barack obama. he said we may not all look the same and we may not have all come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction, towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. thanks, michael. and thanks to you for tuning in. i'm live from washington, d.c. today we saw today in washington something unusual and powerful at the white house. president obama made a surprise visit to the briefing room. it was a friday afternoon in the summer. he smiled. he joked around. but when he started to speak, it became clear this speech was unusual. he spoke about how black americans talk and think about race. what followed was as powerful

and personal a statement as we've ever heard from a president on race. >> the reason i actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the week, the issue of the trayvon martin ruling. i gave a preliminary statement right after the ruling on sunday, but watching the debate over the course of the last week, i thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit. first of all, i want to make sure that once again i send my thoughts and prayers as well as michelle's to the family of trayvon martin. and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they've dealt with the entire situation. i can only imagine what they're going through, and it's -- it's

remarkable how they have handled it. the second thing i want to say is to reiterate what i said on sunday, which is there are going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case. i'll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues. the judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. the prosecution and the defense made their arguments. the juries were propererly instructed that in a -- in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. and once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works. but i did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling.

you know, when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son. another way of saying that is trayvon martin could have been me. 35 years ago. and when you think about why in the african-american community at least there is a lot of pain around what happened here, i think it's important to recognize that the african-american community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away. >> this was a very significant beginning that he started a statement. one, he gave real heartfelt compassion to the family and

said that he understood their pain. he praised them for how they handled this, something we have not heard a lot. almost like the family was not even to be considered. but then he went in to start explaining that people that were pained by this were not people that were irrational or crazy. there was a context to this. the jury has spoken. no one can deal with that. that's fine. but there is a broader context. and he wanted to bring that context in to this discussion from his level. but then he went further. he said not only could trayvon have been my son, trayvon could have been me 35 years ago. everyone in black america could understand that. the president also shared his own personal and sadly common experiences with discrimination. >> there are very few

african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping at a department store. that includes me. there are very few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. there are very few african-americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching a purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. that happens often. and i don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the african-american community interprets what happened one night in florida.

and it's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear. the african-american community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws. everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. and that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case. >> this is why this became so important. in my opinion, even historic. this is the first time the united states had a president that not only talked about the humiliation black men go through where they are profiled walking in a store, or even crossing a street, hearing car locks come down. he said i know because it has

happened to me. you could never overestimate the impact of the president of the united states identifying with the humiliation of people who have been marginalized and acted as those they were making these things up. and then he talked substantively about the disparities in incarceration in drug arrests. these things that happen. he talked about the racial disparities in the criminal justice system and how we understand the trayvon martin story in that context. >> now, this isn't to say that the african-american community is naive about the fact that african-american young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they're disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. it's not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks

do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. we understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country. and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. and so the fact that sometimes that's unacknowledged adds to the frustration. and the fact that a lot of african-american boys are painted with a broad brush. and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that african-american boys are more violent, using that as an excuse

to then see their sons being treated differently causes pain. i think the african-american community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like trayvon martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. so folks understand the challenges that exist for african-american boys. but they get frustrated i think if they feel there is no context for it. and that context is being denied. and that all contributes i think to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario that from top to bottom both the outcome and

the aftermath might have been different. >> this is where he even got more direct, where he knows he will be criticized, but for whatever reasons, he went there. and he went there in a very direct way. yes, there is crime in the black community. yes we must address it. yes, there are those of us that fight it. but he also said that there are those that feel based on the history of the country, based on violence, a lot of that comes from poverty. a lot of that comes from other places. but we must deal with it. but the fact is that the criminal justice system will if they know black on black crime, arrest the black criminal. the disparity is when there is a black victim and a white accused of that. that's the perception that hurts. and those that feel that pain are not crazy. you must understand the context, even if you disagree with the conclusion.

we don't have to come to the same conclusion, but we've got to stop acting like it's irrational for people in pain to scream ouch. they're screaming ouch because they're in pain. the president also talked about some concrete things that we could do after the verdict. >> i think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it -- if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the florida case rather than diffuse potential altercations. i know that there has been commentary about the fact that the stand your ground laws in florida were not used as a defense in the case. on the other hand, if we're sending a message as a society in our communities that someone

who is arm eed potentially has e right to use those firearms, even if there is a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we'd like to see? and for those who resist that idea, that we should think about something like these stand your ground laws, i would just ask people to consider if trayvon martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? and if the answer to that question is at least ambition, then it seems to me we might

want to examine those kinds of laws. >> that is the point. where was trayvon martin's right to stand his ground? look at the case of marissa alexander, right in florida, jacksonville to be specific. that is the disparity. that is the pain. that is why people are up in arms, because most of us, many of us feel and know that there is a sense of justice for some and a sense of injustice or ignoring the right to justice for others. stand your ground does not apply to everybody's ground. as hard as these issues are, as painful asry they are, president obama didn't appear downbeat, though. he wasn't defeated. in fact, he ended on a strong and hopeful note. >> let me just leave you with a

final thought. that as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, i don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better. each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. it doesn't mean we're in a post racial society. it doesn't mean that racism is eliminated. but you know when i talk to malia and sasha, and i listen to their friends and i see them interact, they're better than we are. they're better than we were on these issues. and that's true in every community that i've visited all across the country. so we have to be vigilant, and we have to work on these issues.

and those of news authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. but we should also have confidence that kids these days i think have more sense than we did back then and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did. and that along this long difficult journey, we're becoming a more perfect union. not a perfect union. but more perfect union. >>. >> we're becoming a more perfect union. we've made progress. yes, we have. and people have said since the verdict it's not as bad as it was. but the reason it didn't

resonate is because they wouldn't deal with the context as they measured the progress. the reason what the president said could make us hopeful is he dealt with the reality and then said yes things are better, because they are. and yes, they are better. the fact that we can do things our parents couldn't and that their parents couldn't is undeniable. but don't use it as an excuse to stop the move toward progress. use that to inspire that if they could do it, why can't we? and that's why him putting the context and baring the facts was how you move the country forward. because we never moved forward by making excuses that we've already made enough progress. and as we prepare to rally in 100 cities tomorrow in the wake of the trayvon martin verdict, the president addressed the big questions. why does this divide exist? how can we address it without

becoming acrimonious? and how do we move forward? we'll get at those answers, and we'll talk about how we reached those answers to those questions, next. [ male announcer ] some question physics. some question gravity. and some... even have the audacity to question improbability. with best-in-class towing and best-in-class torque these are some of the bold, new ram commercial trucks -- built to blow your imagination. guts. glory. ram. built to blow your imagination. ♪ you're not made of money, so don't overpay for boat insurance.

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that trayvon martin could have been me. 35 years ago. >> president obama earlier today giving some of the most personal remarks of his presidency. his most extensive comments on the issue of race since 2008 in his presidential run. and by far, the most direct references to race in his presidency. joining me now melissa harris-perry and joe madison. thank you both for coming on the show. >> thank you. >> absolutely. >> melissa, in your opinion, why are these remarks important? >> there are so many reasons. all of us who were watching it were stunned by how personal the president was. in fact, not only personal, but i have to say i was experiencing a sense of his vulnerability. you know, talked about the peculiar sensation of always looking at yourself through the eyes of others who look on with amused contempt and pity.

that's how he described the african-american experience in this country. so as i am watching the president and feeling a sense of hope associated with having an african-american man acknowledge the painful history that black people have had in this country, the continuing painful experiences of our children and our adults, and then tying that to the american narrative. on the one hand, that was hopeful. on the other hand, i am watching that through that double consciousness, thinking of it all the while of what the president's political enemies and opponents will do this w this. i think that's what is so difficult about this moment. the sense of if people could listen to the president, if they could hear what he was saying. but one of the things we have learned over and over again in this country and that we have seen in the week in the aftermath of the zimmerman verdict is every time we try to have a conversation on race we discover that we do not have the same vocabulary. we are not speaking in the same language. and i think the president was trying to cross some of that divide today.

>> and you know, joe, one of the things he touched on is a difference in perspective. it's like we look at a glass and it's a mirror. we see trayvon. we see the mirror. others look and it's a window pane and they're looking out. it's hard when people are seeing the same thing unless somebody understands both glasses and said wait a minute you need to really talk about this. >> i just had this conversation, almost exactly the exact words you used a few minutes ago. and that is that our perspectives have to be respected. and our perspectives are based on what? our experience. we may have different perspectives because we have different experiences. and that's really what you heard the president say. is that look, this is my perspective because here is my experience. and my experience, even though i'm president of the united states now is no different than what other folks have gone through. on my show every day, i've said

this, that in america, we are culturally conditioned to believe that white is superior, black is inferior. and the manifestation of that cultural conditioning is that we undervalue, underestimate, and marginalize black people. and so what the president is really saying and what we have to say beyond politics is that we have to recondition how we think. we have to recondition. culture is a powerful tool. >> i think also, melissa, we've got to really reflect on the whole difference in how we not only express that, but think. it is controversial when we even raised the question of racial equality. and everyone else in society can say and do whatever about their issues, whether it is any other

community. and it's understandable even if it's just disagreed. but we have become agitators, arsonists and all just because we're saying we don't want to be marginalized and treated differently. >> and part of what you'll hear is well, it's been so long. i mean things are so different. why are you still talking about this. but because i was preparing to start thinking about this for the show this week, i was going back and reading things that former confederates said in the 1870s. the 1870s that had the same language of well, why are you still talking about slavery? and we're talking about in 1870, we were much less than a decade away from. i want to emphasize also that as much as the president was speaking from a personal place, as much as he was putting himself fully embodied in the experience of trayvon martin and giving us such a critical witness to the experience of black men in this country, he was also speaking, and i just don't ever want to forget this, just as joe madison was, this is

actually documented. we have decades of research in american public opinion. we have decades of research in social science and social psychology. it's not just that we sort of think maybe we see things differently. we really do. and sort of the failure to acknowledge that empirical evidence is at the heart of this. >> no, the data is there. we're not talking about back in the day. i was having this conversation on the airplane today with a guy. i was a kid in the '60s. >> was 8 years old the first march on washington. i'm talking about things in my lifetime, not back in the day. then the reaction is going to come. we know that he is going to be demonized for even trying to have the conversation right after the speech. let me show you, joe, what sean hannity had to say. >> now the president is saying trayvon could have been me 35 years ago. oh, this is a particularly helpful comment.

that the president admitting that i guess, because what, he was part of the choom gang and he smoked pot and did a little blow. i'm not sure how to interpret that because we know trayvon had been smoking pot that night. i'm not sure ma that means. >> so let me get this right. sean hannity now has put trayvon in a gang and is a weed smoker. again, the despicable denigration of a young man who only bought some candy and iced tea. you get the verdict i assume you agree with, but that's not enough. you still have to run him through the mud because the president said that could have been him. this is the kind of thing that enrages and outrages us, because if it had been reversed and any of us hadden grated a victim of any other community, they would never tolerate that. and they shouldn't. >> of course they shouldn't. i mean, look. sean hannity is part of that

cultural conditioning i'm talking about. he has to say those kinds of things to prop up his false sense of superiority. let us just understand what is going on. thank god at least over on that side of the cable channel, you have chris wallace who says no, wait a minute. let's be reasonable here. but you know what the great thing is about what i heard the president say? and i thought about my own grown children. and you have grown children too. and that is when he says when i sit and observe them talking with their friends, they look at us sometimes and wonder what is wrong with you guys. >> and our children are older than his. and it's different. but at the same time -- >> because they did. they blended. >> they grow up different. but that's as a result of people having the conversation and struggling to come together. >> and the world hasn't fallen apart. >> but melissa, let me play this to you. in 2008, the president discussed

race as a presidential candidate. listen to this. >> i'm the son of a black man from kenya and a white woman from kansas. i am married to a black american who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners, an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. i have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins of every race and every hue scattered across three continents. and for as long as i live, he will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. >> what was the difference in your judgment, melissa, between the 2008 speech and what we heard today? >> i think there are several things. one important thing, the president always has been the bridge builder. the new yorker called him the bridge in the book, the biography that he wrote of the president. but today he really was very self-conscious about embodying the position of trayvon martin. i think in part because he undoubtedly has been seeing, as

we have, this desire to continue to take trayvon martin through the mud, this innocent child who we know did not commit a crime. this child who was under 18 and was killed. i want to say this. our kids are better than us. there is no question about that but it will not matter if they live in a country where they can be killed for walking home. >> that's right. >> it will not matter that they are better than us. it will not matter they are having this conversation if we cannot figure it out enough to protect them. i'll tell you that this verdict, and particularly the response to the verdict puts young people in the position of having to experience a sense of racial animus, anxiety and stress that they might not otherwise have. it's part of why it's so incumbent on us to engage in this conversation in a mature, empirically based and reasonable way, because it really is our children's capacity to move forward in the next generation that is on the line here. >> melissa harris-perry, joe madison, i'm going to have to leave it there. thank you both for your time

this evening. and please tune in for the melissa harris-perry show weekends at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. coming up, the president spoke out about the stand your ground laws. what will it do for the national debate? and trayvon martin's parents have just responded to the president's remarks. that's next. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ can help you do what you do... even better. i missed a payment. aw, shoot. shoot! this is bad. no! we're good! this is your first time missing a payment.

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president obama began his remarkable speech today talking about trayvon martin's family. >> first of all, i want to make sure that once again i send my thoughts and prayers as well as michelle's to the family of trayvon martin. and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they have dealt with the entire situation. i can only imagine what they're going through, and it's remarkable how they've handled it. >> trayvon's parents, sybrina fulton and tracy martin responded. quote, we are deeply honored and moved that president obama took the time to speak publicly and at length about our son trayvon. the president's comments give us great strength at this time.

the president's right. it is remarkable how they've handled it. and tomorrow they'll join in the fight to make change. fighting to repeal the stand your ground law with us at the vigils. that's next. brent, a real gate keeper. here's kevin, the new boyfriend. lamb to the slaughter. that's right brent. mom's baked cookies but he'll be lucky to make it inside. and here's the play. oh dad did not see this coming. [ crowd cheering ] now if kevin can just seize the opportunity. it's looking good, herbie. he's seen it. it's all over. nothing but daylight. yes i'd love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. the all-new nissan sentra. ♪ to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop.

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peace and security and order that we'd like to see? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened. and if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws. >> there is no doubt these laws do need to be examined. a version of the law is now in 33 states. we need to fight back. we need to take action. and we'll be standing together in 100 cities tomorrow. and trayvon martin's parents will be there too in honor of the memory of their teenaged son. joining me now is e.j. dionne. thanks for being here, e.j. now, you have written about the need to repeal stand your ground laws. with the president weighing in today, what does it do to the

debate, and what did you think of the president's speech? >> well, i was very moved about it. and the thing that moved me the most i think was his tribute to trayvon martin's family. >> yeah. >> i mean, that family has shown as he said grace and dignity, extraordinary decency. and you like to -- i don't think i could react that way if it were my son who was shot dead. >> it's amazing. >> and i'd like to hope that people who may not have come into this sympathetic to trayvon martin will listen to them, watch them and say you know, these are good people. maybe i should try to see this through their eyes. i think they have given an example that you don't see a lot in public debates or very much at all. >> no doubt in my mind, you're right. the laws itself. with the president weighing in today, what does this do to the debate? >> it raises the profile. eric holder did it already. the president is doing it now. i thought his saying flat-out would you feel the same way if it had been trayvon martin who had been older and had shot that weapon? because the problem withstand

your ground laws is it shifts the balance of power in our country towards people with guns. >> right. >> 60% of us don't own weapons. somewhere around between 50 and 60%. if somebody shoots me dead with a gun and then says oh, i did it in self-defense, i'm not there to say he is lying because i'm not there. i'm dead. and that what i think these laws have done is they're an effort by the nra and their allies to really shift the whole culture of the country, to say really we're safer when we were are all armed. well, no we're not. and that story shows what happens when you really remove the authority from the police and just give anybody the right just because they feel threatened. i mean, how many of us feel threatened? we often feel threatened, but that not an excuse to shoot a gun. >> and use deadly force at that. the president talked about how some said stand your ground was not argued in this case, but there was certainly the looming

presence of it. and even juror b37 who was interviewed talked about how stand your ground influenced the verdict. listen to, this e.j. >> because of the two options you had, second-degree murder or manslaughter, you felt neither applied? >> right. because of the heat of the moment in the stand your ground. he had a right to defend himself. if he felt threatened, that his life was going to be taken away from him or he was going to have bodily harm, he had a right. that's how we read the law. that's how we got to the point of everybody being not guilty. >> in the heat of the moment, he had the right to defend himself, stand your ground. so even though it was not argued directly, it influenced instruction of the judge. it dealt with the whole understanding jurors had of where the law was now. that's why the law is so significant. and that's why the law is in the middle of this case. >> that's absolutely right.

we can't just look at the letter of the law. it's true they didn't use the stand your ground law in this argument. but it creates a further bias in the case in favor of the shooter. and that's in the head of jurors. and there is no obligation for someone to try to diffuse the situation. there is no obligation to try to walk away from a fight. and having a law like this encourages a kind of aggression i think because it gives power, more power to somebody with a weapon. so i don't think we should be surprised that even though stand your ground wasn't directly part of this case, the juror felt well this part of the law exist tlfrs there is more of a tilt toward zimmerman. >> we're out of time. i must ask you. you have covered a lot of presidents. what is the significance of what you saw today from this president? >> i thought this was huge because he did it -- it wasn't a set speech. it wasn't some formal part of a

conversation. he said i could be 35 years i'd be trayvon martin. and i think he sent the signal to a lot of americans, particularly white americans to say please look at this through the eyes of people who have gone through a certain history and have had these experiences. and i think he may not have reached sean hannity. but i think he reached a lot of people with that today. >> e.j. dionne, thanks for your time. >> thank you, sir. coming up, why did he make this speech. why address the trayvon martin verdict now? david gregory, moderator of "meet the press" joins me. and the president spoke of the way forward and how to channel the outrage and pain surrounding this tragedy into positive action. there is a pursuit we all share. a better life for your family, a better opportunity for your business, a better legacy to leave the world. we have always believed in this pursuit,

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the president's appearance today in the white house briefing room was as powerful as it was surprising. a white house official said the president told his senior staff he had been thinking about addressing the trayvon martin verdict after having, quote, several conversations with his friends and family. he also felt it was, quote, important that he make remarks

so the country could hear from him in a broader context. and that the president had been, quote, watching the reaction around the country and in the african-american community. joining me now is david gregory, moderator of nbc's "meet the press." first of all, david, thank you for being here. >> sure. >> this afternoon, you called the speech a remarkable presidential moment. what was striking to you? >> that this was not about a president coming out saying here is a big problem and as president of the united states, i can try to solve it. it was just the opposite. i think this was a president who came out and said that there is something that is roiling the waters out this. and it has to do with race and it's highly charged. it's politicized in a way because it has to do with gun laws in the country. and government really doesn't have all the answers. but let me try to explain where a lot of african-americans are coming from. so the first black president in

a position to try to explain the reaction a lot of african-americans have to the trayvon martin case, but also call for calm, with a lot of the vigils that are coming up over the weekend. and i don't know, just sort of work through this, as though he was thinking out loud, no doubt responding to the critics who said he hasn't adequately found his voice in talking about race. >> now, you have covered the bush white house. you've been certainly the guy that has seen it all and heard it all. give me where this fits in terms of where we are in the history of the country. how significant is what we saw, particularly coming from the first african-american? >> it's just that. it's unprecedented in the fact that only the first african-american president can give voice to racial tension in the country the way that he has. and there has been an evolution to that. he did it as a candidate in philadelphia. >> '08, yeah.

>> he did it moclumsily. i don't think this was an ideological issue, but he was nor centralist about it acknowledging black on black crime and acknowledging how troubling it to the african-american community. while at the same time trying to provide context. i think that's what is striking. i think the president to the extent he sees himself having a unique role is to have context to some of these debates. i find him incredibly comfortable in that role. >> yeah, he hit a core nerve. as you know, there are vigils tomorrow, 100 cities in all. for him to say not as he did a year ago that trayvon could have been my son, but trayvon could have been me. >> right. >> puts the whole explanation at a different level where i don't know that he identifies or leads the charge of the pain of people like me that are more active, but explains that the pain is not irrational, even if i don't have the medicine to take care of the pain. >> and that's what i think is

significant. and if there is something to come of it, then we can all have conversations in more intimate segments where perhaps it's still more comfortable to talk about race and work through. he talked about wringing bias out of our lives and out of our society. i don't think that's always done in the public square, but it certainly needs to be done. the added power of the first black president saying trayvon could have been me 35 years ago, that speaks volumes. and it says to blacks and whites alike look, there is pain here that you don't experience, that you can't understand that influences a reaction to the outcome of the case. >> the politics of this. on one side, you have the african-american community that says when he said that, that could have been me, yes, he understands how we feel, and it could have been him. but there may be a price to pay by some in not just white communities. i'm sure many in the white

community will understand. but there are going to be those on the right, those who have been the opponents of the president that will jump on this and say that he is encouraging the marches. >> right. >> and that he is being divisive in some way. >> why do it, then? what is the politics of this? how did he weigh the politics? because he is very thoughtful and certainly is a guy that is very cautious. why do it? >> look, i have to believe at some level, and yes, there is political pressure coming from the african-american community, that there is a substatement of conscious here. that he wants part of his legacy to be having -- making a contribution to the racial dialogue in this country that goes beyond what his presence alone sig feiss. i believe he has been reluctant at times, but when he finds a voice and where he is most comfortable saying hey:00 look, there is a context here. we know how uncomfortable he is with the binary political debates.

i think he looks for opportunities particularly on the issues of race let's have a broader contextual conversation. i'm sure he had some remarks prepared in his head. but this was him more or less riffing in a way that was quite thoughtful and we'll see what the impact is. >> david, thank you so much for joining us. david gregory, moderator of "meet the press." again, thank you for your time. >> thanks, reverend. >> this sunday on "meet the press," david will have a special discussion on race and justice in america. that's sunday morning on nbc. please check your local listings for times. coming up, the president talks about turns tragedy into action. next. when you do what i do, you think about risk. i don't like the ups and downs of the market, but i can't just sit on my cash. i want to be prepared for the long haul. ishares minimum volatility etfs. investments designed for a smoother ride. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes

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talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. get the blood tests. change your number. turn it up. androgel 1.62%. for all their power, presidents aren't all powerful. we know that. that's as it should be. but presidents always have the power of the bully pulpit. and this afternoon, president obama talked about moving the country to action on these

issues. >> i do recognize that as president, i've got some convening power. and there are a lot of good programs that are being done across the country on this front. and for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials and clergy and celebrities and athletes and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young african-american men feel that they're a full part of this society, and that they've got pathways and avenues to succeed? i think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obviously a tragic situation. and we're going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that. >> the president has the powerful bully pulpit, the power to convene. thousands of us will be together

at vigils and rallies tomorrow in 100 cities. you have the power to do that. you have the power in your churches, in your homes, wherever you are, to do whatever you can do to move this country forward. to move this country toward a more perfect union. when i was growing up in church, we used to sing the song "this little light of mine, i'm going let it shine." let's all take the darkness on by shining our light on a better way and a way to make this nation what should it be. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. >> the president, the zimmerman trial and race. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews. what we saw at the white house