and, of course, from all those cameras that were focused on him today as the commander in chief placed the nation's highest military honor around his neck. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. thanks for being with us tonight. have a great night. we'll be back with you tomorrow with steve schmidt. stay with us. the phrasing has gone from little doubt to undeniable. syria and chemical weapons and what president obama is planning to do about it. >> the obama administration says there is very little doubt -- >> we believe there is very little doubt about culpability. >> the syrian government used chemical weapons. >> did a chemical weapons attack occur? >> what is before us today is real. >> the answer to that question is yes. >> president obama is weighing military options against syria. >> i have no affection for mr. assad. >> there is no solution as we have long made clear that includes assad. >> but at the same time i am less sure of the resistance. >> in that sense there's a big worry. >> should they let this chemical attack go unanswered? >> i do think action is going to

occur. >> this morning a team of u.n. chemical weapons inspectors arrived in damascus. >> shots were fired at the u.n. team inside syria. >> their vehicle was deliberately shot at by unidentified snipers. >> the u.n. investigation will not determine who used these chemical weapons. >> the question remains what might the intervention look like? >> it's very, very complicated. >> i don't want us to change our overall policy. >> did can't be a unilateral american approach. >> it deserves an international response. >> the credibility of the president is on the line here. >> are he getting closer to military intervention in syria? >> what is before us today is real. chemical weapons were used in syria. hi, i'm ari melber, in for lawrence o'donnell. president obama's red line in syria has been crossed. secretary of state john kerry said today it was undeniable that chemical weapons were used in syria on august 21st, when rockets unleashed poison gas on a rebel-held suburb of damascus, killing hundreds.

>> what we saw in syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. it defies any code of morality. let me be clear. the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. by any standard it is inexcusable, and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable. >> that has not stopped russian president vladimir putin from claiming there's no evidence of an attack. russia is key, of course, because it is one of five nations with veto power on the u.n. security council. the obama administration says it has the evidence and syria's assad regime is to blame. >> there is very little doubt

that the syrian regime, the assad regime, used those weapons because they have maintained control of the stockpile of chemical weapons in syria, they alone have the capacity to use rockets to deliver chemical weapons. >> for five days the syrian regime refused to allow the u.n. investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. instead it attacked the area further, shelling it, and systematically destroying evidence. that is not the behavior of a government that has nothing to hide. that is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. >> and today a van with u.n.

weapons inspectors was shot at as it attempted to enter the attack site to collect evidence. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent richard engel was able to slip into syria today before returning safely back into neighboring turkey. richard? >> reporter: ari, the white house has said no final decision has been made but tonight there are growing signs that some sort of military action against syria in response to what most people believe was the use of chemical weapons on a massive scale is coming. will it be a big operation? will it last several days? will the united states try and spend more time to build a coalition? all of that remains unclear. but from where we stand and the people we've been speaking to, it seems likely that some sort of military response is coming. u.n. inspectors today in damascus. one of their vehicles shot by a sniper. but after a brief delay they finally began their work, interviewing survivors, doctors, and taking samples. but this may already be a sideshow. the u.s. and others already believe the assad regime used chemical weapons last week on a scale not seen anywhere in decades. so america is once again building a case for military

action. >> there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons. >> reporter: the likely action -- cruise missile strikes from four u.s. navy destroyers and two submarines already in the mediterranean. possible targets? syrian military facilities and weapons systems, planes and airfields, command and control bunkers, but not, u.s. officials say, president assad himself. and not chemical weapons stockpiles. too risky. would it be legal? u.n. backing is unlikely without russian support. but a coalition of arab and european states along with the u.s. could be used to justify a strike. we traveled to northern syria today with u.s.-backed rebels. syrians tell us the united states has an enormous responsibility now. yes, this isn't america's war, and no, these people here don't want american troops and for this to become another iraq. but they say if the united states doesn't intervene now bashar al assad's regime will only be encouraged to go further and they believe use chemical weapons again.

osama muwas arrived at a camp with his wife and 11 children today. usama told us he came to hide from the poison gas and didn't know where else to go. "it's a dirty regime," he said. but the most powerful words came from 10-year-old sidra, a message she said she had for president obama. "does he want his kids to be like us? aren't we just like them? when we get bigger, we're going to write obama didn't help us," she said. but secretary kerry made it clear today, the u.s. wants to help and is preparing to act. >> the images of entire families, dead in their beds, human suffering that we could never ignore or forget. anyone who could claim that an attack of this staggering scale could be contrived or fabricated needs to check their conscience and their own moral compass.

>> reporter: the syrian government, ari, denies it has ever used chemical weapons and says this is a fbrication, something that is being used by the rebels to try and gain international support and sympathy. the syrian rebels, however, say this is the 30th time at least since this war began that the regime has used chemical weapons against the opposition and that this was just the most flagrant example. ari? >> thank you to richard engel for that reporting. and joining me now, mark ginsburg, a former ambassador to morocco under president clinton and a former white house adviser on mideast policy. and for a humanitarian perspective we're joined by joe stork from the human rights watch. thank you both. and mark, i want to start with you. give us a sense on the broader picture of what our relationship has been with syria up to this point. they have been labeled a state sponsor of terrorism since the '70s. we have a lot of conflict here. what is the predicate for what

might be this escalating conflict with the u.s. versus syria? >> well, putting this into context, hafez al assad, bashar al assad's father, had always been a protagonist against israel and against the united states in the middle east. it has been the number one ally of iran in the arab world. the most important ally of russia in the middle east. and an exporter of oil to china and the number one purchaser of arms from russia. so syria has been in a league by itself. as also the first arab country to try to build an atomic weapon and has the largest cachet of chemical weapons in the world besides the united states and russia, the largest cachet of chemical weapons. >> thinking about that and the use of these weapons, from a humanitarian perspective before we reach any question of potential intervention where does this attack against the syrian people line up in your view compared to other incidents we've seen historically? >> well, look, what happened last week on august 21st, something terrible happened, something that left upwards of

1,000 people dead, almost all of them civilians, non-combatants, men, women, and children. it certainly appears to us my colleagues were in touch with people the hours right after the attack, talking with first responders, talking with victims, talking with doctors. and it certainly -- the descriptions we were getting, the accounts we were getting were certainly consistent with some sort of chemical nerve agent. what we've seen coming since in terms of, for instance, dead animals, for instance not seeing any other signs of trauma on the bodies of the animals or the people, all of that is consistent with some sort of chemical attack. >> and let me jump in there and ask you, you know, some people are comparing this to iraq using chemical weapons against its own people in 1988. does this bring that to mind as something as bad as that?

>> it certainly does. of course back then the united states and the world -- the international community very generally was looking the other way, was acquiescing in these attacks. i think this is certainly something that deserves the condemnation of the international community. it deserves every possible step to bring this -- make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again if at all possible. >> right. so ambassador, when you look at this on top of what is a grave situation in syria, 1.9 million refugees by some accounts, what would a responsible intervention potentially look like? we heard richard engel talk about some ideas that are on the table. we also know why there is so much logical resistance to too much american presence in these kinds of conflicts. >> i think the president's caution on this is well understood and well appreciated because after all, you have so

many chemical weapons. what targets do you choose? and since this is not meant to in effect involve the united states in the civil war itself but to retaliate for the regime's use of chemical weapons, what targets do you hit and will the targets that you hit effectively send a message to the regime that the west will no longer accept any use of chemical weapons? that's the key. we're not talking about proportional response. we're talking about a punishing response. and then what will the assad regime do? will it try to in effect attack israel? will it try to expand the conflict? how will russia react? these are all the calculations the administration has to engage in. >> and yet even though we're talking about this tonight i think it's very fair to say that the united states population has not heard a great deal about this as a foreign policy debate or as an intervention debate. i want to tell you and our viewers, you know, according to a new reuters poll, when asked whether we should intervene only about 25% of people lean toward yes. 46% say no.

what do you make of that and the effect of that sort of undertow on what the president can do here? >> well, let's face it. the american people are fatigued by getting involved in conflicts. the president has committed to end the conflict in iraq. he did. he's pulling troops out of afghanistan. and syria is a swamp filled with all sorts of characters that are al qaeda oriented, and then there's of course a small element of the free syrian rebels. there's the iranians there with their revolutionary guards. but let's be -- with all of that caution, ari, we have to understand that there is an incredible amount of anger and resentment toward the regime for the use of its chemical weapons. and the fact that the french and the british and our arab allies are prepared to back up some military response i think says enough. and the american people hearing from the president will understand that that red line was crossed once and for all by the syrian assad regime. >> and joe, a final word from you. what do you think is the right

sort of proper humanitarian or progressive response to what we're learning? >> well, i think if there is a military intervention on the part of the united states there are two key things. first of all, the targeting and the means of attack and so forth have to be precisely designed to minimize, absolutely minimize civilian casualties. that includes civilians who may be living in assad-controlled territories. and they include civilians who support assad in fact. secondly, the targeting should also be aimed at protecting civilians to the extent possible. it shouldn't just be about punishment. it should also be about protecting civilians. the 1,000 or so people killed last week are on top of 100,000 people, most of them civilians, most of them at the hands of government forces over the last two years. and that's what really needs to be kept in mind. >> all right. former ambassador marc ginsberg and joe stork of human rights watch, thank you very much for joining me tonight. we have a lot more politics coming up including colin powell reminding republicans it's a matter of if and not when voter i.d. laws will backfire on them.

ruth ginsburg describes the supreme court as one of the most activist in history. the man who interviewed her for the "new york times" will join us and tell us why she's not stepping down anytime soon. and you don't want to miss this. the state of new york is, yes, maybe finally suing donald trump because of what customers say trump university promised and didn't deliver. [ tires screech ] [ beeping ] ♪ [ male announcer ] we don't just certify our pre-owned vehicles. we inspect, analyze and recondition each one, until it's nothing short of a genuine certified pre-owned... mercedes-benz for the next new owner. ♪ hurry in to your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for 1.99% financing during our certified pre-owned sales event through september 3rd. otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand

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this wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the march on washington and congressman john lewis a key member of that march 50 years ago is marking the milestone with a new milestone at his own. he's at the top of the best-seller list with a graphic novel, "the march-book 1" is now number one on the "washington post" non-fiction list. the trilogy tells the georgia democrat's story of the civil rights movement. and book 2 and 3 will be released in 2013 and 2015. support for the civil rights act is coming from an unlikely place. what you wear to bed is your business.

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i always said one day i'd go to china, just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours. we need to understand that this is the real fight. you know, it is -- the voting booth is the one place we're all equal. on election day you walk into a voting booth. it doesn't matter if you're white, black, rich, poor. doesn't matter your race, doesn't matter your sexual orientation. we're all equal. doesn't matter how much money you have. >> i appreciate -- >> and so that is where they're trying to make the difference to

be able to win. >> you know, one of the most striking things about the anniversary of the march on washington has been watching how these issues that used to divide america, integration, equality, voting rights, are now claimed as ideals by people across the political spectrum. but is it enough to just salute these ideals or should politicians actually do something about them? after all, we know the march was designed to push congress to act? which it did. passing civil rights and voting rights laws the following two years. and tonight we compare the approaches of two modern republicans at the center of this debate. first there's jim sensenbrenner, the republican in congress most responsible for getting the voting rights act renewed seven years ago. speaking to the rnc today,

sensenbrenner says he's committed to renewing the law again in response to the supreme court. >> i am committed to restoring the voting rights act as an effective tool to prevent discrimination. with all of the problems that we have, with the budget problems and the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling and the snooping by the nsa, this is something that has to be done by the end of the year. it ain't going to be easy, but when we all are together we shall overcome. >> okay. but here is the problem. last week sensenbrenner asked the d.o.j. to stop enforcing part of the voting rights act because he didn't like holder applying it to voter i.d. hurdles in texas. d.o.j. is not going to do that. and it can't barter with a member of congress over lawsuits in order to get a law passed. now, contrast this whole exchange to another moderate republican, colin powell, who understands that voter i.d. laws are the civil rights and voter discrimination issue of our time. >> you didn't need a photo i.d. for decades before. is it really necessary now? and they claim there's widespread abuse and voter fraud. but nothing documents, nothing substantiates that. there isn't widespread abuse. and so these kinds of procedures

that are being put in place to slow the process down and make it likely that fewer hispanics and african-americans might vote i think are going to backfire because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote. and i encourage that. >> joining me now, msnbc political analyst steve schmidt and karen finney, host of msnbc's "disrupt." steve, i want to go to you. you've talked about the fact that many republicans have accepted a sort of mythology of voter fraud and gotten really obsessed with a problem that doesn't exist, as colin powell said. and look at what sensenbrenner said just last week that i was referring to. he released this statement to holder saying "i spoke with attorney general holder today and requested that he withdraw his section 2 voting rights lawsuit until there can be a legislative fix of the vra. the lawsuit would make it much more difficult to pass a bipartisan fix to restore the heart of the vra." isn't that the wrong order of things, to say we should stop enforcing the part of the law that the supreme court actually didn't overturn? >> look, i think the chairman is trying to get to a bipartisan solution. he views the litigation as making his job more difficult.

so i don't think it's out of the ordinary that he would write a letter like that. but i think the larger point is encapsulated with what general powell said yesterday, and he's exactly right about this. there is in fact no evidence of widespread voter fraud that's taken place over the recent history of the country in a way that is hurting republicans. and there is a mythology that has grown up around this issue inside the republican party, but it has no basis in fact. general powell makes another good point. when we've had a system that for many years has relied on people not having to have an i.d., why is it necessary to do this now? when you look at the lines in the last presidential election in minority neighborhoods and minority communities and places where the president won overwhelmingly, the way the republicans have to compete is to reach out into these communities, not with tactics designed to frustrate people and make it more difficult to vote, but i think a lot of these

efforts that shut down the early voting, that make it more difficult to register on election day or the wrong path for republicans. >> well, you mentioned general powell. let's play a little more sound. karen, i want to get your reaction to what he said when asked about, well, what about all the republicans who believe this is a problem? let's take a listen. >> i think some of them honestly feel that it is appropriate to ask for more identification. but when they start to say let's restrict the number of voting hours or make it harder for students to vote, then i have to get a little bit suspicious of it. >> karen, he's suspicious of it in north carolina. what do you make of that? >> he's right to be suspicious. look, i think part of the problem, ari, you and i have talked about this, general powell is absolutely right on all of this. however, the conversation needs to be framed not around

identification, do you need an i.d. to buy sudafed, do you need an i.d. to go and vote, it should be about our fundamental constitutional right to vote and how do we protect that right? and the irony of this is that the sort of games that the republicans have played actually i think help increase turnout for president obama in the last election because people were so enraged at the idea that they were putting up all of these hurdles to try to stop people. you know, you saw people standing in line saying no way you're going to take away my vote. and i think now what you're seeing in places like texas and north carolina is people sort of re-energized and galvanized to go ahead and have this fight. if they want to take on this fight, we're going to have this fight. >> and steve, i mean, you worked for john mccain. you're in touch with a lot of republicans. colin powell doesn't have necessarily the strongest partisan credentials at this moment of time, although his honesty's obviously appreciated by a lot of people and he said that, some of these remarks in north carolina, lining up against what the republicans are

doing there very directly. do you see any other people who want to take this mantle of leadership in the republican party? >> well, look, i thought that chairman sensenbrenner talking about that this is something we have to get done is an encouraging thing, but one of the points i'd make is we are in a stage in the republican party where so much energy is spent on pointing a finger at people, who's not the real conservative or i'm more conservative than you and you ought to be kicked out of the party. i think it is inarguable that we were a stronger political party, we were more of a national party when colin powell was comfortable endorsing republican candidates and when colin powell was speaking at republican conventions. and the fact that colin powell doesn't feel all that comfortable in the republican party today when he did a generation ago is something that

ought to make us pause, look in the mirror, and take stock. what is it that we're doing that is turning off so many voters that used to be inclined to be with us? and i think that that's an issue the republicans are going to have to focus on mightily as we get ready for 2016. >> yeah, that makes sense. especially as we look at this anniversary week. steve schmidt and karen finney, thank you both for joining us tonight. and coming up, the state of new york versus donald trump. why the attorney general is calling trump university a bait and switch scam that is illegal. and next, why supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg says she's not leaving anytime soon. [ male announcer ] running out of steam? ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle.

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and now in the spotlight tonight a new supreme court activism. conservatives have complained about judicial activism for a very long time.

but now justice ruth bader ginsburg, probably the most liberal member of the court, says she's digging in to fight what she calls "one of the most activist courts in history." in an interview with the "new york times'" adam liptak the 80-year-old justice points to the court's decisions on the voting rights act as a stunning decision in terms of activism. now, of course it all depends on how you define it. but according to a recent study of the court, over 60 years the roberts court has reached conservative outcomes more often than any court since 1953. a whopping 71% of the time. well, joining us now is adam liptak, a former first amendment attorney for the "times" and now the paper's supreme court correspondent. and dahlia lithwik, a former clerk for the chief justice of the 9th circuit and a legal writer for slate. thank you very much for being here. and adam, i'll start with you since you just spent so much time with ruth bader ginsburg. is she really digging in and embracing her role as possibly the biggest liberal on the court? >> well, she enjoys her role in 2010 of being the senior justice on the liberal wing of the court, which in closely divided case size typically but not

always in a 5-4 minority. and she has been issuing some blistering dissents from the bench and in writing, and now she made some fairly sharp comments to me in an interview. >> indeed she did. you mentioned those dissents. she almost seems to look at dissents as a form of persuasion by time travel, if you will, and she's famously cited a former chief justice who said a dissent is an appeal to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may possibly correct it. adam, is that part of the idea here, she's been reading more dissents from the bench, as you point out in the article that's a bigger deal, and she's trying to sort of put a marker down even in the minority? >> well, she said in so many words in the interview that she hopes someday her dissents will become the law. and the dissents also, ari, as you know, have a different function also.

they can sometimes be an appeal to congress. so in the lily ledbetter case she was on the losing side. she dissented in that case. in an unemployment discrimination case. and she said congress, you should fix this. and that was a different time, different congress just a few years ago. and congress did fix it. and she's very proud of that work her dissent did too. >> and that goes to that interplay between the court and congress. we think of this sometimes as a do-nothing congress, but they do sometimes respond to messages from the court, positive or rejections. dahlia, let's dig into some of the dissent areas where she's been so vocal on issues that a lot of people care about. justice ginsburg has spoken up on the issue of abortion, on affirmative action, where she

was probably the lone dissent for more diversity, workplace discrimination, which adam just mentioned, and then of course in voting rights. what do you see when you look at that confluence of issues? >> i think that one very interesting thing that really distinguishes a ginsburg dissent, particularly in the last few years, is as adam says there's a sort of fieriness. we're not used to that. she's a pretty dispassionate person. but there's also this theme that runs through many of the cases you've described, this sense that oh, my god, they don't get it, they don't understand boots on the ground, what life is like in the world. and so in a lot of, for instance, the employment discrimination cases, adam mentioned the ledbetter case, the title 7 cases from this term, the walmart case, there's an awful lot of how can these people who are either coming from academia or off the bench understand what it's like to be a woman in a job? and that theme also runs through i think the voting rights dissent, but just this ongoing feeling of this court just doesn't understand what the real world is like. >> and dahlia, say more about that because if we only had a

republican appointees in the recent area it would be an all-male court. right now the women on the court are from president obama and president clinton. did she feel that that is obviously also ideal jikically blinkered in some way, whether there's a difference in what women face in the workforce? >> well, absolutely. she said it in so many words after a case that involved a strip search of a young girl, where she was the only woman on the bench, she gave an interview where she just said, my colleagues do not understand what it is to be a girl. but i think it transcends gender, and i think it goes to professional experience, too, ari. i think it's really important to understand, she was an aclu litigator. she has said, i could never, ever get confirmed today with that background. >> right. >> so i think it's really important to understand that she really saw cases from a very

different perspective that kind of transcends this left-right thing and is generational. >> you know litigating on behalf of constitutional rights for human beings is very controversial, obviously. adam, i want to give you the last word on a point that you've written about, which is the chamber of commerce and big business are doing very well. in fact, when you look at cases that actually go up to the court, which is a huge deal, as everyone knows, we've seen smyth something around 32% of the chamber's priorities goes through. that leaves every other group of every kind in the country. where does that tell us about where the roberts court is headed? >> this court, and this is really beyond dispute, is the more pro-business court since the second world war. and the change really comes with president george w. bush's two appointees, chief justice roberts and justice alito, who are number one and number two in their propensity to vote for business in all of the justices who have served in that time period. so this is a court which is an open door for business interests. >> right. and that's something that the data bears out. whether people think that's good or bad, they can debate at home. dahlia lithwick of slate and adam liptak of the "new york times," thank you both for spending some time with us tonight. coming up, one of the people who says donald trump's trump university ripped him off. will join us to talk about new

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now, the demolition of a parking garage is rarely news. unless, of course, the park k garage is in washington, d.c. and was the meeting spot for uncovering one of the biggest scandals in american history. >> you let haldeman slip away. >> yes. >> you've done worse than let haldeman slip away and get people feeling sorry for him. i didn't think that was possible. >> yes. the garage where deep throat met bob woodward will be torn down within the next four years. at least according to a brand new plan. fbi agent mark felt met woodward six times between october '72 and november '73. and for the trivia junkies it was parking stall d-32. now, tonight i also want to talk to you about why the president doesn't need any more of these. that's up next. tonight i want to talk with you about the president and [ tires screech ]

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then there's esurance. born online, raised by technology and majors in efficiency. so whatever they save, you save. hassle, time, paperwork, hair-tearing out, and yes, especially dollars. esurance. now backed by allstate. click or call. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪ tonight i want to talk with you about the president and golf. this isn't one of those horrible political sports metaphors. i'm talking about actual literal

golf, the sport where people play for hours if they have free time and spend thousands of dollars on equipment and golf ranges and cute clubhouse drinks like the arnold palmer. because of all the criticisms of president obama the golf attack has to be one of the most absurd and also the most revealing about his critics. the latest round came from michael bloomberg. he sat down with the "new yorker" for an exit interview about his mayoral term. and right there on the first page bloomberg complains that while the president's done some good things in bringing the parties together obama has failed to invite republicans to play golf with him. now, washington insiders have their own variation on this complaint, that everything would be better if the president just spent more time sporting, drinking, meeting or just chilling out with the republicans who oppose his agenda. >> the question is does the

president have the courage to stand up to his own party and work with us to truly solve this problem? >> but the president is out to his campaign events nonstop when he could be sitting down with senate leaders to actually act. >> i call on our president to help lead us toward a bipartisan solution rather than encourage the common political divisions of the past. >> i haven't heard about any negotiations or talks or serious signaling that is going on. which is something that always confuses me a little bit about this administration. >> it always confuses peggy noonan that this administration never reaches out to republicans. this kind of thinking is wrong on two levels. first, the president is constantly reaching out for more bro time with republicans. in march having to work around republican leaders who were stonewalling him the president invited a dozen gop senators out to dinner. the next week the president met with the house republican leadership. in april the president had his second dinner with a dozen more republican senators. and back in november just before bipartisan budget talks president obama secretly invited

five republicans to the white house for a movie screening with the stars of "lincoln." and none accepted. on the invite list were speaker boehner and senators mcconnell, alexander coburn and snow. now, maybe movies just don't offer the bipartisan bonding of golf. well, it turns out the president has been doing that too. here's obama and boehner back in the summer of 2011. doesn't that look nice? and here he is with republican senators corker and chambliss on the links just three months ago. here's the president and senator corker talking about something with putters in the hand on the green. and here's senator corker talking about playing golf with president obama on tv. >> what did you learn about the president from his golf game and what did you learn about what he intends to do? >> well, you know, it was mostly golf. he was easy to be around, and candidly it was a lot of fun. and obviously saxby's hole in 1 on 11 was perfect. it was a great day. >> boom.

candidly it was a lot of fun. if you're going to lecture the president shouldn't you really check if there is a boycott of gop golf? and more importantly, this quality of time complaint does reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of politics today and what's happened to the republican party. there are hazards to progress in washington, big ones. gerrymandered congressional districts are reducing competition and they enable politicians to pick their voters instead of voters picking politicians. and that has led to a far more polarized voting record in the house. democrats are a little more liberal than they were in the '60s. while republicans are far more conservative than they used to be. you can see right there the republicans breaking up in the right-hand corner away from the pack. and that's data from political scientist keith poole. then there's the money. 2012 was the most expensive election in american history.

the average winning senate candidate spent nearly 10 million bucks. and that money comes with a price. many big donors oppose government regulations and the president's agenda. and those are just structural barriers to legislative breakthroughs. we're not even going to revisit the pledges of mitch mcconnell or ted cruz to oppose anything obama proposes because, you know, obama proposed it. but you don't beat these kind of barriers with tee time. you can beat them with public pressure. that's what ultimately made this do-nothing house pass the violence against women act six months ago. and the president promptly signed it. you can beat these barriers with aggressive parliamentary tactics, not taking shots together down the fairway. tactics, real tactics like threatening to change the senate rules unless republicans stop obstructing votes on democratic nominees. democrats pulled that one off just last month. or you can whip your caucus and pass big things on those party line votes. that's how we got obama care, which passed without a single republican senator. that's how we got the president's $800 billion stimulus, which passed without a

single republican house member. you have to bring your "a" game to get those kind of things done in this environment. it actually takes a lot more work than what bloomberg and the conservative crowd have implied. it takes more than sharing tee time. and maybe it's time someone told mayor bloomberg his game is pretty subpar. i love it! how much do you love it? animation is hot...and i think it makes geico's 20 million drivers message very compelling, very compelling. this is some really strong stuff! so you turned me into a cartoon...lovely. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. but you had to leave rightce to now, would you go? world, man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china,

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it's time to get serious for a moment. today there has been a lot of talk about inappropriate dancing from the mtv video music awards. and we're not going to show you any of that. we are not in the business of evaluating anyone's dancing here at "the last word." we will, however, show you some dancing that you do need to see. this is former u.s. secretary of state colin powell with the singer pharrell and the actor slash singer jamie foxx getting down on saturday night. they're dancing to the hook-up anthem "get lucky." he's over on the left of your screen. ♪

>> that really happened. we like it. we salute it. you might have also spotted ellen degeneres back there as well. stay with us because up next it's new york versus donald trump. la's known definitely for its traffic, congestion, for the smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the buses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution into the air. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.

a phony university with a phony curriculum with phony instructors and a life-size poster of trump so they can pretend they met him. >> donald trump may be famous for lying about the president's birth certificate, and there's actually nothing illegal about that. but lying in business is another story. and today new york state's attorney general filed a $40 million lawsuit against trump, his business holdings, and a for-profit real estate program that was once known as trump university. trump faces six charges, including fraud, false advertising, and operating a university without the university charter that's actually required under new york law. the complaint takes trump to task for claiming that he only founded the program for philanthropic purposes and personally selected each instructor. >> honestly, if you don't learn from them, if you don't learn from me, if you don't learn from the people that we're going to be putting forward, and these are all people that are hand-picked by me, then you're just not going to make it in

terms of the world of success. >> well, according to the attorney general, those instructors actually had no direct link to trump. some had recently filed for bankruptcy and had little to no expertise. and the program brought in 5,000 customers through false and misleading advertising. donald trump attacked the attorney general today. >> during the investigation he was asking people in my firm, including one of my lawyers, for campaign contributions. who ever heard of this? he's asking for campaign contributions while he's looking into trump. i mean, what kind of an attorney general is this? >> he sounds so excited. the attorney general responded today on msnbc. >> all prosecutors are used to people who can't respond to the allegations in a complaint making crazy allegations. >> and that brings us back to mr. trump's long-time obsession with barack obama. faced with this local prosecution, trump saw an obama scandal lurking behind his legal troubles.

>> he meets with the president on thursday night. he sues me on saturday. it was a terribly drawn suit, incompetently drawn suit, and they obviously did it very quickly. but probably obama, maybe this is a mini irs. maybe we have to get the tea party after these people because this could very well be a mini irs. >> he's always yelling. it could be a mini irs, mr. trump. or it could be that you ran a university in violation of a state law that produced a lot of customers who now say you lied to them. bob deal is one of those customers. he says he did once believe donald trump but bob ultimately handed over $35,000 to the organization, and he joibz joins us now. thanks for being here and telling your story. >> you're welcome, ari. >> so you felt at one point in time that this was an investment or a purchase that you wanted to make. the attorney general says that a lot of people made this purchase under false pretenses, which is a violation of the law here in new york. do you feel that is your situation? >> i certainly do. >> and what exactly happened that drew you into this? >> okay.

my son got a flyer, went to a mini seminar, paid $1,495 for a three-day seminar with a james harris. james harris was one of the best motivational speakers i've ever listened to in my life. and he told us to all go out and increase our credit rating for the purpose of buying real estate but it was only to increase our credit ratings -- credit limits, rather, so that we could pay $35,000 for the trump gold elite program. >> mm-hmm. and when you listen to the defenses that mr. trump has offered today and that we just played, what is your response to them as someone that feels that he's taken money from you that was not rightfully his? >> okay. at the end of each workshop they handed out a questionnaire, and the presenter would ask you to complete the questionnaire in order to get this certificate at the end of each workshop.

and they also mentioned that i'd like you to be kind to me because mr. trump would like to have me come back hopefully if you give us a very satisfactory rating. so everybody filled out a questionnaire, and not putting down the exact feelings that they have. and now mr. trump started up a website called 98% approval.com. >> and let me ask you about that. if you hold that up there as you did there. trump university, it says on there. >> right. >> were you under the impression during this period or when you were paying that this was an actual university? >> absolutely. i worked in the service area for corporations, and i filed many documents with the secretary of state of new york, and i knew that the word "university" was prohibited unless you had the approval of the board of regents and the department of education. which i assumed that donald trump got because they filed the certificate. >> and that's one of the key legal claims that the attorney

general is pressing now. >> right. >> i want to also play for you some other defenses that donald trump has offered. we're definitely giving his side of the story as well. >> sure. >> take a listen to this. >> we're dealing with an attorney general who everyone in new york knows is a total lightweight. he's very unpopular. he lets jon corzine take 1.4 or something, disappear -- $1.4 billion and doesn't do a thing. he lets wall street and everybody else rape everybody, doesn't do a thing. he goes after donald trump and a school that has a 98% approval rating. >> now, what is your sense from being involved in this of the attorney general at this point? >> okay. i think that he did a lot for bob guillo and all the other people that got trumped by trump. okay?

>> and i've got to ask you this as well. and i don't mean this with any offense. but some people look at a situation like this, and putting aside the legal issue of whether it was accredited, they say you know what? buyer beware. people shouldn't have trusted trump in the first place, you have to make your own decisions with your money. to people who say that, what is your response? >> my response is that donald trump's reputation as a successful real estate investor and a billionaire made him in our eyes to be a really great guy that decided to be very benevolent to little guys like me and show us the way to make big bucks like he did. and it was all a scam. from the first day that i went to the first workshop, when they tried to get me to pay more money and every other workshop was a scam to get you to lay out more dollars -- >> right. >> -- in addition to the money that you paid initially.

>> right. and that is the attorney general's claim that he wants to press in court, that they were lying to consumers and thus any consent or money they got as a product of that fraud should be disgorged. thank you for telling your story. >> you're welcome, ari. >> absolutely. bob guillo, thanks for joining us. i'm ari melber, in for lawrence o'donnell. he will be back tomorrow. you can find me on "the cycle" monday through friday at 3:00 p.m. eastern. and on twitter @arimelber. "hardball" is up next. tonight 44. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. did you see the movie "42"? it's the story of jackie robinson, the first african-american to play in the major leagues. it's the story how a number of bad guys tried to bounce him out of the game, even at his first at-bat. the snarls from other dugout t