president about using drones? >> this is a jam-packed wednesday on "the cycle." >> as ambassador to the u.n., susan has been a tireless advocate in advancing our interests. put simply, susan sem exemplifies the finest leadership. thank you, susan, for being willing to take on this next assignment. >> that was president obama just moments ago announcing susan rice as his next national security adviser. rice was of course the the ambassador -- the embattle ed

today she is in a position of being vacated by tom donolan, one that doesn't need consent of congress. >> i look forward to continuing to serve on your national security team to keep our nation strong and safe. >> while the president's defiant move may have side stepped a move by putting rice in a noncabinet position, this sets him up for a brand new battle for republicans. meet samantha power. power has been working for senior director in multilateral affairs in human rights. a true political joutd cider in a sea of people with status. well, the nbc political team is all over that story as well as new polling.

senior political editor mark murray lead us off today. hi, how are you, mark? >> fine, thanks, ari. >> we have validation of the president's senior team here. saying a big no thank you to republican oes who advise him to put rice out to pasture. and really bringing power in here to bring chief voice on the world stage at the u.n. she is going to be there for human rights, diplomacy, national security. is that how it is playing in washington? a strong obama standing by his team? >> i think you're right, ari. this is a opinion asian of the president's team on national security. so much was made in the early part of his first term about the team of rivals. a team currently around president obama. now susan rice as national secure ut adviser. samantha power who goes back to senate days president obama was then a united states senator.

all of the key members. these are people who are incredibly loyal to him. everyone seems to be on the same page. however what i do think is interesting when it comes to susan rice and samantha power, both of these people are interventionists. these are the ones who pressed president obama it get involved even in a very limited way in libya. and some chief critics that came during the benghazi situation about susan rice are those same type of interventionists. i'm talking about republican senators lindsay graham and john mccain. >> mark, way on to the dive deeper on what the susan rice means. now we have the president saying, what? a defiant message? a message of loyalty or redemption? what do you take from this? >> it can be interpreted on defiance. it is important to note this wasn't a big surprise for people who covered the white house. it is widely assumed at some point during the second term that tom donolan would step

down. if he did so, susan rice would immediately be the person who could who would come in. particularly after she took herself out of the race for the secretary of state job. this job doesn't need, so this is a good job for her. >> let's's read some of the tea leaves for 2014. you had polling in thereabout the way the public feels about the democratic party. republican party right now. democrats have a net favorability rating of about plus two. republicans about minus nine. you also have the publing saying they have a democratic controlled congress. any sense of where we may land in 2014? >> i caution we have a long ways to go before the 2014 mid terms. but this poll when you look at

status of the republican prty, status of the democratic party, these are pretty static numbers. as you mentioned, democrats have throw-point lead over republicans on who would you like a republican controlled congress or democratic controlled congress. but traditionally in our polling and polling i've seen, democrats, if they have very big gains, usually in that plus five, plus six situation. a plus three democratic edge, as has been pointed out, republicans might have the advantage going into 2014 due to the nature of the electorate. it is wider and in the age of obama that doesn't usually spell all that well for the democratic party. >> yeah, mark, other numbers i saw that didn't really spell good news for 2014, which is a ways away as you point out, but looking at independents in that poll, just 28% say they approve of the job the president obama is doing. and then of all respondent, only

17% say they have confidence in the federal government. i'm just wondering what you think the president should do it comes to independent numbers that is this, that this is about 20% of our sample. while we do find this erosion occurring in our poll and this is a trend where he's been losing independent support going

back since january right after he was reinaugurated. that these independents, it is a smaller sample. and we're not always sure these are the people who necessarily go to the polls at all. right now, when i look at the numbers in the poll, you have a president obama having a very strong core support among his base and very strong core opposition among republicans. >> but right, but he is not up for reelection. so how does he help democrats and the party given, you know, their goals in making that push that government can work. how does he help give them the support that they need. given this lack of faith. >> what you mention, lack of faith, that is one of the big findings in our poll. all institutions. federal government, even us folks in news media. people on wall street. people are not happy at all. so i do think it makes sense to show the government is working

for people. there have been some examples usually in a crisis, building for hurricane sandy. fema working for folks. i think that president is hoping other parts of the government click and that focus gets away from the irs and they move forward and show the government can work. and the implementation of the healthcare law is important to this president. it is an important point.

>> they need to watch "the cycle." >> there were a huge number of folks and we know who ted cruz and scott walker are either. and but you are right, i think the best way it look at coaler and he is a lightning rod and now with the leaks investigation, he has become a punching bag. one of your colleagues, jonathan capehart has mentioned again and again. it proxy against president obama. and that is not all that surprising in politics. >> up next, what may be the biggest drug case in american sports history. that is coming up here on

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a new bomb shell report is rocking the sports world today. according to espn's outside the lines, major league baseball is looking to suspend some 20 players. >> reporter: according to espn and associated press, alex rodriguez and ryan braun of the brewers are two of 20 plus players who could face 100-game suspensions for alleged use of performance enhancing drugs

obtained through miami area anti-aging clinic. >> in the year 2001, 2002, 2003, i experienced with a ban substance that triggered a positive test. i stopped taking it in 2003 and haven't taken it sense. >> that was alex rodriguez in 2009 admitting to using performing enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003 but saying he no longer using banned substances but source is say tony bosch founder of biogenesis of america reached an agreement to work with major league baseball's probe. he will tell how he supplied players with peds. braun, cabrera and rodriguez could be affected. in an interview a-rod said he never used performance enhancing drugs. >> for the record have you ever used steroids, human growth

hormone or other performance enhancement substance. >> no. >> have you ever been tempted to use any of those things. >> no. >> these lated allegations comes at a time when baseball is trying it turn the bathe on this era. >> you know what i worry about is base all and what it's been through in the last 15 years. that's my concern. but i always worry about my players. always. >> and fans in milwaukee are worried too. >> i'm so disappointed. he is the celebrity love of my life. >> i will still support my team. but if he's done something wrong, he's got to own up to it. >> today the players association released a statement saying they've been in touch with the commissioner's office conducting player interviews. no decisions have been made yet on discipline and it would be unfortunate if anyone prejudged the investigation. let's take it to the table. of course they feel that way but this ped scandal has been

dogging baseball for several decades now. it is like a cancer eating at the integrity of the game. and if it was just about performance, right, just a sp s sports thing, that would be one thing. but steroids over time with take your life. there are several athletes who died. there have been several amateur athletes within teenagers like tyler hooten and a boy, 19-year-old in california, his parents found him doing steroids. he said but barry bonds does it. they said, you have to stop. they say he stopped but three weeks later shot himself in the head. that sort of suicidal depression is not an unusual result of doing steroids. bud selig dragged his feet in early decades of this steroid problem because guys were hitting the bull further. everyone was making more money. fans were coming back to the game after strikes that ruined the game. so everyone was quiet.

let's not mess with the golden goose. now he says, we have it tp down on this. people are making a lot of money and not just guys going from 20 million to a hundred million or 250 million like a-rod. is tt is the guy making $50,000 in minors but now making $500,000 because he is making major league minimum. so it'll be hard to root it out, but he has to try. >> yeah, i have seen this movie before. i covered this like ten years ago and other people covered it ten years before then. we all have this vision, memory, of seeing barry bond, sammy sosa, mcmcguire. jason giambi, you can go on and on. and outside of baseball, lance armstrong. the public has been scrutinizing this. these players have been shamed. reputations began. can reers over.

and yet people still do it. so the system is not working. while mlb hasn't shamed them enough. changed the culture enough. fans haven't held them accountable enough. maybe a hall of fame issue. i don't know. whatever we're doing, it is not working. there is still incentive to do it. >> yeah. as toure is pointing out, the rewarts are so great. and lance armstrong in his come-clean interview, with oprah -- >> i'm glad you rolled your eyes during this. >>

because no amount of testing, they are always ahead of where we are with testing. you never have the sense of a level playing field while people are hiding and keeping the secret. so maybe having it out in the open and tightly regulating it, maybe that's something to explore. >> you wouldn't be comfortable with 5 or 10% of players dying in their 40s or 50s. we couldn't have that. >> sure. but these are grown adults. maybe they should make the decisions. it should be out in the open and young people watching them would see the terrible implications of the decisions they are making. i'm open to it. i don't know that that's the answer. but i think it is a discussion we should off. >> i love peter tosh. i'm not sure about this issue,

legalize it and make it a hit regae album. >> i don't like legalizing bad he behavior, generally. >> right. but what we are doing isn't working. >> and what i think is a broader context is the culture of cheating in american life, especially among elites. what you have in professional sports are really rich mega mogul types. these people often operate like they are completely above rules and the law. and david callahan has a whole book about the cheating culture and talks about how in many instances the it is the rich who feel they are exempt from the laws and rules that govern the rest of us. then when have you institutions like mlb and courts that let them play by a different set of rules, that behavior continues. you see that and look a big insider trading case that we have this year where you saw people worth tens of millions still going in and cheating and looking for that extra edge.

and it wasn't only because they wanted money. they had money. it was partly because they didn't think they would get caught and they didn't think the rules applied to them. that's a larger part here is really a type of elite classest attitude that doesn't apply to me. >> do you think this is a an american problem or a humanity problem. >> that a great question. >> you should spin on that tomorrow. >> yeah, i don't know the answer. >> when you look at certain countries with corruption, then there is a different economic imperative over what is enticing for corruption and mechanism for punishment. here we have a descent law and order system compared to other countries and a lot more of the elite attitude. >> interesting. >> another story hitting the news cycle. first lady firing back. michelle obama responding to a heckler during a private fund raiser in d.c. last night. the woman was demanding an executive order to be signed regarding lbgt discrimination. the first lady clearly did not

appreciate the interruption. telling the crowd, listen to me, or you can take the mic, but i'm leaving. you all decide. you have one choice. boom, i'll stop this car right now and turn around. needless to say, the dnc fund-raiser crowd urged her to stay. it reminded me of richard pryor playing the president in 1997 and dealing with a heckler in an interesting way. the man has a right to ask a question. please, please. let's have some defcorum. now what is the question? >> your mother was maid in atlanta. >> yeah. >> after your tenure, when your mother goes back to being a maid, will your mama do my house? >> we ask, how would you have handled the heckler?

>> no one, including the first lady, has to tolerate such rude behavior. i support free speech but the constitution doesn't promote this. american manners have gone to the dogs. we will dig into public support of drones. executive producer after new documentary is generating a lot of buzz.

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so he is saying the fiercest fighting that is going on is happening right here. the men fired across the rooftops. but it didn't make sense to me what we were doing here. or what the americans were doing here.

in somalia. this warlord turned general for what seemed like a senseless war. >> that's our next guest. a documentary on commanding covert counterterrorism missions in afghanistan, so nmalia and elsewhere. his best selling book, "blackwater" helped expose the industry of military contractors and led black water to change its name. now he turned his attention to how current wars are off the books and asked is fighting dirty the new normal. the new nbc news wall street journal finds a strong majority of americans continue to support the drone program. joining us is investigative journalist and producer and subject of this award winning documentary "dirty war" jeremy scahill. it opens this friday. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> let's talk about somalia and other countries.

outside of afghanistan and iraq, how many other countries do we have these operations going in and what are the wars if not authorized. >> i think they are happening in several dozen countries. there are special forces deployed in 75 to a hundred countries around the world on any given day. a lot of what they are doing is working with other countries, training exercises, and cases that i think are important for us to focus is is when they are involved with kinetic operations. and unilateral operations. when they are doing targeted kill operations or snatch and grab operations in countries

what do you say about these are bad i goes, why shouldn't we just shoot them when we can. >> according to who they are bad guyes. one thing under president obama is the expansion of signature rights. where we are targeting people based on a pattern of life. we don't know their identities.

we don't have any evidence or intelligence to say they are aimed against the united states and we just preemtively go in and kill them. i'm concerned about that and i guess maybe i'm crazy to think that we actually should abide by our constitution and principles and believe in a system where we present evidence against people that before we give them the death penalty. there's no doubt there are no fairus individuals, trying to poison u.s. water supplies or blow up u.s. planes. what is the most effective way to address the attacks? precrime will encourage more radicalization and bring more harm or threats to our society. >> the president gave a major counterterrorism speech. he talked about signature strikes. there is some indication there might be a willingness to change the policy that policy may be change egg. that speech as a whole, though, was there any major policy shift or approach shift that struck you that you thought was important?

>> i think you have, the fact that president obama is a constitutional law expert, and clearly as s a very careful deliberative guy, i think he tries to have it both ways. i think what we heard is what president obama want the truth to be or reality to be and part of it is a forceful defense of the idea that the united states does believe it has the authority to conduct targeted killings. i would say assassination operations. and basically any country where it determines there is a new threat and the phrase is u.s. persons. i think he was trying to give the impression we try to narrow the scope of this. but when you talk to people behind the scenes, the president speech is one thing. but it'll continue on in pakistan for the next two years and in yemen there is indications there were signatures strikes after he gave that speech. i think you are looking at commander and chief who is caught between his old self, prior to becoming the president, and then his new set of responsibilities where he is constantly bombarded with information from the generals or cia that there are threats

around the world. i think he is sincere. i think the policy is misguided and i think it will cause blow back. >> it was remarkable how he grappled with that in the public way he hadn't before. what about the specific change in that speech moving the targeted strike operation from the cia more to dod? >> this is interesting. it has been pushed that john brennan is portrayed in some news accounts as this priest like figure and that he and obama are sort of like the jesuits huddled around. they are running their own drone program parallel to the cia. drone pilots are in control centers in the united states piloting aircraft used to bomb pakistan or yemen or some cases somal somalia. not to get to insider baseball, but are these conducted under

title 50? title 10 means military operation and would bring all of the structures of accountability that come with military operations. if they are under title 50 which means covert operation, that means the u.s. role can continue to be shielded and kept classified. so for me the real issue is not whether it is cia or military, the military is deeply involved. how do they present it to congress? is senate intelligence going to have legitimate functions or do we see the stonewalling with where a handful of senators can see a handful of memos? >> i'm curious to hoe you think we should be doing this. if you are the commander-in-chief entrusted with keeping americans safe and your legacy is on the line and those sort of things, how do you prosecute this war? you can't say no violence at all, no warfare at all. we have to do something to stop the many people who you concede are trying to hurt us everyday. so what is the long-term and short term strategy for keeping us safe?

>> i believe we, like all nations around the world, have a right to self-defense. and the president in the speech made an analogy when he was defending the killing of american citizen alaki. he likened him to a sniper pointing a weapon to a crowd of civilians and said if the the out did not take him out, there would be a terrorist attack against the united states. i've seen a lot of evidence that sho sho shows he was a bad person but the fact is -- >> they did present evidence you know that in a yemeni court. >> what is the evidence toure? >> i don't have it here in front of me. but he was convicted in a yemeni court. >> would you want to be prosecuted in a yemeni court? they set up a court to prosecute journalist for crimes against

the dictator. if you are holding up that justice system where you think americans would get a free trial? then i invite you to go there and jay walk and see if you get a fair trial. you better act like they are legitimate when they put political prisoners or dictatorship. don't come at me with something about a yemeni court. this was an american citizen, who should have had access to due process before he was due process before he was sentenced to

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congestion, for it's smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the busses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution to the earth. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.

we're back now with another day of severe weather expected for, you guessed it, oklahoma. the storm is also going to affect parts of texas and new mexico and that same system is causing major flooding along mississippi river for residents of st. louis and parts of west enillinois. to top it off, there is a budding tropical system off the coast of florida that will bring a lot of rain and wind up and down the eastern seaboard. meantime, oklahoma medical examiner confirmed this afternoon 20 deathes from last friday's historic el reno twister. three of those deaths were discovery channel storm chasers carl young, and the father/son team of tim and paul samaras. tim was just here with us on the cycle as he chased the storm. tonight the trio is honored in a

discovery channel tribute. here is a preview. >> when looking at at places like tuscaloosa, we need to work harder, be more aggressive, get those probe deployments in. >> with you know, we may celebrate a big probe intercept but we can never forget, this is why we chase. >> always amazes me how powerful the storms can be. >> people's livelihoods just getting wiped out in ten secretary. seconds. >> this is a genius, mechanical genius. he can make amazing desizes to study tornadoes. >> with us is discovery vice president josh wineburg. special mile wide tornado storm chasers tribute will premier tonight at 10:00 p.m. you know, there is this idea that storm chasers do what they do for the thrill of it. and that this is part of that risk. but they will insist that there's also invaluable research that they bring back. do you get into that at all in

tonight's program? >> certainly. and throughout the whole run of storm chasers and first of all, thank you for having me on. our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and everybody affected by the horrible event piece past weeks in oklahoma and throughout the heartland. but we certainly cover all of that as far as the sigh enof storm chasing was at the heart of tim's work and carl's work and really at the heart of our series, of storm chasers. we know how important it is for them to collect that data. and then hopefully save lives and protect communities. >> so are there changes that storm chasers need to make given that we have had bigger storms than ever before. do you think they will make that changes? >> we when were making shot he, we saw a lost earnest dedicated folks, folks like tim. unfortunately there are other people that are just thrill seekers. so you know, my hope, i know

everybody in the sort of meteorlogical community is that this might be a wake-up call to make sure that folks that

he was patient with me and our production folks. teaching us what it was he did. so he really was a special combination. his son, paul, was learning that whole trait and appreciation for it. and carl young, tim's chasing partner, and there by his side through so many intercepts, really dedicated to the science as well. >> well, we will be tuning in, josh. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> you can catch the special tonight at 10:00. up next, fascinating story of sigh enand humanity. we will meet a woman who was unable to speak until age four to inspiring an emmy-winning biopick and millions just like her. this will make you rethink everything you know about autism. >> how do i know this is my room sh. >> because we say so. it is your room.

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state university. phd in animal science and lived her whole life. >> what do you look like when you're happy? >> like this. >> no. that's not what you looked like when you were telling me about the man, with yyou locked like . >> funny. >> happy. and that's you angry. >> angry. >> happy. >> i'm happy in that one. >> i would say more satisfied. >> in her newly released best seller, she describes living with autism and what an accomplished life she does live. she is in the guest spot.

thank you for joining us. >> it is great to be here. >> one of the things that i think is hard it understand is there is such a range of symptoms for autism. tell us about how autism is diagnosed and is it really one disease? >> it is a behavior al profile. not not a diagnosis like cystic fibrosis. then at the other end of the spectrum, you have someone that maybe is nonverbal, handicapped, can't dress themselves. how is this autism? kid at three years old, nonverbal, they all look the same. over the year in dsm, diagnostic manual, the definition of autism has enlarged. in early '90s you no longer today have speech delay to be in

the autism spectrum when asburger's was added. then in may, they have taken out asburger's and asperger's and named it social communications disorder. but autism is a continuous trait, a little bit of geekiness, you might get a smart computer scientist, artist. too much of the trait and you get a very, very severe handicap. it's a continuous trait, there's no black-and-white dividing line in it. >> dr. grandin there was an amazing moment in the film i want to get you to talk about. >> read the page, please. >> i read it. >> and what did it say? >> jean-paul satre --

[ speaking french ] >> you learned it? >> i just looked at it. >> people in the autism spectrum often have amazing strengths. what do we tend to see? >> well memory. really good memory is one of the things. but what you tend to see when you get on the fully verbal end of the spectrum is kids that have uneven skills. i was good at visual thinking and art. and visual thinking became the basis of my career in designing cattle facilities. other kids are good at math. others are good at writing entitle my book, i talk about these different kinds of thinking styles and present scientific research for this. kids can get a lot of labels, dyslexic, social communication disorder, adhd. and kids who get labels tend to have uneven skills. we we've got to work on building the up the area of strength, building it up to something they

can have a career. >> dr. grandin, why have we seen such a dramatic rise in the number of autistic cases? better and diagnosing or overdiagnosing? >> i think the definition of autism has expanded. and in my book, "the autistic brain" the whole history of the diagnostic manual, we go through it each decade, they keep changing it and broadened it. where in the dsm iv you know longer had to have speech delay. and now they're tightening it up a bit. some of it is increased diagnosis. i can think of kids i went to college with that i know were in the spectrum. i can think of people i know were on the spectrum, they run the the meat shops. >> dr. grandin, it's a great book, thank you so much for being with us. straight ahead, et tu, brute?

brnk

this is fort mead, it houses the a spy agency, and a training academy that teaches soldiers about journalism. on monday there was a different course on journalism at fort mead. bradley manning faced a court-martial for sending classified documents to wikileaks, throughout history, from domestic surveillance in the bush era to the fbi's dirty tricks against martin luther king jr. to the 47 volumes of the pentagon papers which exposed government lies to led to vietnam.

now the government first reaction to that disscloes yur was yes, to try to suppress every aspect of it, from forcing newspapers to censor the stories, to chrjing this man, daniel elseberg under the espionage act. the nixon administration failed. the supreme court ruled that the newspapers had the right to publish top-secret reports and the case against elseberg fell apart. what would dan elseberg think of this trial of bradley manning? he told us on the show on monday. >> he realized what he ought to do at 22, which took me, i was 40 when i did it. there are of course differences. the material i put out was top secret, rather than the secret and unclassified that he put out. >> as for those secret documents, manning has pled guilty to leaking, charges that carry 20 years in jail. but he's facing a much more aggressive prosecution than elseberg. prosecutors say manning should not be treated as a leaker.

he should be treated as a traitor. on monday they accused him of aiding the enemy. an offense that can carry life imprisonment or the death penalty. prosecutors say they're only pursuing a life sentence. in the modern era, no one has been convicted of that charge just for leaking. but prosecutors say leaking to the press is now as traitorous as coordinating with terrorists. they're applying that standard to manningth and this is not just about him. it's about a new publishing model that has scared governments, because it's so hard to contain. the government can't censor publishments, but wikileaks won't play ball. the government's only tactic is to go to the source, that's why there have been more leak prosecutions in the past five years than all previous administrations combined. i should mention i was on the legal team for a reporter in one of those cases. now while whistle blowerers risk their careers and freedom, today under this standard they would have to worry about risking their lives. prosecutors have yet to present

any evidence that mning's leaks hurt any personnel. but he's facing punishment on par with traitors and murderers. s some say even if that severe -- [ inaudible ] that you had [ inaudible ] naud naud [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] military last year alone, in fact, fewer than one out of 100 have been convicted as a senate committee was discussing just yesterday. if you look at the whole picture, it's not the crime that seems to matter, but who did it. and i think we're witnessing an endemic level of selective prosecution in our armed services. immunity for the powerful, and punishment for the weak. if prosecutors did enforce these tough laws equally.

then a lot of white house officials and commissioned officers would be headed to jail. the current approach, whatever you think of leaks, does not deserve to be called military justice. that does it for us at "the cycle" martin, it's all yours. >> good afternoon, it's wednesday, june fifth and the president has a message for his critics. it takes a sharp elbow to run this town. >> the meek or milder obama, wrong. >> in your face appointment. >> the woman who went out on the sunday shows and misled the nation. >> what happened in benghazi. >> 14 days before he called what happened in benghazi, an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy. >> i don't trust her, if she didn't know better, she shouldn't be the voice of america. >> besmirch her reputation. >> we will do whatever is necessary lo