not a large scale effort to center the party. >> walking on egg shells to move. robert, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. that's all for now. alex returns tomorrow live from washington, d.c. at 4:00 p.m. eastern. the "the ed show" is next and on time. good evening, americans. welcome the to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. >> we need to get answers soon. >> this is a mystery. >> the malaysian authoritieses have refocused the investigation into the crew and passengers on board. >> this was not an accident. it was a deliberate act to bring down the airplane. >> consistent with deliberate

action by someone on the plane. >> you have to do a thorough investigation of everyone on the plane. >> despite media report that is the plane was hijacked i wish to be clear. we are still investigating all possibilities. >> good to have you withes us. thanks for watching. everybody has done this story except "the ed show." it's been 11 days since the flight dropped off radar in the gulf of thailand. it's a remote place. i have been a pilot since 19 # 8. i have listened to everything that's gone on. i have a theory about this. i will tell you what i think happened to the boeing 777. first here's nbc news's tom costello with the latest.

>> reporter: more than ten days since flight 370 disappeared. and the mystery still dominate it is world headlines. the last satellite signal received somewhere between these two arcs. up to seven hours from the last known radar hit off malaysia's west coast. of half a dozen countries in central asia have said the plane never appeared on their radars. further south the indian ocean, 28 million square miles of water. >> what we are going to here may change aif history. >> reporter: police searched the homes of the captain and first officer. confiscating the sophisticated flight simulator in the captain's home looking for any evidence he may have practiced unusual routes. he was known to support malaysia's political opposition

seen here in a t-shirt reading "democracy is dead." they are checking satellites for signs of the plane. it is unlikely the 777 could have been stolen and flown undetected to another country. >> we are talking about a very, very large airplane. if it goes other land where there are people, people are are going to see it. there is going to be comment about it. >> reporter: still with so little to go on the indian navy suspended its search. other countries may be forced to do the same. >> how much more can they afford to put into this search before they have to give up because they won't have the resources to pay for it. >> i believe there was foul play involved. i don't think there was malfunction or elect call fire. we know the plane made a sharp left turn and flew into the

straits. that's the last detected by military radar. the plane continued to fly over seven hours. it made contact at 8:00 a.m. local time with a commercial satellite operated by a british company. the latest information shows the plane could have traveled these two paths, as our report had a momenting inago. that's a possibility. it is possible the plane may have landed. this is a massive search area over 11 countries and remote stretches of ocean, millions of miles. okay. the transponder in the plane was deliberately switched off. this is the cockpit of my grand caravan. this is what i fly. this is the navigation system, the garmin 530. this is the transponder, if i may show you this. the transponder is squawking 1200 now.

i'm flying vfr. anybody who flies visual flight rules, if you want to use a transponder you squawk 1200. . a squawk code will be there. you will be told by the controller go to 0466. that's for radar identification and location. okay? who the plane is, where the plane is as far as altitude is concerned. above 18,000 feet -- and that's where this commercial flight was flying -- you have to have two of these. it's regulation. you're going to tell me both of they will malfunctioned? both of them happened to be turned off? somebody turned these off. that leads us to believe the plane was clearly manipulated, whether it be by the pilots or somebody else who may have commandeered the cockpit. let me give you an example on the squawk. if i'm going to minneapolis and say this is caravan 208-tr at 1,500 in bound the controller

say gives me a squawk code. squawk 0466 or whatever the number might be. as soon as i put 0466 in there they know who i am, where i am, how high i am. that's the way it is. you go above 18,000 feet, everybody sets the altimeter at 2992 and you are given a squawk code. no pilot has ever been instructed to turn off their transponder above 18,000 feet. if you do have a malfunction, if the transponder is giving false information, if it's broken or not reading correctly, the controller will come back and tell you, you've got to get below 18,000 feet. none of that happened. all of the sudden these are turned off. somebody was told to turn them off or the pilot did it himself. that's how a transponder operates. i think the plane landed somewhere. if there is a hijack situation

taking place, why would they fly all over the place? why hijack a plane unless it is a suicide mission, which i don't think it is. p if the hijacker was going to crash the plane, why fly for seven hours? let me tell you something. it's not hard to build a landing strip out in the middle of nowhere. the military did it all the time during the vietnam war. this is a landing strip at my fishing lodge in canada. let's go to google earth. this is a gravel strip in the middle of nowhere. the closest thing to that is 70 miles. fact is do you know what you have to have to build one? you need a couple of bulldozers and a rock crusher. if you have a well funded operation that's planned a hijack that wants to put the aircraft down in a remote location it can be done. no question. the boeing 777 need as runway length of about 5,000 feet to

land. it may need more than that to take off, but to put it down on a hard surface on a gravel surface, oh, yes, it can be done. this aircraft can also a fly below radar detection. so the hijacker could have takenen over the aircraft, put it down on the deck, flown it underneath any kind of radar and put it down on a planned place on the face of the earth. that might be a remote location that was preplanned. now there are 634 runways within the range that the flight of the 370 could have landed. wow. that's a lot of targets. anybody covered this story about how many remote landing strips there are in thailand? we had quite a few of them in the vietnam war. they are probably still around unless somebody cut the grass. there are plenty of places a 500-foot run way could have been cut. it could have landed at a remote stretch or in a desert somewhere.

yeah. for example, back in 1970, four jets were hijacked by the popular front for the lib are radiation of palestine. they were flown and landed in a remote desert airstrip in jordan. it's very possible malaysia airlines flight 370 is sitting on the ground in some remote part of the world and nobody can find it. very possible. i don't care how big this aircraft is. oh, by the way, no ones has talked about a water landing. if it's a hijack situation -- and i believe it was -- and this guy just wanted to pull a southwest airlines, you want to get away, there is no doubt he could have put it down on a remote island. i believe we did see an airplane land in the hudson river successfully. suly was a hero for putting it down. of course this aircraft could have landed on water near an island. everybody swim for yourself. there are all kinds of things that could have gone wrong here.

after all, everything is on the table. bottom line is i believe the aircraft was manipulated. i don't believe that aircraft are had any kind of malfunction whatsoever. i don't think it was a suicide mission. i think this is a well funded high tech hijack operation and it's sitting somewhere in the jungle. and, yeah, i think they carved a strip for it. yes, the pilot could have been able enough to fly below detection and put that baby right down where he wants to put it down. he's got a flight simulator in the house and he wouldn't know how to fly v are fr on a big jet like that? come on. anything's on the table, right. get your cell phone out. tell me what you think. do you think this plane will ever be found? a for yes, b for no. you can go to the blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll have results later in the show. let me bring in tom bun, retired airplane captain, who used to fly the boeing 767s.

also with us is aviation consultant scott hamilton. good to have you with us tonight. tom, i want to focus with you first. why would anyone turn off a transponder. >> there is no reason to turn it off. you would only switch to the other one. you're not going to turn it off. not unless you're forced to for some reason. no pilot will do it. >> switch to the other transponder. there has to be two above 18,000 feet. >> right. >> it are really doesn't lend itself with a rigorous maintenance schedule which of course the airlines have that two transponders would malfunction at once. >> no. they know they are operating before they take off. air traffic control was watching them. if they lost one, air traffic control could have switched to the other one and switched that one with out. something else happened. >> okay. why would a plane fly so long on a suicide mission? >> it doesn't make sense.

>> if it's a suicide mission they're going to do it right now, aren't they? >> first of all, i was told these pilots were put together on the flight by the airline. say you have two pilots and one says, by the way, i would like to kill myself today. are you going along with that? even if you had a gun you can't fly the airplane with a gun to one guy's head while you operate the plane with the other hand. that doesn't work. >> the attitude of the aircraft, changing of attitude, auto pilot wouldn't do that. >> right. >> even the radar lends us to believe -- the radar tracking, different altitudes tells us the aircraft was manipulated. >> there was one interesting thing to me. the idea that it went to 45,000 feet. that's very unusual. whether that's accurate or not with the military radar, i don't know. if that's the case it brings up

interesting possibilities. >> could have been a strug until the cockpit, pull back the yolk. you never know. >> i had this fantasy that if i had a hijacking maybe i would climb to 45,000 -- so that's what you could do to hijack it. >> why would the captain do that to the crew? >> if he had the hijacker where he knew where he was, even in the cockpit, if he climbed to 45,000 feet, depressurized the plane, the hijacker could be incapacitated in 15 seconds ubless he could get a mask on. >> whoever manipulated the cockpit was smart enough to turn off the transponder, but wouldn't that person be smart enough to realize you're climbing to 45,000 feet? >> yes.

>> that would kill that theory from my perspective. >> but we have the record are that supposedly they went to 45,000 feet. we don't know if that's correct. >> scott, good to have you was tonight. do you see this as a possible hijacking? >> i thought from day two this was a criminal act. as tom pointed out the transponder was turned off -- all two transponders were turned off. the acars were turned off. that's the system that monitors the health he of the airplane and send s it back to the airline. the 777 has five radios. two vhf, two trance ponders. the acars is tied to the number two vhf radio. you turn it off, you turn off acars. this was not an accident. this was not a mistake. this was not an electrical failure to blow out all five radios and the transponder. this was a criminal act.

>> also, i don't know if the pilots did this or not, but many pilots who do over seas flights over water carry a satellite phone with them in case everything fails they pull out a remote phone to get to somebody to say what's going on. if they were trying to save the aircraft and it lost all electrical and was with incapacitated i'm surprised the satellite phone wouldn't come into play. your thoughtse thought. >> i have no idea about that. the distance between kuala lumpur and land fall in vietnam isn't that long over water. but the one thing tom didn't mention is the prospect that if this was indeed an event propagated by one of the two pilots you wait until the other pilot steps out of the cockpit to go to the bathroom, lock him out. that happened with the silk air pilot suicide, the egypt air pilot suicide.

so we don't know whether this was a cockpit intrusion that forced the pilots to do something. we don't know whether this was the one pilot or the other instigating this event. we may never know. >> i want your thoughts on the length of oh flight. we know that aircraft took off with so many pounds of fuel. it should be an easy calculation how far it could fly. if it goes down to a low altitude it will burn more fuel but has a long way to go to reach a destination and get below radar. what do you think? >> yeah. the idea of what i loosely term the joyride is the most perplexing part of this. when we talk about hijacking or pilot suicide. the only thing i can think of if it were a pilot suicide type of event would be he wanted to burn

off or dump the fuel, but it doesn't appear he was dumping, to eliminate the prospect of a fireball if and when the airplane crashed. if it were a hijack iing i have fiction theory here that it could be al qaeda or another group that we know has wanted to test security procedures to be able to get back into an airplane illegally and take one over but if it was a test run they don't want to tell anyone about it. and they want the airplane in a situation where it adds to the mystery. >> i think this is a hijacking, it's organized and on the ground. i would like your thoughts on the length of flight after the last location. >> i'm not sure what you are looking for there. we knew it flew for 1 seven hou.

there are a lot of places where it could have gone. in order to get by radar you can go down. you have fuel to do that. >> this aircraft has the capability ffr for long distance at low altitude to avoid radar. >> you could save fuel by going outside of radar contact. if you know where the radar is you go down under it first. this is the kind of thing we did in europe when i was in the air force. we were trained to fly below radar for our missions. >> an experienced pilot could do it. great to have you with us. i appreciate your time. answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter and on facebook. we want to know what you think. coming up, we continue our series fighting chance american steel. tonight i will talk to the president of the united steel workers international. he'll tell us why bad trade

deals are crushing american industry. first, beer, politics and the st. patrick's day. trenders is next. stay with us.

time now for the trenders of social media. this is where you can find us. that's facebook.com/ed show. twitter.com/ed show and also ed.msnbc.com. on the radio i'm on sirius xm. you can get my radio podcast at we got ed. the social media nation decided we are reporting today's top trenders voted on by you. >> it's madness! >> the number three trender, having a ball. >> there are 68 teams. it's hard to wrap your head around them all. >> the overall number one seed

is florida. >> we're number one. >> say what? >> florida had a great year. they won the s.e.c. outright. >> the ncaa top teams go mad on selection sunday. >> a fourth overall number one seed -- virginia spm. [ cheers ] >> wichita state. [ applause ] >> the shockers, this is no supervise. >> u-mass, they're all excited. >> go ahead and celebrate, guys. >> the number two trender, rove reviews. >> let's talk about november. they need six seeds to take over the senate. >> what are my chances? >> we asked karl rove. >> i have no idea what you're talking about. >> bush's brain makes his latest prediction. >> republicans are competitive. >> so you're telling me there's a chance. >> 14 seats in play on the democratic side. it's likely that the republicans pick it up. >> yeah? well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man. >> today's top trender, dublin

down. >> top of the morning to you! >> controversy among the revelry. >> today everyone is a little bit irish except of course for the gays and the italians. >> mayors stand with the lgbt community to boycott st. patrick's day parades. >> more than 150,000 men and women will march up 5th avenue to honor the patron saint of ireland. >> bill de blasio boycotted the parade because the organizers banned gay groups. >> i'm not planning to march. i disagree with the organizers. >> in south boston thousands lined the streets in what's seen as one of the city's most cherished sigh rich events. the son of irish immigrants, mayor walsh decided not to march after they failed to include a gay veterans group. >> comes down to being able to identify yourself in the parade. >> joining me tonight mike ronlers of raw story.com, gay activist and journalist. great to have you with us.

what do you make of this? this is a controversy that's never played out before in new york or boston when it comes to the st. patrick's day parade. your thoughts? >> politicians have to decide whether to come down on the side of equality or on the side of continuing discrimination. i think when you hear a mayor who was the children of irish immigrants say enough with the exclusion and drawing the lines. it sends a message to the american people. in fact, there are a few people left who are fighting this stuff. it's time to get beyond this as a country. >> is this going to happen in every march or every celebration that this will be an issue? >> this is something i know in new york has been going on from back when i live there had.

it's spg that will continue. now that you see the mayor of boston which, of course, has a huge irish population, the mayor of new york city, the larkest city in the country saying this isn't what i want to be a part of. if there is a gay veterans group, they should be allowed in the parade like everyone else. no special designation, but we are a group. we're here to march. that's what we are doing. >> what do you say to politicians like michele bachmann who was quoted as saying the gay community -- let me paraphrase. she claims the gay community is bullying america with such situations as this. >> when she speaks you can flip it to the complete mirror image for the reality. we live in a country where unfortunately young people particularly, but people are bullied constantly every day in schools and in work places

across america. they are bullied because of people like michele bachmann and her husband who run a program that purports to be able to de-gay gay people. we know where her interest is. it's keeping people in the closet and making sure that her base that has this kind of vitriol against gay and lesbian equality continues to spew. as we know, folks like her are coming to the end of being able to do that. >> the boycotts are one thing. the activism is something else. now in the business climate they were going to be a big sponsor of this. in fact, it's after 5:00. i think i will have a couple of cool one withes. i have one on set for you. if you were in new york you could have had one. what's it say that guinness pulled out of sponsoring the st. patrick's day here in new york city? what is this telling corporate america? they want everybody to drink their beer including big ed. >> including ed.

cheers to you on st. patrick's day. i have my green tie on oh specifically for the show. it's big business in washington. the bars are affected. in new york, we'll see a lot of people say, well, will people stop drinking guinness? no. i have heard from lots of friends of mine, folks in the up and coming kwarareas, i heard through williamsburg the guinness is flowing as a result. these companies know in this day and age it's not acceptable anymore to say we'll be a part of something that's not inclusive. >> since you're not here i will have the cool ones during the job here. good to have you with us. thank sos much. >> thank you. >> mike rogers on "the ed show." coming up, the american steel industry is the best in the world. bad trade deals are presenting

serious challenges. more from the series, fighting chance american steel. later, reince priebus takes aim at obamacare. congressman chris van holland weighs in. next i will take your questions, ask ed live ahead. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪

she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™.

i takbecause you can't beatrning for zero heartburn. woo hoo! [ bottle ] ensure®. [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. welcome back. love the questions from the viewers in the ask ed segment. tonight we have a question from nicole who wants to know why do republicans call president obama names like communist and socialist then turn around and call putin a great leader? you have a couple of different issues there. communist, socialist is negative in america. anything negative they will try to pin on the president. anything negative works. as far as putin being a great leader they want to the say there is somebody out there who's better than president obama because they can't stand him.

the next question is from joan. are you part irish sh ed? just asking because of your beautiful red hair. easy on the "beautiful" thing. thank you very much. yes, i am part irish. the heart of a german and the emotion of an irishman. mostly german, but i have irish in me. i'm sure that's where the red hair came from. a little personal information, i have never colored my hair. at 60, i still have red hair. i'm very proud. it's the beer. settle down. we'll be back with more. the series american steel next. >> stocks finish in the green this st. patrick's day. very appropriate. the dow jumps 181. the s&p up 17. the nasdaq gains 34. positive economic news today. industrial output rose more than

expected in february logging the biggest increase in six months. home builder confidence inched up as well this month. it is firmly in negative territory. gm finished higher after it said it would take a $300 million charge related to recalls. that's it from cnbc. we are first in business worldwide. what does everything mean to you? with the quicksilver cash back card from capital one, it means unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. it doesn't mean, "everything... as long as you buy it at the gas station."

it doesn't mean, "everything... until you hit your cash back limit." it means earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every place, every occasion, all over creation. that's what everything should mean. so consider... what's in your wallet?

welcome back. tonight we kick off a week-long series focusing on the steel industry in america. trade agreements in manufacturing might not be for the sexiest headlines of the country. but they are issues that directly affect middle class wage earners in this country and in the heart of america. the recent push to fast track the t.p.p. puts us on the verge of entering another deal which

would gut american industries further. to learn more i talked to the folks from pittsburgh, pennsylvania to lorraine, ohio. this is fighting chance, american steel. the saying goes the hotter the fire, the stronger the steel. by that logic, after everything the u.s. steel industry has been through it should be stronger than ever. but a series of bad trade deals has put one of the most important sectors of the u.s. economy in a tough spot. i sat down with leo gerard, president of the united states steel workers international to get an idea where we stand. let's talk about the overall stability and state of the steel industry in america right now. >> let me start by saying that the steel industry in america, in fact, the steel industry in north america, it is now a north american industry, is the most productive in the world. we can make steel now at

anywhere from 1.75 to 2.5 man hours per ton which is huge from where where it used to be. it's also the most environmentally sound steel nind the world oh. but it's been under attack. >> we did finally move under our dumping laws. we had to move to try to keep our oh steel industry, which took down 60% of its employment. >> in fact, when president clinton left office a long time ago now, he left a report on that said the steel industry has been under attack for 30 years. that's when president clinton left office. so the steel industry has been playing a survival game against unfair trade for close to 45 years because of unfair trade, subsidy, currency manipulation, no environmental enforcement, labor laws, decent wages. so the steel industry is having are to fight every day. >> so do you think weal ever have a level playing field or is this just the way it will be and we have to swim in this environment? >> i think if the fight for a

level playing field. you can't have a manufacturing industry without a steel industry. if you watch any country that wants to move from being an under developed country to a developed country, the thing it wants first is a steel industry. once it has a steel industry it can start to manufacture goods. one of the things we have to fight for is a level playing field. warm- one of the huge disappointments to us is as we keep oh winning we keep losing. i mean we get a surge of unfair trade imports, fight and win them. by the time we win we have lost 2,000 to 7,000 jobs. that's not the way to build an economy. we have to demand a balanced trade agenda with whoever is in government. >> the trade deal on every steel worker's mind is the u.s./korea free trade agreement. >> it has the full model of the north american free trade agreement. >> this will give them a more

level playing field in korea. >> the critics say it will be lopsided in favor of south korea. your reply? >> i couldn't disagree more. >> the south korean trade deal has had a big impact on the steel industry. the tube industry especially. what has unfolded since that deal has come down? >> oil country tubular goods are the most high value added segment of the steel industry. they are useded for drill pipe. you can drill down three-quarters of a mile, turn the pipe and go to where the oil or dwas is. we were flooded by cheating from chinese oil country tubular goods so we filed a trade case. take several years to get through the system. we won the trade case. china's cheating had to come down. while those years are going by, korea sees that we are going to

win, they build a new steel industry, brand new. for oil country tubular goods. they don't sell one pound. not one pound of oil country tubular goods in south korea. that's meant to target the u.s. market. so now we have filed a case against south korea oil country tubular goods. by the time that sees its way through the system it's one or two years. so you have a five-year block where the market has been flooded with the high value steel and during that time we loiz jobs. we win the cases but lose jobs. it shows you what's wrong with the trade laws. >> what has it done to the price of the market -- the attempt by the steel industry to infringe on the american market? what's it done? >> in the case of south korea and the oil country tubular goods the overwhelming majority of exports are are targeted at our market. remember what i said. they don't sell one pound -- not a pound. they don't drill an inch in

their country. that's meant to target our market and depress our prices and steal our jobs. >> we are confident this will be a net jobs keet tor for the united states. >> it's been two years since the new agreements under the u.s./korea fta went into effect. proponents say it would create u.s. jobs. >> do you think it will grow jobs, will increase trade and send an important message in terms of foreign policy. >> instead, we have seen the opposite. it hasn't just hurt the steel industry. according to a report by the public citizens global trade watch it's estimated the united states has lost an average of $385 million each month in exports to korea. that work withes out to a cumulative loss of $9.2 billion in u.s. exports under the fta's first two years. >> what's the future navigating

through that? >> i think the future is we have to keep fighting. i think we are slowly making progress. we have a lot of members of the house and senate. both parties are seeing that these trades aren't working. the trade deals aren't working. they are seeing that if you want to re buibuild the infrastructu you need a steel industry. we haven't had a trade deal since nafta that generated a surplus for america. they will say our experts have risen but the imports quadrupled. the t.p.p., we believe it will be another nail in the economic coffin. a lot of the trade deals are are about trying to get asian allies closer to us and giving jobs for the exchange. we'll fight the fast track. we have tried to engage a

discussion about the new trade deal. we haven't been successful. we haven't seen the deal come to pass yet. >> when a politician says they stand with workers, react to that story. stand with the steel industry and a stronger america. tomorrow in fighting chance american steel we focus on lorraine, ohio, a city built on u.s. steel. still ahead, obamacare numbers keep climbing and reince priebus isn't happy. chris van holland joins me. stay with us. s pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow.

go national. go like a pro. predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. to truck guys, the truck is everything. and when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck... ... good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year and first ever back-to-back champion.

guts. glory. ram.

afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age.

it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. and the pretenders tonight, mister sunshine, john mccain, the senator from arizona. pouncing on president obama's decision to freeze u.s. assets of seven russian officials today. of course mccain is dusting off the old "weak" card. >> this president's response, i

don't know how it could have been weaker besides doing nothing. >> well, the loser of the 2008 election bashed the president and his staff for being naive. >> i don't know know when the president and his advisers are going to wake up to what putin is really all about. we've got to start with a fundamental reassessment of our relationship with him. >> well, senator mccain, i think has a very short memory when it comes to placing foreign policy experts around you, mccain, i think, takes the cake. >> what insight into russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you? >> they're our next-door neighbors. and you can actually see russia from land here in alaska. >> the good old days. if john mccain criticized the president of the united states for being weak and naive without us cranking out the old vice presidential selection he made, he can keep on pretending. it really made the difference between a morning around the house

and getting a little exercise. unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you new fit-flex®, our best protection. it's a smooth and comfortable fit with more lycra strands. get your free sample at depend.com. transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america.

[ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. i takbecause you can't beatrning for zero heartburn. woo hoo! [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. does your mouth often feel dry?

a dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications but it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. that's why there's biotene. available as an oral rinse, toothpaste, spray or gel, biotene can provide soothing relief, and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. remember, while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isn't. biotene -- for people who suffer from dry mouth.

welcome back to "the ed show." this is a story for the folks who take a shower after work. you know the old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. republicans don't water to drink the water, they want to poison it, as i see it. reince priebus was led to this water. he has been seen -- he has seen the climbing enrollment numbers of obamacare. they don't know what to do with it. as of today, 5 million people are enrolled in the affordable

care coverage. those millions will visit doctors, get treatment, and won't be turned away for pre-existing conditions. all good stuff. the numbers are only going up. but reince priebus is still trashing the life-saving law. >> obamacare is complete poison out there in the field. so the lesson is going to be number one, you have to hit your main target, which is obamacare. >> "poison in the field." saving people's lives are poisonous. obamacare will surge in popularity as more people are covered. instead of embracing and working with the law, republicans are steadfasting a strategy to malign and dismantle. exactly one year ago, reince priebus rolled out the republican autopsy of mitt romney's failed presidential run. priebus said the gop needed a change from their stuffy old man image. well, republican leaders haven't changed their old, stubborn ways, have they?

they haven't even changed their rhetoric. their strategy remains the same. set up the american people for failure. that's what it's all about. for me, let me bring in congressman chris van hollen from maryland. congressman, good to have you with us tonight. >> ed, always good to be here. >> the number is at 5 million. it's a solid number. as i see this, you've got april, may, june, july. four more months before everybody goes home in august to get on the stump, to communicate town hall meetings. where do you think we'll be in four months and what will the democratic narrative be? >> well, as you said, we hit the 5 million mark today and it's going to be climbing. i think democrats are going to be increasingly on the offense, on the affordable care act, even as we talk about other critical issues. the number one issue, of course, on the minds of the american people, jobs and the economy. but the affordable care act will give people more economic certainty. and i agree with you. i think republicans are going to make a big mistake by doubling down on their anti-affordable

care message. people are tired of it. they want to improve it as we go along, not shut down the government to get rid of it, not vote for the 53rd time to get rid of it. especially what, as you know, and the american people know, the republicans have not put any alternative on the table. they want to go back to the days when the insurance companies called all the shots. >> you know, on the heels of that win by david jolley and that congressional district last week down in tampa and along the gulf coast, it seems like the republicans can't get enough of that. it's almost like they are now totally convinced that health care is the way to go for the midterm. your thoughts on that? >> well, that's a misreading of the florida 13 election. because if you look at the swing voters, the persuadable voters wi, the voters that you might think republicans appeal to with the anti-affordable care message, they actually voted for the democrat. what happened no florida 13 was simply a bigger turnout by republicans. it is a republican leaning

district and they got more republicans out. but in terms of the me think on the affordable care act, the republican message did not work there. just like it did not work in the virginia governor' race, where terry mcauliffe said he was support f of the affordable care act, he wanted to improve it where it was broken, move forward on it. so i think republicans are making a big miscalculation. let them talk all about the affordable care act and how they want to get rid of it. we're going to talk about how it helps people, but also, where voters are focused, which is, of course, jobs, economy, minimum wage, and it's part of a package of economic security and moving the country forward. so republicans have only a negative message, people know that, they want a positive message that's going to move the country forward. >> so, congressman, is that the caucus conversation among the democrats? go home and run on obamacare. don't run away from something that has been positively done for the american people. >> well, i think it's that, ed.

i mean, don't run away from the affordable care act. talk about the benefits of the affordable care act, which the american people are increasingly seeing. so be strong about obamacare, but also, again, focus on those other fundamental questions, right? economic security issues, minimum wage, trying to make sure that more people benefit from a growing economy, getting the economy kicked into higher gear. all of that is part and parcel of the message that the affordable care act is an important piece of it. and again, republicans only have that negative message. they've been saying for years they're going to come up with an alternative and they can't do it. in fact, they've got nothing to run on except the negativity, and that's not a message for the american people at this point in time. >> they cannot go home and say, we've helped out on jobs. they can't do it. >> nope. >> and they have offered nothing on health care. and seven months out, for them to stake their claim on trying

to win on obamacare, i think that they're ready to serve up the house. i think it's a poor strategy. we'll see. congressman -- >> well, as you know, they're blocking a vote on the minimum wage in the house. they're blocking a vote on the extension of ui. blocking a vote on immigration reform. >> got to run. thank you, congressman. got to run. "politics nation" starts right now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. and thanks to unifor tuning in. tonight's lead, i've got a news flash for the republicans that are still obsessing about so-called welfare queens on food stamps. the so-called takers, the lazy ones, trying to get a free lunch, that's how some republicans talk about the poor, but do you know who they really are? they're children. today, a dramatic new government report shows 45% of food stamp recipients are children. 's