cycle." it's all yours. >> it's wednesday, june 12th. the secrets we keep but exactly how we keep them, that's now up for debate. ♪ >> this international man of histohi mystery. >> they've launched a manhunt. >> i'm 29 years old. >> he's a traitor. >> should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. >> people are against the country. i'm not. >> this guy is just imitating bush and thinks it will make me like him. >> he knows he's committing civil disobedience and knows he could get punished. >> that's a fear i'll live under for the rest of my life. >> how far we go with public safety versus how far we go on the other side. >> i welcome this debate. >> absolutely appropriate. it is entirely appropriate. he welcome a debate. >> it's a sign of maturity. >> you can see it on both sides. >> the obama administration has

demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting whistleblowers. >> if they want to get you, they'll get you. ♪ >> it is a busy wednesday. we're following developments on multiple fronts this afternoon. the president has just wrapped up a campaign stop stumping for ed markey in his bid for the massachusetts senate seat that was once held by john kerry. more on that later. his visit comes amidst a democratic showdown in the senate. senator carl levin says he'll remove a measure offered by fellow democrat kir tin gillibrand to take sexual assault prosecution o prosecutions out of the chain of command. nearly six months after the new two massacre, families are back on capitol hill to push for gun reforms. we begin with the director of the nsa on the hot seat as pressure mounts for more transparency of its surveillance

activities. army general keith alexander national security agency director and head of u.s. cyber command testified this afternoon before the full senate appropriations committee. the previously scheduled hearing is the first time an nsa official has faced congress in public since the exposure of a vast surveillance program. and the nsa chief came to its defense. >> has the intelligence community kept track of how many times phone records obtained through section 215 of the patriot act were critical to the discovery and disruption of terrorist threats? >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. >> the hearing comes as the man behind the nsa intelligence leaks, edward snowden, says he's not hiding from justice. in a new interview with the south china morning post he says

"people who think i made a mistake in picking hong kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. i am not here to hide from justice. i am here to reveal criminality. my intention is to ask the courts and the people of hong kong to decide my fate." snowden's whereabouts have been a mystery since he checked out of the hong kong hotel where he was last interviewed. the twitter hoax earlier today briefly pronounced him dead. but his safety will be a relief to former congressman ron paul who is worried the young man could be droned at any moment. >> i'm worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile. i mean, we live in a bad time where american citizens don't even have rights and that they can be killed. >> perhaps a bit of paulian paranoia there. but concern about citizens rights are being shared across party lines. moments ago, colorado democrat

mark udall said checks and balances don't work if americans and lawmakers are kept in the dark. >> it's very, very difficult i think to have a transparent debate about secret programs approved by a secret court issuing secret court orders based on secret interpretations of the law. >> the heated debate comes as the aclu files suit challenging the constitutionality of the nsa's secret dragnet calling it one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government. joining us now from capitol hill is congressman james clyburn, democrat from the south carolina. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. thank you so much for having me. >> it's a pleasure. this week we've had what seeps to be a year's worth of debate on security versus privacy. it's only wednesday. you said on monday just as this leak came to light that you felt in your gut it was an effort to

embarrass the president. do you still feel that way having heard so many people left and right republican and democrat who have expressed deep concerns? >> well, i think all of us need to be concerned about this sort of thing. but if the gentleman was so concerned, why didn't he come to his congress person? why didn't he bring his fears to a committee or a member here on the hill express to them what he or she felt, and let's then have a discussion of this. but to go and leak this to the media, that to me was an effort on his part to embarrass this administration. he even said himself that he's disappointed in the administration. and i think you've got records indicating that he was a big supporter of ron paul. so this gentleman ought not be treated as a whistleblower.

that's not what he is. he calls himself that. whistleblowers are out there blowing the whistle on people breaking laws. this is not -- he is the one who broke the law. >> mr. snowden has made some grandiose claims for himself. he told the guardian and i'm quoting him, i had full access to the full rosters of everyone working at the nsa, the entire intelligence community and undercover assets all around the world. he even suggested that he could wiretap the president, general alexander said today that was false. but can you assure the american public thatting there aren't other contractors at this very moment with limitless access to our calls and our digital correspondence? >> no, i can't. and i hope that's not true. i find it very difficult to believe that this young man at the age of 29 working in this as a contractor for only three

months would have this kind of information. it would seem to me that even if there is anybody working the contract that would get this kind of information, there would only be after proving yourself to have some kind of maturity on the job. in three months? you were able to do all of this? if that is true, then i think that the government needs to look at the way it is granting these contracts. i'm not too sure that we ought to be contracting all this kind of stuff out anyway. i would love to see all that stuff -- >> he is one of hundreds of thousands of people who are employed in this kind of business. >> as i said, if it is true, we need to take a hard look at what we are granting as contracts who we are contracting with. i just don't believe it. i hope it's not true. but if it's true, there's something wrong with our system that we need to do something

about. i have never felt that we ought to be contracting out all of this stuff in the first place. i think these people with this kind you have information should be people that are inside the government. they should be people that can be held to a higher standard. and that can be monitored about the governmental process. i don't think we ought to be contracting this kind of stuff out in the first place. >> okay. despite the nsa chief saying today that the leak surveillance programs had helped to disrupt dozens of potential terrorist attacks, some lawmakers simply feel this dragnet goes too far. and your fellow democrat keith ellis son is among them. i'd like you, sir, to listen to what mr. ellis son told my colleague alex wagner earlier today. >> 215 of the patriot act you could drive an aircraft carrier through it. it needs to be significantly curtailed. >> what is your response to that, sir?

>> well, i don't know what will keith means by a significantly curtailed. i would simply say keith is a great guy. i agree with him most of the time. my wife and i disagree over this issue. it wouldn't be anything unusual for me to see it differently from keith ellis son. i see it differently from my wife. >> congressman james clyburn, i refuse to believe have you any conflicts with your wife. thank you for joining us. a frightening note from new york city this afternoon. right now we're watching dramatic pictures of a rescue taking place at the hearst building here in manhattan. two window washers are stuck on a broken scaffold near the top of the 46th-story high-rise. we're told harnesses have been attached to the stranded workers. and plans are under way to pull them to safety through windows in the actually building. on the ground level, portions of

57th and 58th streets and eighth avenue are now closed to traffic. and we'll obviously be monitor that precarious situation throughout the hour. coming up, the trial of john boehner continues. is the speaker finally ready to budge on guns? stay with us. >> guns are one thing but funcles are too dangerous to go unchecked. think about it. think about it. really think about it. some maniac could be calling about going on a shooting spree.

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they're not in recess, the gop's house leadership dress up in their sunday best and assemble before the cameras. pre week, we wait to hear if they'll offer any proposals to help deal with the many challenges that face this great nation. and so following the president's press conference yesterday, we fully expected republicans to tackle the issue of immigration. and straight out of the blocks, came the speaker of the house. >> the gang of seven, they're working on drafting their bill. i'll let you ask them when it's going to be available. >> yes, another magnificent example there of speaker boehner grabbing the bull by the horns absolving himself of any responsibility and rushing to his next tanning, i mean talking appointment. before he did so, we were treated to house majority leader eric cantor offering his usually weekly address. >> over the past few weeks, there have been stories after stories that have eroded the trust in our government.

and americans shouldn't really have to worry whether their government is going to hold their political beliefs against them. >> well, there we have mr. cantor providing some eloquent remarks on an actual controversy that requires reason and insight in order to discuss. and you were talking about the nsa scandal, right? >> and americans shouldn't really have to worry whether their government is going to hold their political beliefs against them as it seems the irs is doing. >> of course. it was the irs. how could i forget. joining us now is professor james peterson, an msnbc contributor and julian epstein, democratic strategist. welcome to you both. julian, we'll start with you. let me say, i hope this interview goes better than the one that you had over the weekend for anyone who missed it, take a look at the great julian epstein. >> why don't you talk facts? it's annoying ow obnoxious you

can be on reality. i'm not going to play this game with you. you played the same damn game dismissing one. >> excuse me. >> obama haters game. >> and plaur iing the obama hater game. >> i want to go back to you. >> why won't you talk facts? the irs, nsa, benghazi, area 51, the fake moon landing, fluoride in our water, friends of hamas, the build a bird group. there's a pattern here and you know it. >> is this mic on? because i seem to have had a problem with that. you missed the most important part of the clip where neil ca vout toe orders my mic be accurate off that i didn't agree the fas sa incident was part of a grand conspiracy by the obama administration along with the doj. >> of course it is. >> the moment i said it was not a grand conspiracy he ordered that my mic be cut. the problem, of course, is that leading republicansing like

speaker boehner and others are saying that the nsa was fully justified by the law and are totally disagreeing with the views of this particular host. we're learning over the course of the weekend that the irs matter was initiated at least according to information by representative cummings by a gop, a republican civil service civil servant inside the irirs. the republicans insist this is some grand conspiracy by president obama and the administration to take away our liberties even though many republicans totally disagree with that right now. if you don't share that opinion, then your microphone is cut. >> julian playing politics once again. dr. peterson, i'm going to go to you. the main sticking point on immigration for some republicans is that $8 billion isn't enough to secure borders. can you explain to me why these republicans are suddenly arguing that more big government is the solution? because i thought they were

supposed opposespoo opposed to big government. >> the explanation of is between gerrymandering and the tyranny of the tea party caucus ta controls the republican party right now, most of our republican elected officials in congress are following instead of leading. and so that's where you get some of this the absence of a backbone. at the end of the day, what's sad about the immigration bill that's on the table right now, martin, is it's essentially a border security bill. it focuses more on border security than it does on what it's supposed to be about which is about equity and fairness for the 11 million plus immigrants undocumented folks that are here in this nation right now. you are talking about a pathway to citizenship that's a decade, very, very little understanding of the kind of nuances of how long folk have been working here and can we accelerate their paths. are there things we can do for folks that want to become so-called legal in it country.

at the end of the day, everyone's talking about border security. it is absurd. you have gerrymandered districts, tea party controlled wing of the congress dictating what the public discourse is about immigration reform. >> i couldn't agree more, sir. julian, speaker boehner is meeting with the families of the victims of knewtown. he was asked what do you hope to accomplish in this meeting. and here was his reply. take a listen. >> the families have asked to meet with us. our hears and souls go out to these families and the tragedy that they've all been through. and so they've asked if we're willing to sit down, talk with them about their interest. >> julian, we're willing to sit down and talk with them about their interests. their interests. he sounds like he's doing them a favor. does he not realize that 91% of americans actually want legislation that would enable background checks to take place? >> that's right. the american people have spoken

on this 90% of americans want background checks. we've had 5,000 american that have been killed since newtown. only a very tiny percentage of those were their acts of self-defense using an i gun. overwhelmingly they were criminal acts. the arguments by the nra don't hold water when you look at the data on it. what you're going to see here is the -- just to piggy back on what dr. peterson was saying, the senate was able to obstruct the gun legislation. what you're going to see in the house is they will attempt to obstruct the immigration legislation by increasing requirements on border patrol to make them almost impossible to meet as a condition for citizenship. congress still will not work with the president on a budget deal even though sequestration is hurting the economy and even though the president has said he wants to put as much as $4 trillion worth of deficit reduction on the table. the vitally important issue on gun control which we can solve

and on gun violence which we can solve, the republicans find procedures to obstruct. i think you're going to see that on immigration in the senate, as well and you're seeing it on the budget. this is becoming the giant do nothing congress. and that's what people should start thinking about as we head into the midterms. >> i've chosen to cut your mic because you're speaking facts. coming up, sexual assaults in the military. tempers flare on capitol hill as lawmakers face down a crisis in the ranks. stay with us. >> the chain of command has told us for decades that they will solve this problem. and they have failed. we have heard the words conspiracy zero tolerance" for over two decades. [ male announcer ] at his current pace,

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dramatically change the process of how the military handles cases of sexual assault was thwarted last fight in the senate. this on the heels of a disturbing pentagon report which revealed an estimated 26,000 assaults took place in the military last year up 35% from the year before. of those 26,000, less than 1% resulted in a conviction. currently, military commanders with no legal training are the ones who ultimately decide if such cases should be investigated and so in a measure sponsored by senator kirsten gillibrand, it was proposed that sexual assault cases should be managed by independent prosecutors with legal training. today she reminded a senate panel why the status quo is simply unacceptable. >> we have heard the words conspiracy zero tolerance" for over two decades. starting with secretary dick cheney in 1992 when he said,

well, we've got a major effort under way to try to educate everybody to let them know that we've got zero tolerance policy where sexual has harassment involved. >> in the end it was carom of the armed services committee carl levin who sided with the military, offered a review of allegations of sex is assault without any independent investigation. for her part, senator gillibrand call this had a setback but will reintroduce the measure when the defense spending bill goes to a final vote this summer. stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up. hey, look! a shooting star! make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. test drive!

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from hillary tweeting to liberty fleeting. here are today's top lines. pop goes the weasel. >> the national security agency is looking for bright motivated

men and women who can keep their [ bleep ] mouths shuts. >> the question isn't why should you work for the nsa. the question is why shouldn't you. >> really hard. >> look at that guy. he looks like as we. >> i'm worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone policeal. >> i'm not willing to give up any liberty for a short-term security fix. >> but the short term is planes hitting buildings. >> snowden said he did this because he mistakenly believed in president obama's promises. now the government wants to extradite him, justice department wants to charge him and fox news wants to give him his own show. >> twitter didn't involve itself in this program. twitter is safe for terrorists. >> this is on twitter now. our old friend hillary clinton. >> she racked up more than 200,000 followers in five hours. >> a politician on twitter.

what could possibly go wrong. >> i made big mistakes. i know i let a lot of people down into they were like hillary in 2016 and hillary for the white house. those were her tweets. >> don't you see scandal du jour, one after the other after the other. >> i've seen people with fantasies. >> as mascot of team everyone freak out was rand paul. >> the bill of rights are being vi lay the. our privacy is being violated. >> i'm not sure you are the right person torn lead this particular challenge. >> i'm reserving judgment on that. >> when the justices ruled obama care constitutional last year, rapid paul said just because a couple people on the supreme court declare something to be constitutional does not make it so. >> you know, i think it's a complicated issue. >> let's get right to our panel. host of "now with alex wagner" is here with us. the great alex wagner and the newly minted politics editor for business editor josh barrow. alex, shock, horror, hillary

clinton is now on twitter. let me read you something of her bio. wife, mom, lawyer, women and kids advocate, first lady of arkansas, first lady of the united states. u.s. senator, secretary of state, author, dog owner, hair icon, pants suit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, and tbd. wink wink. what do you think. >> loved it. "the washington post" had a headline something to the tune of hillary clinton on twitter appears human. i mean, and that is sort of part of this, right? >> that's super human though. who else has a curriculum vitae like that. >> this woman has a hell of a lot of accomplishments. it's also to put all of that in your biography is a sort of wink wink nod. it's a sense of humor. that's something we rarely saw from her as secretary of state because she had quite a few other things to be dealing with. it's a great look for her.

>> josh, ever since hillary embraced the internet mime of the photo of her texting, do you think there's been a conscious effort to play into the notion of coolness maybe. >> absolutely. it's a pushback against what republicans have been trying to do with hillary, trying to tie her to the recent stories about personnel issues at the state department with the belgian ambassadors accused of soliciting prostitutes. i think they're trying to cultivate this image she's so competent she can be cool about it, has everything under control. this is a step towards a presidential campaign. they want to carry the image from the state department where i think people think that president obama's foreign policy has been broadly successful, that she's the successful manager of that on top of everything. that i can take that as a broader image to sell her as a presidential candidate. >> that's the kind of democratic perspective. there's also an accumulator working for the republicans. i'd like to you listen to rand

paul grilling the can of state then back in january. take a listen. >> i'm glad that you're accepting responsibility. i think that ultimately with your leaving you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11. had i been president at the time, and i found that you did not read the cables from benghazi, did you not read the cables from ambassador stephens, i would have relieved you of your post. >> marco rubio was similarly confrontational with clinton. do you think that that is a kind you have precursor who what we might expect if she would choose to run and therefore, what they will do is accumulate all of these scan das whether she has anything to do with them or not. >> i think 100% absolutely. i would say that was down right disrespectful. a woman ha has accomplished a lot and to be sad there in front of rand paul and told i would have dismissed you, it's sort of dressing down of the secretary of state was really offensive to a lot of people to watch.

her indignation at that will boiled over in that same hearing when she said what does it matter because this is this feeling over and over and over again" republicans were going to litigate this issue to just beyond the question of even embassy security and what happened in benghazi but to really hurt her chances at 2016. they're sort of fomenting of this paranoiaen an scandal and outrage has as much to do with worrying about losing to her in 2016 and once again losing the white house as it does anything else. >> josh, speaking of 2016, the republican contenders are warming up. this weekend as you know, they will be attending the faith and freedom conference in washington, one of my favorites. we have mr. rubio, mr. powell and ted cruz all speaking. what is the challenge for these characters given that the last election suggested that being extreme and on the right was not entirely helpful to their own purposes? >> it also wasn't helpful to

inwith the republican nomination in 2012. mitt romney who was, had, a long career as a moderate before he decided he was severely conservative and who as a mormon was viewed skeptically by a lot of conservatives ended up getting the nomination. it's interesting to see who's not on the list. chris christie won't be there. >> of course not. >> a lot of other rising star governors in the republican party won't be there. this is a constituency that parts of the republican field for 2016 will be courting. i think it's not a constituency that got their candidate of choice last time around and probably won't again. >> josh barrow and alex wagner, sounds like a very fine british furnituremaker. you can catch alex on her own show each day at noon eastern. trouble in turkey. is the resolution in sight? but first, we want to go to meteorologist dylan dreyer with the latest on a tornado watch that's been issued in at least four states. what can you tell us? >> it is in effect till 9:00 this evening.

central time. you can see the area in red that pops up on the radar here. that's the area where we are going to look at the potential not just for tornadoes but wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour or higher. we're looking at flash flooding. it's areas in chicago and points south and east between about 6:00 and 11:00 this evening where we could see our best chance of most of these severe storms. especially northwestern areas of illinois. that's going to be the area where we will keep an eye out for tornadoes. again as we continue through the evening, we are just starting to see these storms develop right now. it is something we'll be keeping a close eye on throughout the rest of the evening. i want peacocks. peacocks? walking the grounds. in tuscany. [ man ] her parents didn't expect her dreams to be so ambitious. italy? oh, that's not good. [ man ] by exploring their options, they learned that instead of going to italy, they could use a home equity loan to renovate their yard

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up to $423. call... today. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? it's been a relatively calm day in central istanbul after the turkish prime minister met with a group of 11 people who he hopes will mediate with protesters who have occupied the

city's taksim square following a night of clashes between turkish riot police and hundreds of anti-government protesters. police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and used water cannon to disperse an increasingly hostile crowd. the turkish human rights organization says four people have been killed and 500 treated for injuries or the effects after tear gas. i'm joined now by former u.s. assistant secretary of state for public affairs p.j. crowley. the turkish prime minister has previously said that he regards social media and i'm quoting him as the worst menace to society. so do you think today's meeting with artists and social media specialists was simply a cosmetic exercise designed for the cameras? >> well, we'll have to see. he's under pressure. he is a democratically elected leader and he deserves a great deal of credit in his time in

office in doing meaningful things that enhance turkey as a regional power. a growing economy, civilian control of the military. but we've seen a drift with mr. erdogan in recent years towards greater you know authoritarianism, intimidation of his political opponents including the media, and i think this puts him in very significant political trouble with an election poised for turkeying in 2014. >> you've said that the prime minister has been democratically elected no less than three times. he's been in power for a decade. why has his relationship with the turkish people suddenly fractured? >> well, there is a significant split still within turk society manifested in taksim square between the old ca maulists who believe in secular government

and nowered doe juan who represents a portion of the turkish public that is comfortable with a moderate form of islam. political islam. and it is that tension that we're seeing manifest itself in these demonstrations. >> although there's been a much smaller protest in ankara, this has been largely concentrated in istanbul, but if the prime minister does not appear to compromise, do you believe that these protests could indeed spread and intense phi? >> they perhaps could. i think that they will -- intensify within a political process supposed to trying to overthrow a political process. taksim square is not tahrir square. there's a very important and koengs shall election in turkey in 2014. erdogan has engineered a change in the law where the prime minister can run for president,

turkey has primarily a ceremonial president but to consolidate power away from a parliamentary system towards a more a stronger executive. this will be a significant political challenge to him because even many of his supporters now are uncomfortable with the degree to which he's drifting towards authortarianism. >> shifting if i can, p.j. across the middle east, the state department announced today that the administration is taking several steps to ease u.s. economic sanctions and enable additional relief to the syrian opposition. what further steps might we see the u.s. take in terms of supporting the syrian opposition? >> i think the action that they've taken, remember that syria is a state sponsor of terrorism legally and there's a limit to the kind of economic interaction that the united states and syria have had. i think this opens up some private avenues for more

significant support to the syrian people and opportunities to bolster the syrian economy in ways that can directly help the syrian people and add to the credibility of the syrian opposition. all to the good. i think the most fundamental step here next is what happens to the idea of a peace conference recent developments really make that a very challenging prospect. and because you've seen gains by the syrian regime at the expense of the opposition that still fundamental question of what additional support particularly more significant military support is the administration willing to consider tore give the opposition kind of a rebalancing and allow it to take back some gains that it has since yielded. >> indeed. former u.s. assistant secretary of state for public affairs p.j. crowley. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> coming up, how important is the massachusetts senate seat? just ask the preds.

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democrats like ed parky. we've got keep on going forward, not backwards and that's what ed markey is going to help us do. >> yes. america could use a man like ed markey. the democrats certainly could. he's running in a special election for massachusetts open senate seat. a loss would shave democrats' current senate majority by one seat to 53. that's, of course, assuming republicans hold their interim seat in new jersey. it could give the gop an assist in their bid to take over the senate next year where democrats are already defending more seats than the gop.

with two weeks to go, markey is in the lead but that lead has dropped ten points since last month. bungled one liners like this one at tuesday's night debate certainly don't help matters. >> i heard mr. gomez talk about math and the budget. well, it's really not math. it's just arithmetic. it's very simple arithmetic. it's not as complicated as math. it's something you learn in grammer school. >> joining us is david bernstein. welcome, sir. it's good to have you with us. >> very good to be here. >> you can't attribute his decline to his definition of math. why is it the democrats are bringing out their big guns, the president, the vice president to defend what really should be a pretty solid seat, shouldn't it? >> well, and news out today is that former president bill clinton will be coming to campaign for ed markey over the weekend. >> wow. >> so all of the big guns really.

so you know, part of this is it's a special election so there's only one election going on. because it's only one, they're all coming. but it is. it's a close race. i would suggest that it's not closing. there's no evidence of that. there's that one poll that you showed that was really an outlier. pretty much all the polls and from my understanding throughout the internal sense from both campaigns has been throughout this campaign, it's been roughly an eight-point lead, give or take depending on who you ask. and that that dynamic hasn't really changed. >> no. >> but that makes it close enough to make the democrats nervous and to give the republicans hope. >> is au said, the current president and the former president are going. joe biden said something very interesting at a fund-raiser last night about turnout. i'm quoting. he said there's a big difference in this race.

barack obama's not at the head of the ticket. that means those legions of african-americans and latinos are not automatically going to come out. no one has energized them like barack obama. but he's not on the ticket. so don't take this one for granted. we're not going to award him style points for this quote but does he make a fair point about overall turnout and its challenge to the democrat? >> it's absolutely right. and here in massachusetts we've seen it. we also have a very popular african-american governor who drives out turnout in other years. but this is a situation where there's real nervousness among democrats that the african-american turnout, the latino turnout as well as the young professional turnout, the young professional urban turnout that tends to be very heavily democratic around here that they won't feel it's important enough to show up. that's what this rally today was all about. it was located in roxbury at

sort of a cross point. it was a very diverse crowd that was there to see him. it was very much targeted towards members of those communities african-american, hispanic and other urban communities not just to energize those people in the room to vote but to have them energize to knock on doors and tell people to vote. there's no question that that's the concern because that's the people who didn't vote could turn out to vote for martha coakley. >> we know what happened that time. boston magazine's david bernstein or whether gabriel gomez might pull off a scott brown. thank you. >> very good. >> we'll be right back. we're here at the famous tapia brothers produce stand where we've switched their fruits and veggies with produce from walmart. it's a fresh-over. that's great. tastes like you just picked them. so far, it's about the best strawberry i've had this year. walmart works directly with growers to get you

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relatives have been visiting the 94-year-old statesman at all hours of the day after he was admitted following the recurrence of a lung infection. one of his grandsons offered his own note of gratitude. >> we are particularly honored to have received the many prayers and messages from south africans at large as well as the global community. we want to say thank you and we appreciate all your support that you show towards our grandfather, and your father who is my grandfather is father of the nation. he's embraced by the entire global community. >> it is heart-wrenching to witness the decline of this absolute giant of democracy. a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment when his only crime was to campaign so that the majority in south africa could vote. he spent 27 years in a maximum security prison because the government regarded him as

treasonous. when nelson mandela was released from prison in 1990, the temptation to seek vengeance for the deep injustices that he and black south africans had suffered must have been intense. but instead he chose a better way. in his remarkable autobiography entitled "the long walk to freedom," he wrote this. as i walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my greem, i knew that if i didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, i would still be in prison." but nelson mandela knew he had to help release an entire nation from being imprisoned by bitterness and hatred. so just a year after his election as president, he established the truth and reconciliation commission. its task was to hear all of the crimes that had been committed under apartheid and the perpetrators were given amnesty in return for their testimony. it was almost like the entire nation went publicly to confess their sins and seek redemption.

but president mandela never asked for anything that he himself was not prepared to do. and so when the south african spring box reached the final of the rugby world cup just months after he had been elected, there was some concern about how he should respond. after all, rugby was like a religion for white south africans but black south africans loathed the sport regarding the green jersey as a potent symbol of oppression. but when the team won the entire tournament, president mandela emerged out of the locker rooms wearing this. the springbok jersey marked by the same number six as worn by the captain francois pina. the entire nation roared in celebration. president mandela wore his heart on his sleeve and his enemy's shirt on his back. and by so doing, he reconciled a nation. thanks so much for watching this afternoon. chris matthews and "hardball" is

next. >> are rand paul and ted cruz ramrodding the republican party? let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews down in washington. let me start tonight with this. it's in the a hard thing separating the two parties today if you think about it. the democrats are led by the president, a progressive. the republicans are led, well, it's a moving question there. there's the hard right majority in the house that moves john boehner about at will. there's mitch mcconnell the republican senate leader. then there's the half the republicans in the senate clearly to mcconnell's right. then there are the three on the hardest right of course, rand paul, ted cruise and mike lee the loudest noises out there. when the vice president joe biden said the other day it's the party,