this morning, my question, would a linebacker by any other name smell as sweaty plus the republican obsession with controlling your uterus and new york's billionaire mayor an ally or fair weather friend. but first president obama stares down the haters to get a big win. good morning. i'm sitting in for melissa harris-perry. i want to go back to april 27th at the washington hilton and the president swapped out the usual

hail to the chief for a different kind of entrance. >> thank you! thank you, how do you like my new entrance music? >> takes a certain kind of huts pa to swagger in to "all i do is win." but from a string of domestic policy victories in the first term to winning reelection by 4.6 million votes, the record is pretty clear. you don't always hear in washington where people are too busy looking into the mirror to look at history. let's quickly revisit the highlights. this president brought the economy back from the brink through a stimulus program, a bailout of the american auto industry, strengthening financial reform and creating a dedicated government bureau to protect consumers.

changing the composition of the supreme court by appointing two impressive women. and of course the largest progressive domestic policy to expand our social safety net in a generation, the affordable care act. for obama supporters accustom to all those policy successes, so far the second term may seem like it's off to a slow start but i think that changed this week. the president just took a crucial step towards the first big win of the second term on tuesday. advocates for immigration reform broke an attempted filfilibuste. now nothing should stop the senate for an up-or-down vote for landmarking legislation that would provide the u.s.'s first comprehensive immigration reform in almost three decades. if that happens, president obama will become the first president to make a lasting mark on immigration policy that clears away the citizenship for undocumented immigrants since all the way back to 1986. that of course was when president ronald reagan passed

the immigration reform and control act which took 3 million people who came into america illegally and made them citizens. for president obama, immigration reform is the aca of the second term. it's the kind of domestic policy that lifts millions of marginalized people out of legal limbo and enshrines presidential -- republicans can't stop immigration votes in the senate. so some are feeling the pressure to play ball and others, however, have hit on a new strategy, and this is important. they want to amend this bill to death. you've heard republicans talk about building a wall on the border. now they have a poison pill set of amendment that's would build a wall on the path to citizenship. in fact, there are now 44 amendments that were introduced by our count just in the first two hours of senate floor deb e debate. there's nothing wrong with amendments and, you know, talking through our ideas through the legislative process. that's how things are supposed to work. but some of these republican amendments are actually designed

to sink the entire bill. they would tack on so many hurdles to the citizenship process that many of us think the bill would look a lot more like the status quo than reform. let's look at some specifics. take iowa senator chuck grassley. he tried to create a rule that would not allow the legalization process, the whole point of this thing, to begin until the department of homeland security could certify six months of control over the u.s. border with mexico. his senate colleagues dismissed that out of hand, the measure lost by 14 votes. then texas senator john corn in, his proposal would hold permanent legal residents hostage for a year until the government can confirm a total awareness of everything that happens along the border. it would require an apprehension rate of 90%. remind you, the original bill includes provisions for spral spending on border security. and the gang of eight senate bill already adds over $4 billion more to that kind of

program. so don't think for a second -- the immigration bill will still have to survive the house and that as we know is a tougher sell. republican senators now they're arguing if the bill has any shot of becoming law of the land, the senate has to sweeten the deal with poison pills in order to entice the rest of the republican caucus to get on board. so ultimately there is a chance here the president could get his win but at a price so high it may not be enough for the very people this president wants to help. well, at the table with me today nbc latino's paul reyes, an attorney -- i did it again. the reason why i do that raul. that's my second time calling raul reyes paul. i love teleprompter problems. raul is an toernl who's been covering this debate, very excited to have you here. we also have matt welch, editor in chief -- nyu political

scientist professor and jamal simmons who worked for bill clinton, al gore and max cleland. raul, we just talked about everything that is up against this bill, this important gang of eight bill, what are the republicans facing off with this week that we're looking at that's important to distinguish between poison pills and real amendments? >> well, the main thing that's really i think will be a turning point is this john corn anyone amendment. because this could give republicans cover to not support the bill. they could say, if this isn't part of it, we won't be part of it. this cornyn amendment comes on top of so much border security but when you break it down, the big problem with the amendment is if takes the path to citizenship, it separates it from the people who are actually trying to go through that process, makes it contingent upon the department of homeland security and other the metrics that can be changed by different administrations or -- if the

path to citizenship is not secure, not direct, this whole balance of the bill will not work. that's the danger coming ahead. >> i want to play something really quick from jay carney, speaking about whether that kind of haemt is designed to be a part of immigration reform or something to sink it. let's take a listen to jay carney at the white house on thursday. >> what our goal is, the president's goal is, is that the senate keep its eye on the ball and not allow those who clearly have no interest in passing comprehensive immigration reform, with all its benefits to the economy and the middle class and our businesses, not allow them to derail this process but instead to keep focused on a bill that will achieve the principles that the president and the gang of eight have laid out. >> christine ma, you hear jay

carney talking about derailing the process. do you think that's what the cornyn amendment would do? >> i think definitely. i think one of the things that's so interesting is we talk about immigration as a complicated issue and it clearly is. one of the problems is, the republicans are trying to play politics as opposed to good policy so one of the things -- >> that never happens. >> never. it's like a magical strange thing. i can't imagine it ever happening. i mean, i think that's one of the things the republicans are trying to give themselves kov by being able to say we want to make sure we have security triggers involved here. but ultimately it's a completely unrealistic logic for immigration. we really need to have complicated conversations about how difficult it is to secure the border, to talk about border security in a realistic way that acknowledges the difficulties of this but instead we're going to have potentially incredibly bad policy. matt, when you look at senator cornyn's history here, you have someone stepping into the debate wanting to play a big role yet in 2007 with a republican-backed

immigration bill, he demanded concessions and ultimately didn't get behind the thing. does na go to whether we should trust him. >> one, he's a politician so i'm not going to trust him. i'm not sure i agree with the flaming of the poison pill. i'll not in favor of having some proof, some i louisry proof of border security before signing up to a -- they feel like they signed on to this deal by getting enough sort of oral concessions or like promises that they were going to get some kind of certification of security. it's the way it was sort of sold politically to republicans and they feel like that the bill, as it sift exists right now, does show that so it requires an amendment. i think it's a philosophical difference, not one i necessarily agree with, but not necessarily intended to sink the bill. >> that's such an important point there because what you're saying is, even if people are

skeptical of these members, you say we should be skeptical of politicians, this is an ingredient that should be a prerequisite. thus if it's not -- >> at least a discussion. >> i mean, to those people. >> speaking to your point, we don't have that discussion in this country that you cannot have a 100% secure border unless you become a police state. no one wants to say that out loud. >> jamal, do you buy that? >> first of all, let's realize that senator cornyn is like lucy with the football here. he is not going to vote for this bill. he didn't point out last time. the border has basically gone to a trickle. we've got kind of like net zero of illegal immigration. so i think republicans are hold holding this up as really it is pol tigz ticks they're playing with their base constituents. maybe they need something politically so they can say they did something but don't let it get in the way of the good policy and ruin them. ultimately the republican party has to make a decision, are they

going to appeal to people across the board and have a chance of winning the white house or have a minority party that can only win because they redistrict in such a way -- >> your old boss former president bill clinton said this week net zero immigration. raul, why does this matter here? >> it does matter because first of all we're doing this at the right time because immigration is at net zero. mexico's economy is growing so far fewer people are coming over. but these metrics do matter. just to your point matt this bill as it came through the senate committee is already top-heavy with voter security provisi provisions. it already allows for the largest increases of border security in -- >> over the 4 billion of spending. >> so we're putting that on top of it. one thing i think republicans are missing in this element they see this as something they're potentially giving to president obama a win, a vote of latinos last week, shows a majority of

latino voters would be open to voting for republicans if they are instrumental in passing this. and half of latino voters in the past have voted republican. so the door is open for their own opportunity and they're not willing to go forward with it. that's part of the story i think their leadership is missing. it could benefit them. >> right. you think the dynamics vis-a-vis republicans if they were enlightened to see that . why no one would listen to president george w. bush, up next. [ male announcer ] i've seen incredible things. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business.

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now, this bill isn't perfect. it's a compromise. and going forward, nobody is going to get everything that they want. not democrats, not republicans, not me. >> that was president obama on tuesday reentering the fray around immigration reform, the same day a filibuster breaking vote in the senate cleared the wa way for debate to truly begin. we're back at the table with talented panelists. jamal, you worked in the senate. how significant is this, this week, this breakthrough, breaking with an attempted filibuster? >> the bill filibuster has stymied legislation piece after legislation piece. at least we get movement and a vote. the president is playing a really defendant hand here. sometimes he speaks up, but mostly the white hughes has taken a step bashgs let the gang

of eight, the senate work this out. we'll see what it happens when it gets out of the senate and goes to the house. >> one thick i want to contrast and raul have talked about this before, there are a lot of places where this president's role doesn't get enough credit. we hear a lot of talk about his attitude and his mood and, is he strong enough. that's all sort of adjectives as far as i'm concerned. i want to show you numbers that show that as a second term president this person, barack obama, is doing way better than the last president who tried to deal 0 with this. i want to look specifically at the 2007 vote to try to break a filibuster against the immigration reform, which was president george w. bush. he basically went in there and said, we need to do this and republicans only 12 came out and said, okay, let's at least talk about it. by the way, let knot on the underlying bill whether we do immigration reform, just to get it to the floor, which jamal says is the issue. and 37 republicans in president bush's own party filibustered

him. 75% of the republican caucus. how significant is it that we have a president that's already done better than that and broken the filibuster. >> when you look at the big picture, i've been optimistic about this all along. but when i step back i say it's extraordinary that we have come so far. that it went through the senate judiciary committee, that it made it through the vote. that we are now -- it is now going to the snast for these weeks. and the thing is, president obama of obama's role is soing interest because he cannot be too involved because he'll just be a lightning rod for conflict. in some ways he can do things in public to exert pressure indirectly, sometimes he can be a godfather looking over at it. but he's walking a very fine line. and i do give him credit, though, because at certain points he does, like with the announcement, assert himself. so he's there. he just cannot be too involved at this point. >> matt, do you agree with that? >> i do. and furthermore i would say that the republicans, in addition to the fact that obama has won a

couple of elections which influences people, but he won a couple of elections with increasing support among latinos, even after setting records for deportations, and there's the young vote which is kind of tied up with a lot of different things but part of it is the sense that the republican are the out of touch old white guy party. it's not just latinos voting 70% for barack obama and the democratic party. >> jamal, let's hear -- >> it's motivating. >> go ahead, matt. >> the republicans are motivated right now to deal with this in a way they weren't in 2006 because they hadn't had their hat handed to them on multiple occasions. >> right. and that is really the numbers point here. they went from 75% filibustering a republican president's immigration reform to going along with this president. matt was talking about out of touch old white guys. what is your position on that? >> i love them. they're some of my best friends, old white guys. listen, they're caught in a

demographic vice. they've got this incredibly shrinking population of people in the south, midwest, excerpts of other parts of the country who are frankly a little nervous. the country is changing around them. the economy has been like contracting so they haven't had the same economic benefits. the country is becoming more brown, younger. the values are changing. gay rights, women are working. all of these things are happening and they're not quite sure what to do. i think it's going -- they're going to have to decide when they break from that old group and deal with the new america that's coming. >> i think the other thing -- i want to give credit to obama for getting things as far he has. but like you said it this is a lot about the changing demographic, the fact latino voters came out in such high numbers and force republicans to occasionally think about that fact. abd i think the other part of this that we sort of forget is that how important that d.r.e.a.m. ee d.r.e.a.m.ers. and others began sitting in

obama's campaign offices and talk about foration and you're 0 a -- immigration rights were intimidated to do. young undocumented activists put this on the table it and i think that's something that makes this go-round with immigration really interesting. we're used to talking about the undocumented. what we're not used to is the undocumented speaking for themselves. >> they're not usually part of the conversation. >> now they're the organizers. >> they have asserted themselves often against the advice of the more established advocacy organizations. it was one year ago today that the president announced that deferred action for young people who were brought here illegally as children. and that -- looking back, that's sort of a turning point in the election because that's when latinos were very disappointed with this president because of the record deportations and he had been very recalcitrant on immigration. that was a turning point. that's when latino voters became energized, mobilized and

culminated in i think 71% turnout for the president. >> raul, you mentioned the interplay of the dreamers and then the people say, is the establishment going to embrace that? at 9:40 a.m. today they did put out a statement commemorating the one-year immigration, using the language of dreamers. that's not something i think was a mainstream part of the debate previously. >> exactly. i think one of the things really interesting about this is we talk about immigrants regarding what they give us. it's often instrumental and economics. they give us labor, their youth, energy. what we don't talk enough about is their civic capacity. we're talking about citizenship here. and citizenship isn't just a status. it's a practice. one of the things that undocument eed activism has don is showing people acting in citizenship they don't yet have. >> i want to pick up on that and lock at whether that's worth 60 votes or worth 70 votes. that's something we'll talk about up next. we have the new standard that the senate wants to be set and

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our perfect spot is calling. our perfect spot is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. the 60 vote super majority has become the new normal. the senate gang of eight doesn't think 60 votes will be enough to entice republicans in the house to take action even if the legislation passes the senate and that super 60. so they are ditching the super majority for an overmajority, a n gang of eight member chuck schumer spoke about last week on "meet the press". >> we're hoping to get up to 70 votes and we're willing to enter tain amendments that don't damage the bill wu improve the bill. we came out of the committee very strong.

our gang of eight stuck together and we picked up orrin hatch's vote as well. >> why stop at 70? maybe we need 80. christina, we were talking about this before the break. my question is, say what? >> i don't really understand. i mean, then the terrorists win, righ right/? i don't get the logic thinking, you think six more votes is going to make the tea party congressmen saying, now i'm totally for it. it seems like an insane effort to create a worse bill. it seems like the recipe for creating more poor amendments. >> do you think senator schumer who people see as an advocate is strategically wrong? >> i think he is. i think the real case is what is the best policy for immigration and making a case for why this is the best policy. like we need to fight on the ground of ideas rather than sort of playing politics with assuming three more votes will transform the debate. >> matt, you're friends with libertarians. you've been known to consort with the tea party.

>> unlike chuck schumer, yes. >> i'm not going to make you defend everything we think they might want. but it seems to me this is a crazy game that we have to go around worrying about what a minority in the republican caucus, in the house, which is not shown a responsible interest in leadership on this issue, what it would take to get them and build up to 70 now. >> look, do you want a bill? do you want a law to be passed? then you have to have the house of representatives pass a bill. and they are going to need to feel like they either have political cover for it or that they're not going to be punished so much politically or that they are going to punished so much politically for not passing it. i think that's all chuck schumer. now you have never -- i won't start today. but i think that's what he's getting at, hey, look, if this is going to pass, it can't be like obama care, just get over the ire and have an entire swath of the country be hostile towards this. this has to go a lot stronger. >> i would like to follow kind of the old at amongst and get

from your parents and first boss, under-promise, over-deliver. let's say 60 and get 70 and have a big showing. i'd late haight to call 70 and come in at 68 and everyone now thinks of that as a defeat. >> raul, isn't that right? why give away the leverage? you've got the "new york times" today asking wlo john cornyn could be the key vote, which used to be the key 60th vote, he could be the key 70th vote. that's not a thing. >> right. it's announcing the strategy certainly not a good idea. but looking at the bigger picture, to your point about obama care, the affordable care act, remember that long amendment process where the republicans inserted i think 150 amendments to really change the character of that legislation? they didn't vote for it anyway so i think there's really a strong case to be made here that it's better to go with a good bill with 60 or as60-some votes rather than something that is an assault on the core of this bill, which is the pathway to

citizenship. that's what matters, what sets this apart. that's the balance they're talking about, the constructive process. i'm not convinced that the 70 votes is the party. >> i think there's another political option, which is trying to develop the best bill and fight for it. if you let this get watered down with crapper and crapper amendments, if at the end of the day the bill passes and doesn't work in critical ways democrats respond by saying, we accepted this bad amendment, then actually it produces a lot of sort of civic frustration people saying, why can't you guys do it that right? if democrats can make an argument we had a good bill, we did these things. i think whether this passes or not i think the passage is not contingent upon this sliver anyway. it doesn't seem politically that smart because i think you have the health care problem, making arguments for a bad bill that you end up crediting murself with that. >> a comment on that, health care is a good bill, 30 million people will be covered. >> right.

>> as a practitioner of politics and policy passing what you want to do is get a bill passed, as matt said earlier, that means sometimes you won't get a perfect bill, a great bill. but you'll get a good bill and that's going to be good for -- much better for a lot more people than having no bill at all. >> i've said from the beginning of this that it is a strategic error -- now you guys disagree with me -- to make this a comprehensive immigration reform. when you have a situation where there's 10 million people who are law breakers, it's time to think about this as a prohibition problem. there's a way to get at that prohibition problem without throwing the kitchen sink into this. but two generations of reformers see we need it to be comprehensive. the moment it becomes comprehensive is the moment you'll get amendments all over the place, you'll have so many things that yout rage so many people because it gets difficult to mass, gets watered down by the destruction -- >> part of the question is whether it's getting watered down or diluted or to your point christina whether it's just getting crappier. making it crappier is different than making it more watery.

we'll keep an eye on the crap and the water. what i want to look at next break, when we come back, is another really important piece, which is you have to understands whoo triggers meat in this policy and political contest and why that gimmick may be catching on with our congress. it turns out the budget drama has some lessons for the immigration reform advocates. how many simple ingredients does your dog food have?

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running a small business riding against the wind. uphill. every day. we make money on saddles and tubes. but not on bikes. my margins are thinner than these tires. anything that gives me some breathing room makes a difference. membership helps make the most of your cashflow. i'm nelson gutierrez of strictly bicycles and my money works as hard as i do. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. if this, then that. that's how policy triggers are supposed to work. so if a sequence of war securities are in path, then the path to legal citizenship opens up. that might be a reasonable approach to public policy for some people except when we're left stuck with a trigger that becomes bigger than the policy itself. i don't think we need to look any further than the trigger

that never was supposed to happen. remember this moment from a presidential debate last octo r october? >> the sequester is not something i proposed. it's something congress has propose of proposed. it will not happen. >> but it did happen. the threat of automatic spending cuts was supposed to force congress to take action to reduce the deficit. instead we got what we're stuck with and struggling with now, a seemingly permanent xwest traigs. jamal, i bring up the sequester because it was a type of trigger and i think it's absolutely clear from the record that the president was not interested in going over that cliff. in fact, he went more than halfway to be reasonable, to do outreach, to be bi-part sachb. >> sure. >> and the very thing he and others said, we don't want, john boehner wrote in the "wall street journal," we don't want this to happen, became the policy. insured we be worried about this here as we look at all of these triggers? >> well, the question for me is going to be, you know, the gang of eight, does it keep some of these dangerous amendments out? and then you mentioned a name we

have not heard enough about, john boehner. you know, what about john boehner's leadership here? >> i diend of feel like i hear about him all the time. >> really? what are you watching? here? john boehner's house is going to have to pass this. he's the speaker. the question is, is he going to be able to exert the leadership to get his party to do what the majority of americans want. that needs to be on his shoulder. >> matt, that goes to the policy discussion we were having haerl, which is what kind of triggers do you think are fair and reasonable to include. clearly many republicans and even libertarians rejected grassley's approach because it seemed like a poison bill pretending to be a trigger. how can we be sure that the alternatives are more real? >> i think it's all going to be in this sort of muddy zone between having dhs say, i think we got it under control, i think cornyn wants a 90% rate of catching illegal imgrachblts at the border. i think that's probably a nonstarter. they're going to start looking for a mushy cover that doesn't

actually require any hard trigger is what i guess because you can't actually measure this and lock it down. >> what i was struck by is this whole idea of triggers in a way reflects a lack of trust in our ability to govern. >> right. >> in some ways you cannot make a machine that runs itself. like at some point you actually need judgment and assessment and on the ground fluidity where you can make choices and you can't escape that. and triggers produce some incredibly destructive policies so it actually -- and it works actually on the opposite sense. what has the xwest traigs done but erode the confidence that the -- >> raul, doesn't it go to the deeper policy question christina is raising dh is when the patriot act was first passed there was a trigger passed that after ten years we must redebate this, we must. it will expire. there was agreement interestingly across the left and right, both in passing that

thing, but also with that approach saying give us ten years. is that logic applicable to a situation where a lot of people including american businesses seem to say we need to deal with undocumented immigration regardless of what happens. >> right. and also there are so many variables in this equation wi. you know, how the mexican the needs off of our labor markets, however is in power, whoever happens to be part. and the problem i think is the past attempts at border security. they keep changing our metrics. going back to 2007 attempt the immigration reform, pretty much all of those metrics that they had then have been purr passed.

immigration again. now those are not good enough. illegal immigration. >> we have to go because we're about to talk about -- i want to give it to jamal. >> they move them every time. there's one more thumb on the scale which is the technology community, silicon valley wants to get the numbers up. >> thank you to matt welch and jamal simmons. christina and raul will be back later in the program. we are going to look at a new republican effort to regulate women's bodies. i think you need to see this. first a lot of apologists for the washington redskins. my letter to the commish is up next. ♪

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it's frank lutz, a conservative labeling guru. this week his firm held a focus group to gauge reaction to of aurl things the name of the washington, d.c., nfl franchise. and one of the questions for participants of the focus group is whether the name redskins is offensive. well, no need for a focus group when it comes to the nfl's top dog. we know how he feels about the team name because he defended it in a letter. called the name a unifying force that stands for strength, courage k, pride and respect p. that's a misunderstanding that runs so deep i do feel compelled to respond with a letter of my own. dear roger goodell, it's me, ari, look, commish, it is tough to come out against the washington redskins, the world's fourth most valuable sports team, worth more than $1.5 billion. but your response to ten members of congress urging a name change that we saw this week was pretty

disappointing. you wrote that, no our view a fair and thorough discussion of the issue must begin with an understanding of the roots of the washington franchise and the redskins name in particular well, yeah, let's do just that, let's look at the root of the word a redskin." in your letter to you, the ten members of congress tried to explain to you that native americans throughout the country consider the "r" word a racial derogatory slur. yet the national coverage of washington's nfl football term profits from a term disparaging to native americans. commissioner, the debate may continue, but for many it traces back to one man, commissioner, meet sensor phipps, he issues the phipps proclamation in 1755 which called for the general -- colonized unless the -- men,

women and children. those bloody scalps are believed to have first been deemed redskins. red is not for the color of their skin. it's for the color of that bloody genocide. so when you say, neither was the intent nor use was the name ever meant to denigrate any group, know this, it's about impact. when it comes to the washington franchise, you're already talking about a team with a very troubled past, the same team that was the last in the nfl to integra integrate players of different races and only did so because of the president at the time, president kennedy. even now president owner dan snyder is telling "usa today," quote, we'll never change the team name. it's that simple. never. you can use caps. even more alarming than snyder's reaction to the name change is yours. you run the league. you have a moral obligation to

uphold the commitments of the nfl. your league has even published a values policy on diversity. we looked it up. it says, we represent and respect a wide range of human differences, personal experiences and cultural backgrounds for the benefit of the organization. respect. that's one thing the term "redskins" is not about. so commissioner, we see you. you aren't fooling anyone. and the next time you weigh into this debate, learn some history. in fact, you could learn what your own value statement says and then apply it. sincerely, ari. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork.

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schools are sending too soon to order one school district to

stop arresting and jailing students and mostly black students for infractions as minor as not wearing a belt. now. texas is sending students to adult courts simply for cutting class. the charge? they call it truancy. ain texas legal terms that means failure to attend school, a misdemeanor charge. students who miss too much school will hire a private attorney but the court does not provide lawyers for those who can't afford them. poor studz. and with or without a lawyer, students face punishment ranging from $500 fines to jail time. now several students found lawyers to strike back at the entire system. a new suit was filed on behalf of seven students in dallas county just this week. the formal complaint argues that these policies are so unfair they're actually unconstitutional. joining me today is deborah fowler, thanks for joining us.

>> good morning. thanks for having me. >> explain how putting these folks into the court system is wrong and what kind of system would you want to replace this thing? >> well, you know, the states that are doing this well, the states that have really focused on reforming how they handle status offenses like truancy use court as a last resort. that's not what we're seeing in texas and certainly not what we're seeing in dallas county. dallas county is prosecuting more than 36,000 of these cases every year. so the sheer volume is overwhelming. there are kids getting swept up into the system that in no way resemble what most of us would commonly see as a truant student. >> what do you think as your best hope to take something asma jort support or hasn't been stopped through the political system, what's the best hook to get the courts to stop it? >> we're really interested in working with the department of justice, with the county, with

the school districts to get everyone to the table to try to find a solution that is good for kids. what we see now is absolutely not effectively dealing with truancy problems in dallas county, nor is it good for the youth who are getting swept into the system. they're being routinely threatened with jail even when they're too young to be sent to jail. they're being arrest at school. and they're being arrested in court. what we'd like to see is what the department of justice has done so effectively in other states. you mentioned meridian. they've also done a great job in palm beach county to bring the parties to the table and put into place research-based solutions that really effectively deal with whatever issue the schools are trying to address. >> and talk to me a little bit about the economic and racial disparities. i don't think you have to be in a troubling school or poor neighborhood to be familiar with the idea that kids sometimes don't want to go to school and,

shocker, kids sometimes cut class. >> correct. >> why does it seem like the brunt of that, i would call that a pretty typical feeling for students, not to make light of it, why does it seem like that fairly universal instinct is being punished more amonging black and poor stiudents? >> it's ahard to say and one of the things that we hope the department of justice will come in and investigate. what we see in dallas isd is that, while african-american students represent only 24% of the student body, they represent 40% of the cases that were sent to court for truancy last fiscal year. >> say that one more time. >> sure. in dallas isd we see that while 24% of the student body is african-american 40% of the cases cas cases in court last year for truancy were african-american students. >> that's almost double the rate. that's shocking. >> we see the same in richardson

isd for latino students actually. they represent about 39% of the student population but represented about 52% of the cases in court last year. >> let me get your thoughts on your thought from clay jenkins who oversaw the truancy courts. he he told the dallas morning news that truancy court has lowered the dropout rate by 12%. so that is a number and that's a response that i think goes against some of the claims that you've been working on in your filing. what do you say to that? >> well, we really just don't see -- dallas isd has done a terrific job in reducing their dropout rate. there's no question about that. but the truancy courts were in operation for four years before dallas isd began to see a reduction in its dropout rate. so it's really hard to know that that is directly attributable to the truancy courts. in fact, we think it has more to do with dallas isd having been named as one of the dropout

factories by a report in 2007 and then instituting internal processes to address dropout, not the truancy courts. >> briefly on that, you think your opponents are basically seizing on an improvement they didn't cause? >> i think that's right. and what we see in the court outcomes for students is pretty dismal. we have a 50%, quote, recidivism rate. only 28% of the students who appear at their first review hearing are actually compliant with the court's order. and probably the worst is that only half of those students who actually have a referral to court are appearing. so there are, you know, a fully 50% of the students who get a court referral who never actually show up in court. >> great. lo look, we'll keep our eye on this and what the response may be at the national level. thank you for sharing some time with us, deborah. >> thanks so much. coming up next, gird your loins. republican lawmakers are coming

and they're coming for reproductive rights fast and furious. and we'll talk to michael bloomberg's bep deputy mayor. nor nerdland at the top of the hour. man: how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your family's future?

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to lose your supporting teeth. new poligrip and polident for partials 'seal and protect' helps minimize stress, which may damage supporting teeth, by stabilizing your partial. and 'clean and protect' kills odor-causing bacteria. care for your partial. help protect your natural teeth. elle welcome back. welcome back. house republicans have begun a plan to limit and potentially ban types of abortions after the first 20 weeks of preg p nancy. this nationwide ban is scheduled to get a vote next week. now the house has the votes to pass it of course the senate will not have those votes and even if it did this is still a republican dream bill because our president, president obama, would veto it. if it passed under a future president it would also be unconstitutional under current precedent in the law. a similar law in arizona was

struck down for that reason this year. for house republicans, though, this is a vote of pure symbolism. that's what makes it so important, we think, and scary. the gop is staking a public claim here. this is what we believe. this is who we are. now, they used to save some off the scariest stuff for their party platform which isn't wrael binding, of course. now house republicans are legislating at the same pitch that they used to just pol i tick, clairi declaringing they anything between women and their doctors and choices about when or if to have an abortion. for a policy purely unconstitutional, there must be someone sort of responsible, right? there must be some republicans who at least care about the legal precedent if not the values here. nope. turns out every republican man on the house judiciary committee voted to move this bill last week. and since they only have men on that committee that's the total. these views are just as extreme at the state level, but there are some problems there that go

deeper because there are fewer checks and balances. in state after state, republican politicians are restricting reproductive rights. in wisconsin, republican governor scott walker, remember him, he'll sign a bill requiring rules like compelled ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. this is what happened wednesday when democrats objected to moving that vote in the state senate. >> settle down. you are not recognized. the question before the house is nondebatable. call the roll. you're interrupting a roll call. sit down! right now! call the roll! >> senator carpenter. >> call the roll. in texas, republican governor rick perry, you also remember him, he expanded a special legislative session in order to look at new reproductive rights restrictions. the proposals were blocked by democrats in the regular session but under some of the special rules in the special session, they may not be able to stop them. the restrictions could force nearly all of the state's

clinics to close, i repeat, all of the clinics to close. it would, in fact, leave only five for all of texas' 26 million people. that would be one clinic for every 54,000 square miles of texas. and in ohio the new approach seems to be shaming. a bill introduced this week requires women to get ultrasounds and pay for the procedure themselves, then the bill would also use a pretty sinister way to criminalize medicare. it would threaten doctors with a first-degree felony charge if they don't follow a state-mandated two-day waiting period for abortions regardless of medical necessity. so don't let the talk of a more women-friendly party fool you and don't let them fool you when they say jobs and the economy are the main things they are focused on. this is the mainstream republican mission now with the backing of the house speaker and a slew of governors who could be serious presidential candidates in 2016. so as we said make no mistake and gird your loins, this is what republicans are about.

at the table with me, council for the senate 0 on reproductive rights, and back with us christina balance treltran and reyes. i want to talk with you. what is the significance of what we just saw in the states there. >> well, there are a couple of things. one, if you thought that obama winning the election meant that the gop war on women was over, we were wrong. obviously it's an ongoing onslaught against women's reproductive freedoms and reproductive rights. but the other thing is, there was a piece in the nation talking about anti-choice as a magical thinktion. what's ainteresting to me is that with these ongoing both state and national legislations to limit women's reproductive choice that the gop, while they may have lost the war with rowe v wade they're winning the piece.

this onslaught is just part of their platform and also kind of a response to other issue that's are going on like immigration e reform, all of these things are part of the changing demographic of the united states in which women's reproductive rights are part of that as well. >> jordan, that's something that melissa talks about a lot on this show, how that fight moving to the state level is actually a very different legal and constitutional battle, right? i mean, you can't just get roe everywhere to knock down everything. explain some of that. >> we've definitely seen over the last few years an incredible assault on women's reproductive health in so many different forms, ultrasound restrictions, bans on insurance coverage for abortion, bans on abortion at 20 weeks and this year we've seen states just take it one level further. arkansas banned abortion at 12 weeks a couple of weeks later north dakota banned abortion at 6 weeks. you've seen states -- >> 6 weeks. >> 6 weeks. earlier than some women know

they're pregnant. it's just all across the board an assault. and although we take them to court and get these things knocked down in a lot of situations and in fact you were talking about the 20-week ban being considered by congress and that we were able to defeat a similar 20-week ban in court in arizona, but it's issue by issue, state by state. honestly, this has to be a national thing. your rights shouldn't depend on your zip code. it's been incredibly challenging to fight the battle. >> to pick up on this point, i want to put up a pretty striking image on the screen that goes to the idea that, yes, in many ways choice keeps winning, yet when you look at the numbers, here is the chart, abortion laws are spiking in 2011 and 2012. there it is. you see just a huge increase. christina, why is that happening even as the national political discourse is clearly favoring the president's approach? >> right, right. i mean, i think it's a

fascinating issue. i think about sort of what you're talking about in terms of the idea of kind of hysteria and emergency cal thinking, like that logic is interesting. like are they so feeling disempowered in some critical ways this is one way they can go after where they have critical agency in doing this stuff. >> you mean the republicans losing at the political level generally makes them want to act out? >> yeah, really makes them want to try to dfrn enact a vision of the world in which women's bodies are treated this wie. like i think that's part -- but the other part i was thinking about that i'm continually interested in is, politically, it's horrible for working class women, women in rural areas, but what it also does is produces a collective sense of women having a collective sense of threat, right? >> sure. >> which is really interesting when you think about the deep diversity of women in this country, the fact that these kinds of laws create a sense that women are kind of a bloc is really interesting politically for democrats. i think every time they do this

hillary clinton should send them a gift basket. it's incredibly good for -- >> which is a weird backlash. >> the changing racial demographics in the united states, for the first time in american history, children born under the age of 5 are -- the majority of them are racial and ethnic minorities in the u.s. i think there's a moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness that we've been seeing a long time in that i think obama's ascension as president kind of symbolizes to a certain degree. i think this is one response to that sense that there's a decreasing white majority in the country and that women's bodies and white women's bodies in particular are obviously a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege. i think it's kind of a clamping down on women's bodies in particular white women's bodies even though women of color are really caught in the fray. >> and you're talking not only then about a potentially religious view about life, you're talking about social

control. i mean, that goes to some of these programs that are different than just necessarily a position that people disagree with. they also say, no, we need to go into the doctor's room, we need to tell women under it threat of, as i mentioned, criminalization of their doctor's conduct or as a prerequisite to doing anything, how they should analyze their medical care, whether to have an ultrasound. do you think that is a piece of it, too, the social control, raul? >> to a certain extent. but i want to say there's another aspect to this equation that is so deep, from it a legal standpoint, troubling from the role of a supreme court. yes, roe v. wade is on the books, but when you look at the cases going through the court, they are chipping away at reproductive rights. in 19902 i believe the case was southeast pennsylvania planned parenthood, they said a state cannot flais undue burden on a

woman in regard to her on pregnancy, her life, her choice. fast-forward 15 years in the gonzalez case. now the court says it's okay for the state to promote various interests it sees fit, including the life of the unborn child. and we have an extremely conservative supreme court so little by little they are moving the boundary for what is okay in terms of telling women what to do. and anytime when you're in this type of issue, what is the -- the policy is saying that we don't trust doctors to tell women what is best for them and we don't trust women to decide what is best for themselves. and that is a -- that should trouble all americans. >> you're hitting on something i want to go to jordan on after the break. that is a point we see wider than the choice movement, which is if the courts see something as a rightnd we mean that, there can't be excessive burdens in that, which are your own medical decisions. i want your response to that when we come back. also up next we'll talk to one of the people on the front line of this debate in texas trying

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welcome back. we've been talking about how republican state legislators are passing increasingly extreme laws restricting access to reproductive rights around the country perhaps no more restricting than texas. someone on the front lines of the fight, the founder of the whole women's chain of -- she testified before the texas committee on a range of new abortion prestrikss that could shut down all but five abortion providers in the state. the committee approved the restrictions on friday and sent the legislation to the full state senate, amy, thank you. >> thank you. >> what did you tell them? >> i told them a lot of things. it was remarkable about how many

questions i asked led me to understand there wasn't a mastery for what legislations we already have in place. texas has some of the most onerous facilities. we report our complications. we have nurses on call 24/7. we already have a pretty serious system in place to be sure that all the clinics are safe and that they're compliant. so it was amazing to me how many questions i got from some of the senators who actually didn't understand the systems we have in place already. >> amy, that goes to christina's point, that some of this may not be about actually deciding how many clinics there should be but some sort of just larger republican backlash. you're in one state. is that some of your experience there? >> absolutely. i think this isn't -- you know, they oftentimes couch these kinds of regulations as though they're about patient safety or something like this when really this is about access. we're going to go from 47

clinics from the state of texas down to 5 immediately. there's no grandfather clause written into the regulation. and we have four of the top 11 cities as far as population in the country. so this is a pretty serious regulation, and what they've done is they've put four or five different bills from the regular session into this omni bus bill, things they weren't able to get on to the floor for proper discussion during the regular session. they waited until the special session when there's sort of a super power when they don't have to go through the same process in order to get these things brought forward. we're very concerned. it will have a grave effect on the health system here in texas. it doesn't do anything to prevent abortions, address the need for abortion. you can't just restrict access. it won't chng the fact that one in three women in texas will need our services. we'll voluntary a problem on our hands. >> i want to go to jordan on that point. >> absolutely. i think this texas bill is exactly -- it sort of represents all of what's been going on. you have four different types of legislation ram rod through

during a special session, the political will wasn't there during the regular session. that's not what these guys were elected to do. and, in fact, almost everything in that bill has been blocked by a court in one way or another. you've got at least four different kind of restrictions, a ban on abortions at 20 weeks, the part of the bill na would shut everybody down, restrictions on medication abortion and requirement that all physicians with admitting privileges. all have been blocked by courts. >> i just want to say in terms of who's being disproportionately effected, women of color and working class women being the victims with regards to this legislative battles and also the anti-choice rhetoric. couple of years ago in new york city there was that big billboard i think in soho that says the most dangerous place for an african-american child is in the womb. black womens' bodies, those who don't have access to private medical facilities are being used as pawns in this republican battle against women.

i just want to reiterate that. also, i think what's really disappointing or dismaying to me is for all of us who have to keep focusing only on choice as the way we though about reproductive justice thshgs is what happens. we can't think about all the way women's reproductive freedoms are being curtailed, everybody doesn't have access to affordable health care. we're focusing on choice because the republicans are keeping us in a stale nailt for so long. >> amy, what do you say to that? >> i'm really happy to hear that reproductive justice framework brought up. texas is not -- texas is hopefully turning blue. texas has a very, very, very large latino population and many of our clinics serve a diverse group of people. we already have no medicaid coverage for women seeking abortion services but for women seeking a lot of services. insurance coverage is very small, we're 49th out of 50th as far as people in our population with insurance coverage. this will very much digs

proportionately affect latina women, women of color, it will affect rural people tremendously because the five clinics that remain will ot only be in large urban settings and texas is a very, very large state. >> amy, trace that back to political organizing. does that help you in communities of color or out there in texas, that angle to try to sort of make sure that people get the information they need about what's being done? >> you know, i think -- abortion is a complex issue. people have very complicated feelings about it. i think when feelings start to affect politics we run into some difficulty, especially when ne start to regulate medicine. i think abortion is one of those things, nobody thinks they will need abortion until they do. that's when they find out about the laws affecting their rights and their access. so i think it's very important to tell this story and to have people understand that, while nobody plans to have an abortion km their lifetime, one in three women are probably going to need

one at some point in their lifetime or most of us have thought about it or ran into an unplanned pregnancy scare. if we appeal to folks that this is part of mainstream medicine, a common procedure very necessary for the health and safety of the population of women in texas. >> for the final point, i want your response to that, christina, the idea there's a constituency out 0 there but not always very aaware. >> an aware one. and it works because we were saying before women are such an incredibly diverse population, half the population, one of the interesting things too is i think the fact that there are so many different populations interested in things like birth control. the republican war on women has been so pervasive it's even reached into access to birth control and women's health. so i think for a lot of young women, in many ways if the republicans hadn't played this card so heavily, this wouldn't have become a back seat issue in places with more middle class, afflue affluent, those with fairly

decent health care issues. it's creating a sense of collective threat among women and politicizing women around reproductive rights. that is sort of an interesting moment that is reaching across -- >> that is one silver lining. i know melissa will keep an eye on this story. i want to thank my guests and also amy from texas. up next, the parents of newtown. six months later, the struggle still continues. we'll talk to the lieutenant mayor in new york. he's working on a new gun safety allian alliance. with the spark miles card from capital one,

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history. some states acted but in washington nothing changed despite passioned appeals from the white house and family members from newtown -- the very vocal families of newtown are not giving up and it appears their determination hasn't waynwaynned a bit. on thursday they met with representatives and senators this week including the two top republicans in the house, john boehner and eric cantor, and they demanded action. >> i am here today to remind congress what happened to my family, to remind them of what keeps happening in america. 5,000 more americans have died due to gun violence since december 14th, and there still hasn't been any federal action to protect us from gun violence. >> she's right. not one piece of federal legislation. new york mayor michael bloomberg

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ink from chase. so you can. a majority of senators voted for stricter background checks in april. republicans forced a super majority requirement and the bill died. 91% of the senate republican caucus opposed the bill, but now it's democrats who are facing some of the strongest attacks. this week new york city mayor michael bloomberg came out with a tough and somewhat controversial tactic to cut off donations to the four republicans who opposed the gun bill. he told his donor allies on wednesday, the next time these four senators want you to support them with donations to their campaigns, tell them you cannot. but why focus so much on

democrats when the numbers do show that republican senators were the biggest obstacle to reform? is this three dimensional chess or is it another case of eliti t elitist? howard wolfson is deputy mayor of new york city and a former campaign aide to hillary clinton. blake a former aide to barack obama and hillary clinton and my honor to welcome jackie rowe adams to this situation, she founded harlem mothers after after losing two of her sons to gun violence. howard, i want to start with you. it's a very important issue. mayor bloomberg has led on it for a while but as you know he upset a lot of people this week, the first question being, in your view and the mayor's view, what percent of the problem is attributable to republicans in the gun safety debate in washington? >> no question the republicans

bear significant responsibility for our failure to pass gun laws. having said that, it's the senate democrats in charge of the senate. we want to make sure that we hold every member accountable who casts the wrong vote. now, we have run ads against republicans. since the vote we have run ads against two republicans. we have run ads against a democrat. and in new york where democrats from around the country raise a very large sum of their campaign money, we are urging donors not to give to those democrats until they switch their votes and do the right thing. we are very much working towards another vote in the senate. we believe that is a real possibility. there was an article in the "times" yesterday or the day before, there are quiet conversations occurring between the senators who voted the wrong way. perhaps they'll modify the bill. we haven't seen what it would exactly look like. but there's a real possibility and a real hope for some progress here, and we're going to keep some people's feet to the fire and hope they change their votes and listen to

their -- >> i don't think anyone is it against feet to the fire. i think they're talking about whether the fire is apportioned correctly or if you and the mayor have your heart in the right place or whether you're doing this false equivalence thing saying 91% of republicans are filibustering this, using the super majority to basically prevent action. i want to put something up about what you said about this issue and democrats. you said, the fact that a republican would get elected is irrelevant to our cause. on this issue a republicaning would not be worse. i think that's in spirit with what you said today. let me put one other thing on the screen which is xrcriticism you got from a prosecugressive daily hos. given republicans want even looser gun laws wolfson's assessment seems well off the mark. this writeser went on to say, basically, that your strategy, mayor bloomberg's strategy, iss. what do you say to that?

>> when someone like mark pryor votes the wrong way on to issue, i would say this to my friends on the left, what's their measure of accountability for them, continue to give them money, continue to give them support, continue to basically hold them harmless and say it's totally okay if you vote the wrong way, there is no accountability? politics and elections are about accountability. if we can change some votes, persuade some people who voted the wrong way to vote the right way, republicans and democrats, let's be clear, we've probably spent more money running ads against democrats and republicans, but we're not running away from holding democrats accountable. >> you say the numbers. >> i don't have the exact figure but yes, we've spent more money against republicans. >> donating a lot to republicans which confuses people. i want to bring in p blake. >> the first thing i want to bring in is mayor bloomberg deserves to be commended because he has been talking about this issue for a long time, before it

became cool after newtown. having said that, i do think this strategy is a bit of a half a loaf. yes, mark pryor should pay for his vote, if you believe it's bad. he should pay for it. but if you're not recruiting other candidates who are better to run against him, you'll end up with someone worse. marking pryor, a c minus lifetime from the nra, usually not in the pockets of the nra. however, whichever republican runs against him had will likely be an a-plus nra candidate, all the republican candidates in arkansas are. you can't do it in a vacuum, can't just look at pryor and say, we're going to show him a lesson. if you end up getting a republican who's worse. what i would love to see the mayor doing, in addition to going after people like pryor, is getting involved in some of this more movement building and recruit people to run against these types. >> let's listen to mark pryor's response. >> i'm committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our second amendment rights. i'm mark pryor, and i approve

this message because no one from new york or washington tells me what to do. i listen to arkansas. >> if you listen to arkansas on the republican side, as blake mentio mentions, the other republican senator has voted to have national conceal and carry, voting to say the gun manufacturers shouldn't face lawsuits. it isn't necessarily true you can ensure or guarantee that mayor bloomberg -- >> i think in arkansas the replacement might be worse on the issue. that's not the point. the point is we have a senator sitting in the senate now, he voted the wrong way, he has the opportunity to take a look at the issue. you can vote differently on another similar bill. what measures are we going to take to incentivize him to do that. >> i want to hear more on this,

jackie. >> what i say is, thank you, mayor bloomberg, from speaking and taking the lead on gun violence. but clearly this is a no-brainer. you target everyone. i know he's saying it's democrats. but it was democrat/republican. and we cannot put our children's lives and say it's democrat and republican. we are talking about our children lives, our babies. so every one of them should not be voted in again. and that's where money should be spent. harlem mothers save is on the phone every week calling these different senators in the different states saying, do not put them back in office. and that is key. we cannot allow them to think that they are being separated from the others and they did a good job because they did not. we want this bill passed. we want our background checks in place so we can stop another

child from losing their live, another mother from crying. and not only children. look, you're crossing the street. innocent people are getting killed. we have a lot of work to do here. >> i think if you're going to play the nra's game, the nra is a single issue faction. they're very good. they're very organized. they're very focused. so when they come after you with their grades and their ratings and ads and so forth, they're not asking about some larger picture about, oh, gee, what if a democrat gets in because we're going against a conservative republican. they're not playing that. they're looking at a single issue. mayors against illegal guns is doing the same things. one thing about senator pryor's ad i that i think is disingenuous is, oh, i just listen to arkansas. the polls show he would have gotten more support for supporting background checks xs the bill in question we're talking about that he voted against was very modest, sort of baby steps, included money for mental health. all of what he said was a reason

he couldn't do it is really not true. something like 64% of arkansas voters have said that they want background checks. so he went the other way. so this is new york, it's money from new york and maybe voices from harlem and voices from washington saying, do what your constituents want. and there's sort of a clear political benefit to it. >> to what jackie's calling for, blake, do you think this is the right strategy? how would you tweak it to put in washingt washington -- >> i totally agree. i'm thrilled mayor bloomberg is engaged in this. what i'm suggesting is why don't we go after these senators and by the way members the house who have taken wrong votes and recruit better candidates on this issue so we'll end up -- this is a consensus we can come to. if we can get rid of the bad senators and bad house repres t representativ

representatives. kick out pryor and get a primary a better democrat or find a republican better on the issue, god bless, that's great, too. but it doesn't do us a lot of good to replace pryor with someone worse. >> that goes to errol's point about how the nra works. i want harold's response after the break. up next, the nra sets its sights on a former ally. learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i've been with bp for 24 years. i was part of the team that helped deliver on our commitments to the gulf - and i can tell you, safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge safety equipment and technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all our drilling activity, twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. safety is a vital part of bp's commitment to america - and to the nearly 250,000 people who work with us here.

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disgusting because manchin's support for common sense background checks don't do anything against the second amendment and there's not a second amendment lawyer in the country who could honestly claim otherwise. what's interesting politically, howard, your boss, your deputy mayor, the mayor figures into that ad, the backlash against manchin, is it fair what the nra is doing and does your work do enough to match them? >> i think at the end of the day we have more than enough resources to meet the nra on the field and match them if not best them. so i'm not worried about that. i'm also not worried about senator mansion. this guy 0 is a hero. he stood up, did the right thing. his vote is supported by the majority of his state. he'll be fine. he'll have all the support he needs. the nra will will go after him, but i think he'll be standing tall. >> he did the right thing. the nra is thinking in terms of their guns and money.

they're making money off our kids losing their lives. the nra, they just don't get it. and enough is enough with them. and i'm proud when i hear mayor bloomberg stand up against them. i'm proud when we all stand up against the nra. i actually went face-to-face with law pierre when i went to st. louis, missouri. and everything that's on the table now i said to lapierre, i talked about sfand p your own ground, that's not having a gun in your house, stand your own ground is protecting your home, not being a vigilante. i talked to him about background checks. i talked to him about microstamping. and then, months later, the newtown happened. and he still don't get it. and you know what he said? oh, i'm so sorry, i'm going to work with your organization, i don't want lives taken. so he lied. and this is the problem.

so only thing i could come up with is, you're trying to make money continuously selling your guns and keeping your name out there saying, don't take our guns. we need to save lives. we need to stop this senseless killing. and they need -- and i said to him, join mayor bloomberg, join the president with legislation. he said, oh, no, bloomberg lets all the criminals out of jail. >> wow, two thoughts on that. number one, i would like to see the footage of you educating him. >> oh, yes. "daily news" have it. >> and number two you're hitting on such an important policy point. the nra's big agenda item before newtown they got through was a lawful commerce in arms act, which only helped manufacturers avoid being taken to court. didn't do a thing for gun owners. errol, to go back to you, the point is not bloofl bloomberg is bad. bloomberg is a net gain.

but having said that, this is a stop and frisk, he works with republicans whenever it works for him, works with tough police practices. this is not a guy who we think should get a free pass because he dip noose the debate. what we're hearing here, what do you think he could do beyond simply going on a tax. >> this is a question that has come up with mayor bloomberg repeatedly. he was asked when he ran for reelection in 2005, why are you giving so much money to the very republican party whose members are pushing in the wrong direction on gun control and a bunch of other issues you care about? the mayor's response is to say, look, if you like them on some issues you have to support them. if you don't like on others, you fight them. >> with all due respect he's given lots of money to republicans in the state senate in albany who by the way provided the votes to pass

governor cuomo's gun bill. i'm not sure about the criticism. we're able to incentivize republicans in this state to pass gay marriage and kpraensive gun bill. if we're doing that, yes, i plead guilty to that. absolutely. >> i mean, i will say this. i do think in some ways michael bloomberg is an ideal person to be behind this fight, he has money, he has political will. he is in some ways imperfect because he has other passions. guns isn't the only one. there's education reform, charter schools, also i would call it relaxing financial regulation. i don't know if howard would call it that. that leads to endorsing republicans. he endorses scott brown over elizabeth warren, has often endorsed state republicans. so as a result bloomberg is a tricky messenger for this because it leads him to often endorse rngs and it confuses -- >> we're out of time. we'll stay ton this debate. jack jackie, thank you, howard,

appreciate it. we'll make time again. errol, thank you for being here. up next, the runner making a difference for young victims of the boston bombings. a true foot soldier joins us here when we come back. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card

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#. about 19 years ago amy

polmero suffers a major motorcycle accident. she went through 27 surgeries and an amputation below the knee. that hasn't stopped her. she set the world record as the fastest marathon runner with a below the knee amputation. she's also the first to compete the 100 mile western state endurance run. are you impressed yet? she was the first woman to complete the bad water ultra marathon at 135 miles that's at pretty bad marathon. she's founded one step ahead foundation. it serves children with physical d disabilities. she's working on behalf of the four children who lost limbs in the boston bombings. she's our foot soldier this week. i'm thrilled to have her in the studio this week. thank you both for being here.

>> thank you for having us. >> tell me about what you're doing. >> we're bringing hope and trying to bring awareness to those who were affected in the tragedy just to let them know that nothing can stop you. any obstacle can be overcome. >> you talked about athletics was important to you in your whole life and when you dealt with a setback, it didn't slow you down. >> athletics is a huge part of my foundation whanand it just bs self-confident. it helps you move on and gives you goals to focus on. izzy has been out there doing her first triathlon and you can see the pride within these athletes and these young children because of sports. >> what is amy teaching you? >> she helps me like when i was rashes. she teaches me what to do and she helps me with bike riding

and running and swimming and when i did the triathlon she helped me with that too. >> i've never done a single marathon yet alone the triathlon. what's your favorite part? >> i like the swimming part. you do swimming, biking and running. my brother did it with me so that was fun. the swimming part is the most fun because you get to like, i love to swim. >> that's great. amy when you saw these images in the boston attacks you could see that people would be dealing with this from this terrible accident. what went through your mind and how did that pull you into helping with the organization? >> what immediately goes through my mind is to promote awareness and give education. the most amount of education you can get out there to let those affected know it didn't have to be that bad. losing part of your limb or part of your body is not who you are. it's a piece of you. it's just like everybody else. you get up in the morning and

you put your honor glasses. we put on our prosthetics. we're just like everybody else. we just wear prosthetics. >> there's another thing you said striking. you said my ankle hurts but other people don't have an ankle. tell me about that spirit because that's kind of amazing to me. >> it's the type of situation where you can have something happen to you and you can feel like it's the worst thing but if you really think about it, there are others who experience so much more tragic events than something like that. if you just take a moment, take a step back and realize maybe it's not so bad and get up and keep moving forward. i was in race and i was very early on in the 50 mile race and i twisted my ankle. my thought was, you know, there's a lot of little kids

waiting at the finish line for me and they don't have ankles so for me to complain about something like that is nonexistent. >> thank you for spending time with me. that's it for our show today. i want to thank you at home for watching. i'll see you tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. nerd land regulars will be here and some other people i'm excited about. we'll look at supreme court issues that will alter the civil rights in america. it's time for a preview of weekend with alex witt. could there be more edward snowden's throughout. jury selection in the george zimmerman trial. both sides have been outspoken. we will talk with trayvon martin's family attorney. you'll want to hear the uplifting story of one contestant who faced some tough

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call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. sending arms to syria. new word on what made the white house decide to give more help to the rebels. edward snowden may be sharing information with china. what does that mean for him and the u.s.? the big squeeze. one airline company plans to pack more people onto every plane but how? the new superman film, why the caped hero may be wearing more than just an s on his chest. welcome. it's high noon here in the east. it's 9:00 a.m. in the west. we have new reports suggesting more secrets could spill as the u.s. investigates just how much data edward snowden took with him to