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tv   MSNBC Live  MSNBC  February 21, 2014 8:00am-9:01am PST

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da who is in nearby moscow, and the deal today, what is that? a gesture or path to real change? >> great question, betty. well, it is the polish prime minister who said it best, the agreement which he helped to broker by the way, it had not yet been reached. what he meant by that is that it has been settled, he said, and what has been settled he said is the agreement's draft, and he makes a distinction between the agreement and the draft now. meaning that there is a road map and it includes the early elections in december of this year, and it also goes back to and reforms the 2004 constitution. the one by the way that shared power between the president and the parliament before president yanukovych and the ole gashg
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patrons skewed in their favorite. and it includes the formation of the transitional government in the nex few days, but it is words on paper, bet tichlt it is a path to real change when, and if and when, i should say, the ukrainians, a very divided people begin to act as a nation, as a people. that is going to be exes treemly difficult. the orange revolution triggered the election ark and the president-elected was victor yushchenko, and he failed. follow following him, the reformest who failed, and still under house arrest, and that is because in ukraine, those who hold ultimate p power are not the politicians, but about 20 or so oligarchs, and they control 80% of the wealt wealth, and they exert an inordinate amount of control over the rest of the country. if that system is reformd, then i would say that today's agreement is seen as a path to real change. betty? >> well, jim, so much to sort out here.
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this deal is seen as a test of power for the eu, and what does it mean for the u.s. and the european allies? >> well, i think that certainly for the u.s. and europe, it is seen as a positive already. op the one hand, you will see them working together and that has not always been the case as mrs. newland has attested recently. working together to apply pressure this time through the sanctions and helping to attain a policy goal, and more broadly to influence potentially influence an important country like ukraine. but it is important to put it into perspective, because neither the u.s. nor the eu see it as a potential cold war type thing of the east versus the west thing. and that is maybe how vladimir putin sees it, but the analysts that we have spoken to believe it is a false choice. they say that the u.s. and the eu, and what they want to see is a strong economically viable
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ukraine. that can only happen if the nation really is able to have strong relations with both the east and the west. both russia and the u.s. and eu. because they say that these are not mutually exclusive, and again, if that can happen, this is seen as a very, very positive development for both the u.s. and the eu. >> and i know that a lot of people are look closely at this and hoping that the deal lasts a whole lot longer than the truce that was short lived yesterday. >> yes. >> and thank you, jim maceda in m moscow. and now back home, the four-day meeting of the governors begins today. and some of the states are bringing their drama with them, and including republican jan brewer who has five days to sign a controversial new bill. yesterday, the statehouse pass ed the bill which would allow
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arizona residents to refuse service to the lgbt community. and the senate passed it earlier in the week, and this bill would let people use religious beliefs as a legal defense. opponents dubbed it the right to discriminate bill. the porters call it the religious freedom bill. and joining me now is democratic strategist chris and jenny, our strategist for the democrats. so how is this going the cloud the con vtroversial bill will d like 1080 did in other states? >> well, the notion that you can be allowed the discriminate brings up terrible memories of the past, and to give it a
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legitimacy through the law is worse. the problem that the republican party is going to have here is that these issues don't stay localized to one state. the country is clearly moving in a very progressive direction when it comes to gay rights and gay marriage, and aside are the that, i don't think that any reasonable person believes that you should be able to discriminate against another person based on the sexual orientation, and i think that governor brewer has a very, you know, easy choice from my perspective to make. if she makes the wrong one and signs it into law, it is bad for arizona and the republican party and it won't just stay in arizona. >> good point. mercedes, the gop, and this is shocking to some people, has been making strides and some might say on the same-sex marriage, but is this new bill a disrack shun f distraction for the party? >> yes, the bill is vague and overreaching and not only discriminate against the gay
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community and unmarried women for instance and those of different religions, and it is a dangerous bill that governor brewer should not sign. again, they have already existing state religious freedom laws in the books. we don't need to expand them, and it is going to lead to more junk lawsuits, and quite frankly, it is a loser for the republicans on this. >> and chris, i want to point out that governor brewer has five days to sign this bill into law or veto it, and i have the p public schedule here, and it shows that she is going to be in washington until tuesday, and so the question is, what happens next if she is in d.c., and what is going to happen with the law? is she going to sign it? >> i can't see how she does. i mean, given that we all remember the blowback that came from the papers please lobby, and it is brutal in terms of the calls for boycotts, and the arguments about, you know, people should not be visiting the state, and so just from the business perspective, people, you know, they are going to have
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a serious problem with this and not just the moral perspective, but it is a bad idea all of the way around. it is depressing to me that any state would be discussing such an offensive law, but i honestly can't figure out what some of the legislators in arizona are thinking. >> and this all brings us to today's big question for the viewers, and here it is. should businesses be allowed to refuse services to lgbt communities? weigh in on the facebook and the twitter pages, and we will be reading the responses later in the show. mercedes, i want to switch to another governor bringing the baggage to the d.c. this weekend. and chris christie, and of course, he is the chair of the governor's association, and his colleagues elected him to the position before the bridge lane closure became public, and he said he knew nothing to close lanes on the g.w. bridge, and while that was happening in his chairmanship, and so we want to ask you, is the chairmanship in
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danger? >> i don't think so. we will see what happens with the investigation. you know, hopefully it will become the point that he has not for example knew what happened with the bridgegate scandal. with that being said, i think that he is slowly recovering. and again, he has been beaten up, and he went out yesterday to middletown, new jersey, and trying to bring back his charm, and so i don't think that it is going to affect him from the republican governor's association chairmanship. he raises money, and a figure out there in national politics, but again, it is a crowded field. you will start to see more of senator rand paul and marco rubio, and other republicans who are going to be providing alternatives to republicans in general. >> and chris, "times" wrote, that water under the bridge? big money haul keeps christie's leadership role at rga alive.
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what do you feel about the leadership. >> well, it depends upon the outcome of the investigation, but clearly that aside, he is damaged by this. the reputation of trying to build of the nonpartisan and bipartisan leader has been shattered, and so if in that sense if he decides to run for national office he is going to have a difficult time to win over the democrats or the moderates that he had won, and so it is going to be interesting to see what is the final verdict of the scandal. >> and mercedes, yesterday, governor christie held the first town hall since the lane closing scandal, and while he was not asked about it directly, this is what he had to say. >> all of us are from new jersey, and what that means is that if you are getting it, you are giving it right back, and
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that is the way we work it here, all right? >> status quo? the loud mouth boisterous governor that republicans love so much? >> well, he is in political survival mode and reconnect again even in new jersey with his own constituents, and he has to basically restore those relationships in new jersey before even thinking beyond new jersey. he is going to run into a lot of problem problems. i mean, chris talked about the moderate democrats not sold on christie, but talk about the conservative republicans who may not be sold on christie, and again, it is for the long haul, and what we will see it is not just christie, but other republican leader coming on board, and it is going to be an interesting fight to see what happens in the presidential primary. >> all right. we will have to leave it there. chris and mercedes, thank you so much for joining us, and weighing in on this. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. and now, controversial senator ted cruz received the statesman of the year last night from a group of florida republicans, but one gop
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congressman says that he wishes cruz would leave the party. the details ahead. and michael sam is about to face massive reporters in the nfl combine this weekend, and will the interviews be relentless saying to him. and plus -- >> are you saying what i think that you are saying? eu, dance party! >> oh, yeah, the first lady michelle obama stopped by the "tonight show with jimmy fallon" for fun and fitness, and she has a serious warning for the people of washington, d.c. we will tell you about it when we come right back. see what's new at projectluna.com [poof!] [beep]
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million. all right, joe from los angeles, where is this lucky person? >> well, we don't know, and i wish we did. >> i want to be related to the person. >> i don't think that i have relatives in northern california, but we though that the winning ticket was sold at the dixon landing chevron and that is just outside of san jose. remember that $648 million mega millions jackpot in december? h well, one of the winning tickets was sold in california and it took that winner more than two weeks to come forward and that ticket was sold ten miles from where this week's winning ticket is sold, and so things are lucky up there in northern california. the winner has one year to come forward to claim the prize, but usually the california lottery officials say they come forward within a week. now, that they do have to have name public and they do not have to have a news conference, but they urge them to have one, and
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get the publicity out of the way, betty. >> all right. we will wait to see who the lucky person is. and joe fryer, it is not you or myself, because we would not be here right now. and it is michael sam's first stop on what is expected to be a h historic journey, and he could become the nfl's first openly gay player. less than two weeks of revealing he is gay, the university of missouri star defensive end faces the scouting combine in indianapolis this week. it is a multi-day pressure-filled job interview ahead of the draft in may. michael sam is going to be one of 300 college stars at the combine, but he is expected to get a whole lot of attention. joining me now is dave ziron sports editor and host of edge radio for sirius xm. >> thank you for coming on. >> thank you, betty. >> and explain to us what happens at the nfl combine, and what does michael sam need to show to the nfl scouts?
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>> well, two aspects of the combine. the physical and the mental. the physical aspect is that the players are measured on everything from the 40-yard dash time to the burst time to the time they can bench prez a certain amount of weight, to measuring the hands. today, the big news out of the combine is that johnny manziel's hands are bigger than we thought. big news. so it is a lot of obsessing over the small physical details that lar largely aren't even the greatest predictors of the end of the day of the nfl success, but it is an effort to quantify the unkwaunt phiab phiable, and will a 21-year-old be able to withstand the pressures of the national football league. and then they have the mental aspect which is when they sit down with representatives of all 32 nfl teams and go through a series of questions to attempt to assess the psychological
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assessment. >> and do you think that michael sam is under more pressure? >> well, i nknow that i was wit people who knew him before and after the announcement, and the guy is a game r. he loves football, and they believe he is excited to get out there and do this and stop with the press conferences and people asking for the book interviews and all of the rest of it, and get out there to play football again. sgli'd be excited, too, if i were expected to be chosen by one of the early teams of the draft. do we know who might be interested in him? >> it is interesting, because he was a southeast conference defensive player of the year, and in the last nine years, the defensive player has gone in the first round, but nobody is expecting michael sam to go in t the first round, because he is ooh tweener. too with big for the defensive lineman, but too big for a back. so if he went to the third round, it would be ludicrous for
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somebody not to pick him up. >> and some teams may avoid drafting him because of the distraction and what is your take on that? >> distraction is a new buzzword. and when i hear an nfl executive say off of the record, because they fear it is a distraction, and get over yourself. watch at who he is being a distraction and if he is, then your team has more problems than michael sam. a lot of the nfl teams have been front and center says that despite whatever anonymous whispering campaign is going on, we want the best player norse for the team, and now he has a year in the southeast conference and a lot of people say that going from the s.e.c. to the nfl is a demotion in some respects. he played and openly gay team player for the team, and the teammates didn't just survive, but they thrived. he has that in the hip pocket if
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anybody brings up the d-word. >> distraction. we will see how big of a distraction it s. sports writer dave ziron, thank you for being with us. as the games wind down, was putin one of the winners? the panel weighs in. and a surprising winner of to women's figure skating has some word of judging scandal. >> and words that two athletes are out of the games because of doping. we are live in sochi in three minut minutes. ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.
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italy and now the italians are scrambling to find a replacement for the four-man races over the next couple of days. there is also word, though i don't have many details about that, but a german skier has also been asked to leave the olympic games as a result of a doping test positive as well. those details are in the works, and more information to come in the hours ahead. >> all right. stay tuned for that, and in meantime, team usa is looking to make up after that devastating defeat from women's hockey, and it looked like they were going the win, and then what happened in overtime? >> well, what a finish to and other wise dominant, dominating performance by team usa women over the canadians. 3:00 left in the game when the canadians got a goal bounce in off of another u.s. player. they can came back to tie the game and then it all fell apart in the overtime. and the americans got a penalty, and the canadians scored and what a heart-breaking loss for
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the team usa, and great victory for canada. and now with the kouptdown for the men's game, it will be a game that gets under way at 9:00 p.m. local time here, and the americans are going to avenge their loss at vancouver four years ago. it is going to be must-see, and one of the biggest tickets of the olympic games. canada/usa men. >> and a big ticket last night the women e's figure skating finals, and tell us us who won and how the americans did, and what is all of this about the judging controversy. >> well, coming from behind adelina sotnikova leapfrog ged with her performance, but now people are estimating, was she really the one who was supposed to win or someone else? this is not the first referee or
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judging controversy, because there was a french report that the fix is in after the team competition. but so far the ioc is saying nothing wrong with the scoring and the best woman won last night. >> all right. nbc's kevin tibbles in sochi, and thank you. we wanted to tell you about this just in. ukraine has won the first gold medal today in the women's biathlon. and the medal count is looking like this. usa with 25 and followed by canada and russia and the netherlands. residents are recovering are from tornadoes after there were more than 200 cases of wind damage stretching from the great
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lakes to the gulf coast. and the weather service is now reporting that a tornado has touched down in central georgia, knocking down trees and power lines, and there is also a tornado watch in effect until 5:00 p.m. eastern for metropolitan washington, d.c. we will have a live report just ahead on all of that. and in california, a former indian tribe leader allegedly killed four people, and injured two others at a tribal headquarters. they say that the woman opened up fire until she ran out of bullets and then attacked a man with a butcher knife. the woman and her son were arrested after that happened. and now the new cache from legalized marijuana sales. it was the first day of the tax day. they have to hand it over from the first month of inaugural sales. the governor hickenlooper says
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they could gain over $1 million just from the sale of marijuana. and newsman garrick utley passed away after a long battle with kacancer. he was a researcher, and frequent substitute anchor on "nbc nightly news", and former moderator of "meet the press" and gar rik rick utley was 74 y old.
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president obama under fire by those who accuse him of reneging on the budget cuts. and the kcrisis in venezuel and those are the topic fos or the panel. we have viviana who is from the latino reporter, and also
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sebrina and strategist joe. and so sebrina, in years past he had offered to trim social security increases and other benefit programs, but the house speaker john boehner's response says that this reaffirms what has become all too apparent, and the president has no interest in doing anything, even modest to address the modest debt crisis. sebrina, you see a political motive behind the president's decision? >> well, it is a kcombination o a political motive and also the fact that there is not a reason for the president to include the change of cpi in the budget. last year it was in the context of the brand bargain and consequence of the sequestration, and the republican's request for revenues. and the grand bargain is debt,
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and the deficit has fallen sharply, and there is modest relief to the sequestration, so there is no reason for the president to include the cpi reduction in the budget. >> and bill, let me bring you in here, because the white house says that the white house is going to seek $56 billion in new spending in the next fiscal year, and is that going to give the republicans new ammunition for this election year? >> well, i don't think so. i think that people are not in the austerity-minded mode. they want the budget dramas to end, and they are going the end, and we have had the budget cap already, and they want to see what we can invest to grow our country's future, and how can we invest in the infrastructure, and the children. we don't want to see the cut, cut, cut, and notice that the republicans don't want to specify what is cut, and that is politically dangerous, and what the president did before was to make an offer to pair the social security cuts with the other tax
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revenue increases on the wealthy ax and the republicans rejected that offer. the left is happy that it is off of the table, and obama can say, i compromised and you were not willing to compromise, so i don't know how this is going to be of benefit to the republican s. and now to putin and the olympics. and viviana, a big showcase here, and he has been successful with the games, and so as they wind down, is putin a winner in this or not? >> well, with the international criticism and the spotlight not just on the olympics, but the moving parts there and as well as what is happening in the ukraine, this is what is going to vladimir putin is going to be judged on. but interestingly as well, there is somebody else who is being judged and that is president obama's reaction. we have conservatives who have come out to say, this is what we are talking about, the president leading from behind and looking weak.
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one thing to keep in mind is that remember that the president as he is, i hope, burning down the telephone lines trying to build coalitions for example with germany, with great britain, and with brazil and mexico as far as venezuela situation is concerned, i think that we have to give the president that latitude, because he is not just evaluating the situation, and the hot spots of the ukraine and venezuela, but also all of the other factors for example alienating rush sharks and what does that do for the situation in syria, and how about iran's nuclear enrichment program? these are the kinds of things that the president in the white house is weighing. >> yes, narrative is heavy around the games, but bill, back to putin, and how he feels about the games as they wind down and aside from the russian men's hockey team disaster which i know that he was not happy about. >> well shgs, i think that it i big loss for putin. his show, and he hustled to get these games, and he wanted to show the russia back on the
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world stage and back and better than ever, and ready to be on par with america, and what have we seen? we have bloodshed in the ukraine that he instigated, because he would not let that country turn economically toward europe to get out of russia's orbit. we see the police horse whip the pussy riot protesters and showing that he is not going to have some symbolic gestures for free speech, and that is proven incorrect, and the games, themselves are a $50 billion of festival of grab, and it is not having putin look strong to the people, and it is a big loss to p putin overall. >> and yes, when the spotlight is off of this, should we be concerned that putin should take stronger action regarding the crisis in ukraine? he is accusing the u.s. in me l medaling in his backyard. >> well, that is why you have seen a strong reaction from the u.s., and the president
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confronted putin on ukraine the other day, and he said they disagree for the basic freedoms of people protesting in ukraine and that is why you will see the lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to get president obama out ahead to impose the sanctions which he can do using his executive authority, and the state department to send a message has placed a visa ban on 20 people who are involved in the crackdown. and also, there is a bill that will be picked up when congress comes back from recess next week. if there is an end to the violence, you could see the white and congress making a message. >> and this is a volatile situation. and viviana and bill and sebrina, thank you all for your insight to dday.
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>> thank you. >> thank you. and still ahead, new york state makes a major overhaul to the way it treats prisoners and actually, other states could follow. and could the golden state become the gold states? why california could soon be split up six ways. but first, time now for our producers' pick which i chose today. listen to this. a 13-year-old girl scout is cleaning up selling the cookies o outside of a san francisco medical marijuana clinic. this is no joke. and the little girl says that her daughter sold 117 boxes in two hours on monday. that is an en tre ptrepreneur, friends. her mom says that it is a good opportunity to start a conversation about drug, and as for the girl scouts of california, well, they told the news website, they are okay with where the teen decided to set up shop and sell the cook i cans and you can read more about it. just go to my facebook page. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course.
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may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need, ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza. it's covered by most health plans. phone: your account is already paid in full. oh, well in that case, back to vacation mode. ♪boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who? seriously, you met her like three times. who? geico. >> all right. so after 13 months in the senate, the man who effectively
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shutdown the government is still being welcomed with open arms. ted cruz was named statesman of the year with the florida gop and nearly 2,000 supporters were on hand at the acceptance, but after a public feud with leader mitch mcconnell over the debt ceiling, is anyone listening? we are joined by erica who covers ted cruz. >> and this is the fourth-such award for him, and he joins the ranks of shawn hannity and haley barbour and donald trump of getting this award, and is this because of the party getting louder or confined to a small part? >> well, i don't know if it is confined to a small part, because the conservatives want to see a strong and assertive fighter against the democrat president and democrat-controlled senate. >> i want you to hear what steve
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le tourrid told us this week. >> i wish he would stop doing this. if he would spend as much time bashing republicans, we would have 60 votes in the senate. >> and that is not the first time we have heard that. in the government shutdown, we were told by peter king that cruz is a fraud. is he a threat to the democrats or maybe his own party here? >> well, it is funny, because i spent a lot of time with cruz last year and working on the long profile, and he is really incredibly polite. he has been very polite to everybody apart from his own colleagues in the senate, and especially his own republican colleagues, so it is not really have what is happening with the party norms as the critique of the moderate republicans who he thinks is too conciliatory, and
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whether that backfires, i don't know, because it is congress and they are not popular. >> and erica, you have a story in this month's "texas monthly" and you spoke about ted cruz in speaking to him in july and how he operates in the private life as well as the public life, and what can you share about ted cruz that we may not know. >> well, he is thoughtful and smart, and everyone who knows him say he is smart, and that is the first word they say about, and he is shrewd and thinking of the strategy, and that is interesting, because the strategy of the debt ceiling thing is really absent or incredibly convoluted so when he is in the moments of rebelled against the party, he has an affect of a genuine quirk of problem with the authority or the desire to pick a fight. he does not like to be scolded about the senate etiquette. >> and this week, there was a flyer that was sent out calling
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him pro shutdown and quoting the junior senator marco rubio predicting cruz to be a super star, and democrats must be fearing something to put something out like this, and what is it? >> well, cruz has made an impression and for the first year in the senate to be made out with this national profile, and i can't think of a senator who has made this progress so quickly. he has made a 29-hour-long case about it, and it was not sort of a fringe argument, but a high profile policy debate that he staged, himself. so i think that senator republicans who can fight that hard and back it up with the arguments is compelling for certain voters. >> i'm from texas and i know that the early voting started this week in texas, and you have eight republicans on the ballot for the u.s. senate including incumbent john cornyn, and all of the candidates saw ted cruz win in 2012 and any of them using a cruz 2.0 strategy or has texas in any way soured on cruz's brand?
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>> well, they are all, all, all trying to use the cruz 2.0 strategy, and it is like a cruz costume party here, betty. it is funny, because they don't know, and they are all trying, and none of them are ted cruz and it is painful to watch, and we are seeing the party farther and farther right, and ted nugent is becoming a high profile figure in texas right now, and it is silly. they should be talking about jobs and economy in texas, and that is it. none of this ther fringe stuff, but with cornyn, he is go g ing prevail in the primary, and good for him to go back to the senate with clearly conservative and definitely conservative and one of the most conservative senators that we have in the country, and for him having gone back after staring down the tea party challenge will make him stronger. >> and i like that a ted cruz costume party, and will the real ted cruz stand up. >> thank you, betty. we are following the breaking news in washington, d.c. right now that i want to
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tell you about. a tornado watch is in effect. and we will go over to meteorologist amelia seigel in the affiliate. how serious is this? >> well, betty, it is a isolated or weak tornado until 5:00 this morning according to the national weather service, but we will see it lifted a little bit earlier, and retracting some rain and it is intensifying as it is moving to area, and the areas in yellow including d.c. and montgomery county and prince george's until 5:00 tonight, and we are looking at this to impact southern maryland and as well as down to fredericksburg and virginia and to the east of the i-95 corridor. the rain, as it is encountering the warm air the temperatures are 70 degrees in some areas, and causing this rain to blow up. we are starting to see the thunderstorms develop. we are really concerned about some damaging winds across the area, and those would be scattered and maybe like i said, an isolated tornado to develop this afternoon. i think that the threat of
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seeing the isolated tornado will be until 2:00, but you can see that the line of rain, just starting to enter into washington, and so it is very concentrated and very intense and maybe going to the last an hour as it makes its way through, but we can't rule out the isolated what i would say weak tornado this afternoon, betty. >> all right. wrc's amelia seigel thank you for that. developing right now, president obama making yet another pitch to raise minimum wage. i want to give you this new video in moments ago. he is meeting right now at the white house with the democratic governors across the country, and he told them that raising the minimum wage is not just good policy, but good politics. and the president says he is going to be seeking republicans who are willing to work with the kem democrats on this issue. we will be right back. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is. than any other behind the counter liquid gel. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement?
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welcome back, new york is taking a big step in reforming its use of solitary confinement in prisons. state department of corrections agreed to a series of reforms following a class action lawsuit
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including banning the use of solitary confinement for inmates under 18 years old and pregnant inmates. so could this be the beginning of a nationwide reform of our prison system? glenn martin served six years in prison forearmed robbery and now the president of just leadership usa, aimed at cutting the prison population by half in 2030. thanks for being with us and sharing what you experienced. help us both understand what this change is all about. what changes now? >> at this point what we have is a significant number of people in prison in new york state that are in solitary confinement. we have about 55,000 people in prison and 3800 in extreme solitary. if you compare that to california which has twice the amount of people in prison but only about 4,000 people in solitary, we definitely were leading the nation in the wrong direction. having said that, new york is far ahead of the rest of the country in terms of criminal justice reform. our prison population is down by
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25% over the last 15 years. crimes are down and incarceration at the same time. >> what can put someone put into solitary confinement and you mention extreme solitary confineme confinement. what's the difference? >> you might have special housing units, which is something i would advocate for, to move people away if they pose a physical threat. we call it add min seg but it is really solitary, 23 or 24 hours a day in a cell and any sort of recreation, usually a person is moved into another cell where there's some level of sun light coming in and that's considered an hour of recreation. >> what do you have to do to get that? >> the general public tends to assume a person has to commit a violent act to end up in solitary. many people are there for nonviolent acts. the individual in this particular case filed legal documents and ended up in
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solitary con finement for hundreds of delays. >> hundreds? >> hundreds. >> let's look at the numbers. as you mentioned some of the numbers in new york on any given day, 3800 prisoners of all ages are in solitary with an average day of five months. from 2007 to 2011, 2800 were in for more than a year. what kind of risk are there? you've been in solitary con finement. give us a look at what that was like? >> i ended up in solitary confinement in being in a position who was mental liaison with the prison guards. as soon as they weren't happy with the direction they were pushing in, i was walking on the walkway and grabbed by an officer and put into the box and left there for a couple of weeks. left there for a couple of weeks and asked whether or not i wanted to behave or stay there for a couple of years. it's used illegitimately and i do believe it's used for security reasons and in some
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instances and in most times used illegitimately. >> some states are trying to change that. not that many have been able to accomplish it. >> mississippi and colorado and washington are looking at reforming their solitary confinement systems. biggest pushback are the correction unions. if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. if you're a law enforcement, your response to people not behaving properly is put them in confinement. we have 2.3 million people in prison in the united states. we lockup more than anyone in the entire world. and essentially you want to take away a person's humanity, lock them up, or hope, put them in solitary. >> a man who has been there and we appreciate you sharing with us. >> just leadership usa glenn martin. and that wraps up things for me. big changes are coming to msnbc on monday. you can catch quts naz nation now in this time slot and andrea
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mitchell reports comes right after at noon eastern. and two new shows remering ronan farrow daily and watch the reid report with joy ann reid. craig melvin picks things up right after this break. in the last 23 years, but i needed help in quitting smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced the urge for me to smoke. it actually caught me by surprise. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking, or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental-health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop chantix and see your doctor right away, as some can be life-threatening. tell your doctor if you have a history of heart or blood-vessel problems or if you develop new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.
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[ male announcer ] with nearly 7 million investors... oh hey, neill, how are you? [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great. [ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.
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hi boys! i've made you campbell's chunky new england clam chowder. wow! this is incredible! i know. and now it has more clams! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. what? [ male announcer ] it fills you up right. a very welcome high noon from the 30 rock here. i'm craig melvin. breaking news on the international front this morning. a deal that may put an end to the violence in kiev, the biggest question, will it hold? what is it all going to mean for peace as well? after that heartbreaking loss to canada in the gold medal game for team usa on the women's side, well the men are lacing up the skates right now ready to meet on the ice. we'll go to sochi as well on this last olympic friday. but we start here at home. a busy day in washington and at the white house. president obama continues to
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face major questions about precisely how to deal with that conflict abroad. while also dealing with a full domestic agenda here at home. the nation's governors are in town and president obama spoke to the governors last night where he criticize the republican governors agenda accusing them of quote, doing everything they can to squeeze folks who are bargaining on behalf of workers. the president followed up that pep talk for the governors with a meeting this morning with the dolalai lama before heading bac for the governors association. this time he'll be joined by vice president joe biden. keith, republican strategist susan del percio and marge gi o'mara. it is now friday afternoon. this is sound from president obama at the dga talking minimum wage. let's take a