for decisions made by her predecessors. including the alleged rejection of several proposed fixes, all at a time when the company was falling into a financial hole that culminated in a record bankruptcy filing and an epic government bailout. later, as company sales began to recover, it appears gm was still protecting its bottom line instead of its customers. gm is doing an internal investigation and promises to be open with the public on its findings. no matter what the reality is, the perception of those cold calculations are the legacy mary barra will have to answer for. on monday she met with victims' families who stood beside lawmakers this morning asking for answers. >> it is clear that gm is only concerned with their bottom line and not the safety of our loved ones. >> our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives and husbands are gone because they were a cost of

doing business gm's style. >> nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell is listening into today's hearings. kelly, what are you expecting to hear today in the questioning? >> reporter: well, good afternoon, joy. i spoke to the chairman of this subcommittee, tim murphy, and he's a republican of pennsylvania. what this really will show us is an opportunity to put to gm and to the top federal regulator from the national highway traffic safety administration a big question about why weren't they talking to each other. congressman murphy says that what really was discovered in these reports are all of these pieces of evidence over a ten-year period. now, taken on their own back when this began, maybe some of the people involved would not have had the foresight to see where we are now with so many lives harmed, so many deaths and accidents associated with this. but they weren't talking to each other. why was that? murphy also told me that he had concerns in the reports that congressional investigators have done reviewing 200,000 pages of documents they were able to

obtain from gm and from the federal regulators. a sense that there was a lot of information here that was foreseeable, understandable at the time that was not being properly shared. today we just learned from democrats on the committee that they found 133 examples of when consumers went to their gm dealer, had a problem with their car that they reported as having something to do with the ignition, even if they didn't use those words exactly, and understanding the car suddenly shut off. and in those 133 cases identified now, none was reported up the chain. so there were lots of instances where there was knowledge that wasn't acted on and also murphy told me references to business cases, which he said without drawing any conclusions does that mean there were financial considerations at the time about what would be done. we know that there were cases in depositions where people who worked in the process along the way said that they were not aware of things. later there's documents to refute that.

this is emotional, it's also about how taxpayers bailed out gm, providing a real lifeline to keep the company going and at the same time perhaps they were not the proper stewards of the information. all of this investigation is important. we talk about congress a lot, joy, and some of the failings of congress, but this is the function of congress that can really affect people's lives and that's oversight, using the power of investigation to get at information and to hold these officials, both private sector and public, accountable. joy. >> yeah, indeed. nbc's kelly o'donnell. excellent example of oversight working the way i think most people think it should. thank you very much. as we watch mary barra actually filing into that committee hearing room, you can see also the members are getting seated and so we are going to keep following this and watching it. when we do start to see those statements happen, we will bring it to you. right now i'd like to bring in florida senator bill nelson. senator, you said on the senate side which will be having a hearing of its own tomorrow in

one of the subcommittees under your committee, let's talk about what americans should understand about this. in your understanding just how long has general motors known about this problem? >> well over a decade. kelly o'donnell just summed it up. that's one of the best summaries in about two and a half minutes. and what she explained is absolutely inexcusable. it's an outrage that a corporate culture would end up sacrificing at least 12 lives that we know of because an ignition switch did not work properly and they knew it as early as more than ten years ago. it's inexcusable. >> senator, when the senate was considering the auto bailout, obviously there were a lot of considerations, whether or not senators believed it was prude engt to get involved and bail out the company. had this information been available to you at the time that they did have this major

problem that could have resulted in a recall of millions of vehicles, how might that have impacted the decision that you yourself made on supporting the bailout of these automakers, including gm? >> well, the first impact would have been if we knew it back then, there would have been a lot less lives lost. and i suspect that general motors at that time would really have gotten a grilling as to whether or not they deserved having a corporate culture as it is, and i'm speaking as someone who has always had a general motors car, one of the questions we would have put to them at the time is, well, would you drive home today after this hearing in a chevrolet cobalt? and i'm going to ask that question of ms. barra tomorrow. >> chairman tim murphy i should note is speaking now. he is the chairman of this committee. and so given where we are,

senator, i understand there is -- you know, you have the hearing today, your going to have hearings tomorrow on the senate side, what congressional action is possible here or is this really more about fact finding on behalf of the american people, who again were investors in gm? >> well, it's legitimate fact finding. the net amount that we spent in the bailout is over $10 billion. that's taxpayer money. but more than that, what we want to know, what are they going to do about it to get the problem solved? and then the next question is why wasn't the regulator back there in 2004, johnny on the spot doing this? i can tell you, because we had other regulators back in that period of time that were not doing their job on safety at all. and then once we talk about the regulators back then, what about the present administration and why aren't the regulators in this present administration right there cracking the whip so

that this doesn't happen. >> well, senator, you have a lot of talk from your colleagues on the other side of the aisle about overregulation of american business and then you're bringing up i think rightly this question of whether or not the regulators charged with protecting millions of consumers when it comes to auto safety were on the job. obviously there was a different mindset toward regulation in the previous administration. but are you saying that that same attitude toward regulating industry has been carried over or that there was a substantive difference between the attitude of regulators in the previous administration and the current one? >> well, we're going to find out. and there is no excuse. regulation is for the purpose of the safety of the public, and tragically 12 lives, at least 12 have been lost. >> does this situation with general motors, as tragic as it is, does this undermine the case that your colleagues on the other side of the aisle are constantly making about our economy being overregulated?

>> when it comes to the public safety, whether it's flying an airplane, running a train or a car, safety is always the province of the people looking out for the interest of the public. >> and, sir, what would you like to see done as a remedy now? because we are where we are. obviously there are class action, potential actions against general motors that are going to take place in the civil sphere, but in terms of policy, which is the realm where you live, where lawmakers live, what kind of policy change could you foresee coming out of what we're doing today and tomorrow? >> there needs to be such an inquiry on behalf of public safety that a corporate culture that is only looking at their profits gets set aside for the interest of their customers. and, you know, that's something human nature being what it is, we're going to have to constantly stay on it. >> all right, florida senator

bill nelson, thank you very much. i want to remind everyone that we are continuing to watch the opening statements in the hearing. chairman tim murphy is speaking now. we'll continue to monitor what's happening. we are going to wait for gm's ceo mary barra who should be speaking just minutes from now after opening statements. thanks again to the senator. up next, the emotional day for the families of the victims. meet the attorney who's suing gm over these deadly defects. we are again monitoring also a live update on the devastating mudslide in washington state. the death toll today climbed to 27 with 22 people still missing. we're listening in and will fill you in on that too if anything changes. ok, the system works. let's say you pay your guy around 2 percent to manage your money. that's not much, you think except it's 2 percent every year. does that make a difference? search "cost of financial advisors" ouch! over time it really adds up. then go to e*trade and find out how much our advice costs. spoiler alert. it's low. really? yes, really. e*trade offers investment advice and guidance from dedicated professional financial consultants.

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back now and you're looking at live pictures of congresswoman diana degette, the

ranking member of the committee, the house energy and commerce committee holding a hearing today on general motors. gm's ceo mary barra will speak shortly and we will take her remarks now. joining me now is one of the lawyers involved in a class action against general motors over the faulty ignition system. so adam, thanks for being here, first of all. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> and what are you looking to hear today from the hearing? >> well, we're looking to hear right now, i think, we really want to hear what ms. barra has to say about all this because frankly i agree with the senator's sentiment that for all too long here general motors seems to have put its own profits or its own interests over its consumers' interests and that's a very serious problem. i think that when you look back over american history, there's all sorts of examples of companies putting profits over their customers' interests and, frankly, just going back to last tuesday when i was speaking with

a group of concerned consumers, it was the 100th anniversary of the triangle shirt waist phfire. it's unfortunate that 110 years later nothing has changed. i think what we're seeing here is one of the worst automotive cover-ups in u.s. history and as a result millions of american consumers were put at serious risk and all of them were put at substantial financial risk. >> let me just ask what sort of remedies you're seeking because you're now just to clarify representing gm car owners, not necessarily the victims of families who had family members killed or injured in these cars, is that correct? >> that's correct. while we certainly would welcome all phone calls from all consumers and families of the victims who were hurt as a result of this, the class action lawsuits are strictly about economic loss. every single person who has one of these cars, had they known about these problems at the point of purchase, either wouldn't have purchased these cars at all or they would have

paid a lot less for them. >> and i'm wondering where you think the culpability lies in terms of regulators. there is an agency charged with regulating commerce in this way. give me what you think the balance is in terms of the regulators' responsibility to find out what was going on and gm's responsibility to be forth coming. >> i think the primary thing, every corporation has -- certainly a corporation as large and as powerful as general motors is really given the public's trust. and they come out and they hold themselves out as these paragons of american culture. the u.s. car culture for all these years has been such an important thing. and i think that the ultimate responsibility for what happened here lies with the company, general motors. and i think here even more so when u.s. taxpayers paid lots of money to help them out in a time of need, for the company to have been lying to the american

public that entire time is truly reprehensible, so i really think that after everything, the ultimate responsibility here lies with the company, general motors. >> fred upton, who is a congressman from michigan, is now speaking as part of the hearing. we are covering and following the gm hearing. i want to get your response. harry waxman released a supplemental memorandum on findings from the never released gm warranty claims. it says that it announces the warranty claims database by the committee staff revealed 133 cases between june of '03 and june of 2012 where customers were actually reporting issues related to the ignition switch and some of the example that say they give, customers stating that sometimes when bumping the ignition switch area, the vehicle just shuts off. the vehicle stalls out when hitting a bump or pothole. customers stating that the vehicle died at highway speeds or when hitting bumps in the road the vehicle died four times. we're talking about very

serious -- even if somebody isn't injured, events. how is it in your view that none of this came forward, the bulk of these claims are only now coming out in the last couple of years? how can that level of danger in a vehicle not come out earlier? >> having litigated against the largest companies in the united states over the 20 plus years i've been in practice, unfortunately i've never failed to be amazed by the way companies are able to cover up things like this. and i can tell you all the examples that you just gave, i've been getting calls over the past week from lots of people who have had the exact same problems again and again and again. and the fear in their voices, when they speak to me and they explain what happened to them, is truly terrifying. thank god it's never happened with me, hopefully it's never happened with you, and the worst thing here with the cars in question, they were primarily marketed to entry level people.

younger kids who couldn't afford the more expensive cars. and to have a situation here where they are probably least likely to be able to know to control a situation like this when their knee hits the steering column, the car goes out of control, it's just a horrifying thing. >> i'm wondering if you've had any whistleblowers come forward from within general motors. anyone who's come forward to you or anyone working with you to say, listen, we knew about these problems and i'm willing to step forward and help you in what you're trying to do? >> i unfortunately am not in a position to comment on that. i hope you understand. i think that as the case goes forward and as we bring this case forward on behalf of our clients and the other people in the proposed class, i think all that information will ultimately emerge. >> all right. adam levitt, attorney for people i guess who are owners of general motors cars who is leading the class action against general motors. thank you for being here. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. and right now committee chair fred upton is giving his

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androgel 1.62%. you're watching live coverage from capitol hill where house energy and commerce committee ranking member henry waxman is delivering his opening statement in today's hearing over the gm safety recalls. we expect to hear from gm's ceo mary barra and we will bring that to you live. staying with us is adam levitt, one of the lawyers involved in a class action against general motors over the faulty key system. i want to read you a little from msnbc.com. there's additional documents that show a gm engineer actually approved ignition switch changes. this internal document which was obtained by nbc news shows that

a general motors engineer signed off on a change to ignition switches in cars that have now been recalled, even though he testified last year he was not aware of the change and didn't remember approving the change. how extensive do you think the duplicity, i guess you could call it, has been among general motors representatives, people who have been charged with giving information to capitol hill and to regulators about the state of these cars? >> i think what i've seen so far has been a very carefully worded, carefully staged practice of the new ceo, ms. barra, fall on her sword as often as possible but also very carefully saying what people were and were not aware of. i think that what we'll find, and i think that the engineer's previous testimony and subsequent retraction will all go to a very carefully set up situation where the engineers weren't advising, the executives

weren't advising, the marketing people, so each person within the company was able to engage in very carefully worded plausible deniability. >> and of course mary barra was not ceo at the time. she is really answering for things that answered previous to her, but she is now the person in that seat. i mean how infuriating for you that at the same time these things were happening, at the same time the company knew of these problems, they were actually coming to the federal government, coming to the american taxpayer for a bailout? >> as i previously said, it's really infuriating. i think if someone asks me for my money, they shouldn't also be trying to hurt me at the same time or lying to me at the same time. i think that when someone goes into a bankruptcy proceeding and they're seeking essentially a fresh start, part of getting a fresh start is also being as honest and as transparent as you

can possibly beer, because partf having a fresh start is closing up your past misfortunes, let's say. and to wind up the way they did, to continue on lying and covering up a problem that they knew existed all the way through the bankruptcy proceeding and into the present day, i think they have a lot to answer for and i'm going to be very interested to see what mary barra says. >> and we will be seeing that within moments. mary barra is be introduced now. let's take a listen. >> she's also served as a plant manager and director of competitive operations engineering as well as numerous other positions. i'll now swing in the witness. ms. barra, you are aware the committee is holding an investigative hearing and when doing so has the practice of taking testimony under oath. do you have any objections to testifying under oath? >> no. >> the chair then advises you that under the rules of the house and the rules of the committee you are entitled to be

add vooigsd by counsel. do you desire to be advised my counsel at today's hearing? >> no. >> in that case if you would please rise and raise your right hand, i'll swear you in. do you swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> thank you. ms. barra, you are now under oath and subject to the penalties set forth in title xviii, section 1001 of the united states code. you may now give a five-minute summary of your written statement. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> please pull your microphone close to your mouth and make sure it's on. >> thank you mr. chairman and committee members. my name is mary barra and i'm the chief executive officer of general motors. i appreciate the opportunity to be here today. more than a decade ago, gm embarked on a small car program. sitting here today, i cannot tell you why it took so long for a safety defect to be announced for this program. but i can tell you, we will find

out. this is an extraordinary situation. it involves vehicles we no longer make, but it came to light on my watch, so i'm responsible to resolving it. when we have answers, we will be fully transparent with you, with our regulators and with our customers. while i cannot turn back the clock, as soon as i learned about the problem, we acted without hesitation. we told the world we had a problem that needed to be fixed. we did so because whatever mistakes were made in the past, we will not shirk from our responsibilities now or in the future. today's gm will do the right thing. that begins with my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected by this recall, especially the families and friends who lost their lives or were injured. i am deeply sorry. i've asked former u.s. attorney anton velucas to conduct a

thorough an unimpeded investigation of the actions of general motors of the i have received updates from him and he tells me he's well along with his work. he has free rein to go where the facts take him, regardless of outcome. the facts will be the facts. once they are in, my leadership team and i will do what is needed to help assure this does not happen again. we will hold ourselves fully accountable. however, i want to stress i'm not waiting for his results to make changes. i have named a new vice president of global vehicle safety, a first for general motors. jeff boyer's top priority is to quickly identify and resolve any and all product safety issues. he is not taking on this task alone. i stand with him and my senior leadership team stands with him as well. we will welcome input from outside of gm, from you, from

nitsa, from our customers, your dealer, and current and former employees. the latest round of recalls demonstrates just how serious we are about the way we want to do things at today's gm. we've identified these issues and we've brought them forward and are fixing them. i have asked our team to keep stressing the system at gm and work with one thing in mind, the customer and their safety are at the center of everything we do. our customers who have been affected by this recall are getting our full and undivided attention. we are talking directly to them through a dedicated website with constantly updated information and through social media platforms. we've trained and assigned more people, over 100, to our customer call centers and wait times are down to seconds. and of course we're sending customers written information through the mail. we've empowered our dealers to take extraordinary measures to treat each case specifically.

if people do not want to drive a recalled vehicle before it is repaired, dealers can provide them with a loaner or a rental car, free of charge. today we provided nearly 13,000 loaner vehicles. if a customer is already looking for another car, dealers are allowed to provide additional cash allowances for the purchase of a lease or new vehicle. our supplier is manufacturing new replacement parts for the vehicles that are no longer in production. we have commissioned two lines and have asked for a third production line. those parts will start being delivered to dealers next week. these measures are only the first in making things right and rebuilding trust with our customers. as i've reminded our employees, getting the cars repaired is only the first step. giving customers the best support possible throughout this process is how we will be judged. i would like this committee to

know that all of our gm employees and i are determined to set a new standard. i'm encouraged to say that everyone at gm up to and including our board of directors supports this. i'm a second generation gm employee, and i'm here as our ceo, but i'm also here representing the men and women who are part of today's gm and are dedicated to putting the highest quality, safest vehicles on the road. i recently held a town hall meeting to formally introduce our new vp of safety. we met at our technical center in michigan. this is one of the places where the men and women who engineer our vehicles work. they are the brains behind our cars, but they are also the heart of general motors. it was a tough meeting. like me, they are disappointed and upset. i could see it in their faces, i could hear it in their voices. they had many of the same questions that i suspect are on

your mind. they want to make things better for our customers and in that process make gm better. they particularly wanted to know what we planned to do for those who have suffered the most from this tragedy. that's why i'm pleased to announce that we have retained kenneth fineberg as a consultant to help us evaluate the situation and recommend the best paths forward. i am sure this committee knows mr. feinberg is highly qualified and very experienced in handling matters such as this. having led the compensation efforts involved with 9/11, the bp oil spill and the boston marathon bombing. mr. feinberg brings expertise and objectivity to this effort. as i have said, i consider this to be an extraordinary event and we are responding to it in an extraordinary way. as i see it, gm has civil responsibilities and legal responsibilities. we are thinking through exactly what those responsibilities are

and how to balance them in an appropriate manner. bringing on mr. feinberg is the first step. i would now be happy to answer your questions. thank you. >> thank you, ms. barra. >> nbc capital correspondent kelly o'donnell is back. kelly, ms. barra talking about meeting with the new vp of safety and also talking about bringing on kenneth feinberg, who as she noted viewers may remember from his role in determining post-9/11 compensation, the bp oil spill and the boston marathon bombing. >> he is an enormous name with a great deal of credibility and specious at very difficult work, looking at the lives of victims and assessing a dollar value. that is very hard to do. it's not the kind of thing that makes anybody comfortable, but it looks at things like lost employment, lost potential, impact on a family and putting a dollar figure with that to

compensate families. nothing can replace what they have lost, but in our society money is a statement to acknowledge when something so terribly wrong has taken place and to acknowledge responsibility for it. so that is certainly a step that suggests a big effort on the part of gm to try to show that they are willing to work with families. that will certainly address some issues, but there are so many layers to this, as you know, joy, from ongoing criminal investigations, which are separate from what we're seeing today. congress' work at oversight and potential for new laws coming out of this and the internal review. as we saw in other cases where there is a scandal or controversy, sometimes the person in charge calls for an internal review. in this case mary barra has done so with gm and they are waiting to see from going through their own company files, e-mails, documents and talking with employees what more they can learn internally that then could be shared with some of these

larger investigations. so in terms of this being a really critical moment for her, she is trying to kind of hit all of the important notes. the contrition, her personal apology, concern for the families and then also expressing a willingness to move forward and find answers. that will not satisfy people who believe much more should have been done a lot sooner. mary barra, who is new to the job but has spent a career at gm, may have some responsibility in that as well, so she is an interesting person to be in these times and she says she will face it head on. we'll see how the questioning goes, how tense this just might get. >> all right, nbc's kelly o'donnell, thank you. we'll go back and listen again. subcommittee chair tim murphy of pennsylvania is questioning mary barra now. let's listen in. >> between del phi employees in 2005 discussing the changes to the ignition switch. the e-mail notes that a gm engineer is asking for information about the ignition switch because, quote, cobalt is blowing up in their face in

regards to turning the car off with the driver's knee, unquote. if this was such a big problem, why didn't gm replace the ignition switch in the cars already on the road? the cars where the torque fell well below gm's specifications instead of just the new cars, why? >> what you just said does not match under tab 25. >> it's the bottom of the page, there should be something there. just note that what i've said -- i apologize for that but there was a statement made that cobalt is blowing up in their face by a bump of the driver's knee. >> clearly there were a lot of things that happened. there's been a lot of statements made as it relates. that's why we've hired anton velucas to do a complete investigation of this process. >> but you don't know why they didn't just replace the switch on the old cars as well as the new cars? >> i do not know the answer to that and that's why we're doing this investigation. >> given the number of complaints about ignitions turning off while driving, why wasn't this identified as a safety issue? >> again, i can't answer specific questions at that point

in time. that's why we're doing a full and complete investigation. >> another one, in the chronology gm submitted, gm states it didn't make the connection between the ignition switch problems and the air bag nondeployment problems until late 2013. so my question is when gm decided to switch the ignition in 2006, did the company ever examine how it could affect other vehicle systems like the air bags? >> again, that's part of the investigation. >> should they? >> should we understand -- >> should they look at how it affects other vehicle systems? >> yes. >> let me ask another question then. so when gm concluded and you heard from my opening statement that the tooling cost and price pieces are too high, what does that mean? >> i find that statement to be very disturbing. as we do this investigation and understand it in the context of the whole timeline, if that was the reason the decision was made, that is unacceptable. that is not the way we do business in today's gm. >> well, how does gm balance

cost and safety? >> we don't. today if there's a safety issue, we take action. if we know there is a defect on our vehicles, we do not look at the cost associated with it, we look at the speed in which we can fix the issue. >> was there a culture in gm -- >> general motors ceo mary barra answering questions before the house energy and commerce subcommittee. we'll continue to monitor the hearing and have more when we come back. dg 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. their type 2 diabetes...

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we're continuing to monitor capitol hill where gm ceo mary barra is testifying in front of a house committee over the safety recalls, but we want to start our next story about a ground-breaking report about the cia and torture with a warning. these next pictures may disturb you. actually they should disturb you in large part because of what they say may have been done in our name as part of the war on terror. but we also don't want to just toss them up on your screen without a warning since the two

pictures show the corpse of an iraqi man who was tortured to death. the man was an iraqi detainee who died of asphyxiation after being hung by his arms in 2003. photographs were later uncovered purporting to show army reservists smiling and giving the thumbs up beside his corpse. they and nine others served various sentences for abuses at abu ghraib prison. investigators ruled that the death was a homicide. the trial of a navy s.e.a.l. ended in his acquittal on the charges related to his death. and that is the case in part because investigators concluded that the injuries that he suffered happened while he was in cia custody. in 2012 an investigation into the death as well as another detainee resulted in no charges being brought. however, the story of allegations of cia torture is

being told again today in "the washington post." the article quotes unnamed officials who say they have seen a damning 163-page report. the officials say it details how the cia misled the nation regarding its interrogation methods. in some cases taking credit for intelligence gathered by standard fbi interrogation methods and crediting so-called enhanced interrogation instead. that includes the intelligence that led to the whereabouts and ultimately the killing of osama bin laden. the report also includes previously undisclosed cases of abuse as well as new disclosures about cia black sites where the torture is alleged to have taken place. it includes no recommendations for the pursuit of a criminal inquiry. this report is long in coming, and we know about it in part because of a side story that's developed as the possibility of its publication grows. last month the head of the senate intelligence committee, california senator dianne

feinstein, alleged that the cia searched the computers of the senate's committee members, essentially spying on the committee that oversees its activities. however, with this report expected to be sent to the white house as early as thursday for review of whether it can be declassified and if so how much, we may be getting one step closer to finally telling the story of how this country may have broken some of its most cherished laws and ideals. dan borelli is an nbc news national security analyst and former fbi agent where he once served as assistant and special agent in charge of the new york joint terrorism task force. thank you for being here. i want to, first of all, ask you what do you think the chances are that this report will be declassified and released? >> i think a summary will be declassified and released. there's already a lot of this information that's in the open source. we've had my colleague testify. there's been op-eds written about it, there's been a lot of information already out there so i think it's likely it will be

declassified and i think it's important for the american people to see exactly what happened, acknowledge that we made mistakes but also turn the chapter and move forward and get back on the moral high ground that we were always on. >> you mentioned your colleague. one of the things that's remarkable in "the washington post" about the report is the extent to which it's alleged in this report that the cia used -- basically took his work where he interrogated a detainee, was successful in doing it with no torture involved and took the product of that work and claimed it to be the result of, quote unquote, unchanced interrogation. >> again, you can't speak to the motives of why people would do that, obviously. they had their own agenda, their own narrative that they wanted to support. but others have been very outspoken in the fact that there were mistakes made that his work was actually the real work and others that uncovered many of the facts that led to the

capture of osama bin laden that abu zubata was questioned early on and they were able to glean a lot of valuable information. so this is not news per se but now that this report has been compiled not only from ali's testimony but others and kind of the full case study, so now the truth has finally come out. >> and you still see people from the bush administration, dick cheney and others, defending these practices. part of the defense has been an implication that the only reason we were able to get osama bin laden is because of torture, because of enhanced interrogation. that is plainly not the case when you had people who were tortured after they gave the actionable intel that actually helped us. >> exactly. you have 6300 pages that prove otherwise. so at this point i think it's time to acknowledge that mistakes were made. and this is not an indictment against the cia by any means. many, many cia officers were

also on the side of ali zufan. they did not want to do this, they knew it was not effective and efficient. again, i think it's time to close that chapter. even what happened last week, we had the prosecution of ab abu ghaith in new york federal court so we're getting back to the basics and the principles that built our country, that made us strong. and the rule of law and human rights does not mean that you're soft on terrorism. it can be very effective and efficient. we don't need torture. we can prosecute people and stop plots through getting valuable intelligence in doing so. >> and by the way, the product of torture is not admissible in court. >> exactly. it makes it so much more complicated. we have the mastermind of 9/11 that still hasn't been tried because it's complicated with all the enhanced interrogation techniques, the black sites and other means that were used to extract information. so again, i think this is a good

step forward in getting back to the solid foundation and principles that our country was built on. >> indeed. here's hoping a lot of it or much of is is declassified, if not all. thank you so much for being here. we continue to monitor developments on capitol hill where gm ceo mary barra is testifying over the safety recalls. she admits red flags were raised ten years ago but has not said why action wasn't taken. stay with us, you are watching "the reid report" on msnbc. feel like my lips are going to, like, wash it off. these fit nicely. [ female announcer ] crest 3d white whitestrips keep the whitening ingredient in place, guaranteeing professional level results. crest whitestrips. the way to whiten. as a police officer, i've helped many people 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,

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in every region of america, white and asian children are far better positioned for success than black, latino an american indian children. that's the sobering conclusion in a new report called "race for results" released by the annie e. casey foundation today. the organization, which promotes the well-being of american kids and which participated in the white house's my brother's keeper initiative put in stark terms the opportunity and skills

gap facing children of color, setting back the life chances of millions of american kids. based on indicators like high school graduation, math proficiency, teen birth rates, employment opportunities, family income and poverty. the report uses a composite scale of 1 to 1,000 to assess kids' progress on 12 indicators of life success. while the report stresses that no one racial group has all children meeting all milestones, asian and pacific islander children scored highest on the index with a composite score of 776 with southeast asian children faring worse than their east asian counterparts. white children next at 704, latino children at 404, native american children at 387 and african-american children at just 345. that dramatic gap held across the country, but for black children the states with the worst outcomes were in the south with the worst outcomes in mississippi, michigan and

wisconsin. for latino children, the bottom was alabama. for native american children, with only 25 states supplying enough data to assess, the worst outcomes were in south dakota, which is home to some of the nation's poorest reservations. casey foundation president patrick mccarthy called the findings a call to action that requires serious and sustained attention from the private nonprofit philanthropic and government sectors to create equitable opportunities for children of color. the news of the nation's roughly 10 million black, 17.6 million latino and roughly 640,000 native american children are broadly in crisis not individually in crisis, because there are millions of success stories, but broadly so is a national disgrace. we can't be a first world country when millions of our own kids are being left behind in struggling neighborhoods and schools with limited prospects to contribute to the economy. so what are we doing about it? oh, that's right, we're arguing over culture and how much to cut

anti-poverty programs. we're watching billionaires dump buckets of money in our elections to milk a few more tax cuts for themselves while blocking struggling people from getting unemployment insurance or a decent minimum wage. and politicians are vowing to repeal healthcare for maybe 20 million people who have it for themselves and their kids, some for the first time. did i mention that children of color will be the majority of american children by 2018? yeah. good luck with that. that wraps things up for "the reid report." i'll see you back here tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern and we'll be joined by senator barbara boxer with reaction to today's gm hearings and the cia interrogation report. visit us online. "the cycle" comes up next. >> we'll be taking a look today at that hearing that you mentioned that's going on on capitol hill right now about the gm recalls. we're also going to be talking about toure's article in "playboy" about what's next for the central park five.

and we're going to be talking about this book that i am totally obsessed with and what is called perhaps the most important economics book of the decade. >> joy, she's totally obsessed with this book. >> i love it. i love being obsessed about books. "the cycle" comes up next. i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn.

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when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. breaking news. i'm chrkrystal ball. a hearing about those general motors recalls or lack thereof for a time. the company's new ceo is getting grilled right now over the company's handling of defective cars, specifically ignition switches, a problem that's become increasingly clear. gm may have covered up. >> the latest round of recalls demonstrates just how serious we are about the way we want to do things at today's gm. we've identified these issues and we've brought them forward and we're fixing them.

i have asked our team to keep stressing the system at gm and work with one thing in mind, the customer and their safety are at the center of everything we do. >> ahead of this afternoon's hearing, families of the 13 people who were killed in accidents resulting from that defect appeared outside the capitol, determined to put a human face on the recall. >> this car was surely a death trap in the game of what if and again one we are not willing to play anymore. driving this car was like playing a game of russian roulette. >> gm knew for years was dangerous and defective. our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives and husbands are gone because they were a cost of doing business gm's style. >> we're fixing the problem when it was discovered have saved these two girls' lives and the lives of many others? yes. should gm be able to hide behind their bankruptcy and not accept the responsibility and liability