himself, explaining what he did or didn't do on these investigations. what is your position on this? >> well you know, i mean i do think that we have to clarify what happened.

but i just have to tell you, sitting as a member of the judiciary committee, i really felt embarrassed. because i think that every few months we have seen attorney general holder you know, summonsed up to congress. i think part of this is a diversion. my first year in congress when the economy was really bad, everything was focused on that. it seems as though my republican colleagues need scandals, other issues to divert us away from the fact that the economy is doing a little better and now what is the reason that we don't have a budget conference committee? what is the reason that we can't come together in the senate and the house, and finally come up with a budget. the first two years all they wanted to talk about was the fact that the senate hadn't passed a budget so when i think of eric holder and when i think of the other scandals that the republicans seem to be going after, i just can't help to think that it's not a diversion away from the issue that has them a little confused right now. which is they weren't planning on the economy doing better.

>> do you think since they have the majority on that committee, that holder is in trouble? >> i absolutely do. i do. i mean i was there, you know when last year, he was held in contempt the first time in u.s. history and that's why i said i felt embarrassed. because i think that my colleagues were justs did respectf disrespectful in the way they treat him. i hope he doesn't resign. but-day have to tell you i don't know how many times somebody is going to want to be summonsed to come up and want to be berated for events in the house which i feel are primarily staged. >> do you think this is an attempt to get at the president? what do you think -- do you think holder has some responsibility the way he's handled the committee? what is the motivation here? >> well i do think that we need to look at responsibility on all parts. but i think that the motivation is -- is to keep the president tied up in scandals. now i wasn't in congress when clinton was in office, but i sure remember his last term. and tens of millions of dollars

of taxpayers' money were wasted investigating everything possible. and i just think it's shameful. because there's so many issues that we need to be dealing with right now. the economy might be getting better but we still have a terrible need for jobs. and also, sequestration. which continues to kick in day by day. i know that in my district alone, and in the adjoining district. there's a number of people who are getting furlough notices. at a military base. and so, we do have real issues and now that the economy is getting better, we need to do everything we can to help it continue to get better. and to not come up with diversions such as scandals. to tie our time. how many committees need to investigate these issues? >> congresswoman karen bass, thank you very much. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me on. turning to weather, tornado watches are up for most of the middle of the country with a possibility of outbreak later today in oklahoma. on thursday, storm chasers

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there's always threats, unfortunately, that comes with the job. i leave it to the world's greatest police department to worry about it and go about my business. >> mike bloomberg on his radio show today. brushing off the threats or any concerns about his safety, as the fbi is looking into whomever sent those letters containing poisonous ricin to him, to his anti-gun lobbying office in washington and to the president this week. now there's word that a separate, unrelated letter was mailed from spokane, washington, to the president last week. a suspect in that case has been arrested. nbc justice correspondent, pete

williams joins me now. how serious is the ricin threat? are there any leads now on from louisiana or someone is being interviewed in texas? i don't know how serious that was. >> in terms of the threat, andrea, it's probably not very serious. to does bear repeating, although it's attention-getting that people address letters to the public officials, those letters are never going to get to their destinations. because they're screened and they're not going to make it to their destination. so they really aren't a threat to public officials. and the mayor is right to say, on his radio show, that he'd be more likely to be hitly lightning, because it's screened somewhere offsite. in terms of the letters, the authorities are questioning a man in texas to see if he has any information about this most recent round of letters sent to the mayor and addressed to the white house and also an official here in washington, who runs the mayor's nonprofit gun control group. the authorities are not saying much about it.

they're moving very slowly and cautiously. you may recall that the wrong person was accused in april of sending a ricin letter to the president and the member of the congress and a judge in mississippi. and i think authorities are very eager not to make sure, to make sure that that doesn't happen again. so unless there's a confession, i think this is going to move very slowly and very deliberately. and as for spokane, a man was arrested there last week. matthew buquett. accused of sending a threatening letter to the judge fbi analysis did contain ricin and he sent a letter to the white house that was intercepted, in addition to letters elsewhere. including one addressed to the c.i.a. in mclean, virginia, at an address that doesn't get mail. postal authorities are trying to find that letter so they can make sure it's safely dealt with, andrea. >> that puts it all in context and i want to ask you about the fact that eric holder and team have been meeting with members of the media, not with nbc. with abc, was the only network

that went today and with a number of newspapers yesterday, the "washington post" went yesterday. they seem to be wanting to come up with some guidelines. it's hard to say because they were off the record meetings. but the word that filters out is they want to come up with some guidelines to perhaps return to the practice of prior warnings to the media. in most cases at least. >> that's one possibility. i think they're looking at three things as i understand it. one is that. when you have a situation like with phone or email records, that are not retained by the person that you might want to search. they're retained by the phone company or an email company. that giving a heads up to the news media organization that you want to get those records, nothing is going to happen to the records. they're kept by someone else. gives the news media organization a chance to challenge them. now the investigators' concern is that it tips off people on the case that you're coming after them. that has to be balanced. that's one issue. a second thing is perhaps changing the rules to treat, to give the same kind of heads up with phone records as you would with email records and the same kind of review. and then thirdly, andrea, i

think they may look at whether legislation is in order here to change the rule. to change the law on what kind of proof you have to show, what standard you have to meet to get a search warrant. that's one issue the justice department said came up in its request for a search warrant for the fox news reporter, james rosen. they say that they, in order to get the search warrant. they had to say to the court that he was, could be a co-conspirator, that he could be an aider and abetter. and unless they said that it wouldn't meet the legal threshold. that's another thing they may be looking at. >> thank you so much, pete williams, thanks for all of that. and today, a sad honor, posthumous honor today, at the university of massachusetts, kristen campbell was killed at the boston marathon bombing attack. her family was there to accept the degree on her behalf. and last night, a cavalcade of stars to support the one fund.

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ensures support, a breakthrough. and sooner than you'd like. sooner than you'd think. you die from alzheimer's disease. we cure alzheimer's disease. every little click, call or donation adds up to something big. the recession and other changing family dynamics have led to a kwud raupling in recent decades in families where women are the primary breadwinner. but a new study actually shows new realities, good news for middle class, college-educated women who are finally being paid more of what they deserve. but not so good for undereducated, poorer single mothers. rehema ellis has more. >> i asked my husband, could you please stay at home with the kids.

because it's an economical decision. i just made more money than he did. >> they're who not alone, a pew center report finds in a record 40% of households with children under 18, mothers are now the sole or primary source of income for the family. it's a dramatic shift from just 11% more than 50 years ago. the report also revealed two distinct groups of working mothers. 37% have a higher income than their husbands. 63% are single moms. >> rehema ellis joins me now. as well as "cosmo" editor in chief, joe anna coles. let's drill down on the trends, good and bad news combined in some instances. rehema, what you found in your reporting. >> one of the things i think it's important to point out is of the single moms who are breadwinners, the study shows that many are not college-educated as a result of that.

many of them make lower wages. it's also been pointed out from some economists that we talked to, that women are making now only about 77% of what men earn. and so some are concerned that this is leading to so many children who are living in poverty. we have about 20% of our children in our country who are living in poverty. there may be some measures or some push if you will, to change some policies of how we're operating in this country. because a lot of people are concerned about what does it mean for those children. particularly when you talk about the maternity leave act in this country. where we're the only nation, the top economic nation in the world, right now, that has a maternity leave. but it is not a paid maternity leave. so women can get pregnant and have children, but they go off at a time when they need money probably the most important time they need money in their life, they don't have it. so there are a lot of interesting factors that come into play when you look deeper down into these numbers, andrea. >> and joe anna and jillian. as we look at the numbers and at

the facts, let's take a moment to look at an all-male panel on fox news. saying that this report also is a sign of the disintegration of american societies. the american family. >> seeing the is disintegration of marriage. >> look at biology, the natural world, the roles of a male and female in society and other animals, the male typically is the dominant role that female is not antithesis, not competing, a complementary role. three-quarters of the people surveyed, recognize that having moms as the primary breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage. >> this is a catastrophic issue and sadly, no one on the left, right or center is dealing with the breakdown of family structure, we're losing a generation. bottom line, it could undermine our social order. >> that was the fox business channel. joe anna, do you have a reaction to that, from -- >> well i wish the last gentleman talking there would turn his attention to

"cosmopolitan." we write about this all the time. it's a huge trend and it's been going on for the last 20 to 30 years. and office it's very split. there's the poorer end of the market. and then there's the top end of the market. in terms of the workplace and how this is impacting women. but what becomes clear, is that the power balance between men and women is shifting and probably needs to be renegotiated. and i think these are conversations that couples are having all across america. and of course, the economic reality is that sometimes men do need to stay at home. but i think that there's a bigger issue here, too. which is that the american workplace is really tough on family life. there's a very good piece in bloomberg "business week" today talking about how men would like to spend more time with their children. but that's often not a reality. and so i think the workplace, especially under the pressures of the economic issues that we have at the moment, needs to revolve around the staff.

and any of us know, the most important asset you have is people and we have to work with people to insure they feel really supported. >> well, jillian tet, how much does the recession play into this. where people feel that they can't ask for time off. th they can't ask for family leave. men and women feeling they have to prove themselves, because if they don't do it, somebody else will grab that job? >> that's good and bad things happening right now as a result of the recession. on the one of the good things is that you have an entire generation that is now growing up, that is not wedded to the idea of there being a career ladder. they know they're going to have to be flexible and creative about how they structure their careers. and in so far as the younger generation as joanna says are having conversations about how to work together and maybe as a couple pass the baton back and forth in terms of doing work or being in portfolio careers, that flexibility is encouraging. what is not encouraging is that

people feel insecure in traditional companies in their jobs, they feel less willing to ask for time off to look after children. another very important factor is, that there's been many of the traditional male industries, the manufacturing, construction, things like that, which have been so badly hit in the recession. the areas where there are more women employed like health care. are still growing employment, retail as well. that's one factor which is leading to the shift in the balance. >> and rehema, one of the factors is that the college-educated, middle class women are beginning to catch up and you mentioned 77% of what men make. but women are at the upper end, beginning to narrow the gap of pay equality. it hasn't been closed, but it is less disadvantageous than it was before. >> that's absolutely true, andrea. and the other thing about this, too, in reference to what you were showing about the other panel on the other channel as they spoke about these traditional roles changing in that pew study, 73% ever the

folks who were surveyed in the study said they reject the idea that women should return to their traditional roles. so our society is definitely changing. and that's what's reflected in the numbers. and this has been going on for a long time. and it's affecting us in terms of the have's and have not's and affecting us racially. you should know that something like 70% of african-american children who are born in this country, are born to single mothers. and that becomes very interesting aspect in the african-american community. because many of those single mothers are not college-educated and they are not in high-earning jobs, they're in low-paying jobs. and so again, those children are being born into poverty. and so again, the large range and the large, long-term impacts that this has on society is something that a lot of people are discussing and maybe this report is going to lead to even more discussion. >> but andrea, can i make another point, though, because in some ways, women are beginning to earn as much as men in certain jobs.

but they're still not, we're still not seeing as a culture that reflected in women in senior positions across politics or business. and in fact, it was 1981, that women actually, 50% of women made it into college. now we know it's 62% of women is part of the college intake now. so more women at college than men. and yet we're not seeing women in the really high-levels of management. that would really i think impact much more family-friendly policies. and so it's, the workplace is very sort of dysfunctional right now. and i think it's really important that we address these issues. >> can i -- >> in fact i was going to say that only 4% of the top ceos in fortune 500 companies -- >> 17 of the companies. 20% of the senate is female, 18% of the congress. it's simply not enough. >> it's catching up. >> something obviously goes wrong when women get into the workplace, after five, ten years

and it's very hard for them to get ahead. and we are all impacted. the case i make time and again is it's better for business to have diverse management. all businesses benefit from diverse management. >> and women, women also make up 47% of the workforce and there's some economists who say that if women were to have wages that were equal to those of men, that would increase our gross domestic product by about 15%. a lot of people disagree with that, but that thought is out there as well. >> it might also change the balance by which women are actually outearning men in the households. i would like to make one other point. which is also, although many poor women are in terrible situations where essentially there are no men involved in bringing up their children and they're having to work out of necessity. one good thing about this whole trend is there are also millions of women in this country today, who are grateful for the chance to actually work and look after their kids. and potentially get out of domestic situations in which they didn't want to be trapped in. if you go back three or four

decades, heavens knows how many women there are who would have liked to have had the chance to work, but weren't able to. so we shouldn't lose sight of the progress that's been made, even though there's a dark side to the picture, too. >> i think that's absolutely right. >> we're going to have to leave it there. but joanna coles you're going to be profiled by harry smith on "rock center" tonight. and thank you very much for joining us in this conversation, we will revisit this. >> thank you. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things.

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suddenly, faraway places don't(alarm clock buzzer) ♪ (announcer) friskies. now serving breakfast. the crisis in syria is now deepening, spreading to neighboring countries. joining us now, ambassador dennis ross, the long-time lead administrator in the obama administration and middle east adviser. thank you, dennis for being here. first of all, the president has big decisions to make, john kerry was meeting with his german counterpart today and saying that russia has to stop

rearming, especially with advanced weapons that are now reported, at least claimed by assad. stop rearming the assad regime. are we facing a situation where without russia's, with, with holding some of these weapons, there's going to be a stalemate, assad will continue forever and negotiations can never really get off the ground? >> i think the problem today is there is is a stalemate and it's a terrible stalemate. where we're seeing just a humanitarian disaster within syria. and also one that threatens almost every country around it. we're seeing the sectarian war in iraq rekindled. we're seeing signs that lebanon, we're seeing the potential risk vis-a-vis israel on the border. jordan itself is stressed. so we have a stalemate that is dragging on with terrible consequences from a humanitarian standpoint and also from a national security standpoint. something has to give. i think what the russians are doing right now is an a sense sending a message that they're still not backing off of assad.

secretary kerry has said based on his conversations, that russians say they're prepared to try to produce a political process and he's saying in effect, well if you're providing arms, that hardly looks like you're really committed to a political process. it's going to be difficult enough to try to make a political process work. given what has happened in syria. so many people have been killed. so many people have been displaced. the sectarian divide is so deep that overcoming that and trying to produce a political transition which is desirable is already very difficult. it has almost no chance if the russians are going to pretty much bolster assad to the point where he thinks he can win. and if you listen to what he's saying, he thinks he can win. >> is john mccain right that we have to move toward a limited no-fly zone and limited weapons to the selected rebel groups? >> i think we have to do something. and i lean in that direction myself. i certainly would favor lethal assistance. i think lethal assistance has to be done in way where it's coordinated. where if we're going to do it.

do it in a fashion where we make sure there's one channel for providing arms, one channel for providing training. one channel for providing money and focus on who it is within the opposition who is committed to a nonsectarian syria and inclusive syria. so that if we're going to change the balance of power, not only with the regime, let's change the balance of power within the opposition itself. >> just a couple of seconds, can we talk about the fact that we are loosening the sanctions on iran in order to get s.a.t. phones and smart phones in? they can bought on the street already in tehran. what are we really doing to help any kind of opposition to in this election coming up, june 14th? >> well i think you put your finger on something. i think the administration for some time, not only with the loosening of these particular sanctions, but for some time has focused on what is it we could do that could make it easier for those iranian citizens to communicate with each other and make it more difficult for the iranian regime to block their communication. i think that's been something

we've wrestled with for some time. we'll continue to try to do it. i don't think we should hold our breath that that's going to have an immediate impact on what happens with iran. but i think it's a good thing to do. i think we should be emphasizing the importance of human rights generally and the importance of free and fair elections. which clearly the iranians are shaping an election in a way that's designed to have one person win and it looks like jalili. golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds are on the way... kids... eh, don't worry. it's tornado-proof. anyway, i'd put the car in the garage and secure these things. they could become flying debris. 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. ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear!

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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. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button? joining me "washington post" susan page and "washington post" political reporter, nia malika henderson. >> susan you're leaving here and going to the meeting with eric holder. you're one of the news executives who are going to be meeting with the justice department. the nbc position as you know was not to meet in an off-the-record context. this particular subject. i know there are off-the-record meetings all the time. but the sense we get is that

holder and the justice department want to kind of revisit the rules of the road. >> well we know from the meeting this is one of a series of meetings they've had at least three. one of the them yesterday, we know from the reporters and journalists, the editors who came out of the meeting yesterday, that there was a talk about how, what the department of justice guidelines are for pursuing reporters, trying to get subpoenas and email and phone records and elsewhere. talk about the shield law and how that might work. so i'm, we're going, we're very interested to hear what the attorney general has to say. we think these are important issues and important to discuss. >> and nia malika, we've had the return of the romneys. ann romney was on cbs morning news. and now mitt romney weighing in on the president's performance in "the wall street journal" in an op-ed saying we are now over 100 days, we've yet to see any particular agenda. that's my view that the extraordinary disappointment of the president's second term is where the opportunity was greatest. he has proposed the least. he continues to campaign. as if there is no another

election and there isn't. >> and that was similar to what he said when he first came out. a couple of months ago. and ann romney on, i guess it was cbs this morning saying she was looking forward to 2016 and paul ryan unclear where they go from here. is it one of the situations where every couple months they'll pop out and say something and critique the president? do they have a larger role to play in the republican party? as they revamp what they want to do going forward. >> unlikely. >> immigration -- i think that's right. unlikely. what are they up to? i think romney has had these meetings with leaders where he's talking about the issues of the day. you know, where this all goes is, i think, unclear. >> it must be hard, though, you're running for president, you're leading the republican party, you lose, and suddenly no one wants to hear what you ever say. he's spent a lot of time preparing for president. he ran for president twice. he probably feels like he's got something to offer. >> yeah. >> and, also, we have sort of

more blow-back on the mayor's campaign, bloomberg's campaign against one of the democrats in a red state he has targeted for voting against background checks, has come out with an advertisement to push back against what he calls interference by new york and washington in arkansas politics. >> and this is very smart, right? we saw the same thing from heidi in new york city, you know, who is this big mayor to tell me what to do in my state? i'm the boss. i know what's right for my state in terms of gun role. >> thank you both very much. we have congratulations to arvind mahankali, the middle schooler from new york, won with the word knaidel, a yiddish word mazza ball. >> what is the significance of this kind of accomplishment for you this year?

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and our congratulations to all of the graduates of the class of 2013. oprah winfrey there reveling in her role as harvard's commencement speaker yesterday. she talked about gun control, immigration, a lot of subjects, and also what she's learned from 25 years in broadcasting. >> most of us, i tell you, we don't want to be divided. what we want, the common denominator i found in every single interview, is we want to be validated. we want to be understood. i've done over 35,000 interviews in my career, and as soon as that camera shuts off, everyone always turns to me, and inevitably in their own way asks this question -- was that okay? i heard it from president bush. i heard it from president obama.

i've heard it from heroes and from housewives. i've heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes. i even heard it from beyonce and all of her beyonce-ness. >> ain't that the truth? thank you, oprah. that does it for this edition of "and ya mitchell reports." craig has the next on "news nation." >> hi, andrea. have a good weekend. >> you, too. millions of americans are in the path of severe weather that's expected to break out in just hours. this, of course, after several tornadoes and deadly flooding. also ahead, the american mother held on drug charges walks free from a mexican jail. she speaks out this afternoon in a brand-new interview. and what some are calling a deplorable scheme to cut the lines at disney. just rosin caught it all on tape, and what he found out may leave you steaming mad. it's our "news nation gut check."

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i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. the "news nation" is following developing news. a powerful and slow-moving storm system once again pummelling the country's midsection with hail and flooding rains. at least three people are dead so far, and nine are hurt. flash flood warnings are in effect throughout much of missouri. in kansas city, emergency crews have spent the day helping drivers stranded by rising waters. thunderstorms and torrential rains are causing flooding in arkansas where a sheriff and another person died after getting caught in a flash flood. up to a dozen twister touched down in that region yesterday, including this one near tulsa, oklahoma. that was caught on tape. check that out. in oklahoma and kansas, there's a threat of even more tornadoes this afternoon. nbc meteorologist