first hearing tloond mark vote rights. third, one that could get fiery the inspector again ralg of the treasury department is going back before a house committee. he's expected to get a grilling from democrats over investigation of the irs. did he sweep evidence of progressives being targeted under the rug. we're watching all that four. hello i'm richard lui in for thomas roberts. we'll get to those events. we begin with trayvon martin's parents. they talk with nbc's matt lauer on the "today" show about the reaction the verdict, the legal system and whether they could forgive the man who shot and killed their son. >> still shocked. still in disbelief. we felt in our hearts that we were going to get a conviction. >> do you understand how they might have found reasonable doubt? >> don't understand if they were looking at it from trayvon's point of view because he was a teenager. he was scared. >> do you think the legal system

failed trayvon? >> i think it failed trayvon to a certain degree. i think we let the process of take its course, we didn't get the verdict that we were looking for because we wanted him to be held accountable. >> does your faith allow to you forgive george zimmerman? >> i think that the forgiveness is like a healing process, forgiveness takes time. >> after being harshly criticized for speaking to the media, juror b 37 says she will not be granting any more interviews. juror e 54 is also weighing in saying he was surprised that b 37 spoke to publicly so soon and quote i'm not surprised that it was her that came out. he did say, those i supported the verdict, i agree with it. we're learning more about the cost of the jury's

sequestration. the seminole county sheriff's department said they spent $1,000 a day on hotel rooms. $375 per day on meals and $350 on excursions which included two movies, bowling and a trip to relationshiply's believe it or not museum. in all the office spent $33,000 for the sequestration and just to clarify some reports the jurors paid for their own pedicures themselves. rallies calling for justice for trayvon martin is still going strong. these pictures are from orlando yesterday where 1,200 people showed up at the orange county courthouse to protest gun violence. joining me now here in our studio, man gagging editor and msnbc contributor. i want to play trayvon martin's father's interview, a bit of a sound when he talked about the juror's response. take a listen. >> obviously any time you have a person that makes an assumption that a person is up to no good,

there's some type of profile in there. was he racially profiled? i think if trayvon had been white, this wouldn't have never happened. >> so responding to b37 who said the case was not about race and then we heard the father's response. what do you think? >> think it was clear just from the totality of what juror b37 she could not relate to trayvon martin. that all of her sympathies were with george zimmerman, she couldn't relate to this teenager being afraid, being profiled and it really calls into question whether might not have been smarter for the prosecution to put race on the table during the case in chief and in closing or at least ask the question that was asked at the end if the race of the two were reverse word you still feel the same way. based on what she said and we don't know anything more about b37 she couldn't see trayvon martin even as a potential victim. . >> that narrative continues. also part of the story lines we're following is stand your

ground law in florida and in fact when we look at the response so far protesters for instance that governor rick scott's office vow is to stay there until he repeals the state's stand your ground law there. and when we look at that, singer stevie wonder also boycotting the state all together, civil rights groups are attacking the laws in florida and 21 other states as racially motivated. the question has to be asked if florida having 1.1 million concealed weapon carriers, three times as many as when the state's stand your ground law was adopted in 2005 do these calls, you know, to they work? do they have a chance here to repeal that stand your ground law >> the dream defenders actually held a conference call right now with reporters and talking about why they are there. they are looking for repeal of the law. i lived in florida for 14 years.

i know a lot of people working in government or intergovernment relations. it's difficult to repeal a law where the rural interest control the state house and republicans have control over both houses and where democrats in the state senate, it was passed in unanimously in the state senate. what the trayvon martin foundation is looking at and other civil rights leaders that know florida better are looking at adding a sort of amendment to that law, at least putting back into the florida self-defense statutes the notion you can't be the addressor and then claim self-defense under stand your ground. that's what people who more realistically looking at the law are doing. >> part of that might be the data behind what's happening white on black and black on white victims. when we look at the data there are some conservative websites claiming stand your ground law benefits african-americans. 78% of killings in florida where the victim is african-american are found justified by stand

your ground while just 57% of killings of whites are found justified. where the killer is white and the victim is black, 86% are found justified while when the killer is black and the victim is white 67%. that's the likelihood right there. it's very clear in those bars that the likelihood clearly goes up by 200% or 300%. >> underlying the conservative presumtions about violence are really sort of racist notion that there's hidden wave of black on white crime when in fact crime in general tends to be people of the same race that commit crimes of each other. if you're white you're more likely to be shot by someone white. it's relatively uncommon for crimes to cross racial boundaries. that said the kind of black on black crime that stand your ground is in a sense encouraging or legalizing are gang violence. you have gang crimes right now being litigated under stand your

ground where a defense attorneys are saying that other guy was a gang member and i was afraid of him. i'm claiming stand your ground. stand your ground encourages the kind of gang violence and violation that conservatives care about. >> over 70% are same race on same race in florida. i look at this. states versus that has stand your ground and don't have stand your ground. we look at the national figures going to a texas a&m study. more likely to be justified when the killer is white and the victim is black. here it is. especially in states with stand your ground laws. site jumps up. the blue bar showing again the states that have stand your ground. does this incite more, if you inequality when you look at the deaths white on black black on white. >> particularly because you have a lot of social science studies that show there's a bias against african-americans. they have this implicit notion a black male a black man is a threat.

you get on an elevator with a big black man they feel different l than a big white man. so there's an intrinsic fear of black people with a law that says you can shoot and kill that black person. if they die and there's no witnesses you can get away with it. because a jury that contains more white people than black because of various factors that's dangerous to black men in states with stand your ground. in some states these laws are called manger my day law not stan your ground. think about that. make my day. >> clint eastwood. >> thank you so much. as always, and tune in later today to politics nation, reverend al sharpton has an interview with trayvon martin's martins for the full hour. that's at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. on the heels of the george zimmerman verdict another controversy on tragic self-defense case is headed to trial in florida. right now that trial set to

begin in september. 46-year-old michael dunn is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death last november of jordan davis an unarmed african-american teen the same age as martin was. it happened the day after thanksgiving at a gas station convenience store in jacksonville, florida. dunn and his girlfriend pulled up in their vehicle next to one with four teens in it. while his girlfriend was inside the store dunn told the teens to turn down their music. of a an exchange of words dunn began swhoogt a handgun firing eight or nine shots. dunn is charged with first degree murder in jordan davis' death and faces three counts of attempted first degree murder for shooting at the three others in the vehicle. now dunn has pleaded not guilty claiming he heard threats from the teens and saw a gun in their car. he says he feared for his own safety and that's yes grand his gun and fired. no gun was found in the teens' vehicle. joining me live now attorney john phillips who represents jordan davis' family.

thanks for being with us. do you see parallels here between jordan davis' case and the trayvon martin case, the george zimmerman case. >> factually no. factually zimmerman called 911 before the altercation where as michael dunn fled the scene, went and had pizza and never called 911 and george zimmerman had the bloody nose. >> he went to have pizza. >> he did. he went back to the hotel. went home 170 miles and never called police. exactly. yet he's still entitled. where they are similar he's entitled to a stand your ground hearing. he's entitled to zimmerman to have that stand your ground jury instruction read. >> self-defense being involved but clearly circumstances after which the incident had happened are different. the prosecution in the zimmerman trial under fire right now as you probably read by critics who say they over charged and under

clifford basically here florida state attorney said she will personally prosecute michael dunn in this case. what would you like her to do differently this time around? >> we met with her this week and her staff and they are debate who the legal team will be. obviously angela is under fire and has said look if -- i don't want to be the one that politically jeopardizes your case. that is still undetermined. but you build a closing argument from a foundation up and where they missed the point was let's start with manslaughter and build to murder two and, you know, our case is different. there is a component of first degree murder premeditation, but with the last thing we want is for a jury to say two seconds of premeditation isn't enough because michael dunn before he fired said you boys aren't going to talk to me like that, bang, bang, bang. >> michael dunn's attorney said he was reacting as to what he

saw a gun being drawn. it's not known if his attorneys will present a stand your ground defense. he's claiming self-defense. >> self-defense and justified homicide. which is a part of the stand your ground law and he's expected to, you know, yesterday or the day before he came out and said angela cory's office will be heightened alert an prosecute this case more. a first degree murder case is prosecuted extremely tough when an outsider comes in and kills a kid. there is no, you know, elevation of the prosecution team's interest. >> thank you so much attorney john phillips for that update on perhaps what could be the next trayvon martin trial if you will. today's big question for you is on this story. stand your ground laws, are they biassed against minorities. head to thomas roberts twitter or facebook pages to weigh in. this hour we're keeping our eyes on several developing stories unfolding in washington. this podium here, president obama to speak in a matter of minutes from the white house.

inspector general from the treasury department back before a committee and expected to get a grilling from democrats looking to debunk his report on allegations of irs targeting of conservative groups. a second hearing on the voting rights this time in the house. can the land mark legislation be saved? i'll break it all down with congresswoman terri so well and ari melder both who join me from capitol hill next. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. glidden premium interior paint, starts at a new lower price at $18.94 a gallon.

a second congressional hearing on the vote rights this time in the house. yesterday for the first time since the supreme court struck down a key part of that law the senate judiciary committee took up the issue. it was a bipartisan show of support as senators heard testimony from congressman john lewis a veteran of the civil rights movement and republican

congressman jim sensenbrenner. >> vote is precious. almost sacred. it is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have. it is my belief that the voting rights is needed our than ever before. >> i believe that the vote rights is the most successful of all of our important civil rights that have been passed since the mid-1950s, and actually eliminating discrimination. we cannot afford to lose it now and it is our obligation as senators and representatives to continue it. >> joining me now live is alabama congresswoman terri so well chief deputy whip of the democratic cause cause and a native of selma, alabama. ariis covering this from capitol hill today. thank you both for being here.

congresswoman i want to start with you. i want to play another part of what congressman sensenbrenner who is a republican said yesterday. >> discrimination in the electoral process continues to exist and threatens to undermine the progress that has been made over the last 50 years. i am committed to working to pass a constitutional response to the shelby versus holder decision i look forward to work with anybody who wants to approach this effort in good faith. >> so republican house starting conversations there. representative, are these efforts in the house real? >> i think so. look, i think that congress in 2006 reauthorized it with more than 12,000 pages of testimony and evidence. and i think that representative sensenbrenner and representative lewis represent the best intentions of the house of representatives in a bipartisan

way to come up with another coverage formula that's narrowly tailored so it passes constitutional muster. >> ari, i'm reading from your article that you posted on our website you noted that hearings are being led in the judiciary committee on the constitution headed by trent franks there. one of only 33 republicans who voted against reauthorizing the vote rights in 2006 and you had noted 390 members voted for it there. so does this already spell doom? >> i don't think it spells doom. i think he's a minority of a minority of the members of congress who did pose this as the last time. as the congresswoman pointed out this has strong bipartisan support. i spoke last night to the democratic ranking member on that same committee and he said basically look with all due respect to congressman franks this is above his pay grade. this is a big question for the republican party for people like

john boehner and eric cantor and today's hearings are just a start of a debate that while it has split the republican party to some degree there have been some reasonable republicans left in the building. >> the concern the supreme court had is with that 1965 law. based on old data. it as simple as updating the data then? >> it's a great question. look there's one way to do it very directly to john roberts concern which is to update from the literacy test. you can use data from section 2 and take a different approach looking at where discrimination is happening now include more of the north. last thing i'll say very important here is 14th and 15th amendment did answer this question. they said it's more important to treat people equally than the states equally. >> five states ongoing moving forward with restrictive voter i.d. laws including mississippi, texas, alabama, south carolina and virginia as well.

these states are republican led. what's your thought here? is it realistic to think they will even consider work with democrats on this issue? >> yes. i think hope springs eternal. you know, i'm a native of selma as you rightfully said and a member that represents the civil rights district and i can tell you while progress has been made in electoral politics we have a long ways to go. i think that as long as there's discriminatory impact that affect all americans the ability to vote we as elected officials should do in our power that we come up with a valid coverage formula. >> thank you very much. a reminder to watch ari today and every weekday on "the cycle." in minutes we're expecting the president to tout the benefits of obama care from the white house at this very location. we'll carry those rorks live. the backlash is not dining down

for "rolling stone." i'll talk to the uncle of two bombing victims. (announcer) scottrade... ranked "highest in customer loyalty for brokerage and investment companies."

moments from now president obama will deliver a speech on the benefits of his reform law. expect that to happen any moment. this as republicans once again try to chip away at obama care. just yesterday house republicans passing two new bills delaying the affordable act mandates for businesses and nearly all taxpayers. they justified it by citing the administration's recent move putting off the employer mandate deadline by one year over problems with implementation. either way here the bills have zero chance of surviving in the senate and the president has vowed to veto if they did. >> we now know the administration has read the bill and know it will not work. what the president said about the mandate on businesses, we believe individuals should be

treated the same. >> there are a few things more cynical than house republicans who have made it their mission in life to repeal the affordable care act and deny the american people the benefits they would receive. >> so just how many times have republicans tried repeal obama care? 38. 39. perhaps 40. dana milbank did the counting. try 67 times. still today the president will steer attention towards the financial benefits he says americans already are seeing under obama care. that includes cash rebates for 8 1/2 million americans last year according to the white house and a new government study that finds health care premiums are expected to be even lower than predicted in some places like new york. 50% lower according to estimations. joining me now chris matthew, host of msnbc's hart ball with chris matthews. good to see you. when you look at these numbers about lower than expected cost, rear baits of $100 or more is

this what the president needs to say? >> well, yeah. you got to put this in historic terms. this is an old, old fight. i want goes back to the 1930s. it began with social security then went through medicare and in every case and this isn't a partisan assessment this is simple fact the democrats have put a proposal on the table, gotten a program approved by the congress, and the republican party's position has been no, nada, we don't want anything. that's always been their position on health care. it was their position on social security, it was their position on medicare. it didn't matter what tissue was when it came to social legislation their position was free enterprise, stay out of it. they are trying to avoid the situation which has developed in the past. one people learn about a prom like social security, once they get used to it, once they learned about medicare they fell in love with it. that's their biggest fear. they are trying to stop this from landing. they are afraid once the health

care law gets on the beach they can't stop it. if they were truly confident, optimistic this plan would be unpopular they wouldn'ting raising held right now. they would let it take effect and then raise hell. their fear it won't cause trouble. people will love it especially with young adult children. people with pre-existing conditions. working people that have not been able to afford health care even though they work 40, 50 hours a week. this is not a program for the poor, it's for the working people, it's popular. that's the biggest republican fear. they wouldn't have lost legislatively but lost historically. that's their biggest fear and that's why they are yelping. there's no other word for this. 60 sometimes they tried to do something about. the united states senate is not going to go along with them. the president is not going sign death notice on his own historic legislation.

>> we got a minute before the program starts. watching live pictures. chris i wanted to address what you're talking about yelping, october 1st reduces the capability of the yrn elping that's when the implementation starts. for those not in favor of it, last month showing just 37% of the public think the law is a good idea, 49 saying it's a bad idea. >> that's because of years and years now since the bill was passed back in the beginning of the administration, they have been running millions and millions of dollars in advertisement trashing the program over and over and over again. there's been no response. the president today will give the first response. i know it's a lame excuse to say you don't have an advertising budget but they don't and the other side does. and the other side's advertising budget has been huge and they paid enormous amounts of money from the right-wing side, the super capitalist side you might say that hates this. >> right now as we look at a

live event president obama walking on to the podium there we see a self-employed woman from maryland who received a refund dplek her insurance company last summer for $267. she's introducing the president there. i want to bring in congressman chris van hollen. so there a representative of your state. what do you expect the president to say. you heard what chris matthews said the yelping that has happened over the years. will hat roll over the progress that the democrats have made. >> i'm pleased the person introducing the president is a maryland and a constituent. chris ma thes is absolutely right. republicans are not only rooting for the affordable care act to fail they are trying to do everything they can to make it fail. what the president will do today is talk about the very real benefits that are already in place, already in place for kids, already in place for consumers. >> we'll go straight to the president. stand by. >> i want to thank all of you

for being here. there are a couple of people that i want to make sure to especially acknowledge. first of all, the leader of the democrats in the house of representatives and somebody who worked harder than just about anybody to get the affordable care act into law, nancy pelosi. we had some outstanding members of congress here, some mayors and elected officials who are here. i want to give a special shout out -- i'm not going introduce all of them because it would take too much time and i might miss somebody. but there's one person who is standing in front, sitting in front who i want to acknowledge just because he has served for decades and for decades fought to make sure that everybody had

affordable accessible coverage and we're so proud of him, john dingell. so i want to welcome everybody to the white house. every day across the country and certainly here in the white house, there are people who are working as we speak to implement the affordable care act. and to deliver the security of quality affordable health care to more americans. good news is that starting october 1st, new online marketplaces will allow consumers to go online and compare private health care insurance plans just like you would compare over the internet the best deal on flat screen tvs

or cars or any other product that is important to your lives and you're going to see competition in ways that we haven't seen before. insurance companies will compete for your business. and in states that are working hard to make sure that this law delivers for their people, we're seeing is that consumers are getting a hint of how much money they are potentially going save because of this law. in states like california, oregon, washington, new competition, new choices, market forces are pushing costs down. just yesterday, state officials in new york announced that average premiums for consumers who buy insurance in their new marketplace will be at least 50% lower next year than they are today.

think about that. 50% lower. so for people like morgan who are self employed, who have to buy on the individual market, they are suddenly going see opportunities not just for the rebates we discussed but also for even greater savings in their monthly premiums. so if you already buy insurance on the individual market, meaning that you don't get insurance through big group plan through your employer, that could mean thousands of dollars a year. go towards putting mortgage or putting a kid through college or saving for retirement. . and what this means is hundreds of thousands of new yorkers who don't have insurance will finally be able to afford it because these exchanges, this big pool is going reduce the cost and you may qualify for

health care tax credits, middle class families will potentially qualify for these credits that will bring the cost down even more. so this is just an example of how the affordable care act is doing what it's designed to do. deliver more choices. better benefits. a check on rising costs. and higher quality health care. that's what it was designed to do and we're already seeing those effects take place. now i mention all this because yesterday despite all the evidence that law is working the way it was supposed to for middle class americans republicans in the house of representatives voted for nearly the 40th time to dismantle it. we got a lot of problems in this country and there's a lot of work that congress needs to do, get a farm bill passed, get immigration reform done, make sure we got a budget in place

that invests in our children and our future. and yet instead we're refighting these old battles. sometimes i just try to figure out why. maybe they think it's good politics. but part of our job here is not to always think about politics. part of our job here is to sometimes think about getting work done on behalf of the american people. on behalf of the middle class and those who are trying to get into the middle class. and so the progress, the progress that we're seeing in california and washington and oregon and now new york, that's progress that we want to make sure we're seeing all across the country. because there's still millions

of people out there who not only want to get health insurance but many who have health insurance, who deserve a better deal. and deserve the kinds of savings that the affordable care act will offer. now, if you're one of the 85% of americans who already have health insurance could be through your employer or through medicare or through medicaid, you already have an array of new benefits in place. you don't have to wait until october 1st. you're already getting benefits even if you don't know because of the affordable care act. you're getting employer texas. you're getting more value for each dollar you spend on your health care, and that last point, or tissue of guesting better value for your buck is what i want to focus on today. for years too many middle class families saw their health care costs go up and up without much explanation as to why or how their money was being spent.

but today because of the affordable care act insurance companies have to spend at least 80% of every dollar that you pay in premiums on your health care. not on overhead. not on profits. but one. now many insurance companies are already exceeding that target. they are bringing down premiums and providing better value to their customers. but those that aren't now actually have to reimburse you. if they are not spending your premium dollars on your health care, at least 80% it, they got to give you some money back. last year millions of americans opened letter from their insurance companies but instead of the usual dread that comes from getting a bill, they were pleasantly surprised with a check. in 2012, 13 million rebates went out in all 50 states.

another 8.5 rebates are being sent out this summer averaging around $100 each. and for families like morgan's that are working hard every dollar counts. it makes a difference. as she said during her introduction she had been buying insurance on the individual market in maryland for years. after she got a rebate for the first time and i'm quoting morgan now she said it felt like someone was actually being held accountable for the dollars i was spending on health care. that's one of the core principles of the affordable care act, holding insurance companies and providers accountable so we all get a better deal. dan hart who is here from chicago had read these rebates were happening but he didn't think anything of it until he got a check in the mail for $136 and dan is the father of two. and as any parent will tell you, those kids, they stuck up a lot of money.

so -- am i right? absolutely. so he used the rebate to pay some bills. rick shuwell and claudia diamond co-own a stationary store in arlington, virginia. they new the provision of the affordable care act but rick said he figured he would never see the money. it was a complete surprise to him when they got a rebate for $320. put that money right back into their small business. this is happening all across the country. and it's happening because of the affordable care act. hasn't been reported on a lot. i bet if you took a poll most folks wouldn't know when that check comes in that this was because of obama care and they got this extra money in their pockets. but that's what's happening. now even if you don't get a rebate, even if you didn't get a rebate, there's a good chance that these reforms are helping you as well because one easy way

to meet the goal of spending 80% of every there are on care is to charge less for your care. now we got more work to do to get rising health care costs under control. and some of the gains that we made, some of the progress we made in slowing the rise of health care costs isn't always passed on to workers, sometimes companies may keep it, and they are charging their employees a higher co-pay or higher deductible or in some way shifting some costs on to workers, but generally speaking what we've seen is that health care costs have slowed drastically in a lot of areas since we passed the affordable care act. we got a lot more work to do. but health care inflation is not skyrocketing the way it was.

and because of this new rule, because of the fact that it improves the value of the coverage that you purchase, last year alone americans saved $3.4 billion in lower premiums. that's $3.4 billion on top of these rebates. so that's just one way this law is helping middle class families. but it represents everything the affordable care act means for folks who already have insurance. better benefits, stronger protections, more bang for your buck. the basic notion that you ought to get what you pay for. now, i recognize that there's still a lot of folks in this town at least who are rooting for this law to fail. some of them seem to think this law is about me. it's not. i already have really good health care. it's about the dad in maryland who for the first time ever saw

his family's premiums go down instead of up. it's about the grandma in oregon whose free mammogram caught her breast cancer before it had a chance to spread. it's about the mom in arizona who can afford heart surgery for her little girl now that the lifetime cap on her coverage has been lifted. it's about the folks here today who got a little bit of relief. i'm curious, what do opponents of this law think the folks here today should do with the money they were reimbursed? should they send it back to the insurance companies? do they think that was a bad idea to make sure that insurance companies are being held accountable? i know that's not what these folks think. so the upshot is the american people deserve a fair shot. they expectbusinesses to play by a fair set of rules. our broken health care system threatened the hopes and the dreams of families and

businesses across the country who feared that one illness or one accident could cost them everything they spent a lifetime building. and step by step, we're fixing that system. it's hard. you know this is a big country and the health care industry is massive and there are tons of providers and so as we implement there are going to be glitches and there's going certain states that for political reasons are resisting implementation and we're just steadily working through all that stuff. same was true when medicare was started. the same was true when social security got started. there were folks who for political reasons resisted implementation, but once it got set up people started saying it was a pretty good deal. it gives me a little more security. it's part of that basic bargain

that want if you work hard, if you're doing the right thing, that you can get ahead in this country and that you can provide some basic protections for your family. and health care is at the heart of that. it's part of it. affordable health care is not a privilege just for the few. it's a bay vikt that everybody should be able to enjoy. so, we're going to keep fighting to secure that right to make sure that every american gets the care that they need when they need it at a price they can afford. that's the america we believe in. that's what families deserve. that's what we'll keep on delivering. we'll keep on working to make sure many people around this country who are already paying premiums are getting cheaper prices, that the money success actually spend on their health care, that you're not having to worry about the fine print, that if you don't have health insurance you can finally are in a position to get some. at an affordable price to give

you and your family the kind of security you deserve. that's something everybody should support. that's not something that should be subject to politics. if the folks who have been trying to make political hay out of this thing, if they had some better ideas i already told them i'm happy to hear them but i haven't heard any so far. what i've heard is just the same old song and dance. we're just going to blow through that stuff and just keep on doing the right thing for the american people. so thank you very much. president obama finishing there about a 13 minute discussion there on obama care and moving forward and chris matthews still with us. he said we're still steadily working through this. he's being very tangible. what's your thought? >> there's an interesting way he decided that he has to sell obama care and that's the term he's happy with now.

you know he doesn't talk about as you noticed there, the 40 some million people waiting in emergency rooms because they have no health coverage at all, no insurance at all, they work in many cases. he doesn't talk about the desperate people that don't have any options. he talked about the struggling people who have means but not enough to achieve any kind of health care security. so he talked about people getting rebates up front, not a ton of money but money and secondly he talked about how people were able to get heart praugss with their kids, life and death procedures they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. it's so interesting about our class system. we don't like to talk about class in america. he doesn't want to be known as a socialist. he want tubes middle class champion. so when he talks about it it's things that middle class and we have a huge middle class that make anywhere from 40 to 80 or whatever a year and that group he's talking to and he decided to talk to the struggling class rather than the desperate people

because knees politically that's where the fire spore. >> talking politically and you were mentioning this before the president spoke, chris and that's the advertisement, the pr push for in the house support of obama care. obama is organizing for action. they started to pout some ads. michigan mcconnell saying 2014 this is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to obama care. are they coming out with a more active campaign the white house because they are looking forward to 2014? >> i think some sort of -- i always like to talk about the box that something comes in not just tissue it's the box. this country is not in a good mood right now and it's not just the trayvon martin situation, the horror of that case down there that enrage ad lot of people and not just african-americans. it's the sense of unease the recovery is coming too slowly, we're not creating jobs, this recovery will not last that long. we're getting where we want to get as a country. that sense of unease will be

exploited by republicans. mitch mcconnell is fighting for re-election in kentucky. he'll complain. there's no blue skies in the republican message this year and next year. it's all going to be a cranky anger and i think that's playing into the national mood right now and that means they will do next year. will it then country? you have to decide that. they are basically going to play on the negative feelings and we've seen it in the streets this week, almost like something was ready to be lit and it was lit. it will be lit further on by other issues like crankiness about frictions and implementing health care. >> and whether that intensity remains. watch "hardball with chris matthews" week nights on msnbc at 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. eastern time. with that we'll be right back.

the list of stores deciding not to carry the august issue of "rolling stone" is growing. the magazine sparked a firestorm over social media after it unveiled this cover this week with accused boston marathon

bomber joe c ee ee bomber. >> i'm in disgrace. probably should have survivors and first responders. >> i understand the substance of the article is not objectionable. it is apparently pretty good reporting but the cover is out of taste. >> joining me now live, peter brown. his nephew j.p. and paul are survivors of the bombing. the brothers have each lost a leg and have undergone multiple surgeries. thanks for being with us. what did you think when you first saw this cover of "the rolling stone"? >> when i first saw it, i was surprised and then i was actually disgusted. lastly, angry.

the reason for that is because the picture kind of promotes a celebrity status which is not the case here. >> are you glad then the chains are pulling it from the newsstands given they've had had other controversial covers in the past, like charles manson even? >> i think the reports on charles manson, this really doesn't compare in some way, i think charles manson may have had some sort of music background. my belief of this magazine, "the rolling stone," has something to do with music and i don't believe this young man has anything to do with music. i don't see the connection there. as far as businesses like cvs and cumberland farms and roach brothers pulling it, i applaud them for their effort. >> "rolling stone" did address the issue in a statement yesterday, saying, in part, "the fact that dzhokhar tsarnaev is young and in the same age group as many of our readers makes it all the more are important for us to examine the complexities

of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens. what do you say to their response saying that their readers are pretty much the same age and therefore they need to express this story as intimately as they can? >> well, i think that you you hit the nail on the head as far as the readers being of the age. i think that's what their intention was. i believe the magazine's intention was to play on those readers the young age, maybe two influence and coerce or encourage more support. i don't believe there's any connection in terms of the magazine's article and what they actually cover but the young age reader that does read that magazine may find that of some interest. i certainly don't. >> speaking of a young age here, peter, i want to ask you how j.p. and paul are doing right now, from what you know? >> both are doing well. they've maintained incredibly focused attitude.

they're upbeat, they're positive. they're really concentrating on healing which is what our family wants them to do. so as far as this stuff goes, they don't put much time into this at all. >> our best to the two of them as well. peter brown, thank you so much for your time today. >> you're welcome. that wraps up things for now. "now" with alex wagner is next. o the same for your dog. introducing new purina dog chow light & healthy. it's a no-sacrifices, calorie-light way to keep him trim, with a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend he'll love. and 22% fewer calories than dog chow. discover the lighter side of strong. new purina dog chow light & healthy. [ john ] nope. [ tires squeal ] twelve bucks a night! no. they have waterbeds. ew. no! are we near a gas station? [ phone beeps] [ phone ] no. is that from the mini bar?

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obama countered the gop narrative that the aca is a disastrous train wreck and demonstrated that the law is actually already working and working pretty well. >> every day across the country, and certainly here in the white house, there are people who are working as we speak to implement the affordable care act and to deliver the security of quality, affordable health care to more americans. yesterday, despite all the evidence that the law is working the way it was supposed to for middle class americans, republicans in the house of representatives voted for nearly the 40th time to dismantle it. we've got a lot of problems in this country and there's a lot of work that congress needs to