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tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  July 16, 2013 10:00pm-11:01pm PDT

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tonight in washington, the nuclear option has been avoided in the senate, and democrats and republicans have finally agreed on a way to make the senate work a little better. >> you could call it the senate's own cold war. >> the filibuster is at the heart of a huge showdown today. >> are democrats preparing to go nuclear? >> the nuclear option. >> nuclear option. >> that nuclear option. >> changing longstanding senate rules to confirm cabinet nominees have been held up by senate republicans. >> how close are the democrats pushing the senate button? >> we'll move past the closure vote.
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this is a gesture of good faith. >> it is not a bad deal. >> the senate has reached a tentative deal. >> 45 minute before the deadline. >> the senate has voted, 71 votes, including republicans. richard cordray. >> he will move past the cloture vote for mr. cordray. >> this is a gesture of good faith. >> not a bad deal. >> we averted the so-called nuclear deal, we're here in 2013, my sense is we'll be here again in the not too distant future. >> the nuclear option. >> the nuclear option. >> nuculear, it is pronounced. >> it is not a bad deal. >> almost two full years to the
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day after richard cordray was nominated by president obama to be the head of the protection bureau, they confirmed him to that job after first having a vote to allow a vote to confirm him to that job. such is the traffic jam senate republicans have created on confirming presidential nominations of all sorts, including judges. it was only after last night in a closed door meeting of 98 senators that harry reid was able to convince republicans that he really was ready to go forward with a change in senate rules that would prevent filibustering presidential nominees. it was first conceived years ago when the use of nuclear option would have provoked unlimited war with the democrats on the senate floor who then objected to the idea. once the democrats got the senate majority back and the
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republican minority started to road-block and delay the presidential nomination. the democrats began to see the beauty of the option. so tonight, order has been restored in the senate for the way things were for a couple of hundred years until the senate republicans decided to make the place pretty much dysfunctional. in that deal to avert the option, as in all bipartisan senate deals, each side got something. the president and the democrats get a clear route to a confirmation vote on six more nominees. the republicans consider controversial. the republicans forced the president to withdraw two of his nominees for the national labor relations board. but only with the promise from republicans that they will not filibuster the president's choices to replace those nominations. tonight, the white house announced its new nominees will be nancy schiffer, associate general counsel of the aflcio,
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and kent hirizawa. >> it is a compromise, and i think we get what we want. and they get what they want. not a bad deal. >> harry reid identified the key player on the republican side in pulling this deal together and thanked him publicly. >> john mccain is the reason we're at the point we are. a lot of people have been extremely helpful. but this is all directed toward john mccain from me, no one was able to break through but for him. >> e. j.dionne, and so comedy is restored at least on presidential nominations that are not for judgeships. >> well, you know, i think this is a really big deal, because whether or not had been happening, if the republicans
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simply were not blocking nominations but at the point where they said we don't like this consumer protection bureau, even though it is part of the law. we can't repeal it. so we'll just block the guy running it and keeping it from operating. we're worried that the idea may be pro-worker. this rose to a level even beyond the craziness we see in washington. everybody kept talking about the nuclear option, the constitutional option, there is nothing in the constitution that says it ought to require 60 votes to confirm a senate nominee. so yeah, they threw in folks who were going to have to resign from the nrlb, this was a victory for the president and the democrats. but also i think for getting a more normal senate again. >> it was a big victory for the democrats, and i'm not sure that the fans of this kind of political theater get that they had to give the republicans something.
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you couldn't go into that room last night with all the senators, basically and said you will get absolutely nothing. it couldn't work. >> you're a creature of the senate, you know -- >> i take that as a compliment, sir. >> you know better than anyone, but if you're going to make a deal you make a deal. there has to be two sides to a deal. the option that harry reid had, which some people from the left wanted him to do was just to say enough already. there has been in the history of this country 20 presidential nominees who have been filibuster, and under obama's watch there have been 16 because of these obstructions. republicans, draw the line and say we are just pulling the trigger here. and saying well, we're going to change this part of the filibuster, not all the other filibusters. and there was an argument to do that. okay, this was your chance to do that, but harry reid being truly a creature of the senate. and a few of the democrats, carl
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levin and others were kind of hincky about making a rule change because you have to break a rule to change this rule which you could do under the constitution. and so they basically gave into two of the terrorist demands. two heads we're going to give you in order to move ahead. and it is really still somewhat of a pity that the two heads had to be sacrificed on the altar. you get the great progressive, champion of labor, so all of this is a positive development. >> you know, i actually -- creature of the senate just came from a little event at the senate run by an evening sponsored by the congressional historical society. and -- a dozen senators there, bipartisan orrin hatch and others, and they were talking about this as it feels like, to them, like something important has happened here. and the guys who have been
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around before this kind of roadblock stuff was done are really talking as if this is a new day. this really is going to change. >> well, i think it is a new day, because a very large group of republicans undercut mitch mcconnell, their leader, that mcconnell had been aligned with them. he fought fiercely over campaign finance reform. but i think the outside pressure, i talked the senator, they had been really trying to push the senate to get rid of the filibuster or really water it down. they're pretty happy today because they know they started a campaign in 2011 -- >> wouldn't have happened without them. >> the old guard needed the pressure. >> exactly. >> and they were reflecting outside groups and democratic constituents. >> he said it was the first time
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on what seems like a dry procedural issue but is in fact a huge deal about getting things done. that there was a big pressure from the outside. >> and i did also think in terms of negotiations, harry reid looked serious. there was a deadline, and it looked like he was going to take a step that he probably would prefer not to. but that it had gotten to such a point that there was no way for the executive branch to function. and this is the issue. a guy gets elected president. is he allowed to run the government, you know, just by hiring people? and you know, this is different than judges, right? because judges last forever. and it is even different than filibustering legislation. this is for the most -- part of the most annoying, irritating, petty form of obstructionism. and i think harry reid was finally going to play tough. and so republicans said what can we get out of it to save face?
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they have the two appointees at the labor relations board, and harry reid was getting pulled from other groups. >> look at what the obstructionism was actually preventing. look at what the cordray vote turned out to be, 66 votes in favor. so the obstructing his nomination meant you were obstructing not just majority rule in the senate. you were obstructing the bipartisan view of two thirds of the senate. >> and you were taking a law that was duly passed by congress, and saying we're not going to let that law take effect. and i don't think we can overlook the fact that having cordray confirmed, this has really substantive effects. when people apply for credit cards, they have a substantial place in government that is going to try to keep them from getting ripped off. >> there is tonight, a wonderful consequence to the republican obstructionism, we have cordray
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and elizabeth warren. >> instead of in that job she couldn't even be nominated because of the sense of how strong the republican occupancy was. >> cordray is in that part because she pushed him. she is a very big advocate. so you have this very strong person there, and the godmother of this raising hell in a good way on the senate floor. and putting more pressure on the banks and big companies and finance so they can't pull off their shenanigans. and republicans who tear their hair out have only themselves to blame. because they allowed the normal course of affairs to happen in washington. the president would have appointed her and it wouldn't have been a fuss.
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>> and two words that can't be over-used in talking about washington, irony and paradox. and you might still have a republican senator from massachusetts, scott brown might have been reelected if he was not ran against by elizabeth warren, who was such a strong candidate. >> ultimately, we get caught up with the process. and the president, and the senators sometimes get dragged down, too. but this really is about some big issues, someone at the epa who wants to do something about climate change. tom perez, who has a record of working for americans. and those are the big issues that as we have these procedural fights the president, the democrats have to keep reminding people this is what is at stake. otherwise it does look kind of petty and silly and high schoolish. >> and procedure is ultimately about substance. >> david cornyn and e. j.dionne.
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>> and breaking news from the jury, a statement has just been released from four of the jurors in reaction to juror b-37's high profile media presence. and later in the rewrite, congress got it right in 1933. and then they got it wrong in 1999 when they rewrote what they did in 1933. and now elizabeth warren and john mccain are trying to get congress to rewrite itself again, and basically pass the law it passed in 1933. how is that for rewriting. congress goes back to the future in tonight's rewrite.
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breaking news now from the zimmerman jury. they have just released a statement done on the stationary of the 18th judicial circuit court, state versus zimmerman jurors, request privacy, we
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understand there is a great deal of interest in this case. and we ask you to remember we are not public officials and did not invite this attention in our lives. we also wish to express that the juror who made her information known was not our wishes, this has been a draining experience for each of us. the death of a teenager weighed heavily in our hearts. but in the end we did what the law required us to do. we appeal to the highest standards of your profession and ask the media to respect our privacy and give us time to process what we have been through. thank you, juror e-6, juror e-40. we will be back with more on the zimmerman verdict. ♪ [ male announcer ] some question physics. some question gravity.
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it didn't come up that the question of, did george zimmerman profile trayvon martin because he was african-american? >> no, i think he just profiled him because he was the neighborhood watch and he profiled anybody that came in acting strange. >> that was juror b-37 from the trial, on cnn last night. the four other jurors in the case have just released a statement, saying that her views are not in any way representative of the jurors listed below, and it was then signed by four other jurors, not by name, just their number. today, in front of an audience at the naacp convention, u.s. attorney general eric holder clearly indicated he believes race was a factor in what happened that night to trayvon
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martin. >> years ago, some of these same issues drove my father to sit down with me. to have a conversation. which is no doubt familiar to many of you. about how as a young black man i should interact with the police, what to say. and how to conduct myself if i was ever stopped or confronted in a way that i thought was unwarranted. trayvon's death last spring caused me to sit down, to have a conversation with my own 15-year-old son. like my dad did with me. this was a father/son tradition i hoped would not need to be handed down. but as a father who loves his son, and who is more knowing in the ways of the world, i had to do this to protect my boy. >> in that same speech that the attorney general made his first public comments on the "stand your ground laws." >> it is time to question laws that senselessly expand the
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concept of self-defense and throw dangerous conduct in our neighborhoods. these laws try to fix something that was never broken. we must stand our ground to ensure. we must stand our ground to ensure that our laws reduce violence and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent. >> joining me now, jonathan capehart, "washington post" opinion writer, and msnbc analyst, professor, you wrote in "the new york times" today, the
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anger felt by so many african-americans speaks to the simplest of truths that race and law cannot be separated. we're tired of hearing that race is a conversation for another day. we're tired of hearing that reasonable doubt is not in every sense of the word "colored." explain that, professor. >> well, when this case first started, so many people were focused owner whether or not this was a "stand your ground" case, or self defense case. those are important questions, no doubt about that. but at the end of the day, the reason it was a self defense case was that george zimmerman argued that he followed trayvon martin perfectly lawfully and then was put in fear of his life. now, if george zimmerman -- if george zimmerman had followed -- if another george zimmerman had followed somebody, had chased them for minute after minute.
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had pursued them, the person had tried to get away, and then had gotten out of his car and pursued them again, by most state's laws, he would be at least the instigator, and thus would no longer be able to claim self defense. the very idea that george zimmerman could isolate the entire picture to just when the fight started and how it happened is a story about george zimmerman being allowed to think of trayvon martin as suspicious, out of place, and a potential threat. and only by bracketing all the other issues do we say the only question available is whether or not he is proven to be -- proven to defend himself beyond a reasonable doubt. it is to exclude and narrow our vision to ignore some of the things that cut to the heart of this case. >> jonathan capehart, the professor argues that when you close into the details second by second, and what turn out to be the last seconds of trayvon
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martin's life, you're losing the real frame of the story. we just heard the -- the public juror on cnn last night saying race had nothing to do with it. it just had nothing to do with it. and we know that the only characteristic that george zimmerman knew about trayvon martin before he decided he was suspicious character, was his skin color. >> right, and we know that this was a concern to him because of the many phone calls that he made to the non-emergency phone number at the sanford police department, which the prosecution tried to get put into evidence and was only able to get a few of them. not, i think, the 25 or 35, all of the phone messages that george zimmerman made where he talked about you know, they were black males. or an african-american male, you know, going down the list. so as we heard in his non-emergency call, that fateful night, february 26th, under his breath he said these [ bleep ]
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always get away. these [ bleep ] punks. there is a history there that the prosecution tried to drive that home. but it didn't work. >> and professor, you talk about how the law has been written and jury instructions molded and the system designed to try to do everything it can to actually squeeze race out of a piece of litigation like this. >> well, in fact, i think what we're seeing in the country is the same realization in people's heart that the law simply tries to ignore. whatever you think of the law, whatever you think of the verdict, the core issues of this case were never fully put in the center of the trial. and that is systemically true of the legal situation. it is not that it is an isolated incident. our supreme court has ruled over and over, that for example, in the case of a stop, if a police officer can later construct a race neutral issue, there is the
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factor that the stop was pre textual, that it cannot undermine the constitutionality of the evidence that comes in. this shows a pattern of our legal system avoiding the heart of the legal questions. and it is that heart of the matter that is frustrating, in both whites but especially, african-americans in the country today. >> and jonathan capehart, in your column yesterday, you talked about the father/son conversation in america that has to occur with black fathers, black children. you wrote because of assumptions and suspicions, black kids have to be perfect in how they dress and comport themselves in public. but the zimmerman acquittal now makes it clear that justice for an innocent black child killed requires proof that he lived beyond reproach at all times.
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15-year-olds have to be living for their senate confirmation hearings if they expect to be treated with any respect in a courtroom. >> uh-huh, and so what you have here is a 17-year-old -- a teenager, who is not allowed to be a typical american teenager, who experiments with pot. who takes inappropriate pictures on his cell phone, you know, flashing the middle finger or bear -- bare-chested, or wearing inappropriate gear. for the typical teenager, that is a typical existence. but when you're an african-american teenager, that suddenly makes you someone to be feared. and what bothered me so much about juror b-37's interview, was that she completely missed trayvon martin's humanity has a
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teenager. he was not a teenager to her, judging from the portions of the interview that i have seen. he was, to her mind, not a kid, not a child. it was not even possible, it seemed, for her to think of him as a typical american teenage kid. to her mind, he was part of the problem george was trying to solve. >> and professor, the statement we have tonight in this breaking news development from the four other jurors. they're disowning everything that that other juror said. and they are stressing that in the end, they say, in the end, we did what the law required us to do. and they don't sound especially happy about having to have done that. but they do sound like those jury instructions as they heard them and as they understood them tied their hands. >> maybe they're still struggling with this. and you know, usually you say i was not there. in this case, actually, the
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coverage gave us in some real ways a front row seat. i don't know that i can agree with the jurors. i do think it is very obvious that these jurors were hard-working, one thing to remember, the statement itself, we ought to remember before we let one person's narrative, whoever it is, dominate. and i was not surprised to see this person's statement, relieved, but not surprised that one juror should not tell the world what happened, as such. the second is, part of what we're all struggling with. the difficulty of the prosecution's case and some of of the strategic decisions they made. and whether or not if we look at this situation from beginning to end, the law truly did tie their hands. and whether or not the law says if you instigate a fight you can at best get imperfect self defense. would have led to a plausible manslaughter charge. i'm sure these jurors are
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conscientious, i am sure they tried their best. but it is good for us all to take a step back and realize there was no easy choice here. >> jonathan capehart, and professor, thank you both for joining us tonight. and coming up, edward snowden has asked russia for asylum. and putin got laughed at when he told students about the matter. [ phil ] when you have joint pain and stiffness...
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in the spotlight tonight, asylum for edward snowden. yesterday, vladimir putin was working with the government, one of the students asked president putin about edward snowden. according to "the new york times" putin's answer was delivered with a straight face, but the students laughed out loud when he said he didn't want edward snowden to cause more damage to the united states. here was the result, initially, he said if you want to stay you have to stop your political activities. we have a certain reputation with the u.s. and we don't want you with our political activities damaging your relationship with the u.s. he said no, the students laughed. you laugh, but i am speaking
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seriously, mr. putin continued. he said no, i want to continue my work, i want to fight for human rights. i believe that the united states violated certain norms of international law and interfered with private life. today, edward snowden formally applied for asylum in russia. he claims he fears torture or fears the death penalty if he is extradited to the united states, according to "the new york times." snowden is charged with counts of violating the espionage rights. he does not face the death penalty. president putin said that he could stay in russia if he "stops his work aimed at inflicting damage on our american partners." and snowden, of course, insists his work has not inflicted damage on american partners. according to the russian news outlet, it can take authorities
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up to three months to consider edward snowden's request, and that he may be transferred to a refugee center. in the meantime, joining me now, editor at large for "the atlantic." so steve, there it is in the application. america might torture me or give me the death penalty. and america has made the mistake, of number one, having a death penalty. so that even the idea of people in foreign countries are going to read it carefully and say it doesn't apply in this case. and also, we have this torture record that can now be put in these applications. >> well, it certainly made us a lot harder to make ourselves distinctive, and people that celebrated snowden, saying we no longer can throw stones because we live in glass houses. i what is interesting, i think vladimir putin is enjoying playing with this. if this went on for months and months and months and he can
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position himself helping the united states, but do nothing on syria, other areas in the world, but this is the story that keeps on giving. that is why i find the white house position so unusual that they're not letting this basically fade away. we've created this story. >> how would they do that under these circumstances with him? >> i think they should have let him travel to where he was going. if we wanted to penalize those countries, but believe me, if putin wanted him out of the country it could happen. >> it has nothing to do with asylum. the federal bureau could handle this stuff. >> and so this story is going to be a bleeding ulcer that goes on and on and on. and glenn greenwald has not misreported. and he has reported there are other stories, issues related to
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the so-called nsa blueprint of how the nsa does what it does, to give the others a way to evade what they're doing. glenn is not prone to misreporting in that case. so my sense is what is out there and done and the damage that is done is there. but the more the u.s. essentially bleeds about it and complains about it and the intelligence community acts as if it really wants to get snowden, the worse we do this. it is self-inflicted damage at this point, despite what edward snowden has done. >> and my favorite thing in there, is that the russian students in front of their all-powerful putin actually laugh when he tries to do this thing about you know, i don't want him causing trouble for our american partners. >> this is vladimir putin really enjoying this, to a certain degree. because he knows it is not believable, but he is playing a game with the united states. >> but there are headaches -- >> i think it is very important, edward snowden triggered a debate in this country.
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president obama says he wants to have this debate about the privacy and security. but we're so caught up in the drama and soap opera of what happens with edward snowden -- >> i think the polls show that no matter what we talk about here, america at home is talking about what edward snowden has actually revealed. because you're seeing this movement in the poll numbers that say this was whistle-blowers, they have a totally different attitude about this than they did a short time ago. so i think the debate is happening. there are problems on the horizon here for putin. you have senator lindsey graham, of course, already saying, okay, boycott the russian olympics. there is a limit to what -- how much of this vladimir putin we want. >> we're not going to boycott the olympics, and lindsey graham is not going to achieve that. that is as ridiculous oppose teacher as putin talking to the students getting a laugh. russian matters to the united states in many ways.
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and we have had problems with russia on syria, and other parts of the world. and if russia is seceding from democracy, we are squaring off with russia in a number of cases in the u.n. and in my view, we're going to see putin playing with us and playing with snowden to sort of bolster his own situation. >> steve clemons, thank you for joining us. coming up, elizabeth warren and john mccain have found something they both with believe in. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health
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elizabeth warren is trying to rewrite one of congress's biggest mistakes, that is next in the rewrite.
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>> what it can do is take some of the risk out of the system. it can help bring down the size of the largest banking institution. don't forget, you said, there was too much concentration in the banking industry in 2008. now here we are in 2013, and the big four are 30% bigger. that puts too much risk back. >> tonight, elizabeth warren's effort to rewrite a very big wrong. in 1933, president roosevelt signed the banking act, better known as the glass/stiegel act. to ensure that a financial crisis like the crash of 1929 could never happen again. >> we have had a bad banking situation. some of our bankers have shown
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themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. they had used the money intrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans. and so it became the government's job to straighten out the situation and to do it as quickly as possible. and that job is being performed. >> in 1999, voters voted to repeal the investment from banks. president clinton unwisely supported that repeal and signed it into law. they have been unsuccessfully fighting to bring common sense back to wall street on this subject for years. and now they have a new teammate. senator elizabeth warren, the day after john mccain introduced what they are calling the 21st century glass/steigel act, his co-sponsor was out there
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fighting for it. >> we told you with respect to every reporter i read, or every person i have spoken to says there is a very, very slim chance of this even passing. >> well, let me put it this way, if you don't fight for it, the chance is zero. >> the house has voted 37 times on obama care to defund it. i mean, is this any different? you're making a statement. but we want congress to do something that has a chance of becoming law. >> but i was just going to say, you know, i remember going on television multiple times, including here when i talked about the consumer financial protection bureau. when the big banks were spending more than a million dollars a day lobbying against it. and when everybody told me you'll never get that thing through, why are you even trying? the chances of passing it are slim to none. and yet look around. we now have a good, strong consumer financial protection bureau, recovering a half a
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billion dollars for families who got cheated. it is out there working on behalf of military families, on behalf of seniors and students. we went out and fought for it. i actually believe in that. >> wall street has bet against elizabeth warren before, and lost. the prospects for a new glass/steigel act in the senate are looking up tonight. thanks to john mccain and senator cantwell's new teammate, elizabeth warren. what do you drive? i drive a ford fusion. who is healthier, you or your car? i would say my car. probably the car. cause as you get older you start breaking down. i love my car. i want to take care of it. i have a bad wheel - i must say. my car is running quite well. keep your car healthy with the works. $29.95 or less after $10 mail-in rebate at your participating ford dealer. so you gotta take care of yourself? yes you do. you gotta take care of your baby? oh yeah! what makes a sleep number store different?
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>> the last word has a dedicated new viewer, rory dylan freed was born. he is resting comfortably along with mom, rachel freed. yes, mom, rory will sleep through the night, but not this year. up next, a look inside the funniest washington show ever, veep, with the strangest character in the show, played by the ingenious tony hill. uh-oh! guess what day it is?? guess what day it is! huh...anybody? julie! hey...guess what day it is?? ah come on, i know you can hear me. mike mike mike mike mike... what day is it mike? ha ha ha ha ha ha! leslie, guess what today is? it's hump day. whoot whoot! ronny, how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico?
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i'd say happier than a camel on wednesday. hump day!!! yay!! get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. crossing an ocean with your body as the motor, it hurts. so my answer was advil. [ male announcer ] paul ridley chose advil. because nothing is stronger on tough pain. real people. real pain. real relief. advil. relief in action.
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i don't do any cleaning. i make dirt. ♪ i'm not big enough or strong enough for this. there should be some way to make it easier. [ doorbell rings ] [ morty ] here's a box, babe. open it up. oh my goodness! what is a wetjet? some kind of a mopping device. there's a lot of dirt on here. morty, look at how easy it is. it's almost like dancing. [ both humming ] this is called the swiffer dance. if you have high cholesterol, here's some information that may be worth looking into. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. getting to goal is important, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors because you could be at increased risk
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for plaque buildup in your arteries over time. and that's why when diet and exercise alone aren't enough to lower cholesterol i prescribe crestor. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. is your cholesterol at goal? ask your doctor about crestor. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. >> everyone in this town, washington, wants to move up tonight.
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that is what they want. that is what everyone in washington wants, more power, except maybe the president, maybe he has enough. at least every character on hbo's washington series, "veep," the part played by julia louis-dreyfuss, and the butler, played by tony hale, his characters are not like anyone else in the shows he has been in. on "veep," he is the only character not driven to move up in the world. tony hill dropped by our headquarters in new york the other day, and he talked about playing the adoring assistant to the president of the united states. here he is in veep. >> i want to say thank you for all that you do for me. >> so nice.
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>> and i got you a little gift. yes, i did. thank you so much. >> that is so nice. >> look at this. >> i love this. isn't that great? >> it has the same layout, honey, took you so long to learn the other one. >> that is fine, i can learn a new layout. that is fine. >> do you wish i had gotten you a different kind? >> no, i love it! >> that is tony hale in "veep." and tony you are playing in government and politics, what they call the body man. a person who is just attached to the office-holder at all times to meet every conceivably need. >> yeah, he has no identity, i should have left this job in my 20s, but my identity is so
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wrapped up in julia, i don't know life outside of her so i will stay there until i die. >> the thing that veep captures, there is only one person not trying to move up, the president of the united states, who is actually on his way down. but -- gary, your character, your only hope to move up is to be the president's body man, when selina moves up. your ambition is entirely decided on with her. >> my ambition would be to be her husband, if i could have a romantic relationship with her. >> and by the way, the girlfriend character beside you has not figured it out. >> no, she is just low on the priority pole. >> but there is something about selina, if she went and worked at dairy queen, i would go and work there with her, i don't
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know life outside of her. >> and there are people in washington that are completely in the grip of the politicians. and i have never seen it captured so tragically as your character. here is the thing, in "arrested development," where i met you ten years ago. we have an "arrested development" scene, and i'm at home, watching you in the pilot. and i just want to go over the character you played there. >> he is a disaster. >> buster had taken michael's advice and decided to confront his mother. >> because -- you know i don't appreciate how you treat me. i am not a child, mother. no, mother! i can blow myself.
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and you have interfered for the last time. >> come on -- >> you're the first person to say i can blow myself. now, and thank you -- here is the thing in both of the shows you are just the arresting character for me in that show, because everything you do there is an act i have never seen before. and now there is more of you there in "veep." but in any case you are playing the person who no one wants to be. and just beautifully. >> thank you. >> and very emotionally destructive co-dependent relationships with dominating women. >> and roughly 30, when arrested development starts? >> yeah, 32. >> so that is your break, that is where people in the business, everybody gets to know you from that. what is the kind of stuff you were doing to work your way up to that? and where did you discover this
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unbelievably developed character -- >> i was in new york before i booked "arrested development." and i remember getting the audition. i loved the script that ron howard produced. and mitch herd, he scares me, how brilliant he is. people have said how do you come up with buster, and it scares me how natural it came. that is what scares me. he talked about the character, saying all that buster wanted in life is safety. and any time the safety was threatened he would just spiral. so that was good, if mom went to the bathroom, i would spiral. i just couldn't -- anything that threatened him. he was always in a constant state of defensiveness, his chin, his hand would go back, always in the state of defense. >> well, the emmy nominations are coming up within a few days,
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i'm telling you if you don't get nominated for veep, i'm quitting the academy, can you hang around for a few minutes after the show? you will get tonight's last word, tony hale, thank you for joining us. >> inside the jury room. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in san francisco. let me start tonight with this. a juror speaks. juror number b37 said there was a difference in the initial vote when they started deliberations last friday in sanford, florida. not all of the six women had the same judgment on what they heard during the many weeks of trial of george zimmerman. one of the jurors, according to juror b37 wanted to convice