synchronizes your business expenses. just shoot your business card receipts and they're automatically matched up with the charges on your online statement. i'm john kaplan and i'm a member of a synchronized world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. new videos the white house thinks can turn the tide on syria. president obama, the week since he announced he would be seeking congressional approval for a u.s. military strike against syria has been a long one. the math is not on his side. we'll have more on those numbers in a moment. to understand just how important it is to the president to wrangle all of the support he can for military intervention, we first need to not how is he trying to win those votes. the obama administration's desire to retaliate against

assad regime began with gruesome villager suffering from what appeared to be chemical attacks. there are a dozen or so videos the obama administration showed to a select group of senators behind closed doors and obtained just yesterday by nbc news. you may not have even had your coffee this morning so we'll warn you these images are very graphic. we're not going to show them on the screen for that long. but you can see rows of bodies, many of them children, seeming to gasp for air. people with dilated eyes, watery and dazed. administration saying it's consistent with nerve agents. we should tell you nbc news has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of these videos. the chair of the intelligence committee in the senate, senator dianne feinstein requested the videos from the cia. on thursday she described them as horrendous. we know senator feinstein plans to vote in favor of military action against the syrian government.

how might these videos compel other undecided members of congress? there are a lot of different whip counts floating around right now. all inexact, putting it mildly, and they all have different ways of counting up the votes. they're all pretty much finding the same bottom line right now. let's use "the washington post." here's how they have it in the senate at this moment. for military action, 23, against 7 and undecided 50. harry reid has filed a motion to attack. the house, a dramatically different story. for military action, only 25 leaning against. 226 undecided. 182. you look at that and say, wow. those numbers point to a huge challenge for the obama white house. getting the senate to say yes for a military strike is no sure thing but at least it looks doable but the situation in the house looks normally.

the house normally has 435 members, but now two vacancy, so that means the magic number is 217. at this hour, 226 members. nine more than you need for majority who say they are voting no or leaning that way. only 25 who say they are voting yes. there's a catch and it's a big one. there is really no incentive for members of congress to say right now they're for an attack. public opinion is against it. apparently the calls they're getting in their offices are extra against it. even to members of congress who are open to vote for it, they have every concern to express concern and sound like they're about to vote against it. that doesn't mean they will. there is still room, still time for the white house to win over the votes it needs, which is why the president, after speaking monday with all of the major news networks, will address the country on tuesday. why the briefings and pleadings

and arm twistings will accelerate behind the scenes. that's look at the obstacle course of the house of representatives. to get to 217, obama needs some republican votes. they are the majority party. how does the whip count look right now? for military action, you can see, eight republicans in the entire house who say they are for it. 164 who have indicated they're against it or leaning against it. 62 undecided. that's a 20-1 margin. by a 20-1 margin, house republicans are more likely to say they are against -- leaning against an attack than to say they are for it. a bare minimum if every member in the congress votes for obama, he would still need 17 republicans. right now he's not even halfway there. in reality he needs a lot more than 17 republicans because there are going to be a whole bunch of democrats who also vote no on this. the numbers right there, for an attack, 17 right now saying

they're for it in the house. against it or leaning against it, 62, undecided 120. for every democrat who breaks with the white house on this, that makes one more republican the president is going to need if he's going to get his resolution through. obama still has time here. how can obama convince republicans? last four years opposing everything with his name on it, same republicans whose party base is ready to punish any member of the tribe who so much as makes eye contact with the president. how can president obama convince those republicans to suddenly side with him on this? how many democrats remain traumatized by iraq? how many are in office because of iraq? can an appeal to party loyalty, to supporting a democratic pot a crucial vote, possibly be enough to win over members of the party base that lived through iraq and vowed never again? let's talk about why congress is where it is right now and whether there's anything president obama can do to win this fight. to do that we have nbc news,

capitol hill reporter and reporter casey hunt, todd washington correspondent for radio international, msnbc contributor dave weigel from slate.com and rebecca, deputy editor of politico.com. thank you for joining me. i want to go through the topics on the house and senate side. we have time for this. we'll start with democrats and make our way to the republicans. looking at democrats. we showed a little video. it moved dianne feinstein. do more people watching the video, does it loosen up? >> feinstein thinks so. i was outside of that intelligence committee meeting on thursday and she said is he want a dvd made for other members of congress. the intelligence committee is always allowed to see other

members of congress are, at least initially. members of the house where this fight is moving, haven't had a chance to see those graphic images. this is the first half of the battle in the minds of many who have been listening to members of congress start to examine this question. how can we convince people this is something that is so horrific we absolutely cannot afford to not responsibility? the second he cquestion is polil question, where president obama is asking some to put their own job on the line for this vote. some have only been in congress -- maybe freshmen members, vulnerable, on the front line and they want reashurns from the president saying, we need to be convinced doing this is actually worth it. >> i wonder, dave, we put all the whip counts up there, one of the whip counts up there. i know you can take this with a huge grain of salt with these

numbers. there's no such thing when they vote in congress as lean for or against. that said, it seems strange to me there aren't that many democrats. a small number of democrats out there right now who are willing to say they're for this thing. when you look at that, how many need to get into this or are in play? >> in the house it needs almost all of them. last time a democratic president said there's a humanitarian need to go and drop bombs in another country. 30 republicans said we need to intervene in kosovo and that was after a they needed to convince people. 30 republicans voted for that. they need every democrat in the house to get in line. senate is easier to massage, of course. i don't think the timing and the way the president used his pow ther week was helpful to them. the president has argued this

would be a limited strike. it would have been incoherent to debate something they say is not going to be a wider war. because they didn't the only response and responsibility people have had, democrats and republicans, is to local papers, town halls. they've gotten on the record very early, earlier than if it was just a bunch of reporters irritating them in congress, like i like to do. they've gotten on the record to constituents and now they need to pull them out with new rationale. that's the point of the new video and speech. they need democrat in the house. >> what is the plan from the white house? congress is going to be back there, no longer just talking to local papers. what is a plan for how the white house is basically going to get democrats in line this week? >> the question from the white house perspective is whether this dynamic is already baked in the cake. dave nodded to timing. timing has been against the white house from the beginning.

when you an attack in august, that famous bush administration line, you don't roll out new products in august. they rolled out a new product. they rolled out a new presidential approach over labor day weekend. they started the push while he's overseas. they've had time for this intense opposition to gain steam. that's the trend line they're working against and reversing a trend line is more difficult than starting one. >> todd, looking at it -- we know a lot of members were in their districts this week. there were senate and house hearings. john kerry made his case, john dempsey, hagel. what do you think happened with the hearings and the statement of the president, what affect do you think has happened on the democrats? >> it has had some.

the foreign relations committee got it passed. there is a lot of body language reading in the senate and the hearings in the house about, you know, dempsey doesn't -- he's not leaning forward. physically he doesn't look like he's into this. i think it's a little silly to try to read the body language of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he's a soldier and he'll take orders. i understand people opposed to a strike would try to read his body language in that way. i think what's going on in the intel committee and these videos that have been posted or leaked to news outlets is doing something important. this is definitely a strategy aimed at democrats. the videos, horrific scenes of people suffering chemical warfare is the strain of the democratic party. think of dove tailing on the center of progress on friday, which we all watched, which was the strongest case the administration, in my mind, has

made yet. stronger than john kerry's before the foreign relations committee, imperative intervention of using american might at the time when people need us. clinton going into kosovo was the right thing we did. we should have gone into rwanda. sam powers is one of the chief proponents, along with susan rice. these videos coming out that give you that visceral response, how terrible that is. there's multifaceted strategy. the video you showed is a democratic strategy. republicans are not heartless. it's not that they don't care about people suffering but when you look at the motivations we think motivate these different labeled faxes we have in the house, they want democrats. >> let's pick that up in a minute because you can look back to the 199 0z, interventions of '90s with clinton and rwanda,

but you have the instinct for liberal intervention from '90s and then iraq. i want to talk about how the democratic base are sorting things out. except when it's too cold. like the last three weekends. asthma doesn't affect my job... you missed the meeting again last week! it doesn't affect my family. your coughing woke me up again. i wish you'd take me to the park. i don't use my rescue inhaler a lot... depends on what you mean by a lot. coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com, then talk to your doctor. there may be more you could do for your asthma.

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one of the few democrats in the house who is absolutely out front in favor of this is nancy pelosi, former speaker. nancy pelosi, 202 the run-up to the iraq vote, she was against it. one of the leading democrats in washington against it. it looks like she's moved back to a place where she's okay with intervention, at least with certain circumstances but it feels like the rest of the party, iraq is sort of hovering over this. >> that's true. have you to loob at the president's key allies. the congressional black caucus

has normally been supportive of the president. you've seen none of them come out and say, this is where we want to be. >> el eli cummings talking abou the dilemma on this vote. >> when i have 95% of the calls coming into my office saying no, it makes it very difficult. that's why the president has to address my constituents. by the way, i have a constituency that voted 80% for the president so it's not like they're not his friends. >> he sort of sets up, maybe there's an opening for the white house, for members like cummings that come from districts where there's a pro-obama sentiment, is there a potentiality for white house to make this a more personal appeal for the president, i need this, you have to stand with me. is there an eepg on those

ground? >> they hope so. it's not clear people actually know what the stakes are in syria. people still think of it in terms of iraq. they have forgotten rwanda, k s kosovo, other interventions because iraq has such a hang over every foreign policy. progressives used to be for that. they were for those enter vengs. they were -- to the extent there was progressive support for iraq, i mean, peter byner, things like that, it's because people were dying, and from people dying. how many are aware there are refugee camps in syria? . i don't think so. maybe that's one thing bolstering the white house, because the rest of the media is noticing the actual scale of what's happening in syria.

not that they weren't, but it wasn't a-1 every day. i don't think there are many democrats who would lose a primary in nine months, ten months because of this. >> i think -- dave makes a key point about a primary. it is very understandable in this moment, as the nation and the world is contemplating a strike, the president didn't just push a button and do. behave a couple weeks to mull it over. in the moment you can say, oh, gosh, if a democrat votes against public opinion, they're going to be get primaried. there's no reason to believe that right now. we're in the moment and it seems this is the issue that will drive 2014. >> but that fear is real. >> the fear is real. but if you're mcdonagh or obama or somebody else in the white house going to one of these

members, you say, this is going to be limited. and nine months from now it will not seem like it seems now. this is going to last six days. nothing succeeds like success. we'll be in and out. people won't be thinking about this, it's not a nine-year engagement with iraq -- >> the problem is the administration doesn't have a good explanation about what actually happens after we strike. >> they're worried about that. >> rebel groups are forecast toured. there is a group of secular rebels who say john mccain meets with on a regular basis. there's no guarantee if we strike with cruise missiles, you know the signs you're seeing of service members holding up saying, i didn't join this navy to be an -- to fight for al qaeda. there's a real concern whatever we do is going to help people that ultimately will be fighting against us.

for these member looking ahead saying, hey, we're pretty early in the cycle. there's no way to determine how this will turn out. if it goes badly, that could be a big problem. >> obama's speech is on tuesday. is there an example, a precedent for a president making a direct appeal to the country and triggering not just a few, but dozens of his party to change their minds or line up? is there a precedent for that? is there a reason to believe a speech can trigger anything like that? >> what members have been saying is they want the president to make a case to the public to reverse this tide. you're seeing 100 to 1 calls to congressional offices against the war. on the one hand, there's the

legacy of the evidence and pushing back on, have you made the case? is the evidence out there support your story line, your narrative, your version of events? the white house is focused very much on that because they feel that's something they can do, a battle they can win. the other legacy of iraq is war-weariness and going in without a clear goal, clear exit strategy. this is discussed as a limited strike but there was the moment when kerry was speaking to the foreign relations, he says, i don't want to -- >> and then he says, let's close that door. well, in an effort to win support for action in syria the president needs house democratic leadership behind him. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word... if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts...

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i am hopeful as american people are persuaded that this action happened, that assad did it, that hundreds -- hundreds of

children were killed. this is behavior outside the circle of civilized human behavior. we must respond. >> that was house leader, democratic leader nancy pelosi outside the white house making her case for u.s. action against syria. she and other congressional leaders in her party have been working hard this past week to gather support for president's proposed intervention. we'll bring in steve israel, chairman of the democratic campaign committee, joining us from new york. congressman, thank you for taking the time. you know the membership much the house democratic caucus personally as well as anybody down there or anybody in d.c. your conversations from them in the past week. we put the numbers up on the board. there aren't a lot of public "yes" votes. what is holding them back? >> thanks for having me on. it's still early. members of congress have been in

their districts for august. assad used chemical weapons and slaughtered over 400 children in august. i think the dynamic shifts on monday when the house goes back into session. the president addresses congress on tuesday. we do have another classified briefing on monday night. as members begin to speak with one another, experience and learn more about the classified intelligence, they'll come toe a decision. the bottom line right now is, there are still far too many undecided members to predict with any accuracy whether there will be 217 votes, 219 votes or 218 votes. >> i understand that. i guess what i'm curious about is we have members of congress, from both sides of the aisle, the calls coming into my office are overwhelming against it and public opinion polls we're seeing, not a lot of support there either. at what level is this is a

battle for public opinion? if the president this week does not turn public opinion around and get calls going in the other direction, get the polls going the other direction, is there any realistic way to get to a majority in the house? >> no question the president has to educate the american people and continue to educate members of congress. there has been robust outreach from the white house by many of my colleagues. that piece of it, that educational piece is critically important. i will say this -- there's a difference of member of congress who are reflecting on this issue and members of congress who are being reflexes ive on this issue. being reflexsiv means you're going to vote against it because the president of the united states has sought it. does anyone believe had mitt romney won and asked republicans for the exact authority president obama is requesting, that any of them would hesitate? there would be a stampede on the

house to support the exact resolution president obama has offered. what we need to do is get beyond politics of this and focus on the urgency of sending a message to the world that you cannot use chemical weapons. if you do it in syria, hezbollah can do it, iran can do it, north korea can do it. this is very important for our own security and should not be politiciz politicized. >> you mentioned the romney hypothetical. i expect he'd have a lot more than we're seeing. i want to ask you about the flipside because "the new york times" looked at congressional battle over this. they said in their story today, the pitch the white house is going to be making to democrats. they said, after all the arguments are exhausted, aides said, it will come down to a personal pitch. the president needs you to save him from a debilitating public defeat. how much of the message to democrats is ultimately going to be that? this is our president, he needs

this, we need you on board? >> you know, i think on questions like this, steve, where you're talking about a resolution authorizing a military strike, without combat -- without boots on the ground, without combat forces, rises to a level above, what does this mean for the president? what does this mean for me? i'm more interested in what does this mean for iran? what does this mean for north korea? what does this mean for our long-term security interests? i think most of my colleagues stay focused on those questions and factor out the more political and personal dimension of this, as they should. >> congressman, kasie hunt with nbc news. i just wonder, there are significant groups of members of the house on both sides of the aisle who would list israel security at the top of of the list of issues they care about. i wonder, will we see them in the short term coming out and saying this is something members need to get on board with? what kind of public push are we

going to be seeing from those members? >> i think from a substantive perspective, most members from congress on both sides of at isle and most americans realize israel is a key democratic ally of the united states. israel's strength is america's security. that is a very important public policy component and argument that will weigh on members. >> just to follow up. do you wish the president had never asked to you do this at all? >> no, i think the president made the right move, quite honestly. up, i have to say that the level of hypocrisy i'm listening to from -- mostly from house republicans who say the president was not consulting congress. now that he consults congress are saying he shouldn't have consulted congress or that he's been too weak, and now that he wants to show strength, it's too strong. it's rather frustrating. i think the president did what the constitution requires him to do. i do believe we need to take a look at the war powers act in general, another debate for a

different day. it's cloudy and ambivalent and i think we need to take a look at it and modernize it. >> steve israel, member of the house leadership. we thank you for joining us this morning. when president obama isn't trying to sell the democratic party, he also has to convince republicans. a party that's spent the last four plus years object strucking anything and anything with his name attached to it and now they're supposed to team up with. him. you work. and you want to get an mba. but going back to school is hard...

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remember i opposed the war in iraq. >> president obama at the g-20 summit but this week syria was often center stage. he talked about how democrats and republicans will view this. i want to turn to republicans. this is from gallup. they say under president obama they have never seen this much polarization between average republicans' view of the president and average democrats' view. approval rating between democrats, 86%, republicans 10%. biggest gap for any president. if he has a 10% approval rating between republicans and we see what the name obama does to republicans, right or wrong, it's not a popular name. you've got to get support from the republicans in house.

is it even possible? >> anti-obamaism is the currency of the republican party going into 2014 right now. that's not a criticism. that's what it is. that's what they're running on largely in their midterms. on the other hand, this is why we have one commander in chief. this is why presidents sometimes don't go to congress because 8% or 90% doesn't supposed to matter for the commander in chief. we're in a really, real surrealistic point with a president who didn't have to go congress with a party who hates him so much. congressman israel's point that republicans would have been completely opposite that romney introduced this on the floor is interesting. point taken. but for this president to convince republicans to give him

at least the stamp to do this, even though he could do it himself, requires a couple of things. you have john mccain and lindsey graham, the classic republican, traditional, military hawks who are at the president's side on this. they have used stronger language out of senate foreign resolution that came out. mccain will tell you this. he calls his party increasingly isolationists. he looks at the house for it. there's a rising sentiment in his party that's isolationist. it's hard to tease that out from anti-obamaism. >> i want to play something. this was house foreign affairs committee this week. some republicans in their questioning to kerry and haguele and dempsey. this is a theme we heard from several republicans during this hearing. >> with the president's red line, why was there no call for a military response in april? was it delayed to divert

attention from the benghazi, nsa scandal? >> questions surrounding terrorist attack in benghazi. >> that same should applied to benghazi. they breaches norms recognized far longer than norms against used sarin gas. >> you have a sense of the republican universe. when you hear benghazi, irs, somebody invoked fast and furious at this, too. when i hear that invoked, i'm hearing republicans who are just against this because it's obama. but i know there is also a strain of -- there is this sort of genuine strain of noninterventionist libertarianism. what's your sense of the republican party and how this balances snout. >> i think it's real. in 2000, ron paul loves to point this out, george bush was running for president, we had just gotten through a presidency that did humanitarian interventions, he was asked in the second debate with al gore

whether he would interview in somalia. he said, no, because that turned into a nation building exercise and he won the election. after 9/11 you don't see the force of the republican party, apart from neoconservatives, behind humanitarian intervention. you don't. the benghazi answer, i think that's been limited compared to what you heard in the '90s. that was the -- the going theory for every intervention in '90s he was doing to distract from something or other. all scandal led to -- one led to impeachment. >> that's what i'm skurs about, too, when you look at the republican party. you can look at clinton years. republicans were opposing it and you say because of liewinsky hes doing this. george bush wasn't in favor of nation building. mccain was the hawk. and then 9/11. i'm saying, is this a republican party that this sort of

non-interventionism has been pronounced the last couple of decades or was it rabid anti-clintonism and now rabid anti-obamaism. >> i was talking to a top aide who was saying this is not the same republican party that was supporting bush as he took the steps that he took. this is the republican party o who -- democrats cut this deal on sequester we'll match defense cuts and domestic cuts and we won't have to deal with it. the republican party for whom the defense support is no longer the sacred cow. it sets up a dynamic that is strikingly different from during the bush presidency. >> and a lot of us who were -- geek out on congress, were looking forward to a vote on this resolution to say, the number of republican votes on a war resolution is going to tell you a lot about the sequester

fight later on. hoim republicans are going to sort of -- how many are going to demand a replacement of sequester. all those who vote for resolution will be a good proxy of sequestration. that may not be true anymore given what kasie has said. >> rebecca wants to get in here. there are longer term implications you're teasing. it starts with something little, like taking a first step. and then another. and another. and if you do it. and your friends do it. and their friends do it... soon we'll be walking our way to awareness, support and an end to alzheimer's disease. and that? that would be big. grab your friends and family and start a team today. register at alz.org

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we're so choosy about the cuts of beef that meet our higher kosher standards that only a slow-motion bite can capture all that kosher delight. and when your hot dog's kosher, that's a hot dog you can trust. hebrew national. rebecca? >> i was going to say, everyone is talking about how this would have played out if this was a president romney. even if there was a romney in office, we would be seeing this debate in the republican party, the split between conservatives who fare intervention if there's national security at risk. that's one of the pitches the administration has been making, they are been trying to make a national security pitch here and there. and the group in the republican party, large and growing libertarian wing, who opposes these -- very vocal, opposes these sorts of moves. you would be seeing some version

of this debate, whether or not there was a president romney in office. that's one dynamic. the other dynamic, both of which work against the white house, is the fact that, again, we saw it at the very beginner, boehner and can tore came out. seen as a huge win for the white house. this will give some momentum. minutes later we get a statement from boehner's office saying, wait a mitt, we're out here, supporting it. he'll say he urged his colleagues to support it. we're expecting the president to do the hard work of gathering the votes, making the sell, the pitch. >> what do we know about boehner and cantor in terms of why did they then decide to come out for it if it's something they won't be making a rallying cry the next two weeks? why did they decide to come out for it? what are they going to do? >> for boehner, he walked into that white house meeting and came away with the impression that, you know, it's really important to support the president when he's asking for something like this. it's setting a precedent of not backing up the president when he's asking to use u.s. forces would be the wrong thing to do.

for cantor i think the calculus is different. he's interested in iran. his aides say this is important, jewish across the board, including the republican jewish coalition have said, you know, this is really important and have tied it into israel's security. that's something else that's really important to eric cantor. >> and john boehner has always been the guy as speaker, despite his many, many and strong clashes with president obama, he is a believer in his fights stop at the shore. when the president is overseas you don't hear boehner criticizing the president very strongly on commander in chief national security issue. there are criticisms but when the president came out and asked for this, and i think -- and when you talk to some of boehner's people as well, his position as speaker, he has always been the guy who believes domestic fights are fine. the entire country and the presidency benefits from a united front.

i think he sees that as part of his role. >> the other thing the other member of the republican leadership we're not talking about yet who has been silent, that's mitch mcconnell. i think that illustrates the divide in the republican party. mcconnell, rather than joining up with boehner and cantor on this, is worrying about his primary next year. his opponent in that primary came out against it. he needs this alliance with rand paul. will he ever say anything on this? >> the people more -- the guys who have more of a position in republican base, like cantor. >> tom cotton is a house member challenging senator pryor next year in arkansas. this is where you have -- it's upside down. you have cotton way out front saying, we want to go and do -- >> we want more.

but i would say -- to add onto cantor. those thinking ahead. i'm sure cantor can remember -- you don't want to -- if it doesn't involve a country sending missiles into new york or something we can't intervene. you don't want to set that precedent. mcconnell just needs to worry about what libertarians are saying now. cantor can see into the future. he may be asked to intervene in something more directly dangerous to israel but not to us. you don't want to have rand paul winning those arguments next time. mcconnell, you need him to win -- >> fascinating. i would cantor and mcconnell. one is thinking about the future and one is thinking about tomorrow. >> we apparently have new video. john kerry responding to the videos we showed you at the video of the gas attack.

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that this is not something abstract. this is not something just reported in the news, which you can discard and say, it doesn't matter what's happening over there. those videos make it clear to people that these are real human beings, real children, parents being affected in ways that are unacceptable to anybody, anywhere, by any standards. >> secretary of state john kerry just moments ago in paris. he's talking, weighing forcefully on those videos we showed you clips from at the start of the show. clearly, this is going to be a big part of the administration's push this week. i want to take the last few minutes and talk about -- it's a daunting challenge. if these numbers aren't moving, if, say, we get to the middle of the week, the president's done his videos, interviews, address to the country. if the numbers aren't moving or

if the senate starts moving against this, do you see any way the administration backs off this? is there a way out at this point other than going through a vote they might lose? >> welcome to the vagryes of the war law, the swiss cheese that hovers that president obama used not to go to you libya, the one he used in this aus spiss. does the white house after-v to back off? honestly, they know. they have answered this question in four different ways. >> or not answered it. >> one thing that came out, there's this new proposal from h -- they say, sign chemical weapons treat yshg 45 days to do that, then face some consequences. >> also remember, this is a resolution, a sense of the congress. it won't be a law. it won't be a bill. there is nothing congress is

going to do, whether assad has to sirngs whether they get a chris smith war crimes tribunal. chris smith from new jersey wants war crimes tribunal rather than attack. there's nothing they will do that's binding in lieu. the white house can do what it wants them to do whether congress gives them their stamp or they don't. they don't have to abide by anything. >> it's hard to believe if you go through a house vote and there's an overwhelming vote against this, any kind of vote against this, they would go forward with it. i'm wondering, longer term implications here, it's in "the new york times" today, the white house aides are talking about the pitch to democratic members of congress. the president needs you. be there for him. i'm wondering about the flipside, if the democrats aren't there for him, what are the long-term implications for them? >> i wonder if that's enough to win something in the senate and say, that's the rational natural. there's been a discussion, we lost the house. this administering has gotten

pretty good at blaming the house's dysfunction for a number of problems. they won't leave it for that. i would love for somebody to say they're considering that. if you have the senate and john mccain backing something you could make a bipartisan argument. one of the themes of the recess before this is republicans saying, it's time to impeach this guy. >> right now you have the administration making this impossible set of arguments. on the one hand congressional approval is enough to delay military action to horrific attack, to wait several week to have this long, drawn out process. to have members taking incredibly risky votes for the president's behalf. on the other hand, if they in fact weigh in and say, no, this is not something the united states should do, how do you then say, well, bigones, this wasn't important enough, i guess we could ignore it. you can't make both arguments at once. that's what the administration is frying to do now. the president and aides have been trying to have it both

ways. when they're asked again and again, what do you do if congress fails to act, they try to avoidancing that question. the president finally coming out at his proes conference saying, look, you're not going to get me to answer that and for very good reasons. >> far be it we take our cues from the house of commons. i look add britain and david cameron, it's hard to believe it plays out the same way here. i want to thank todd zwillich, rebecca. jooifshgs when i first started experiencing the pain, it's, it's hard to describe because you have a numbness... but yet you have the pain like thousands of needles sticking in your foot. it was progressively getting worse, and at that point i knew i had to do something. when i went back to my healthcare professional... that's when she suggested the lyrica. once i started taking the lyrica,

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nothing. the senate a comprehensive gun reform bill failed to make it to the floor for a full vote. could not reach a 60-vote threshold. senator richard blumenthal called the day that happened a day of shame. president obama hugged victims' families in the rose garden promising not to give up. so far, the only meaningful action has come at the state level. connecticut, new york, new jersey, delaware, maryland and colorado, which may be one of the last places you'd expect to pass tough gun reform legislation. that state having experienced its own mass shooting in 2012 passed universal background checks and limit on high capacity ammunition clips to 15 bullets. those laws in colorado, those new laws in colorado, are now facing a fierce and unprecedented roll back effort. an effort that will come to a head in just two days. two democrats there, state senate president john morse and

angela giron voted for those and fighting for their seats in recall elections this tuesday. they may be local races in two small state legislate ty districts but there are clear national implications here. outside money is pouring in from both sides. new york city mayor michael bloomberg spending hundreds of thousands against the recall. nra pouring in hundreds of thousands for the recall. political activity has been so high one county clerk extended early voting hours last week. polls are closed for the day in colorado springs but they are open in public leblo, and in tw it could send a shudder down gun control advocates everywhere or even in small town colorado, americans are okay with tighter gun laws. at the table is dave weigle of slate, and dick wadham and

kurtis lee from the denver post. two senators facing recall on tuesday. if you could tell a national audience that doesn't know much about giron or know about morse, what the dynamics is, is one more vulnerable than the other, how are they looking? >> john morse is senator in colorado in el paso county which leans -- it's divided evenly among democrats, republicans and unaffiliated voters. it's a very competitive seat. that's why he was targeted in these recall efforts. in pueblo senator giron, in a much more democrat-leaning districts. they're not your denver or boulder liberals. they're more blue dog, to say. they're both facing recalls. millions have been poured into recalls from the national level, like you said in your setup piece. tuesday it comes to a head. colorado is a litmus test for

national gun debate outside of new york, maryland, and connecticut, colorado is the only other state. >> john hickenlooper, democratic governor, and then in the wake of newtown he turned around and got new laws through. the recall effort, though, tell us about the roots of that. where did it come from? when did it start? was this something that began in state? is this a case of national groups saying, we're going to make an example here? >> it started toward the end of legislative session, and there were grassroots organizers in pueblo, senator giron's district, to got enough signatures to get recall on the ballot. it's grown much more attention once these recalls came to the forefront and were actually certified and on the ballot. now we'll -- now we see groups like the nra getting involved heavily. we see groups like the 1630 fund

out of washington, d.c., which is a 501-c-4 getting involved and hundreds of thousands pouring in. it's much more than el paso and pueblo county. it's just a small group of voters who are going to decide these district elections. >> how engaged is your party at the statewide level in colorado? highway engaged are you in the process? czink kurtis makes a good point. this did not start because of republican efforts or outside efforts by nra, whatever organization you want to talk about. the fact is this was started by a couple of plumbers in pueblo who got very sophisticated in their petition drive. and the same thing happened in colorado springs. and it also is -- is a symptom of what happened in the state legislature going back in january. governor hickenlooper came into

that session with astronomical approval rating. over the course of that session, the legislature passed a huge tax increase on rural colorado, energy tax increase. it passed these gun laws. and there are a lot of culturally conservative democrats, especially in these two districts, as kurtis said. as a result of all these things contributed to the atmosphere of initiating these recalls. in the case of governor hickenlooper, a guy a year ago was talked about as presidential candidate, huge approval ratings, is now -- his approval rating is upside down. his disapproval is slightly higher than approval. this has repercussions in colorado and the nation what happens this week. >> first of all, this is -- we have -- this is a head to head poll next week, prospective

gubernatorial, tom tancredo up against hickenlooper. that shows you the predictment hickenlooper is in. in this same poll, they were asked should they wait for next election or force special recall elections? by two to one margin they're saying, wait for the next election. i guess my question to you, dick, you have these objections with these gun laws. this is an extraordinary step to take to recall sitting legislators who -- you may disagree with them but they're guilty of doing the job of legislator, voting their consciences. is it right to recall them? >> a lot had quoes whether recall was a wise political decision. i firm will he believe we should have the election determine. but it's important to go back to who initiated these recall petitions. they were not republican activists or republican party of colorado or even pueblo or el

paso county republican parties. these were citizens. many democrats within this district that just couldn't take this gun control legislation. they feel like it's an assault on their second amendment rights. >> rick, i'd like you to respond, the state democratic party. first of all, how engaged are you in these fights? how important is it for to you win these fights and what are you doing to make sure you will win? >> we're very engaged from day one and make sure both senator giron and john morse prevail. i think dick and i agree on a couple things inspect is a cultural issue. guns are cultural, especially in these two districts. this goes beyond culture. this is a temp tantrum now that folks have turned in and made people of colorado pay for it. we are talking about things going to cost half a million dlarz for both races to be put on. the point you made is a fair point. john morse is termed out in one year. angela giron is at the end of her first term in one year. why make the people of colorado

pay for these temper tantrums some folks are putting on right now. it doesn't make any sense. >> has it surprised you? you know, my knowledge of hickenlooper -- i'm an outsider, thousands of miles from colorado, but i looked at hickenlooper as a democrat in a purple state, a very popular governor. i'm looking at his poll numbers, the gun issue, and it surprises me as an outside looking at colorado saying the gun issue had pursuing what to me was basic, common sense gun reforms here. he's paid a real political price for it, hasn't? he. >> these are very basic and common sense pieces of legislation. expanding background checks to make sure rapists and criminals can't get guns. it makes perfect sense. a vast majority of people in colorado agree with it. those are the steps these lawmakers took. this is the law that governor hickenlooper signed into -- signed. so, you know, i think it's important to point out that of all the accusations going on out

there, these are responses that are uniquely colorado, to colorado tragedies. everyone in colorado knows exactly where they were when columbine happened. they know exactly where they were when the aurora theater shootings happened. our lawmakers took action. may not have been the most politically correct but the right thing. >> we'll be picked up and joined by someone remote, john morse. he is one of two democrats facing a recall, whose political future will be decided in 48 hours. ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it.

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we're going to bring in the president of the colorado state senate, democrat john morse, who is taking a few minutes from the campaign trail to join us live from colorado springs. thank you for being a part of the show this morning. you find yourself in this situation.

in 48 hours voters in your district will decide whether to recall you or not. how is your feeling going into this election? are you confident you're going to win this thing? i know you're in a district that's fairly conservetitive. how is your feeling now 48 hours away? >> well, i am feeling good. i mean, we're doing the work. we have a great plan. we are putting the execution together and staying focused on who we need to do to win, which is focus on our district and the voters in our district, which we were great at in 2010 and great at in 2006. no question it's going to be close. the other side has poured an awful lot of money in this, right from the start. it's been an uphill climb the whole time but, you know, we're doing the very best we can. by wednesday morning we won't feel like, gee, if we had only done x, y or z may it would have been different. we like our position right this minute. >> if you're not successful, though, if this recall works and you're removed from office, what message do you think that will

send? there are going to be a lot of people in your same shoes and legislators in the next few years faced with gun control votes. what message do you think it would send to them if you are recalled on tuesday? >> well, i think what it sends is you can lie, cheat and steal, force a recall election and get people out of office. i take exception with part of the show to begin with where this is a grassroots effort in pueblo and colorado springs. in pueblo, an unemployed plumber who all of a sudden had $20,000 to spend on this effort. here in colorado springs they bought the signatures. they didn't come anywhere close to get enough signatures. that money came from outside the district. they paid three bucks a signature, signatures that were forged, perjured. a woman signed and died two years before she signed. you know, i mean, this has been just despicable to get us to this point. so, i think if if that ends up winning, and i tell people -- but that's all now in the past and we just have to win.

to win he we have to vote no and put this behind us. if we're unable to, don't think it sends a very good message about how we have done politics here in el paso county. >> i think another reason national people are involved in this race, michael bloomberg has sort of set himself up as the chief protector, at least financially, of people across the country who are willing to cast difficult votes for gun control. he's come through and, friends of his has come through, to support your campaign. that's been turned against you by the billionaire coming nuclear trying to buy our election. how is that message they've used against you, saying this is an outsider coming nuclear trying to prop up john morse? how has that affected the race? has that been a problem for you? >> i really don't think it has. there hasn't been a single voter at the door that has brought up that issue. not a single one.

we're prepared when they do to understand they started collecting signatures the 1st of april. mayor bloomberg sent us a check with less than 30 days to go in the election cycle. he was very late doing this and we did this with over 10,000 donors from colorado springs, from colorado, from the entire country long before mayor bloomberg got involved. we're thankful to have him at this point, you know, because campaigns are definitely expensive and they get more expensive towards the end. and you want to spend every dollar that you can. and invest it in getting your message out. so, i'm thankful for that, but at the same time when you balance all that, there was lots of money from the other side and very much at the end from the other side. i don't think the average voter at the door really cares. >> senator, we have dick wadham, he wants to talk to you. >> senator morse, i would agree. i think both sides are amply

funded from the outside, but i think with all due respect to you, i think that's one of the -- we've seen this morning one of the reasons you are being recalled is the demeaning of the opponents of your gun control legislation. as -- i think you described them as liars and cheaters and i think that's one of the reasons you're in the predictment you are today. >> senator -- >> give the senator a chance to respond to that. >> you know, when you -- >> go ahead, senator. >> when you have petitions and we turned into the district attorney, i mean, over 30 incidents where there are forges, perjuries, and again the woman that died two years before signing. i mean, and as you know, dick, i was a police officer for years. so, i mean, when people commit crimes, you accuse them of crimes and you prove that they've done those crimes and that's exactly what we've done in this case. >> kurtis, a reporter covering this, can you shed light on this

opponents to this recall effort have raised almost $3 million in this recall effort whereas proponents of the recall, the folks who are political grassroots effort have raised about $500,000. so, they've been significantly outraised in this recall effort. you have big money checks coming in, obviously, from the nra for $365,000, which is the most money that's come in for the opponents. but proponents, michael bloomberg -- >> there's a balance in small dollar donations, isn't there? there's a lot of small dollars coming in against the recall -- >> yes. against the recall there's been almost 17,000 plus small donations coming in from across the country and colorado as well. senator morse, i have a question for you. you have 13,000 basically -- sorry. >> no, go ahead. go ahead. >> okay. so, in 2010 you won the district

by less than 350 votes. 28,000 people came out to vote in the election that year. this year you basically -- in early voting about 9400 people have come out. is there a turnout number you all are pinpointing to get out to vote? republicans have come out in stronger numbers early on in this recall. >> sure. that's a great question. we're not targeting a specific number because this is a special election in an off year for an issue of yes or no on a recall. we're working as best we can to get as much voter turnout we can. there's no real models or anything to say what this is really going to look like. we just have to get every no vote we possibly can and hope that number exceeds the number of the yes votes.

in terms of republicans turning out more than democrats, that's always true in early voting. republicans do get their vote counts and it's important to get it done. this really isn't a partisan issue. there are plenty of republicans that are going to be voting no because they don't agree with this process. so i'm not worried about the fact there are more republicans than democrats. >> senator, i want to finish quickly with this. is that the best argument for you because you represent a district with a lot of conservative tendencies. is it that argument of, hey, you did not agree with what i did but i did my job as state legislator. i should not be recalled just for voting my conscience. is that the best argument you have at this point? >> and it's hard to say. there are three arguments working. one, it's very expensive and why are we doing this with a year left to go in my term? second is, you know, that you are just recalling me for policy disagreements. third, once they actually figure out the gun bills that we pass, they're like, but wait, that's all just common sense.

it's like, yes. that's not how the other side talks about it and their talking points this looks like we're taking people's guns away. all they said is you have to reload after cranking out 15 rounds, get a background check, pay for it yourself, your concealed weapons training has to be in person instead of over the internet and we gave judges jurisdiction over domestic violence cases to sequester guns while under court's aus spiss. it's like, i don't disagree with any of that. i understand. the nra does but many nra members do not. all three of those arguments are working in our favor. not one in particular. >> i want to thank john morse, up for a vote on tuesday in colorado. also want to say thanks to dick wadham, kurtis lee, and thank you to rick palacio. how technology is changing

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thank you, mr. president. one of two places we're a little ragged. i think we might think about doing them over. some difficult questions about south vietnam. i'm afraid my answers are off. let's try to do it again and we'll see what it come out this time. >> it's amazing. president john f. kennedy in 1963 asking for and getting a do-over with two major news anchors, huntley and brinkley. could the same thing happen today? probably not. we'll talk about how journalism has changed. ♪ we go, go, we don't have to go solo ♪ ♪ fire, fire, you can take me higher ♪ ♪ take me to the mountains, start a revolution ♪ ♪ hold my hand, we can make, we can make a contribution ♪ ♪ brand-new season, keep it in motion ♪ ♪ 'cause the rhyme is the reason ♪

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their tools were notebooks and cassette tapes and the quarters in their pockets to call in from a pay phone and they were paid in access. getting to know candidates were close, who they were, what made them tick and their favorite brands of whiskey. the unscripted moments is what drove. decades later, buses remain but everything else about the way reporters cover campaigns is dramatically different. lap stops, smartphones, digital video cameras. they get news to viewers and readers around the world. that has up-ended about how and when we learn about presidential candidates. cnn's peter hamby asking, did twitter kill the boys on the bus? he writes, with instagram and twitter-primed iphones, an ever

more youthful press corps and a journalistic reward structure in washington that often prizes speed and scoops over context campaigns are increasingly fearful of reporters and candidates and their aides, wary of young reporters and private conversation finding their way into the digital space are fencing themselves off from reporters. mitt romney spent three minutes answering questions from reporter last year in the middle east but they had little to report. the tension between media and romney campaign boiled over in this expletive-laced exchange. >> governor romney, do you have a statement about the palestinian? >> what about your gas? >> do you feel your gaffes have overshadow the the foreign trip? >> show some respect. show some respect. >> we haven't had another chance to ask him questions.

>> [ bleep ] this is a sight for the holy people. show some respect. >> here to discuss this veterans of of the campaign train. kasie hunt who covered mitt romney for associated press, and dave weigel, and jane hall, a professor of journalism. the piece from peter hamby we quoted, the working relationship from the press out day covering the campaigns is broken. he's pointing to twitter as one of the main culprits in the breakdown of that relationship. as a veteran of the romney campaign, what about your ga gaffes, that was my favorite? what is your take from the

standpoint of somebody who is on a campaign working with the media, how do you look at that relationship and where it stands right now? >> i think the premise of peter's paper is right. twitter has dramatically changed the relationship between campaigns and reporters. everything you say or do, whether public, private, on a plane, it's out there, out there quickly without any edits. it's very problematic for dealing with reporters because you have to be on your guard at all times. you can't have a moment like we saw with kennedy, if you make a small mistake, you can have a do-over. because anything you do will be out within a second, picked up by other reporters. small things become big stories very quickly. it's problematic for access and dealing with reporters. >> kasie, from your standpoint. you were a reporter covering the romney campaign every day. you heard what ryan describe. how would you describe the relationship from your standpoint? >> first of all i would say to peter's wonderful paper, there

were also girls on the bus, much more this time. so i think some advances or changes we've seen over the past couple of decades have been for the better. but twitter dramatically changed the way campaigns were covered, how we interacted day to day. we didn't really sort of as a -- as media institutions have a thoughtful discussion about how are we going to use this new media tool. one of the things is free reporters from editing, if you will. so, it gave every reporter on the bus the ability to post something quickly in real time without necessarily checking back at headquarters, which is how stories would have gotten out there in the past. and also there's a big difference now because it used to be when the old school boys on the bus were filing their one story a day, every word they put out there cost money. it cost money to print words on the page and took up air time to put some stories out there. with twitter there is no -- you know, it's a low-cost way of distributing things immediately. you no longer have to make these

sort of decisions about what you're going to put in versus what you aren't. >> one of the concerns raised from some of the romney people and others who were quoted in this paper, this paper from peter hamby we're talking about here, one of the concerns that's raised, anything that goes on twitter can affect how other reporters are thinking about the race, how they're reporting the race, talking about it on television. for example, a tweet with buzzfeed, a tweet that says -- this is from the campaign trail last year. i wonder if at moments like this when romney is stranded on the tarmac and press is blasting kanye on the plane, he questions his life choices. do tweets like this bother the campaign more than things reporters are writing in nir articles? >> it bothers them rightfully. there's a lot of fullmy natiful.

public collaboration, the mind that forms because everyone is talking about the same stuff. twitter has sped that up. it's brought instant affirmation to the process. if you have a funny tweet from the trail, that can dominate not just the cycle but just normal human psychology. you start to notice the reward for saying the same thing everyone else is saying. this affected rick perry, who did not run a great campaign. one instance where he and his imbeds were the only ones at the event and he called a mannequin a joke and it was tweeted a. imbeds were trying to explain back home that, no, everyone tweeting was wrong about a story. here an hour later is what actually happened. far too late. the incentive for people on the media -- i guess at that campaign, obama campaign versus

romney, the incentive was to play with it and, you know, basically burn the narrative. >> what i'm trying to figure out, jane, is the problem twitter itself? there's a tweeting culture that dave is describing where there's a reward for blasting something out like this, or is that a symptom of a bigger problem which is if you're imbedded, living on the road, you almost have nothing to report on a day to day basis and it encourages exactly this? >> you have nothing to report and you are supposed to catch any macacaw moment. the obama people were better at feeding the best and the snarkiness, you know, sort of got melded into the -- look for gaffes. that's the impression i have. the obama people were better, even though were were ee quully as controlling or trying to control. i think it's a fear climate, sadly, where you don't get

journalistic actually having access the way though used to. mccain, when he ran said that the media were his base when he ran that 24 /7 access. i think people forget that. i think access is what is missing and it would be helpful and less of this twitter culture. >> you know that mccain thing seems so long ago. >> it seems 100 years ago. >> it was 13 years ago but people still had dial-up mow dumbs and nobody was walking around with iphones, twitter didn't exist. in this new culture, as a reporter, someone looking for the next macaca moment. what is your approach to the sort of building trust with a campaign so you can have a functional working relationship and get valuable information covering the campaign? >> i was always pretty careful in my approach to twitter, at least i tried to be. a couple things. first of all, it's always been true the journalists are not the

story. that's been true no matter what medium we've been using to publish, no matter what technology is out there. if you live by that, it goes a long way towards maintaining your relationship. second of all, especially when you cover things from the bubble, it's the relationships you have with the staff who are on the road and with the candidate and their family members, whoever is out there with you. those give you an advantage over other reporters who are covering the campaign. hamby was critical in some ways of the coverage that came out of the bubble. i think there were a number of strong stories and things we relied on that came off the road. >> can you think of an example of something that being there that you were able to get or reporters on the road were able to get that informed the campaign like that? >> there was a great story in "the new york times" during the new hampshire primary. sort of explaining mitt romney the man. sort of -- i'm sure ryan remembers this piece. his foibables on the campaign, a

story i did that i thought i benefitted from as far as being out there every single day. i was actually the first person who went to church with mitt romney while he was on vacation in new hampshire. it was one of the things where the church is open. i had covered bush going to church during his presidency. i thought i would stop by and check it out. i was able to go. not that thes were necessarily there to see me but the candidate and his wife knew who i was, and a number of his sons, and we ended up with what i thought was a nice portrait of this man and his religious life. something americans hadn't had a chance to see. and the feedback i got afterwards from member of the family was very nice. like they thought it was a gracious portrayal. those are the kind of stories i think you wouldn't see if you didn't have people who were building those kinds of relationships day to day and who weren't just stepping in. while on the one hand you have people who are there to just -- or who have been told they're there just to catch the gaffe,

there are sometimes people who come in or would parachute into the bubble and see something that was happening as news or as a big deal that, you know, those of us who were on the road every day understood wasn't such -- >> i'll pick up with ryan when we come back. what drove -- was there one story, one incident his mine personifies the problem from the campaign standpoint, one story that drove you nuts like nothing else that came off the road. [ male announcer ] this is jim,

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no known dietary restrictions. for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. for more information and savings options, pcentury link provides reliable yit services like multi-layered security solution to keep your information safe & secure. century link. your link with what's next. i love talking to press people from campaigns after campaigns. so with that setup, ryan, and i teased this before the break, but we're talking about it from the standpoint of your campaign, of the romney campaign, looking at relationship with the press, the press that was there day to day covering you, the trackers, whatever you want to call them. was there a moment that crystalized for you, this is my problem with how the press is treating us, my problem with how

the press world works today with campaigns. >> many but one that sticks out was during the primary. a day when governor romney was in new hampshire. newt gingrich had been there earlier, he talked about his mother and he teared up. so mitt romney did town hall and talked about his father, and he would bring up his father very frequently on the campaign trail. in the middle of talking about his father, a man shouted out, don't cry. mitt said, i'm not going to cry. nothing wrong with that. he went on and did the rest of the event. a reporter who parachuted in for one event, not on the campaign trail with us, a very young reporter, tweeted, romney zings beg gingrich, not going to cry. it went viral.

we had conservative commentators like eric erickson started to attack romney for being a jerk basically and that was in no way what that hpd. we had -- we noticed it in the middle of the event taking off. when the event ended, we tried to get it corrected. >> did you talk to the reporter? >> yes. her phone was shut off for a while. by the time we got to her, with the speed of twitter, it had taken off. we were trying to get it knocked down. we couldn't get a correction. we thought the gingrich campaign would take off. a more senior reporter who was there, talked to the man in the audience, and then wrote a post that accurately happened. it was almost a major problem. it underscores the fact one tweet can ruin your day, an

event. >> another theme i'm hearing is really, really young, unseasoned reporters who are -- maybe don't have much experience reporting on anything, whether it's -- used to be you had to track where you worked at the local paper, work up to a metro paper and eventually the big thing was, i'm covering the presidential campaign. now ryan's talking about someone coming in very young, unseasoned, covers it for a day, has a twitter feed and takes off like that. how big of a problem is that? is that a problem or are we overstating reporters are too young covering these things, too unseasoned? >> no. i think the talent that end up being displayed is real and it would have been discovered -- 30 years ago would have been discovered at the paper in oshkosh, paper in columbia, south carolina. those papers have you downsized so they start in d.c. first. i remember hanging out with one reporter from wall street journal at one point in south carolina. he was talking enviously to a

huffington post reporter because they were letting him write a articlen week. the way that skewed that every election is driven by gas. in retrospect, rick santorum, ted cruz, have talked about the way the republican convention focused on, you didn't build that -- obama saying, you didn't build that, was a mistake. they put too much into this one gaffe. that wasn't the young reporters who decided that. that was kind of the mind of the political press corps on the campaign. and that's not because they're 23-year-olds doing that. 30-year-olds can do that perfectly well, 50-year-olds. it's just the way the stream of information which could be more localized, more based on talking to voters. if the network said, you're 23 years old, maybe instead of

covering this event, talk to 20 voters. that would completely change the event. >> we talk about gaffes, and that word annoys me so much. we talk about the role of gaffes in campaigns. you could say they were inconse. one that comes to mind, maybe you remember this, around mother's day last year, hilary rosen says romney hadn't worked a day in his life, a huge thing for 24 hours. i don't know if anybody remembers it right now. i tend to say gaffes don't matter, but over time, does the noise they generate have some kind of cumulative affect that shapes people's view of the person? if they don't remember the individual gaffes, does it shape their judgment that way? >> i think there's several things there. from what i recall the romney campaign put them out in a rare

tweet saying, thank you very much, i raised several wonderful boys and i made this choice. that one resonated. it was probably unfair to the woman who said it because it was said in context. said in contex. there are a couple of issues. if you're a young reporter, i had former students doing an excellent job. i don't think you have to be old. some of the old guys didn't report things as you pointed out. if you have to file all the time and the campaigns start, they are looking for the line of the day to put out. if you file and tweet and be sure to capture everything you're not going to be able to get away and talk to voters. there's a lot of different issues there. the problem i see, most americans, i think, are not following twitter the way journalists are following each other. i think it increases the sense of they are talking to each other. they have no relevance to my life. i don't think it makes journalism look very good.

>> just want the experience of being on the road last year. you lived it. you know it. is it something you would do again and tell a young reporter is worth doing. >> 100% absolutely. i would tell young reporters it is an experience leak no other and 100% worth doing. two things to close. first, i would say we have to remember mitt romney's campaign, talking about gaffes. it was a unique campaign. has he experience with that political misstep that goes back to an experience his father had when he was running for president and it was very important to him. the second thing i would say is twitter is here to stay. the imperative for young reporters up and coming is to spend some time, critical thinking time on this particular subject. you can destroy the relationships that you build, that you spend months building with a single tweet and it's just not worth it. if we are going to be operating

in this environment for years to come, and we are, we have to make sure we're approaching it with the same standards of rigor, transparency and accuracy we do the rest of our reporting. >> anthony weiner shows the lesson applies to politicians as well. what should we know today? our answers after this. blan ♪

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guests think we should know. start with you, kacey. >> back to syria. i know we talked about this earlier in the show. the overall mission for the week, they have not begun to fight. they are back home in their districts hearing negative things. as the week begins, you'll hear the humanitarian argument for why the united states needs to intervene. i would also say look for on monday some house members that believe israel security should be very important to the u.s. to

come out in favor of the president's plan. >> ryan. >> i think we should know about syria with regards to my home stayed ed markey, former congressman took 37 years to the senate, took john kerry's seat on the first big vote, senate relations voted present, gutless, no courage there. i think voters to know where he stands, and i think as the president makes his case this week he should be clear about that. >> you should know australia has a new government, labor parted ousted and replaced. labor mart is conservative. americans who have noticed i think will keep talking about it. conservatives won in part by a mining tax, carbon taxes. basically policies that left the democratic of wanting, accused president obama of wanting, that's proof you can destroy liberals anywhere you try it in the country. worked in canada, too. probably hear conservatives point out what happened in australia. >> jane. >> i think we'll be looking to see what the technology

companies do, how they were portrayed. nsa revelations in the "new york times" were sort of lost in syria and google is trying to figure out how to reenkrift. they are portrayed as compliant with the government and that's bad for business. interesting to see how they respond and fix it. >> excellent. thank you for getting up and thank you for joining us today. we'll be back next week, our guests will include congressman alan grayson. stick around, melissa harris-perry is next.

this morning my question, where are the models of color on the catwalk. fashion and diversity with j. alexander. plus, new charges of racism in the new york city mayoral race. will it shake up the election? and we're joined by the woman who could be the first black mayor of boston. but first the political potholes on the road to damascus.