he may have played a bad guy, but art certainly didn't imitate life. james gandolfini who changed television as we know it on the sopranos has passed away at the far too young age of 51. he died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in rome. the creator of the sopranos calls hem a genius. one of the greatest actors of time. nbc's mike taibi takes a look back at a career that spanned film, television, broadway, and a cause that was very dear to his heart. >> reporter: as new jersey mob boss tony soprano, james gandolfini ruled fiercely. >> if you can quote the rules, you can obey them, you hear me?

>> reporter: while in his personal life professing a code of honor. he was flawed and painfully human. >> be right down. >> reporter: in remembering gandolfini hbo said it was his humanness, only the good and humble side of it, that made him a beloved member of our family, a special man, a great talent who treated everyone no matter their title or position with equal respect. when it was learned he died suddenly on the way to a film festival in sicily, the reaction was one of shock and unbridled admiration from soprano's castmates, including frank vincent. >> very talented and friendly and just a guy you want to put your arm around and hug him like he's a big bear. >> reporter: from fans who haven't faded. >> i feel sad. like i grew up with him. like i knew him. >> he was amazing. amazing in everything he did. >> reporter: and from critics like alan who saw hbo's sopranos

fueled by his title character who changed television. >> tony soprano redefined the way we thought about tv leading men. we had never watched a show and loved a show about a character like this before and a lot of that came from what james gandolfini did in a performance as a monster who we somehow liked. >> reporter: this wasn't the actor's only role of course. long before he exploded on the screen as tony soprano, he had worked the broadway stage and had played a variety of vulnerable movie tough guys. the hit man, quentin tarrantino in the stunt man turned muscle for hire in the film version of "get shorty." >> i don't washing for you no more. >> reporter: after the soprano's run ended in 2007, gandolfini never stopped ending. as new york's mayor, one, two, three opposite denzel washington, as the cia officer

in last year's "zero dark thirty." he took time to learn about the lives and burdens of american troops fighting in iraq. it became a documentary he discussed with brian williams in a segment that aired on "today." >> i feel like people think they're disposable people. they just don't pay attention to this. >> because he paid attention, he hoped his public would, too. and then in a way like the character with whom he will always be identified, his time ended suddenly. a black screen out of nowhere. a series, tony soprano, over. an unforgetable character. and now the actor who made him that way. >> that was nbc's mike taibi. here with us is john alpert. he was in the process of working with james gandolfini for working on a third. everyone knows him as tony

soprano. you worked with him on several projects which featured soldiers coming home from iraq, the physical and emotional toll the war has had on them. let's take a look. >> i didn't have a choice in getting blown up obviously. i didn't wake up in the morning and say, cool, it's my turn to do a sacrifice. i don't view it as a sacrifice. i was a soldier. i got hurt. it's what happens. i used to be very angry about it because i didn't know what i was going to do with my life. i thought i couldn't do things with my life and i saw people like myself who live and prosper and everything's groovy and i began to believe that everything would get groovy and it got groovy. >> good for you. >> i'm sorry i talk a lot. >> no. listen. we're on your side. >> thank you. >> thank you. it's an honor. >> john, tell us about the man you knew, the man who felt compelled to tell their stories.

>> well, did you see at the end of that clip, jim holds the soldier and he gives him a kiss. there isn't a better representation of who jim gandolfini is and was than that. i never kissed a man before i kissed jim gandolfini. that's just how i was and i understand that everyone's telling the same story. he really cared for people. he wanted to do something to help people. he said, you know, i'm a celebri celebrity. i want to use this in a way that will help and he worked hard at it. he did a good job. >> before the sopranos started, it seemed like he was always playing characters named vinnie, angelo, tony, joey. his heritage was important to him. i read that he had reservations about the way italian americans were portrayed in the sopranos, he took that seriously. for all the italian mooks he played, i can say that because i'm italian, he explained

himself as a 260 pound woody allen. was he type cast? >> any time he had a chance to play a different role, the director of the cia, he did a really good job. his community opportunities were good. he cared about community media, community television. he loved the high school kids that studied there. he gave them all cameras this year for christmas so that they could tell their stories. >> wow. >> he really was -- >> most people don't know about his theater experience. i saw him in god of -- >> did you see that? i never go to the theater. i was astonished. my mouth was open the whole time. >> a fantastic man but of course a great actor. one of the great television actors of our time. people who get associated with one character often people say, oh, that's who you are. they don't understand the depth that you have to put into that character to make that character iconic. talk about jim as an actor and

especially what he put into tony soprano to make tony soprano e iconic. >> what's interesting is, he was always so gracious when people came up to him. he couldn't go anywhere in new york city without anybody stopping, wanting to get their picture taken with him, talk to him. he had time for everybody. i never saw another man like that. i've seen lots of actors and celebrities. at some point you have enough. jim was always willing to share and talk with anyone. >> john, this is ari in washington. i want to ask you, why do you think so many people felt like they knew him? >> they did. this helped when we were making the documentaries because even though the stories that jim was eliciting were of hurt, pain, very, very personal stories, they felt like they knew him. he was in your living room every single sunday. i didn't watch any tv shows. i shouldn't say this. i didn't watch any other tv

shows except the sopranos. i felt like jim was in my living room and i knew him before i met him. everyone felt that way. >> before you came out, you were talking about his shore house. it was for the 500 to hang out. you would have been down there with him this summer. let's talk about that sharing part of him, that sharing fun house. >> jim always carried people with him that were with him from the beginning when he was in high school, college. you were always part of his team and circle and it kept getting bigger and bigger and it kept coming to the house. he didn't want to be alone. he wanted to share every part of his goodness and every part of the blessings that he had with other people. he always made us all feel welcome. >> i know he didn't get to finish working on your documentary and he had a couple of other things in production. do you know what other plans he had? >> well, i know that he cared very much about the soldiers and their sacrifice. he wanted to make sure that we

took care of them. if they were going to serve us, we need to serve them when they come back. we made two documentaries about that. he also cared about people with learning disabilities. he knew that people with learning disabilities if they got an opportunity, if they got a chance at a good education, then finally they could accomplish anything. this was the documentary we were making. would he found out that in prison 60% of the prison population in the united states have a learning disability. >> wow. >> maybe if we spent five cents when you're in the third grade you don't have to spend dollars and dollars down the road. that's what he wanted the country to understand. >> jon alpert, thank you for sharing your gandolfini. >> he's everyone. break throughs in immigration to tell you about. we'll go live to capitol hill next. next, a final toast to james gandolfini. >> i miss it sometimes, i'll be honest, the wine.

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out of sanford, florida. the jury has been picked for the george zimmerman trial. all six jurors are women. breaking news on wall street. the dow is in free fall. they're still reacting to the fed saying they'll drop the rates. more tropical trouble. barely three weeks into hurricane season, barry made landfall late this morning in mexico with 40-mile-per-hour winds, flooding rains and mud slides remaining a big concern. u.s. main land is not at risk. they could use some of that rain out west though where some of the most destructive wild fire weather in history. the latest outbreak is affecting six states including colorado, arizona, and california. flames from that last fire are blocking a major entrance to the historic yosemite national park. it's being called a break through for immigration reform. a bipartisan group of senators has reached a deal to strengthen

border security that would allow more republicans to get on board with the senate plan. just last hour one of the deal's architects, bob corker, took to the senate floor. >> we have an opportunity to do something that america needs, and that is to solve the immigration issue that we have and to also ensure that in doing so we've absolutely secured the border. some people describe this as a border surge and the fact is that we are investing resources and securing our border that have never been invested before. >> border surge. clever. the actual amendment crafted by the gang of eight and hoever. doubling the size of the border patrol, requiring 700 miles of new border fencing and the everify system and nbc's kelly o'donnell is live on capitol hill. kelly, how does this change the

debate happening there? even if it's a break through for the senate, we know the real test still lies in the house, right? >> that is true. the real test will be in the house but the moment of politics right now is about attracting more republican senators who could get on board if they can. the supporters of this idea can convince them that you would see a two-step process here, having strengthened protections at the border, not just the southern border which is visually what we so often think about, but things like those who overstay their visas. there would be tougher constraints about entry and exit visas. if they could do that before the legalization part of immigration reform would happen. would there be enough security before legalization. the underlying concern is there are many that say that what happened in previous attempts going back to 1986 to change the immigration system did not resolve the long-term problem of

more illegal immigration. can they fix the problem is one of the big issues here. this's so much debate going on. they're still tweaking and writing this new compromise that you talked about. we hope to see it sometime later this afternoon. unclear how many republicans it will bring along, but for the last hour or so there have been a lot of positive things said on the senate floor. the most strongly against it are not going to be moved by this. it's still a numbers game. we don't know exactly how it will turn out but it is a political turning point in what has been a very long political conversation about immigration. today does feel like an important day. >> okay. thank you, kelly. good to see you. in addition to the border security gang, there's another fascinating alliance at work behind the scenes of the immigration debate between the latino community and the tech industry. latino advocacy groups want comprehensive immigration reform for the 11 million undocumented workers in the united states. the tech industry wants an increase in the number of so called h 1 b visas for high

skilled worker immigrants so they've come together and tried to win over key republicans to get what they want out of reform. it's not that sim. . let's bring in the deputy staff secretary to president clinton. david, tell me about the role that the tech community has been playing in carving out this legislation. >> well, you started to describe it well. the fact of the matter is there are not enough high skilled workers the tech companies believe in the united states. they have to bring in people from elsewhere in the world and that requires a lot of visas. under the current policy we don't have a high enough number in their view. they would be happy, i think, just to have that piece of immigration reform done. and what the latino advocacy groups have really pushed for, and succeeded in achieving in the senate, is the notion that you can't do this piecemeal. you can't just take care of that one problem and ignore the problem of having 11 million undocumented workers.

you've got to do it together as a package. senate democrats have adopted that as a position. you have this alliance, therefore. if the tech companies want what they want, they've got to work on getting comprehensive reform passed. that is proving to be a very strong ally to latino groups and other proponents of immigration reform who need latino votes badly. >> david, let's talk a little bit about the new cbo report out on the senate's immigration proposal. one cbo says the new senate plan will only reduce illegal immigration by 25%. what's up with that? and, two, you know, i seem to recall a number of cbo reports changing over the course of a year or so on the cost of obama care on the affordable care act. in fact, we could put up a quick chart that i found from the weekly standard on that. i believe and i'm asking your opinion here, too, that we'll

probably see these reports and the cost of immigration numbers change as well, yeah? >> i don't think you'll find anybody who really thinks about these issues say to you that what cbo says will happen in ten years is actually going to happen in ten years. >> right. >> but the bottom line is, we need to have some referee in washington who will establish what things cost and how much revenue will be raised. >> yeah. >> and it's just been generally agreed that that referee is cbo. a lot of times cbo's estimates change because actual economic facts change. the economy's getting better, employment is going up, they'll revise their numbers accordingly. that's fair. the only thing i want to say is of course predictions become correct. we have to agree on who's in charge of predicting before we make a decision. >> of course, predictions are not always right, but the key fact of the cbo report is that it scored this immigration bill extraordinarily high and it will be extremely helpful to the

american economy. >> right. >> this will be valuable for all of us. so do you think that this cbo report will change or help the impact -- will change the immigration debate or will people who are against it still say, well, i don't believe it. i don't care about what that says? >> well, i think it does change things for the better if you're in favor of immigration reform, which i am. we proponents of immigration reform are always sort of saying in a generic way, this is good for the economy. you bring in talented people. you bring in ambitious people, people who want to work, stay here, buy a house, buy a car. that's good for the economy. what the cbo report shows, it's also good for the federal budget. it's also good for actually seeing a reduction in our deficit. and i think what really this does is it smokes out what i will call some latent racism really that's in this debate because the fact of the matter is you can't tell me at the same time that you care about reducing the deficit and you want to keep out illegal

immigrants forever for no reason. those two thoughts can't exist in a person's mind at the same time unless you want to be a total hypocrite. so this cbo report helps show that either you're in favor of an expanding economic situation in the united states or you'd rather have shut them out at all costs as your rallying cry, and that's really helpful to stripping bare what people really believe in. >> what word, david, you had a like immigrants to pour into the country legally. there is that third option. >> legally is the key word there. >> yeah. >> yes. >> that's right. >> my own view is that sarah was a jewish refugee from the soviet union who was allowed in the united states and started google. >> we're grateful for him. people are grateful for legal immigration. there are two options. we want to keep them all out or let them all in. >> david, the actual point -- >> the reason we're having this

legislative debate is to do this in a smart way that's productive. >> yes, that's true, s.e., but what i hear coming from i'll call them the opponents of immigration reform is that we have to have border security as the driving paramount most important value when it comes to immigration. >> 60% of the country agrees that border security is the most important focus of immigration reform. >> the polls i show show the country pretty divided about where that line should be drawn. in other words, the reason why the securities first crowd is losing the debate in the senate is because the federal government doesn't do anything 100% of the time. doesn't collect 100% of the taxes, doesn't enforce 100% of the laws. nothing is ever 100%. they're setting the bar to such a degree -- >> it's currently 40%. that's according to the gao. the border is 40% secure. that is a travesty. >> well, i'm a big believer that we can walk and chew gum at the

same time. we can improve security and we can have 11 million people who are living here have a pathway to citizenship. by the way, by the way, i'm not even saying it's on moral grounds. let's help the economy. the cbo put it best. if we actually put this in place, you're going to see revenues rise. by the way, if you are allowed to live here and you want to have a life, what's the first thing you're going to do? you're going to buy a house and buy a car. that's good for the economy too. i don't think we've absorbed just how good for the american economy having some predictability in our immigration policy is. i'll tell you, there's a famous latino boxer who started a company to do home loans. why? why? because he actually figured out that if suddenly people who are here and know they can stay here, what are they going to do? they're going to buy a house. he wants to be first in line to help them get that loan. that's the kind of economic activity that i would hope to see as a result of immigration reform. we ought to be talking about that instead of talking about border, fences, security. >> oh, why.

border security. we have to leave it there and pick it up another time. >> thank you. up next, oh, the anticipation. supreme court, why do you tease us so? ♪ anticipation is making me wait ♪ wait♪ ♪

it is the most important decision the supreme court justice has made all week. justice samuel alito decided to throw the first ball in last night rangers' game against the oakland a's. i'm joking. the court issued three decisions today but not what everybody is waiting for. we need to hear from the high court in order to hand down opinions in 11 cases including same-sex marriage, doma, and prop 8. with 11 left to go, the odds are that they will add at least

wednesday or even thursday to the schedule. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams and tom goldsteen are back. welcome, guys. looks like you're having fun without big decisions. thanks for being here. >> nothing else to do. >> yeah. >> as you know, not much happened today. tom, i did want to ask you about one interesting free speech case. we saw the supreme court in an alliance of some of the less conservative members as well as justice roberts look at a 2003 law that a lot of people agree with, an aids -- a law basically to counter aids around the world. and in that law congressmen said people or groups who get money have to profess an opposition to sex trafficking and prostitution. why did justice roberts say that doesn't pass muster? >> well, what the chief justice and the court said here is that these are private contractors. they have constitutional rights and when they are out there in

the countries working on combatting aids, they have the right to speak their mind and up can't effectively require them to take a loyalty oath. that violates their right to free speech. >> right. what the court said is you can't take the federal government's money and then use that money to state a position the government disagrees with but on the other hand you can't say that the groups have to give the government's message if they're spending -- if they're doing something to help the government. >> so, pete, let's talk calendar here. so monday is the last official decision day but we've seen really big decisions come up at the very last minute. we have laurence v texas which was handed down in the last day of 2003, june 26th. we had the affordable care act, obama care, that was decided the last thursday of 2012, june 28th. what's the possibility that we could see decision days as our graphic showed wednesday and thursday but also into july, july 1st? >> well, 100% that we'll get

them some other day in the last week. we go through this every year. the last monday in june is the last formally scheduled day when the calendar is printed a year before, but the court always adds extra decision days. it never gets all its homework done and needs to add extra days as we go through. now it's been a long time since we've had a decision reach into july. there's no reason it can't. the term doesn't formally end until september 30th but the justices all the try to wrap up in late june. it was 1996 we got three decisions on july 1st of that year, of the calendar. it hit the same layout as it is this year. you know, i'm not sure that the court knows whether everything will be done in time. they're still working on it. they're not holding these things back because they want to parcel them out bit by bit and to build drama. they're simply not done. you know, they know how the cases are going to come out but they're still tweaking the majority opinions and dissents. they may not know when they're going to be finished yet.

>> tom, you've argued in front of the court before. i want to talk to you about one of the justices who i find fascinating, justice scalia. in the past he's said some whacky things, but in the past he's surprised me grouping with the liberal bunch against dna collection, leading against arizona, proof of citizenship to vote. talk to me a little bit about what makes him tick? >> he's a really principled guy. his principles may take him in some liberal directions with results he doesn't like. the rebirth, for example, like you said of the fourth amendment right to privacy is really at the hands of this very conservative justice, justice scalia. he looks at the texts, he looks at the history and says the fourth amendment, sixth amendment, right to counsel are taken when the constitution was yiten and i'm going to enforce it. >> he calls himself the pinup for the criminal defense bar. >> nice. that's an image.

senators dick durbin and chuck grassley are pushing the cameras in the courtroom act. do you think we could see these come down on cameras so we're not listening to the audio tapes? >> it will not happen in your lifetime or mine. the supreme court is hard over on this. arlen specter tried this when he was in the senate. senators feel strongly. there are a whole bunch of reasons why this won't happen any time soon. the justices are hard on it. they feel it could change the institution in ways they are not sure of and they don't want to tamper with it. secondly, we have a potential problem here. if the congress tells them how to do their business, it may raise separation problems. it's not going to happen for a long time. look how hard it is to get same-day audio out of this

court. they're very leary of changing the way they do things. >> i know. sad face. >> it's such an interesting point, pete, as well because it goes to the difference between a model of transparency and medium. all of the words are available to the public but we're seeing in a tv era, all people wanting a tv medium. nobody expects that to happen soon. thank you both for joining us. >> do they still give quill pens to people who argue? >> absolutely. >> that tells you what era the supreme court is in. >> absolutely. and we are still waiting on two big gay marriage decisions from the court, but one prominent conservative is already weighing in on why the gop should embrace marriage equality. we are going to spin on that next ♪ 9 to 5, what a way to make a living ♪ ♪ barely getting by ♪ it's all taking and no giving ♪ ♪

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hasn't ruled on two monumental marriage equality cases, but we continue to see some surprising decisions from the court of public opinion. as we first reported in wednesday's news cycle, alaska's lisa murkowski became the third republican senator to openly back marriage equality. she joins her gop colleagues mark kirk of illinois and rob portman of ohio. will the high court follow their lead? my answer might be a bit predictable. but of course i think they should. think about t marriage equality has something for liberals and conservatives alike. freedom, family, oh, yeah, keeping the government out of our bedrooms. it's a no brainer, but i just have to say that -- i have to add something that lisa murkowski added in her statement and that was and out of our families. i think too often the discussion on gay rights, marriage equality boils down to, oh, being gay is only about sex. it's only about what happens in the bedroom when really this

whole conversation, this fight is about legal protection for lgbt families so they have the stability and protection just like everybody else under the law. >> yeah, agreed. i'll add to murkowski's comments as a conservative who's advocated for gay marriage and gay rights. for me, marriage should be promoted. it's a stabilizing factor and gets people less dependent on government when they're in a marriage. two, we should want a smaller government. we should want the government out of our private lives, out of the bedroom and out of our family planning and all of that stuff. agreed. i will add a third one, i talked about it earlier this week, and that's the issue of adoption. if conservatives are pro life, many of us are, then we should also be pro adoption as an alternative to abortion. if we're pro adoption then we should be for all kinds of loving families who want to adopt to be able to do so. so we should be in favor of gay adoption. that means we should be in favor of gay marriage then. so for me it's not just about gay rights, it's also about

marriage, limited government, family and, frankly, right to life issues. >> my hope here that the court has the courage to lead. it's not just for the oppressed to have to wait until those who would hold back progress or are dead or are ready for it. they can shove america and not even into the future into the present. there are so many people clinging to the glass. shove america to the future. i hope that they will, ari. >> i want to pick up on something earlier. jonathan, can we talk about gay sex for a second? i'm serious. >> awkward. >> you mentioned this. it's serious. you mentioned this is not just about sex or gay sex or whatever kind of sex people choose to have. it's not. yet i want to be very clear, under the current president you have -- we all have the right to certain kinds of sex but not to certain kinds of relationships. not to marriage. and i think that is a giant hole in this jurisprudence. i think it is absurd and i thinking it bigoted that we have

a court that finally in the '80s said, oh, well actually you can't have these sodomy laws because they're antigay. of course they are. we still have to wait and figure out whether beyond the sex you can have a relationship or have the kind of family ties that s.e. is talking about. young people have this figured out. progressives have this figured out. as you just said, jonathan, a lot of conservatives have this figured out. my hope is the court figures this out and blows a whole in their own inconsistent jurisprudence. we need to protect the family ties and the relationships that ultimately come out of a positive relationship. >> can i give a quick shout out to my friends rob and tom who are getting married this weekend. i'll be at the wedding. very excited for them. >> great. >> meet the writer book critics is heralding as the lady gaga of literature. you may know him. it's toure. ♪

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obviously. >> you like girls' wild tales of sexual lady running in the city. you'll love "on my knees." a sexual comic memoir. a woman freshly out of a relationship who treats new york like a candy store that is until she meets a guy named guy. i tried hard to find a book i could read to you. this book is way too raunchy. i'll let her tell you about it. i'd like to welcome my friend to the guess spot. she's the author of "on my knees" which hits stores this week. perry, how are you? welcome to the table. >> thank you very much. thank you for having me. >> you've written a memoir but no one outside of your large circle of friends in new york city knows who you are so what right did you have to write the memoir. >> no offense. >> the biggest challenge is trying to get everybody as interested in me as i am in

myself. it seems to be working okay so far. >> well, yes. it's a very self-absorbed gesture. >> i am kind of self-absorbed so -- >> let me pull you away from yourself and have you talk about someone else, hannah. >> hannah. >> tell me about hannah. what's up with hannah? >> well, she's an interesting character in the book and in real life. i think hannah's sort of like the fall girl. i mean, it's sort of a lot easier to look at your friends and judge them than to pay attention to the fact that your own life is falling apart. so i think that hannah turned out to be sort of a window into what's wrong with me. >> or a mirror. >> or a mirror. yeah. >> we all need a hannah. >> you write a lot about your sex life. >> uh-huh. >> why do i want to know about your sex life. i don't know, do you want to

know? >> is that a metaphor for something? >> definitely not a metaphor. i mean, for me it was. there were moments that it wasn't entertaining at all. there were moments it was sort of devastating. >> huh. >> i think finding the humor in it all is sort of what saved me. >> yeah. >> i mean, you're finding the humor in it all, but are all your friends, your hannahs and others, are they also finding the humor in it? are you like telling people's stories. they're like, what are you doing to me, perry? >> i don't have any friends left. my parents stopped talking to me. i think people have a pretty good sense of humor about themselves until they don't anymore and they have some like romantic notion of being written about until i actually write about them. >> about their sex lives? yeah. you reveal your parents in this, too. >> fair game. everybody knows i'm a writer, you know? i don't pretend i'm like a

scientist. >> so anything anybody says to you is -- might end up in a book? >> with some boundaries, yes. i mean, if somebody told me something in full confidence, i would never repeat that. >> i don't know if you have any boundaries. >> full confidence? does someone have to say this is off the record? >> yes. >> or in full confidence, this is in the vault? >> don't put this in a book. >> yes. like promise me you won't write about this and then if i give you my word -- >> don't write about ari. >> i have a question for you here from washington. i want to ask this off the record just between us, just between me and you. >> i swear i won't write about this, ari. >> and "the cycle" audience. no one leak or tweet. when you look at a lot of the conversation, we began with a clip from "girls" which focuses on a post feminist world where young women have potentially more freedom than their parents' generation. >> sure. >> there's a lot of talk in your book as well about how you get

from there to meaningful relationships. why does it seem like so many young people are looking for commitment while often people in marriages are wishing they were younger or freer? >> well, i think part of the problem is the advice that girls are given about how to behave a these rules that they're supposed to follow. like you're not supposed to do certain things that i won't articulate because we're on national television. >> at 3:00 in the afternoon. >> at 3:00 in the afternoon. >> it's almost 4:00. >> and i think that those rules are just made up, and i think that that's part of really the problem. >> what's the most important rule to break? >> all of them. >> oh, boy. >> there are no rules. they're just made up. i think that counting on men that you barely know for your self-confidence is a terrible idea. i mean, i think that you should do what you feel like doing because you feel like doing it. >> and in the end of the book,

you do find your prince. you meet him in tel aviv and guy is now your husband. >> he is my prince. he was supposed to be my prince for one night. >> was it supposed to be that long? >> or, you know, a part of that night. and, well, now we've been married for almost three years so -- he lured me in. >> with child on the way. >> was that going to change your sort of raunchy writing persona at all and the kind of stuff you write about or no? >> i really hope not. >> don't let this kid get in the way. >> yeah. >> of your adventures. >> my mother is like really concerned about his well-being. >> his being the baby. >> yeah, the baby's. i think there are a lot worse things i could be doing. a lot less interesting things i

could be doing. he'll get on board. he'll be okay. he doesn't really have a choice. >> no, he doesn't. >> he doesn't. but he's going to change you, too. it's not a one-way street. >> you keep telling me that. >> they change us as we change them. >> you keep telling me that. >> it's true. it's true. you will see. all right. perry, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> best of luck with the book. >> thank you. >> and the baby. up next, republican darrell issa likes to go after the president. watch out mr. oversight committee chairman, john capehart is coming after you. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment.

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karen finney shared an interesting conspiracy theory. take a listen. >> so here is my theory on this now. it seems like you've got darrell issa basically losing credibility. now you have got dick cheney and other conservatives trying to keep this thing alive, right? >> this works, this works. keep going. >> here we go. that essentially what this is about is if they can continue the scandal, then they can deny the irs the additional funds they need for the implementation of the affordable care act. >> while i didn't latch onto the conspiracy part of her thesis, i thought she had a very good theory and then a letter dropped into my lap that proves she isn't hyping some liberal talking point. on june 13th darrell issa and congressman dave camp sent a seven-page letter to jack lew asking for a mountain of documents. as part of their investigation

of the internal revenue services politicalization of the tax exempt application review process, the chairman of the committee on oversight and government reform and the chairman on ways and means respectively requested, quote, materials aiding the committee's responsibility to the american people of understanding the nature and scope of the irs' scrutiny or groups based on political criteria. the deadline is noon on june 27th. there were nine specific demands for all manner of communications and documentation among treasury employees related to various aspects of the irs scandal but request number eight is the sore thumb of the bunch. quote, all documents and communications sent by, received by, or copied to any employee of the department of the treasury between january 1, 2009, and the present referring or relating to the establishment of the irs affordable care office and the corresponding personnel and staffing decisions for the affordable care act office.

obama care. come on, let's drop it. has nothing to do with the sloppy practices of workers in the irs' cincinnati office. still, that hasn't stopped republicans from making the rhetorical link between the two. senator rand paul said this at a tea party yesterday. >> we want to fire some irs agents? why don't we start with the 16,000 irs agents they're goiatg to implement obama care. >> number eight is the definition of a fishing expedition and it's the first time the irs scandal and the obama administration have been linked np it's an attempt to find anything that could be used to undermine the president's greatest legislative accomplishment. the gop-controlled house has voted 37 times to repeal the affordable care act. a useless exercise that house leadership allows to happen to

keep its caucus caucus moll fied for a few weeks. i asked what is up with the obama care stuff? his spokeswoman said, sarah hall ingram and a number of other workers in the tax exempt government entities division before moving to the affordable care act office. so is there a concern that those employees might or would selectively apply the tax provisions of obama care? watkins said, quote, it's just asking for information, not expressing a concern. well, if there's no concern, then why ask the question? also, it should be pointed out that lew told bloomberg's al hunt during an interview in may that ingram had moved from the tax exempt office to the aca office before the troubling actions began. look, i'm no fan of conspiracy theories but when it comes to the contention that the real aim of the irs scandal is to undermine the agency as a means to get at obama care, the isa letter shows finney was on to

something. speaking of on to something, we are done. it's time for martin bashir. martin. >> >> thank you so much. good afternoon. it's thursday, june 20th, and the speaker has been beaten by his own caucus once again. ♪ >> the time for games is up. >> he can expect to see a substantial improvement in the border security parts of this bill. >> i have not seen the proposal. >> always been this xenophobe ya. >> they have less than a high school education. the idea they're going to improve our economy just doesn't work. >> my job isn't to try to impose my will. >> i call him president barack onixon. >> your street cred collapses. >> this guy was the great hope. he was the tea party senator. >> god bless the tea party. >> i was a stranger and you