open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. we begin tonight in an arkansas office building over a month ago thchlt is a press conference held by a political group in arkansas. it's not clear from the video online how many reporters showed up for this press conference. you don't see reporters or hear questions from reporters. it may be there were no reporters there or they were crowded out of the camera's view by the large array of stunt groceries they used to style their set. in theory, though, this is a press conference.

>> i want to thank you for coming. we're announcing the launch of a new set of ads that we're going to preview in a couple of minutes. but we're going to first preview the ad and then we'll have some remarks. >> people don't like political ads. i don't like them either. but health care isn't about politics, it's about people. >> although this woman says that she does not like political ads, it is likely that that is not true. because it appears that she earns her living being paid to act in political ads, so it would be weird if she hated them. stop thinking about politics, she says at the end of the ad, she says stop thinking about politics, start thinking about people. people like me who are paid to say this in a political ad. that was a misstep by the people who made these ads. the way this whole soft focus direct to camera, low confrontation empathetic female subject thing works in ads is that it's supposed to have kind of an emotional appeal, you're

supposed to connect with the authenticity of this woman's personal story. so when you later hear that isn't an authentic story, it's a actor trying to make you feel this way. it can actually boomerang on the people who are behind these ads. that ad is the work of americans for prosperity. this is a group funded and founded by the billionaire conservative koch brothers. charles and david koch. when you inherit an oil and chemical company from your dad, you can afford to pay people in ads. the koch brothers group has been running versions of that same ad all around the country, months and months and months before the midterm elections happen. you can see that same empathetic actress in vain against democratic candidates in colorado and in louisiana and in new hampshire and in minnesota and in north carolina, and in florida. and of course in arkansas. where polls show the democratic incumbent senator mark pryor is

running dead even with his republican challenger, tom cotton. the koch brothers are spending enormous amounts of money on ads for these midterm elections. they have spent $30 million already and we have barely just rounded st. patrick's day. that said, it should be noted that they also spent enormous amounts of money in the last election of 2012. the koch brothers raised $400 million in 2012. it took until 2014 for reporters to count it all up. the koch brothers founded american prosperity alone and spent $122 million against democrats in 2012. what did they get for it? bumpkiss. despite the huge pile of koch bucks, republicans lost the white house again, republicans lost ground in congress and

republicans failed to win back the senate. if the koch brothers spent $400 million on the 2012 elections that was $400 million they might as well have poured in a trash bin and set on fire a really big trash bin. and these guys can't really a ford to set $400 million on fire just to watch it burn. i think it's unlikely that the kochs enjoyed their 2012 experience. the koch's went home from the election into sort of a dark night of the soul. you may remember, they had to put off their beloved annual secret fund raising retreat in the california desert. they launched a top to bottom review to try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it so that the next time they spent hundreds of millions of dollars it would lead to them winning and not losing. after that review, they came back with what they always had. buckets of money, buckets and buckets and buckets of money.

that was the old strategy, that's the new strategy too. check this out. "the huffington post" -- groups linked to the kochs versus every group spending against the democrats. ready? this is the chart for house. the green bar on the left is the koch spending, the blue one, the much smaller blue bar is the spending by all groups supporting democrats. nine contests around the country koch's lead almost across the board. this is them versus everyone on the other side. but the usual buckets and baskets and front loading bulldozers of money are not all the kochs have brought for 2014. after losing so painfully last time out. money is not all of politics and it's not all that the kochs have decided to buy with their money this year.

they have bought the makings of an actual ground game. >> we are -- >> remarkably, natives for prosperity watch party in arkansas. they called for them to come watch the state of the union address. come watch. sounds great, right? we are afp. that was in arkansas where they have been doing phone banks and field offices, people knocking on doors, they have ground game to follow up their ad war in that state. they can spend as much money as they want on watch parties and fancy booths around the state. they may get tired of adding zero after zero after zero to all the checks. that's the only constraint for them. if two of the richest men in the world are determined to funnel

infi mat amounts of cash and now they are going to add a gold plated, fully staffed ground game in the states they most want to win, how does anyone fight that? how are democrats going to respond? over the past couple weeks t outlines of the democratic response started to become clear. first, democrats decided on a strategy of naming the koch brothers funded ads as coming from the koch brothers. >> first, it was a d.c. actress pretending to be an alaskan. now ads on a carbon tax are called false and not true. who's behind the attacks? >> the koch brothers. >> the koch brothers. >> that's part of a run for re-election. we played that when it came out. i think it's unusually good democratic ad. i don't think they are generally good at ads. this is a good one. when we played it, i wonder

whether anyone else would get one of these. the answer, i can tell you now, yes, other people are getting adds like this. >> take a closer look at the ads against mark udall. this woman is an actress. those behind the attacks? insurance companies. billionaires, spending a million supporting cory gardner. why? gardner woulded a -- forcing seniors to pay $6,000 more a year. the more we learn about congressman gardner, the more troubling it is. senate majority pac ask responsible for the content of this advertising. >> that ad is running in the colorado senate race. it's part of a group senate majority pac and they have just started running those ads, in essence naming and pointing out the out of state billionaires. and yeah, compared to what the

kochs are spending, it's a pun any little ad buy, the koch brothers lose that on the couch on a good friday match. they have spent ten time that is much money already this year, already, in the states they are trying to flip -- states they are targets to try to flip the senate. the cochs are deeply offended that the democratic side tries to hit back at what they're doing. the koch spokesperson said today that the ad buy naming the koch brothers as the finance years behind the other ads, the spokesperson told us that this is part of a continued attempt to silence private citizens who dare to disagree with the majority leader, harry reid and the current administration. but democrats do seem to think there is a real advantage for them in just pointing out when that ad tells you that obama care isn't working is brought to you by a couple of billionaires who themselves will never, ever have to worry about doctors

bills. so the democrats are putting $3 million into that effort and maybe it will help democrats stay competitive in races that are totally swamped by koch money at this point in the race. maybe. even so, that doesn't solve the democrats biggest problem in 2014. not at least according to to the top democrat in the country who knows what he speaks when he speaks elections. president obama said this at a fund racer yesterday in miami, according to remarks that were post bid the white house. he said this. the problem is not that the american people disagree with us on the issues, the challenge is that our politics in washington have become so toxic that people just lose faith and finally they say i'm not interested, i'm not going to bother, i'm not going to vote. and he says that is especially true during the midterms. the president went on to say, during presidential elections, young people vote, women are more likely to vote, blacks, hispanics are more likely to vote. and we do pretty well in

presidential elections, but the president said, in the midterms we get clobbered. that's president obama speaking yesterday in florida at a closed press event to raise money for congressional elections this year, but also to make that bigger point about turnout, specifically that fact that in midterm elections, voters who help democrats win presidential elections do tend to stay home in it's just the midterms. key democratic constituents do tend to go missing when it comes time to just pick members of congress, members of senate and a whole lot of state officials. key democrats go missing in the midterm elections by tens of millions. and in the emerging picture of how democrats are planning and trying and hoping to blunt the koch brothers enormous spending advantage, it's turnout, it's good old-fashioned voter turn out where they are trying to direct their efforts. they're going to try to match them ad for ad where they can, but they can't.

what the democrats are trying to hang on to their majority in the senate with, is a turnout gain. they have launched at the dscc, the democratic senate campaign, are planning on spending $60 million trying to find and motivate every last possible democratic voter who could possibly be persuaded to head to the polls in november. this isn't just ads and stuff, this is the expensive and difficult daily work they're planning on 4,000 staffers, turning away in ten states in a long term way. but in an election like this one where there's not a president to pick, this may be the democrats only chance but it's what they're trying to do. but democrat have to turn and to save their senate majority and at least not get clobbered in the highways. that is what president obama is saying. they have to reverse the structural dynamics of voter turnout it which are in play before anybody ever spends a dime on campaign ads. and those dynamics would be in

play where there's no campaign ads at all. at base level, it is a dollar for dollar contest, but the democrats are trying to do a different thing, they're trying to excite the voters most likely to turn out. where they matter most are not the ones who pay for tv ads. they tell how many voters showed up because you knocked on their door at the right time and got them to their polls. joining us is john stanton, joining us now from buzz feed, mr. stanton, thank you for being here. they're never going to match them ad for ad? >> that's not possible. >> do the democrats conceivably have a smart enough idea and a well financed enough idea about turnout that they can mitigate some of the -- mitigate some of the problems caused for them in terms of the differential they're facing in the obvious? >> they do, they're doing two thing that is i think are smart.

they're talking about income equality which is helping to motivate some young voters and some women voters. they're attacking the koch brothers and making them the boogie men, that could certainly help them. unless they can tap into the obama campaign's ground game and how they were able to pull people out and go into black barbershops and they had the barbers become captain. that one guy that didn't vote in 2008, he came out and vote in the 2012. if they do that, they could have a fighting chance. but the way things are, it's going to be quite difficult for them to maintain the size of their majority and it's going to be a tough fight to keep it at all. >> in terms of who's working on this stuff, you see the republicans know they're going to have a good year, or they think they are, they're really starting to crow about what the nrcc has put in place and we add to that what we know the koch brothers have paid for, which is a very expensive organization that's been around for months already, they feel confident to brag about that.

we're getting a window on who's doing that work on the republican side. on the democratic side, is it the smart kids who are working on this stuff? or is it the leftover folk who is didn't get in on the presidential year? >> there's some smart folks there. there's been some concern that a lot of the obama folks are starting to pivot toward 2016 and are looking at hillary and are not really playing very hard. and hillary and her people are a little bit concerned about this notion. but it didn't look like they're throwing their weight into 2014. there is a smaller bench, no doubt about it. but they do have some very smart people over there. but, again, it is still early yet. so things could change dramatically. if they get away from some of the foreign policy issues, they could climb back out of this a little bit. >> it is interesting, for president obama to be making this tactics case, he keeps going to these democratic fund-raisers and these sort of friendly audiences and kind of giving people a hard time and

saying, you know what? we're going to get killed here, 2014 is going to be terrible for us, everything is stacked against us, he's using blunt language and he's giving it to democratic donors and saying you're not doing this right. does he -- i haven't seen him do that before, except in campaigning for himself. sit likely to make a difference? are you seeing it resonate with the people in washington who have to get off their wallets to make it work? >> a bit. the dccc in the house and the dsc have done very well in their fundraising. this is about him, though. but he didn't just care about keeping the senate and trying to get the house. he cares because he's got two years left in power. he understands, if he goes into those last two years with a republican senate and republican house, he's done, essentially. even if he has a very narrow senate control, he probably can't get anything serious passed. and this is -- he now is very much motivated by self interest frankly and that's when he's at his best in putting the screws

to some of the money people. >> if democrats can not figure out a way to run a national campaign against the john boehner congress, i would like to make the john boehner congress for every republican congressman in the country, then they, well, then they'll be democrats. john stanton, buzz feed's washington. thanks for being here. coming up, an unusually blunt one word answer in washington today. watch. >> is the ukraine crisis prompting a fundament -- >> yes. >> the duh was implicit. a big fight just got bigger and that story is ahead. stay with us. salesperson #1: the real deal's the passat tdi clean diesel gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in

a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat all that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is!

[ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

on friday march 1, 2002, a man and his girlfriend were driving home from the mall in maryland in her red pontiac. he was wearing a white cap, she was driving. a dprup of men in an unmarked car pulled up to the pontiac and waved for the couple to pull over. they didn't have sirens or anything. didn't show any id of any kind. they were carrying m-4 assault rifles. and the man reached to open the door, one of the men opened fire on him. joseph schultz was shot twice in the face, those men with no ids and no insignia, they were

chasing a bank robber. one who was wearing a white hat and traveling in a red car with a female driver. the robber was not joseph schultz, but joseph schultz got shot anyway. while reaching to unlock a car door that a screaming fbi agent told him to unlock. what happens when the fbi agent shoots anybody is the agency that investigates what happened is almost always the fbi itself. a few months ago, "the new york times" used the freedom of information act to get these records. these are records on 70 people who fbi agents have shot and killed over a 20-year period, from 1993, roughly to 2011. fbi agents shot and killed 70 people in that time period and shot and wounded 80 people so 150 fbi shootings all together. in every one of those instances, the shooting was reviewed by the fbi itself internally and in every one of those instances, in all 150 of those shootings, the

fbi determined that the shooting was justified. they're 150 for 150. but when this white hat fib fbi shooting happened in -- in the joseph schultz case, a number of subtle but important differences surrounding the details of the case. joseph schultz sued and five years later he was awarded $1.5 million for being wrongly shot in the face for doing nothing wrong. part of that deal is the government admitted no wrong doing in the shooting. 150 shootings, zero admission of wrong doing. last may, this young man was shot and killed in his apartment in orlando, florida while being interviewed by fbi agents and massachusetts state troopers. at first it seemed like kind of a local story, something weird had happened in florida with a guy who had connections to crime in massachusetts. then it seem likes a sidebar story to the boston bombings when we learned that the man who

had been shot was friends with the older suspect in the bombings. then there were leaks. there hadn't been any other witnesses, but they said that he lunged at agents with a knife. another leak said forget the knife and the blade, actually it was a bloom stick. nix that. another leak said it was a ceremonial sword or actually another leak said he overturned a table and threw a chair. that was why he got killed. by the way, one more leak, he was a confessed murderer. he was just about to write down his confession to a triple murder in massachusetts before he went crazy and he had to be put down. the leaks contradicted themselves. but they were all expull tour for those who shot him. we still have no official

evidence or testimony about what happened in that shooting. no official explanation, even the autopsy report is still being blocked from public release by the fbi. the only reason we know that he was shot seven times, including once in the back of the head is because his friend took photos of his body at the morgue when he was called in to identify the body. that friend has been barred from reentering the united states after having left the country to go to his funeral. those unsanctioned and less than official true details, right? and utter lack of any transparency from the fbi have led to some public outrage in this case and some media attention. reporters and editorial pages in the boston press have been sharply critical of authorities, along with the aclu and the family in russia have all called for an independent investigation. local authorities claim they have no jurisdiction either in florida where the shooting happened or in massachusetts.

that's why it was a really big deal in august when the state attorney in florida, named jeffrey ashton announced that his office was going to conduct it's own independent investigation into the killing of ibrahim. this is a state level prosecutor in florida. unlike the 2002 case of joseph schultz and his girlfriend, there were no witnesses outside of the fbi agents and massachusetts state trooper who is were in the room where he was interviewing him when he was killed. they came that he was going to confess to a triple murder. we haven't seen any written confession, we haven't seen any recording of the interview, we haven't heard or seen any reliable account other than from anonymous sources who always seem to say that the agents did nothing wrong. so the florida report is going to be hugely important here. it may be the only independent information we get on this. we have been waiting for that report since august. late last month it was announced that the investigation results would be completed by the end of this month. it was believed to be tuesday

would be the big day, next tuesday. then today, oh, law enforcement leak. another big leak in the story and wouldn't you know it, a big self-exculpatory leak. law enforcement officials unnamed of course, not only will the department of justice not charge anybody in the fbi, that the shooting has been ruled at the federal level justified that the fbi needed to use deadly force that day. we're also being told, again, by anonymous sources that that investigation by the independent source in florida, by the state prosecutor of florida, that one we were expecting to not hear anything about until next tuesday, we're also hearing from self-exculpatory anonymous sources that will investigation will also clear the fbi. we reached out to the florida state attorney's office today. these leaks purport to say what's going to be in that official report that's released on tuesday. we asked, did those leaks come from investigators in florida? is what those anonymous leakers

saying true? is the fbi absolutely in the clear here? the state prosecutor in florida actually told us no. sources inside the office investigating the todashev shooting say they have not made a determination yet about whether to charge anyone in the todashev shooting is unfair and unaccurate to his family. so a mysterious, messed up and completely opaque incident of deadly force got even weirder today. might today's anonymous leaks be true? will authorities in florida find the fbi's use of force was justified here? we don't know that yet. we're going to know next week, when an actual independent report on the use of lethal force is officially released to the public. we do not yet know the answer to that question. a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community,

that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. ♪ ♪ ♪

cut! [bell rings] this...is jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" i can't believe your mom has a mom cave! today i have new campbell's chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right.

here's the latest news on the missing plane, malaysian airlines flight 370. there is no news on the missing plane. today is day 14 of the search, there are no developments to report, other than another day has gone by without more nice, that's it. we'll let you know if that changes, but we'll not change the lack of news into something that sounds like news when it isn't, we'll be right back.

anybody have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three types of good bacteria. i should probably take this. live the regular life. phillips'. i jbut they blacked me out.ht these miles are useless! that's turrible. and all the other dates are triple the miles! triple the miles? that's as useless as chuck at a golf tournament. or you at the three point line. or you in a spelling bee. you gotta switch to the venture card from capital one.

you can fly any airline. no blackouts. that's what i did. i don't say this often -- but listen to the ref. i can't believe i said that. don't get blacked out, get the capital one venture card. earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. good on any airline or hotel. what's in your wallet?

suddenly you're a mouthbreather. well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38% more than cold medicines alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and sleep right. breathe right. >> the big eggs stock exchange in the world is here in new york. the value of the new york stock exchange is over $13 trillion. trillion with a "t." hundreds of billions of dollars are traded every day in this city, which also happens to be home to the second largest exchange on the planet, the nasdaq. when you are talking big money global trading, you have the two exchanges in new york city, the tokyo exchange in japan, the ftse exchange in london. those are the big name stock exchanges, but the big ones are not the only ones. this is the russian stock exchange which operates out of moscow.

i think i'm saying that right. it's worth about $750 billion as opposed to $13 trillion traded in new york. but the myse is the main stock market in russia, today it cratered. it lost nearly 3% of its entire value today. what happened in russia today, the equivalent of that happening here would be if the dow dropped 500 points in a day. the reason the russian stock exchange cratered today is apparently because of sanctions, the wrench that's now being tightened arnds russia's economy in the united states and europe. obama announced the third escalation of the sanctions in russia. in making that announcement, president obama said he was also prepared to escalate sanctions even further to include whole sectors of the russian economy. it now appears that those sanctions and the threat of new sanctions are having at least some of their intended effect. "the wall street journal" today reporting that russia's blue

chip stocks, the ones that are always supposed to perform so well, they saw a decline because many of those companies are of those people newly added to the sanctions list. in addition to adding politically connected russian zillionaries added to the sanctions list yesterday, president obama also made the unilateral decision to cut off one russian bank, considered to be the bank of the russian elite. it's own by a businessman in the west as vladimir putin's personal banker. yesterday, that private bank was immediately starved of the access to the global currency that is american dollars and today, the american credit card companies visa and mastercard announced that they would immediately stop servicing the bank. vladimir putin references that on the day his government

formally annexed crimea. he was going to immediately open a new bank account at the plan listed bank, he said he would have his presidential salary sent there. it was a little unexpected when at the same time vladimir putin was publicly trying to laugh off this new round of sanctions, the sanctions are already taking a toll on the russian economy he said russia will likely have to cancel plans to borrow funds abroad. and as both the s&p ratings downgrade russia's credit status, the bonds could rise and in addition to curtailing their foreign borrowing, they might have to cut down on the domestic form of it. too the rubble is already down 10% against the dollar this year meaning that rubbles buy 10% less than they used to, that phenomenon is considered likely to get worse. but even before today's big drop in the stock market, russian stocks on average were all down 10% before today, since putin declared that russia had the

right to invade the ukraine. most of the sanctions have come from the united states, by executive orders signed by president obama. with the expectation that there is more to come. in addition to the u.s. sanctions, though, before today, the european union has sanctioned 21 people, but today they added more. they did it in a very cloak and dagger way. the thing about sanctions is they are evadable if you know they're coming. if you have money in accounts overseas or otherwise stashed overseas, you can transfer those assets home before you get sanctioned. if you have money in a bank that is likely to be frozen or compromised, if it's going to happen, take your money out of the bank. if you know sanctions are coming, they might not hurt. so the europeans today took sort of extraordinary measures to keep the new sanctions secret until the very last moment. a the meeting where they decided the 12 names they were going to

add to the list of sanctioned russians today, it was only national leaders allowed in the room. no aides, no staffers, no wi-fi in the room and no cell phone service in the room. the idea was to keep the list totally secret so financial institutions could act on the list. so the people on the list wouldn't have a chance to move their money out of the way before it was too late. european leaders also said today they were formulating a plan to quote, wean themselves off of russian oil and gas, hoping to have a plan formulated by mid year to buy energy from nonrussian sources. the energy sector of course is russia's biggest economic driver and cutting off energy sales would potentially land the hardest blow against that country. there have never been sanctions like this on russia since the end of the cold war. george w. bush didn't do anything like this when russia invaded georgia, for example, while he was president. what's being done against russia is unprecedented and it seems like it's going to keep going. potentially, much further and

more strict. if this is going to be the weapon here, if it's not going to be a military war, it's going to be an economic war, how do we expect russia to react? given today's fresh evidence that even as they try to laugh off the sanctions, they're already beginning to have their intended effect. joining me is michael mcphal thank for being with us. >> sure, thanks for having me. >> president obama announces two rounds of sanctions, is threatening a third. is what he's doing scaleable in a way that we should understand that there's more to come and that we should have expected the kind of economic response that we saw today in russia? >> well, first, i want to underscore something you just said about how unprecedented this is. this kind of sanctions, this targeted sanctions against individuals and now one bank is not something we even did during the cold war. this is quite unprecedented. it's a new instrument of foreign policy.

practiced by the obama administration when i was there against iran and now you're seeing it with targeted individuals from russia and you're seeing the results that you jut described. what the president made clear in his statement when he announced this is what you see today is the punishment for annexation. it doesn't mean he thinks putin is going to leave crimea, he doesn't think it's going to change putin's calculus, president obama said there would be punishment if this happened, that was the punishment. the new executive order that he signed that you referred to that he can go after sectors of the economy tharks is meant as a deterrent for president putin from going into u crane. i thought president obama made that clear, if there is more escalation of violence, then he will go in that direction. >> does that mean, just to be clear, that the punishment phase

of this over, absent further russian action, the u.s. won't do anything else? >> i'm not sure. i do not know that. i know that from my previous time in government, putting together these lists, you have to make a case, you have to do due diligence, and i wouldn't be surprised if there would be more names with respect to the punishment phase. i don't know for sure. >> how would you expect russia to react, president putin publicly is making noises about not wanting further retaliation, i don't tend to believe anything he says in public, and also their past behavior suggests that they don't just sort of mirror western actions, they tend to react more strongly to anything we do rather than trying to have an equal and opposite reaction. what do you think he's going to do? >> there's putin reacting to the threat of sanctions and there's a lot of other russians reacting to the sanctions that are already there. i think we need to think about both of those groups. with respect to putin, i listened closely to his speech

earlier today. i'm ready to believe that he does not have a plan to invade eastern ukraine, but i also don't think he had a plan to invade crimea, what happened was there was a crisis, there was an event that triggered that that was the fall of the government in kiev. so he lashed out in a tactic going into a crimea, and that's what i fear the most, if there's violence in eastern ukraine, ukrainian young guys with guns, going after russian young guys with guns going after ukrainians. it will probably be guys, not gals. but if that happens and its escalates and there's fighting and an action reaction process, then putin will be tempted to act because he said, i'm going to protect russian citizens, russians, not russian citizens, russians living abroad. that's the scenario that scares me the most. >> when the national security

adviser susan ris was asked about the russian military exercises that are going on right near the ukraine and russia, she essentially scoffed and she said we don't think those are just military exercises, essentially being skeptical about what's going on there, that may be a planned invasion. >> we saw earlier things on the eve of crimea. moreover, these are act ticks of coercion, these are tactics of threats. the russians still want to destabilize ukraine, of course, that's part of their objective right now. and this is part of their strategy. >> michael mcphal, former ambassador to russia, thanks for being with us tonight. it's nice to have you here. we'll be right back. not just a start up. an upstart. gotta get going. gotta be good.

good? good. growth is the goal. how do we do that? i talked to ups. they'll help us out. new technology. smart advice. we focus on the business and they take care of the logistics. ups? good going. we get good. that's great. great. great. great. great. great. great. great. great. (all) great! i love logistics. innovative cc cream from nice 'n easy. our advanced treatment helps keep highlights and lowlights shiny and luminous. cc cream, find it in every box of nice 'n easy. the most natural shade of you. this is mike. his long race day starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines"

great. this is the last thing i need.) seriously? let's take this puppy over to midas and get you some of the good 'ol midas touch. hey you know what? i'll drive! i really didn't think this through. brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

the guy who invented protesting military funerals because he hated gay people is no longer among us. and you'll be surprised to know that there is greatness in his legacy. seriously, i swear. this will make you happy, it's coming up right at the end of the show tonight, stay with us. [ male announcer ] a year after hurricane sandy,

moonachie, new jersey, firefighters were still rebuilding their own house with limited funds for the most important necessities. ugh...this toilet paper's like sandpaper. [ male announcer ] that's when the charmin relief project came to the rescue. holy charmin. [ male announcer ] delivering over 10,000 rolls of bath tissue. charmin not only saved the day. charmin saved our butts. [ male announcer ] making a firehouse feel like home again. one more way the charmin relief project is helping people enjoy the go.

how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ alrexcuse me, should y just about do it.rement. what are you doing? uh, well we are fine tuning these small cells that improve coverage, capacity and quality of the network.

it means you'll be able to post from the breakroom. great! did it hurt? when you fell from heaven? (awkward laugh) ...a little.. (laughs) im sorry, i have to go. at&t is building you a better network. i have a cold with this annoying runny nose. [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat all that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is! 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™. with very few exceptions we do not no obituaries on the show. and we're not going to do one tonight. the way you can tell this is not an obituary for the head of the westboro baptist church is because nothing in this story will require me to say his name. sorksz so, i'm not going to say it. the church became fascination and revulsion when the man who was the cult leader for this extended family, pseudoreligious compound in kansas decided the way to spread his particular version of the gospel was by trying very hard to upset people. by trolling the country, essentially. they first showed up with their big taunting cursing profane signs at the funerals of people who had died of aids. they also picketed the funerals of anyone gay who had died for

any reason, including picketing the funerals of people who had been murdered for being gay. and their message was very simple -- they just hated gay people. they cited biblical justification for hating gay people. they wished all gay people were dead. they thought anybody who didn't hate gay people as much as they were essentially aiding and abetting the horrible crime of homosexuality and was equally damned because of it. and for that reason, that mind set let inexorably that made them famous outside of just their gay community. in their quest to, demonstrate their own depth of hatred for gay people, they started trolling the whole country, not just the gay community. their public demonstration strategy moved on from directly going after gay people to picketing funerals and picketing other events that celebrated anyone who was a beloved american. they picketed the funeral of bill clinton's mother.

they picketed the funeral of al gore's dad. they picketed the funeral of coal miners killed in a mining accident. they picketed the funeral of jerry fallwell because he wasn't anti-gay enough for them. there's nothing to celebrate about america enough as a nation as long as america tolerates the existence of openly gay people. that's why they started targeting the funeral of soldiers. so say there's no such thing as an american hero as long as america is a place that doesn't stone gay people to death. they said thank god for the ied's that kill american soldiers. we pray for more american soldiers to die since that is god's way of showing his disapproval of a country that doesn't hate gay people enough. that has been their reasoning. all along, for years. and now that the founder of the cult who, not incidentally, is the biological father of a lot of people in the cult, now that he has died, it will be interesting to see if his 13 children and 54 grandchildren and his growing covey of great

grandchildren evolve in their strategy, too, or whether the westboro baptist church cult will wither away. and on one level, who cares. it's like caring about whether or not world net daily is going to do another where's the birth certificate birth or whether or not donald trump really means it this time that he's going to have run for president. who cares. make money however you want to make money. make a ruckus. we're a free freaking country. free enough for all of you. but there is something important, i think, and worth noting tonight about the westboro cult now that its founder has died. that is that the cult has, over the past 20 years, been an american inspiration. seriously. as they try to hurt people's feeling, to dmon straight their depth of feeling to hurt the families of loved ones, they know they are being offensive,

right. that's on purpose. they want to shock casually anti-gaye religious people in this country into hardening their beliefs. stop being such squishes, right? stop tolerating a culture that recognizes gay people's rights. that's what they were trying to do. but instead increasingly over the years, people rose up against them to try to stop, or at least interfere with the hurt that they were trying to cause. in order to demonstrate their point. i think it probably started with the angels wings folks, the people who built those huge architectural angels wings for themselves hung with white sheets to protect the family of matthew shepherd. the wings just blocked the view of those protesters. when they started picketing soldier funerals, the patriot guard on motorcycles formed a loud massive flag-carrying human buffer between the westboro people and the military funeral procession and the family. it's also occasionally been a one-on-one thing. and occasionally a very funny

one-on-one thing. there's the god hates signs rebuttal, which i thought was very effective. this guy, i, too, have a sign. god hates signs. mourn for our signs. god hates plastic bags. this one turns up a lot. god hates figs. and god hates yeast. there's biblical citations on the signs. god hates figs is a popular one. it is true, that part of the gospel of mark, i looked it up today. it is really anti-fig. mark 11, jesus is adamantly anti-figs. there's also plenty of biblical justifications, god hates shrimp. god hates cotton poly blends. not sure what's going on with the pirate in the foreground. but i bet i'm for it. who they just used anti-gay signs as if their words are more like prefixes.

ho mo sex is sin. their ubiquitous god hates fags message has been rebutted by a dog who feels exactly the opposite. and also apparently by god himself, who begs to differ with the westboro cult. the cult despite itself has been an inspiration to americans all over the country wherever they' shown up. it's weird to say, but they have indirectly caused a lot of good works out of our own human revulsion out of their cruelty. when michael sam came out and they came to the university to protest their existence, thousands of college students turned out in the cold and the snow to make a human wall to wall off the protesters from the man they were trying to hurt. this is not an obituary for the head of the westboro baptist church. he's gone, dead at the age of 84. there's not going to be a funeral for him.

let him be remembered as someone who did bring out the best in people and provided cruelty that ended up being a very, very clarifying thing for all of us. weekends with alex witt starts now. breaking news this hour. another possible image of airplane debris reported. this time, the chinese government says they have a satellite picture of remnants of mh 370. a short time ago, they reported this news. he says he got that words from the chinese ambassador. where is the debris and how old is the satellite image? good morning, everybody. welcome to weekends with alex witt. i'm in for alex today. here is what happened over an hour ago in kuala lumpur. th