deadly head-on collision in california? could new eyewitness reports change the investigation? a live report next. nothing but garbage. why does the flight f370 search keep finding trash? could the irs take your tax refund without warning because your parents, that's right, parents, owe the government money? president obama in some of his strongest remarks takes the fight to republicans other voting rights. how did he use math to prove his argument? hello, everyone. it's high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. in the west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." the horrific bus crash in northern california. witnesses say the fedex truck

involved was already on fire before it crossed the median and plowed head-on into the tour bus. ten people were killed including students on a college campus tour. >> you heard people screaming. >> i saw black. fire at the front of the bus. >> the smoke was everywhere, very hard to see and breathe in there. >> it all happened on interstate 5, about 100 miles or so north of sacramento. nbc's stephanie stanton is in chico, california. both drivers reportedly among those killed. federal investigators are on the case. what do we know about this accident? >> good afternoon to you, alex. the ntsb is in the very early stages of its investigation. one of the things they're asking for, eyewitness accounts. among the leads they'll be pursuing is a claim by a couple whose car was hit by the fedex truck before it slammed into the bus. that couple says they saw the fedex truck already on fire

before it crossing crossed the median. >> it was in flames as it came through the median. >> it was already in flames? >> it was already in flamed, yeah. it wasn't coming from the front, the engine, it was more from behind the cab. so i'm not sure where the flames were coming from. >> you just think, i'm dead, i'm dead. >> now, the couple says of course as soon as the fedex truck slammed into the bus, they saw a series of explosions after that. that is one of the key pieces of information that the ntsb will be examining. they're also going to be looking at things like speed, mechanics, possible human error. and of course, again, they're in the very early stages of this investigation. the final determination of the cause could take months. >> i tell you, stephanie, just looking at this video, it is so hard to look at when you think about the victims of this crash. what more are we learning about the people who perished? >> what we're learning is it is

taking a while to identify these victims because many of these bodies were burned beyond recognition during that explosion and fire. so far, five victims have been identified. they are two adult chaperones. one of them, an hsu alumni, 29-year-old michael minvet and his fiance. they had recently gotten engaged in paris. another that perished was 26-year-old arthur arzola, an admission, counselor for humboldt state university. he died after suffering burns other 95% of his body. elmonty high school in the los angeles area, they lost one of their senior football players. he's been identified as adrian castro. we learned last night identical twin marissa soroto, she has been identified as among the dead. so a very sad situation. they'll continue to release the identities of the deceased as they make those identities available. >> particularly heartbreaking, her identical twin was on another bus traveling to hum belt state university.

these kids being accepted and going to look at the campus to see if they were going to go there. really awful story. just a short time ago, dramatic developments in ukraine. pro-russian protesters took over a police station and replaced the ukrainian flag with a separatist flag. now protesters have control of four government buildings. russia claims it has nod provided support to those militants. kiev says they are part of a russian-led plan. and russia imposed its third set of sanctions. targeting a crimea-based gas company. including penalties on a former ukrainian official. the company they are designed to. the search for flight 370 in a positive and negative light. first, he said there's a high degree of confidence the signals they picked up in the indian ocean are from the missing malaysian jetliner's black box.

finding its exact location will not be easy and will likely take a long time. >> no one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us trying to locate anything 4 1/2 kilometers beneath the surface of the ocean about 1,000 kilometers from land is a massive, massive task. and it is likely to continue for a long time to come. >> nbc's ian williams is joining me now from perth, australia. it's just after midnight there. it's been about four days since we've heard any pings. what kind of progress was made in the hunt today? >> well, today, we had ten aircraft and 14 ships out there scouring the ocean. but as of now, still no more sounds from beneath it or any sign of debris on the surface. now, we are hearing tony abbott,

i mean, tony abbott is one of those politicians for whom the word opportunistic was probably invented. he's there in china. he wants to give a good impression. he wants to give them good news. china is the biggest trading partner of australia and of course more than two-thirds of the passengers on that aircraft were from china. but from yesterday's optimism, his confidence, today he was a good deal more cautious, talking about the rapidly fading signal from the black box and the massive, massive task that lies ahead. now, the reality, which has been given to us by the coordinating center here, which is much more realistic, much more sober in its analysis, is that we haven't had another sound since tuesday. and they need to detect more sounds. they need to find more sounds to be able to pinpoint precisely where the black boxes lie. they're pretty confident they're in the right general area but they need to pinpoint precisely where before they can send down

that submersible, that underwater drone, which can hone in on where the sound's coming from. until they can do that, it's a huge, huge task ahead. and i think somebody's whispering in tony abbott's ear, hey, temper this optimism. we're there, we think we're in the right yearea, but it may we be some time before we can get close to where that sound is coming from. the search continues. i think rather more downbeat than we'd heard for the last few days, alex. >> i know you've seen "the washington post's" illustration of the ocean depth that they're working with. they put this on out tuesday. a significant challenge. just for comparison sake, the empire state building stands more than 1,200 feet tall. 3,200 feet is the maximum known depth. the titanic is under 5,000 feet of water and it took them 25

years to do that. so if it's there, flight 370 could be as much as 15,000 feet below the ocean surface, nearly 3 miles down. in that context, ian, finding the black box seems next to impossible, right, especially if the ping sound goes out. >> it's pretty tough, alex. and that ping is probably way towards the end of its life. another interesting comment that was made this week by oceanographers here is that we probably know less about the ocean floor than we do about the moon, especially at that kind of depth. it's a very complicated environment working down there. and this particular sub, which is on board the ocean shield, would be working at its limit if it was down there at three

miles. they're already talking about maybe bringing in other underwater assets that can go deeper and perhaps have more ability than the bluefin 21. whichever way you look at it, it's an enormous challenge and one that will take probably quite some time, alex. >> indeed, nbc's ian williams, thank you very much, from perth. to politics now with new and pointed remarks from president obama over voting right, including his harshest criticism yet of republicans. he addressed reverend sharpton's action network yesterday here in new york city, denouncing the gop for trying to pass voting restrictions like photo i.d. laws. >> the stark simple truth is this, the right to vote is threatened today, in a way that it has not been since the voting rights act became law nearly five decades ago. across the country, republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote.

>> so, what more did the president have to say about this? and lent's get the reaction to it. >> well, the reaction was strong. president obama speaking to his base really trying to get them riled up and excited to head to the polls in the midterm elections. president obama accusing republicans of making up the idea that there would be widespread voter fraud without some of these restrictions. the president didn't offer any new policies, new proposals yesterday, alex, but he said he stood firmly behind his attorney general eric holder who has tried to crack down and oppose some of these new voting laws. take a listen to more of what president obama had to say on friday. >> i don't want folks changing the rules to try to restrict people's access to the ballot. i think responsible people,

regardless of your party affiliation, should agree with that. if your strategy depends on having fewer people show up to vote, that's not a sign of strength, that's a sign of weakness. >> of course, the comments, poignant, alex, because they came just one day after president obama marked the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act at the lbj library in austin. another part of the conversation is now revolving around this new idea, new proposal, that has been put forth by some, including civil rights leader andrew young, that would require social security cards to come with photo i.d.s. we asked white house press secretary jay carney about that idea on friday. some asking the president to enact an executive order. jay carney said we haven't had an opportunity to review all of the implications of that idea. we should say former president bill clinton also thinks that's a good idea. that is where part of this

debate is centering on. >> income tax returns having just been released to the public, what do they reveal? >> they reveal president, first lady, spent a little bit less than they did last year. take a look. we have a graphic. or took in, i should say, a little bit less. president obama, first lady, their income marked at $481,000. they paid out $98,000 in taxes. that's about 20.4%, by the way. they donated $59,000 to charity. compare that to last year where their income was $608,000 and they paid about $112,000 in taxes. so they took in and paid out just a little bit more. but certainly, alex, we get the president's tax returns every year. a reminder to everyone of that all-important tuesday deadline, which is just around the corner. to get your returns in. >> it sure is, yes. can i ask you about this 7:00 a.m. live hit, we had that

unexpected guest, what was that all about? >> i had a little bit of a co-anchor earlier today. bo came out for his morning walk in this beautiful weather. i've been covering the white house on the weekends now for quite some time. i can tell you it's not unusual to see the first dogs come out, especially when the weather is nice. case in point, just last weekend, i caught a glimpse of sunny, who was out for a morning walk. of course sunny is the newest member of the obama family. you can tell them apart by the way, of course, bow has that shock of white, where sunny, who you see right there, all black. i have to say, i took that picture myself, alex, not bad, what do you think? >> not bad at all. i bet it was fun to see bo too. let's go to the weather. severe storm threat in the nation's midsection. here in the northeast, it really feels and looks like spring. which gets a yeah from me it joining me now, from the national weather service, dr. greg postel.

>> these are being warned for primarily high wind. you can see, cook, mchenry and lake county, severe thunderstorm warning is in effect until 12:00 p.m. central time. those will be moving over lake michigan fairly soon and weakening shortly thereafter. later on today, we've got another threat of severe thunderstorms from nearly the same place, from southern wisconsin, southwestward into northern kansas. the primary threat with this severe weather today in that region is, again, high winds and hail. along this cold front that will be moving through this afternoon, so timing it out, by 5:00, 6:00, we'll see storms develop just west of des moines. and get close to des moines later on in the evening. this line of thunderstorms will continue marching its way eastward, long after the sunsets, maybe even getting to milwaukee and the chicago area in the early morning hours tomorrow morning. so that's the severe weather side today. on the east coast, as you mentioned, israel nice. hard a cloud in the sky. how about that? after having such a rough

winter. you're going to love these temperatures if you like spring. 70 in new york, 75 in d.c. tomorrow, 70s and 80s again. i'm sorry you have to -- but it is something else, i tell you what, april has arrived in the east, alex, back to you. the indian ocean is full of trash. a new article on how that can keep causing false alarms. to get your client's attention. from architectural prints and brochures to oversized printouts and banners that will bring your designs to life. ♪ yes, staples has everything you need to get your client's attention... except your client's attention. thousands of products added every day to staples.com, even bullhorns. how much? [ male announcer ] now get 50% off marketing materials. staples. make more happen. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off marketing materials. (mom) when our little girl was we got a subaru. it's where she said her first word. (little girl) no! saw her first day of school.

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more than five weeks into the hunt for missing malaysian airlines hunt and there's still no trace of the wreckage. instead, they have pulled just about everything else from the water. highlighting one serious problem, our oceans are full of garbage. "the washington post" writes all about this in a new article.

i want to ask you about the search itself. as you reported for us, obviously this coordinated effort has not been glitch free. what about this search has surprised you the most so far? >> just the endless series of dead ends that they keep running into. if you recall just a few weeks ago, they seemed to be far narrowing the search area to a smaller part of the ocean. they were getting shots from multiple countries showing huge-size debris as long as 75 feet and you're thinking that has to be the plane. a couple days later, they say, we're looking in the wrong place. so it's just been a series of red herrings, dead ends. we're in our fifth week with the search and still no sign of the plane. >> so these garbage piles, they're actually hindering the search for the plane, right, because it misdirected efforts to go and analyze them? >> they were really grasping at stars because they were looking

at the size of the -- a part of the ocean the size of the country of poland really. at that point, they had no idea. they were grasping at satellite images. you could say they sort of lost time there. this is such an unusual search. there's really been nothing like this in aviation history. you kind of can't blame them for saying, hey, look at all that stuff in the ocean, maybe that's the plane. >> uh-huh. in this piece, you talk about these garbage patches. they have a specific name. there are at least four. the most famous of which is out in the pacific ocean. explain what's going on here. >> so several years ago, someone sailing back from a sailing competition through the pacific ocean basically stumbled on like a giant patch of trash the size of the state of texas. and he was sort of one of the earliest people to document these gyers, these sort of series of ocean currents that tend to track large amounts of debris over many years. over time, they found more of these. they found these gyers in every

major ocean on the planet. in this case with the search for flight 370 in the indian ocean, there is a big gyer there as well. and so this trash, this debris, which can be, you know, the size of a tiny salt and pepper flake all the way up to, you know, as we saw on the satellite images 75 feet long pieces of, you know, lost ships. those can stay in the ocean for many years circling around. and we usually don't see them really. >> what's interesting, noaa sponsored the ocean clean-up where some 10,000 pounds of garbage was collected. but we were showing some video of what they caught. you're seeing so much plastic. >> yes. this is a plastic problem. if you talk to people who have spent time scouring the waters looking at the trash, the issue is that plastic is incredibly cheap, it's everywhere. you go out to lunch, you get a plastic fork, the food is in a plastic box. that's a one-time use thing. but the plastic itself takes years to disintegrate. what you're seeing is children's

toys bobbing around, umbrella handles. you also see tiny pieces of plastic that have just been broken down over many years from waves, the sunlight, and that stuff never goes away. one of the concerns now is that plastic gets, you know, pesticides, chemicals on it, marine animals start eating it, and that risks getting into the human food supply. >> absolutely. from "the washington post," thank you so much. >> great article, thank you. refund what refund? the government seizing your tax check because of a debt your grandparents didn't pay? enopaus. the problem isn't likely to go away... ...on its own. so it's time we do something about it. and there's help. premarin vaginal cream. a prescription that does what no over-the-counter product was designed to do. it provides estrogens to help rebuild vaginal tissue and make intercourse more comfortable. premarin vaginal cream treats vaginal changes due to

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program since last year. since google glass is still in the testing stage, there's no definite word when it will be sold to the mass market. the deadline to file your taxes just three days away now. for many american, tax season means getting a refund check from uncle sam. each year hundreds of thousands of people have their refunds seized by the federal government for often decades-old debts incurred by their parents and beyond. now following a "washington post" expose, two senators are demanding an end to the practice they call entirely unjust. joining me now is the reporter behind that article, mark fisher. mark, welcome. >> good to be with you. >> how much did your eyebrows raise as you were getting the research on this? were you surprised by what you found? >> i was amazed and i've been even more amazed in the couple of days since the story first broke because hundreds more people have come forward who have had exactly this same thing happen. they're expecting their tax refund in the mail, they get nothing, and then they get a letter saying, sorry, we've taken your refund, not because

you did anything wrong but because social security or some other federal agency overpaid you 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, not you, but your parents. >> so, wait, how does this work? are social security numbers synced up one to the next? how much money are we talking about here? >> we're talking about a total of more than $700 million. it breaks down to a few hundred dollars here, a few thousand dollars there. when people are expecting their tax refunds, what happens is social security has a record that maybe their parents were overpaid in survivor's benefits or disability benefits or something like that many years ago. they've kept that on the books all these years. and because of the one sentence change in the farm bill a couple of years ago, it's now possible for the government to go after people even after ten years. it used to be you could only be liable for debts ten years. now it's indefinite. what happens is you get this letter saying your tax refund

has been taken because your parents were overpaid 30 years ago. you don't know anything about it, you don't have any records about it, and the government doesn't even know who exactly got those benefits. >> it's wild, like, there's no statute of limitations here. here's another thing that struck me. several cases of the government notening being able to provide documents to back up their claim. >> what happens is they have a record that, let's say your father died when you were 3 years old. they know that your family got survivor's benefits on his social security number. they don't necessarily know whether maybe your -- the surviving parent got the money, maybe some of the kids got the money. the government doesn't keep track of that. they keep track of it through the deseaceased person's social security number. when they decide they want to collect the debt, they go after whichever sibling or child is around, available, who they have an address for and who has income. for example, the woman who i wrote about, she's not the

oldest child in her family, the government says they go in birth order, she's the middle child out of five. why did they take the money from her? she can't figure it out except for the fact that she has good income, she's a federal worker, so maybe that's why they choose to come after her. >> it's interesting, on friday, you know what happens, senators boxer and mikulski wrote to the administration after your article. what reforms are they calling for? >> they want the social security administration and the treasury department to back off on these very old debts where they're going after not the person who was overpaid but their children. they want the government to be more humane about this and they don't understand why this removal of the statute of limitations was put in place a few years ago. i tried to get to the bottom of that. i asked social security, they said ask treasury. i asked treasury, they said ask congress. congress said go back to the bureaucracy, it had to come from somewhere in there. this happened in the final

months of the bush administration but we don't know if it was a political appointee or career bureaucrat who set it in motion. >> appreciate it. what complaining on the stand could mean for oscar pistorius as he wraps up a week of testimony. 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'. [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪

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...there's a lot of buyers for a house like yours. (dad) that's good to know. (mom) i'm so excited. in two speeches this week, president obama celebrated the 50th anniversary of the landmark civil rights act, but also decried what he called the stark truth that voting rights in this nation are under attack. >> america did not stand up and did not march and did not sacrifice to gain the right to vote for themselves and for others, only to see it denied to their kids and their grandchildren. we've got to pay attention to this. >> joining me now is democratic congresswoman from wisconsin gwen moore. miss moore, thank you very much for being here. i would like to ask you about when you put together the president's two speeches this week, what do you think his message is on the state of civil rights today?

>> well, i can tell you that he presented himself as the epbodiment of what the civil rights movement produced. really, the ability for african-americans to vote for representatives of their own choice and to have some power in that. i think that his speech was inspirational. i think that it was designed to mobilize and motivate voters to rise up, despite the voter suppression laws that are being put out there now. >> ma'am, it's been about ten months or so since the supreme court struck down parts of the voting rights act. what do you see the effect of that so far? >> i can tell you the effect of the voting rights act being struck down is really emboldened several states since then to initiate more voting restriction laws, including voter i.d. laws,

ending early voting, the souls to the polls, really trying to frustrate every effort that is being made to expand the vote. you know, when you stop and think about the numbers of times that the constitution has been amended so that americans could vote, what, six, seven times, plus the voting rights act, you -- you know, you've got to realize that americans are serious about everybody having a right to vote. and as the president mentioned in one of his speeches, that 196,000 votes were cast, and they found 40 people who weren't entitled to vote that voted. and so this is -- this is a solution ending voter rights in search of a problem. >> at the lbj event, civil rights leader andrew young proposed putting pictures on

social security cards as a compromise of voter i.d. laws. everyone et goods a social security card for free. what do you think of this idea? >> well, i haven't had time to vet it, because, you know, i haven't seen my social security card in i don't know how long. people don't use this on a regular ordinary daily basis. i think it's dangerous to have that i.d. and that picture where you're handling it on a daily basis. people need to secure their social security card. you know, that is the point. the point is, is that we should not be erecting barriers to a constitutional right. the bar ought to be extremely high to stop a person from voting. and that's a very hard bar to say that you have to walk around with your private social security number with your picture on it in order to be able to vote.

>> something, again, the white house is going to look at, but like you, has not had time to vet it so they'll put it under consideration. i want to switch geers and talk about the budget committee in which you serve. the committee chairman's paul ryan's plan that passed in the house this week. is there anything in his plan that you as a democrat find workable in a compromise? >> well, i can tell you that paul ryan has a very heavy lift and that is to get his members to vote for it. i mean, 69% of the cuts fall on the backs of women and children, the vulnerable, the poor, the elderly. it basically undercuts the promise of the social safety net, medicare and medicaid to our elderly in the future, and it doesn't take one single hair off of the heads of the very wealthy. in fact, it provides $200,000

average, on average, of tax relief to the wealthiest in our society, and then raises taxes by $2,000 on everybody else. it is a very -- it is the worst of the budgets and the so-called paths to prosperity that he has put out. and this is his last budget, but he's had a very difficult time, and it is a -- matter of fact, it doesn't consider comprehensive immigration, which will bring in almost $1 trillion. $900 billion within the budget window. it's a bad bill. >> so if you look at it with that analysis, what do you think is his motivation for putting out this bill which, by some measures, in some descriptions, it described asdraconian? >> it is. the one thing he accomplishes here in his budget is he wants to lower corporate taxes down to 25%. that was his goal.

and so no matter who it maims, cripples or kills. he is able to accomplish that. and of course it doesn't balance as he claims that it does. but his claim is that he balances within the budget window. but that doesn't happen either. because he repeals the affordable care act, the so-called obamacare, which, in itself, provides extensive savin savings. and, you know, to be even more cynical, the republicans rant on and on about the $700 billion that was taken out for medicare. but he uses those savings to so-called balance his budget. so it is -- the math doesn't add up. it's a political document. thank god it won't pass. >> all right, congressman gwen moore, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> now, to today's number ones and the frustrations of flying.

a consumer watchdog group has released its list of airlines with the most complaints. spirit airlines wins that most dubious honor over the last five years. it garnered about three times as many complaints as any other airline. frontier and united airlines rounding out the top three. as for the fewest complaints, that price goes to southwest, followed by alaska airlines and delta. no complaints from arthur j.k. rowling after winning a big honor at last night's book event. she did not win it under her own name, rather, under the pseudonym of galbert galbreth. thanks to a theme park or two, orlando florida finishes first. those are your number ones. put t in second. (dad) slow it down. put the clutch in, break it, break it. (dad) just like i showed you. dad, you didn't show me, you showed him. dad, he's gonna wreck the car!

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on monday, the oscar pistorius murder trial resues after a week of pistorius getting drilled by the prosecution. the paralympian accused murdering his girlfriend reeva steenkamp broke down on the witness stand several times. yesterday, he complained about being tired and the judge warned him about using that excuse. joining me now, msnbc legal analyst faith jenkins. we have to say, we were talking in the commercial, he's crying, he's showing so much emotion, and it seems legitimate to what's happening right now. but complaining about being tired, how does that affect the case? >> if he's too tired to go forward, the judge should and will give him a break. she understands that his testimony is the most crucial

part of his defense. if he's crying or too emotional or too tired to testify coherently, she's going to give him a break. at the end of the day, all she has is his record, his testimony. she has to compare that to the state's evidence, the other physical evidence, the other testimony from the other witnesses. so she understands the importance of being able to understand what he's saying and trying to communicate to the court. >> okay. as we were saying during the commercial, look, he's crying on the stand, and we believe those tears are legitimate as to how he feels now. but the point is, he's got to explain his state of mind during the moments before the shoot during the bathroom door and then killing steenkamp. his whole defense rests on the claim he thought intruders were in the bathroom. let's listen to this. >> -- i went there to shoot someone -- >> now, if you did not go there to shoot someone, what did you want to do there? >> i wanted to make the person that was in my house flee, my

lady, get away from the danger, causing danger to myself and ree reeva, my lady. >> this description, you find it credible? >> there's the saying, if you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory. he's given a couple of accounts of this. at one point be he says he heard an intruder, he thought he saw someone opening the bathroom door so he ed fiopened fire. another point, he said the gun went off accidentally. he accidentally shot the gun. not only did he shoot reeva accidentally, but the gun accidentally fired also. i think that's going to be problematic for him. >> the prosecutor also challenged his recounting of events by explaining the probability of steenkamp's actions in the bathroom. here's that. >> -- standing behind a door facing -- facing you -- >> that's correct, my lady. >> now if she was scared, she

would have -- not been there, hid somewhere in the toilet. >> anybody can't say what she would or wouldn't have done, my lady. >> i think i can. >> how effective do you think the prosecution has been? >> very effective. not only does pistorius have to be believable, but his testimony, if it's the truth, should line up with the physical evidence. the prosecutor showing him it doesn't match up with the physical evidence. if he's screaming and yelling to the burglar and now we know there was no burglar, it was reeva, if she's standing there facing the door, wouldn't she respond? wouldn't he know at some point that's reeva and foot a burglar? that didn't happen. he opened fire. the prosecutors are picking apart his testimony, trying to discredit him in every way possible to show your version is simply not the truth. they have the set of montestimoe neighbors. they heard screams, then shots, then the screams stopped. >> what's ahead for this week?

>> he's going to continue tomorrow, sunday, monday, he's going to continue, the cross examination will continue. i think he'll be on cross examination at least a couple of more days. this prosecutor is going second by second, minute by minute, picking apart his story, showing that in the world that we live in, sir, your story simply could not happen. it's not adding up. >> okay, faith jenkins, adding up for us though. from race cars to rum, a new list of tax breaks just approved on capitol hill and what that means for reducing the nation's debt. plus -- >> you remember that, that was crazy. [ applause ] that was some crazy stuff. >> what was so crazy? what the president was referring to next. of eight princesses. i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you.

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out of 187 million votes cast for federal elections between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters out of 197 million were

indicted for fraud. now, for those of you who were math majors, as a percentage that is 0.0002%. >> our mathematician in chief there. president obama going on the offensive friday against republican-led efforts to pass voting restrictions across the country. joining me now, white house reporter for "the washington post," david. thanks for join me. the president went after republicans directly on voting rights while speaking before the national action network. is this about the midterm election? is there a legitimate concern? >> i think there is. i think the democrats have made clear they want to increase turnout and this is the way the president can say, we need to get to the polls, you need to show up. so you've got to take every effort to get out there and cast your ballot. of course for the president

speaking up in new york, al sharpton's groom, thereup, ther personal reference for him. he was disappointed when the supreme court struck down much of the voting rights act of 1965. he had a commission to talk about some recommendations that states could do. these are statewide initiatives. they're really going to make the case. this is largely a political play right now for this administration to sort of galvanize democrats. >> you agree with that, phillip, this is something that could be a problem? >> i think so. i think it's two part. it's definitely the case the president and democrats are facing a difficult november and are using this as an effort to try to get people angry, mad, wanting to get to the polls. but it's a legitimate long-term problem. the people who are disproportionately affected tend to be people of lower income, people from communities of color, and that overlap heavily with dam democrats. it's a long-term problem.

the democrats are already in bad shape for 2014. i think there's a legitimate concern about how the democrats will be affected in 2016, 2018 and 2020 because of these laws. >> the president brought up this. >> i know where my birth certificate is but a lot of people don't. a lot of people don't. i think it's still up on a website somewhere. you remember that, that was crazy. that was some crazy stuff. what do you think the point is the president gibringing that u to the crowd? >> his point is that birth certificates are not things people carry with them all the time. people don't have access to driver's licenses. voter i.d. laws say you need to have these dem mon stable examples of who you are to be

able to vote. his point is not everyone has those things easily and we shouldn't make it harder for people to vote. >> calling on congressman mcallister to resign. of course, congressman mcallister dealing with a scandal right now after video is released showing him kissing a female staffer. how are thinking looking right now? >> not good. we had a pole about politicians who survive scandals like this. even lower since the '90s, you know, when the -- you know, the big clinton scandal. i think for republicans it's a distraction right now. even though it's a local congressman, it's something i think the party just doesn't want to deal with right now. >> yeah. how about phillip let's listen to what john boehner is saying about this. >> i expect all members to be

held to the highest ethical standard. this is no different. he's got decisions he has to make. >> any way he can weather this without resigning? >> he's up for re-election in november. it's only a few months until the voters weigh in. which is both a good excuse he can use and is solid. voters will decide. to the extent this distracts him from being able to do his job. bobby jindal has a vested stake in saying i consider this and he should resign. i think in several months the voters will have to decide. >> i'm out of time but i'm going to ask quickly for you both to weigh in on scott brown running for senate in the state of new hampshire. his chances? >> he's got to overcome the idea he's new to the state because he had a vacation home there but he's going to attack obamacare

and it will be another test case. >> the main concern is for the democratic party, the extent to which they need to spend money in new hampshire. he can make up some of that if he stays that distance. than the democrats will feel a lot better with it. social change in america. the keystone pipeline. hear how land owners in texas waged their own personal battle over the project. can you keep yr lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today.

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amazon started in a garage. ♪ the ramones started in a garage. my point? some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year. ain't garages great? witness to training did i. new accounts of that truck bus crash shed light on what happened. >> fadie ining hope amid the si of the pings. a new grim outlook on finding it any time soon. all right, folks. >> chaos over keystone. texas land owners fight the pipeline construction and it's not just a pipeline, it's personal. and from hollywood to college campuses, lawmakers approve special tax breaks but who benefits most?

good day to all of you. just about 1:00 p.m. in the east. federal investigators are looking into new details emerging today about that fiery bus crash in northern california. witnesses say the fedex truck involved was already on fire before it crossed the median and plowed head on into that crowded tour bus leaving ten people dead and dozens more injured. >> it was in flames as it came through the median. >> it was already in flames? >> yes. it wasn't coming from the engine, it was more from behind the cab. so i'm not sure where the flames were coming from. >> you just think, i'm dead, i'm dead. >> well, the crash happened on interstate 5 about 100 miles north of sacramento. nbc's stephanie stanton is in chico, california. stephanie, good day to you. investigators, do they have any information to go off of today?

if so, what are they saying? >> good afternoon to you again, alex. ntsb investigators aren't saying a lot. this is very early in the investigation. they say the final determination of the cause could take months. but, again, one of the things they'll be looking at is that claim by that couple, who says their car was hit by the fedex truck before it crossed that grassy median and they, again, claim the truck was already on fire. definitely something investigators are going to be looking at. they're also going to be looking at things like speed, mechanics, possible human error. again, they have a lot to go through. we are told the investigators will be here on site for the next 1 to 2 weeks. again, the investigation overall could take months to complete, alex. >> as we look at who was on board that bus, there were 19 los angeles area high school students on board. how are the survivors doing today? >> wow, as you might imagine, alex, the survivors are saddened.

many of them are very traumatized. one of them, he's a 17-year-old, his name is kevin asavez. he told nbc news he's afraid to go to sleep, he's haunted by those images. remember, he says he was dosing off when the crash occurred. we're also starting to hear a lot of he roaric stories heroee story, stories of these teenagers who literally broke windows to save their lives. and one of those teens we talked to, his name in jonathan gutierrez. he shared more with us about his story. >> i was going to sleep but i could still hear people. i heard people screaming. when i woke up, that's when the impact hit, when the impact hit, i, like, flew from my seat to the seat in front caused the cut on my eyebrow. the entire aisle was full of smoke.

that's when students where trying to escape the tour bus. >> more than 30 people were injured in this crash. in addition to the ten that died. as you might imagine, this is something that's going to stay with them for a very long time. certainly the rest of their lives. >> yeah, absolutely. okay, thank you so much. mark rose kind is one of the ntsb investigators who is on the scene. here's some of what he said about the crash this morning on the "today" show. >> we're still in the earliest phases of collecting our factual information. in fact, we've got six different groups looking at a wide variety of areas. we were just on scene at 9:30 a.m. yesterday for the first time. the team from one at 1:30 and of course the highway was cleared by then. we're still in the earliest phases of that that factual information. we are focused on collecting what's perishable right now to make sure we have everything for analysis. >> the nstb is asking anyone who may have seen anything to contact them at ntsb.gov.

two of the victims killed in that bus crash were a recently engaged couple. they were chaperoning the 19 high school students to humboldt state university to relive some fond memories of where they first met. their families are heart broken. >> had only one of them survived, the other would be an absolute wreck because they were two peas in a pod. >> we're very upset. but we know god. once you know the man upstairs, you have no problem. >> michael popped the question to madison, or maddy, as a surprise in paris. the couple had been dating since 2011. to politics. new today, potential 2016 gop contenders are gathering in new hampshire for the inaugural freedom summit. this some new video of texas senator cruz meeting just a few minutes ago. in addition to senator cruz, also attending the summit are senators rand paul and mike lee,

former governor mike huckabee and donald trump. president obama denounced the gop friday while speaking at al sharpton's network. >> the stark simple truth is this, the right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the voting rights became law nearly five decades ago. across the country, republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote. >> and the obama's tax returns are in. reporting more than $483,000 in income last year, paying just over $98,000 in taxes. they donated $59,000 to 32 different charities. >> president obama's pick for health and human services secretary could be facing one of the toughest jobs in washington. the president named sylvia

matthews burwell as his choice to replace kathleen sebelius. nbc's kristin wellk is at the white house for us. how big a challenge is this going to be? >> reporter: a very big challenge. political analysts believe ultimately burwell will be confirmed. someone who has a reputation for being an effective manager here in d.c. burwell is a 48-year-old mother of two who sailled through her confirmation hearings last year for omb director. of course, this is an election year. we're talking about health care. you can bet the hearings will be contentious as well. >> i'm humbled, honored and excited. >> reporter: looking to take the reins from embattled hhs secretary sebelius and earning the president's high praise. she's a proven manager who's demonstrated her ability to build great teams, forge strong

relationships and deliver excellent results at the highest levels. >> reporter: so who is the woman behind the new face of health care? born in the small town of hinton, west virginia, burwell earned degrees from harvard and oxford where she was a rhode scholar. she's no stranger to washington, d.c. the 48-year-old served in the clinton administration for eight years. as obama's omb director, burwell has overseen tense budget negotiations and helped manage last year's government shutdown. >> she has good relations with the republicans on the hill. that said, you could put mother teresa in as secretary of hhs and it would not change republican's attitude towards obamacare. >> reporter: using her confirmation hearing to take fresh aim at obamacare in this midterm election year. eric cantor tweeting, sebelius had an impossible task, nobody

could make obamacare work. president from republican senator john mccain who tweeted burwell is an excellent choice. if confirmed, burwell's biggest challenge will be taking over health care at a pivotal moment. more than 7 million people signed up but the next enrollment deadline is just around the corner in november. in addition to overseeing the next enrollment period, burr which will also have to oversee a potential new expansion of medicaid. one of her big challenges is to try to keep premiums low. she will be charged with trying to repair and smooth over the relationship between this administration and insurance companies which was at some points contentious in the wake of that rocky rollout. alex, back to you. >> lots of work ahead, no doubt, thank you so much, christine wewe lker. the australian prime minister says officials have,

quote, a high degree of confidence transmissions they're picking up in the indian ocean are from the missing jetliner's black box. he says while the search area has narrowed, finding the exact location will be anything but easy. >> no one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us, trying to locate anything 4 1/2 kilometers beneath the surface of the ocean about 1,000 kilometers from land is a massive massive task. it is likely to continue for a long time to come. >> nbc's ian williams is joining me from perth, australia. >> reporter: it was a very different tone from australian prime minister tony abbott today. he seemed incredibly confident, perhaps overconfident on friday in his visit to china, when he talked about his confidence in finding the black box. today, he was talking about the rapidly fading signal from the

black box and also the massive massive task that lies ahead in terms of low it's kaing the aircraft. now, the reality is we have not had any confirmed signal from underneath the water since last tuesday. this makes it very, very complicated in terps of trying to pinpoint where the sounds are coming from. now, they're pretty confident they're searching in the right area for the black box, but in order to better pinpoint where it's coming from, they need more sound. they need more observation, more signals. until they get that, it's very tough to put down the submarine, the submersible, because that operates very slowly. but at the moment clearly what we're seeing is a very slow operation, a much more cautious from the australian prime minister, alex. >> all right, ian williams, thank you very much, from perth. it's sort of a kiss and tell surveillance video that could cost a lawmaker his job, but should it? see that it includes my fico® credit score.

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this week, a group of senate democrats sent a letter to obama urging him to speed up the review of the keystone pipeline. the 11 senators want president obama to set a hard deadline of may 31st to make his decision. if completed, the pipeline could stretch 2,000 miles from the oil fields of canada to refineries in the gulf coast. deep in the heart of texas, a group of rural land owners and student activists came together in an unlikely union to protest the construction of the keystone pipeline. the property owners claim they were manipulated into signing over their land to transcanada. the energy company is saying the pipeline is a job creator that will ensure north america's

energy independence. what happened next is chronicled in a new documentary titled "above all else." >> my neighbor called me and said people had been trespassing on the property. so i went to the property and found it had been fully surveyed and staked. xlpl 36 inch. i don't know what that was. a month and a half later, i actually received a letter from transcanada requesting permission to survey the property. so i finally new at that point who the stakes belonged to. >> joining me now is the director and producer of "above all else." with a welcome. i know you were there with these land owners almost right from the start. how did you get involved in this? >> great to be with you. about 4 1/2 years ago, i got cancer and i didn't know how long i was going to sur vifvive i wanted to make a film, maybe i was thinking at the time maybe

my last, about this problem we seem to be dealing with in many different ways from cancer to climate change of oil permeating our entire culture and economy and saturating everything. the question of what do we do about that, you know, how do we fight back against that dependence we have on fossil fuels? when i started hearing about the national pipeline protests that were en emerging in washington, d.c. in 2011, my ears perked up because it seed this was a sea change in environment movement. people going out into the street stree streets, forming a mass movement. i live in texas. i started looking for land owners who lived along the pipeline route. i found david and julie and some of the other folks in the film

who were very committed to fighting this project. so i tried to tell their story. >> he says that texas is an oil loving place. i think it's really a frontier, where they keep their land to themselves. did you see those two texas collide over the pipeline? >> definitely. we all know texas is really the epicenter of the american oil industry. and my -- i think that the companies building the pipeline were surprised to see such strong opposition from people who lived there. the thing in east texas, they don't like a foreign company coming in and taking their property and they know how to fight back so it is an interesting conflict. >> it's an issue some people might find interesting here. these land owners, they did

indeed sign these easements and then decided they did not want the pipeline on their land. what's your response to that? >> there's several land owne ee profiled in the film. a couple of them signed an easement agreement with transcanada and a couple refused to sign. the folks who signed, as they learn more about the pipeline and its whole purpose, they didn't know that when they signed the agreement. they also didn't know the company did not have the permits it needed to build the pipeline. they felt like they were manipulated and lied to. >> you know what, john, here's what i want to do. let's listen to a video transcanada put out. this is corey gla, he's the vice president of the keystone project. >> for the most part, pipelines are very anoxious.

a land owner can continue to use their land. 98% of our land owners signed up freely and worked with us and had a very good relationship with us through the construction period. >> so do you sense that the experience your land owners had, the ones you profail iled, was exception to the rule? >> you know, of course the majority of people signed agreements with the company and accepted the pipeline was coming through. whether they were manipulated, i don't know. the people we row fiprofiled, t feel their land was invaded. it was a beautiful forest of 100-year-old trees. a huge swath of that was cut down. that's why he moved to that area in the first place, to kind of find a quiet peaceful existence.

>> they're concerned about the danger of a spill here. >> one of the 57 conditions we have is to put thicker wall pipe through all of those wet areas with abrasive resistant coating on it. that adds an extra layer of protection to make sure none of those waterways or environmentally sensitive areas are impaired in the future. >> john, have the safety concerns been adequately addressed? >> you know, another example of an oil project touted as being state of the art was the deepwater horizon rig in the gulf coast that bp ran that exploded. we've heard this over and over again. where oil companies claim wear using state of the art tech foly, they probably are, but we see this infrastructure is not

safe. a tar sands plant spilled oil into lake michigan and threatening the drinking water of chicago. over the past year, we've seen tar sands oil spill. so we're seeing these spills oth over and over and over again. so, you know, i think it's pretty clear about the dangers of these projects. >> there's an emotional scene in the documentary where david, would worked so closely with the protester, many of them students, is basically forced to tell them you're no longer welcome on the property. is he devastated by the fight? >> yes is the short answer. that's one of the main stories the film tells. if you're an individual, if you're an american and you want to fight back against this and you object to a foreign corporation taking your land and you want to do something about climate change, you are putting yourself at great peril and you're going to be crushed by

these enormous corporate powers that have emerged and really taken an outsized, you know, section of power and wealth in our society. i think one thing this film chronicles is a wake-up call for folks who don't think this is a good system to have. >> what kind of response are you getting to the film? >> we're getting very strong reaction to the film. during its premiere, there were some folks yelling they screen toward the end of the film which i haven't seen often. people are very impacted emotionally by the film. that was one of the goals is to show this story from the inside, kind of eintimate personal perspective. >> you've got to feel good about getting a strong reaction because that's what documents want to do.

director and producer, above all else, thank you. we've reached out to transcanada for a response to the film. they did not get back to us. but they put out a statement following the release of the environmental impact study. environmental analysis of keystone xl released today once again supports the science this pipeline will have minimal impact on the environment. the next step is making a decision on a presidential permit for keystone xl. i believe this project continues to be in the natural interest to the united states. within the hour, nbc's tracy hunt caught up with senator cruz in the gathering in new hampshire. c'mon, you want heartburn? when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast, with tums.

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today's australian prime minister's now warning the effect could last quite a long time. joining me now, former ntsb board member john golia. did they botch it early on so now we're in the position finding it is next to impossible? >> it is going to be very difficult. it did get off to a rocky start in the beginning. finally, after a couple of weeks, we get it back on track. it's unfortunate we didn't follow the international procedures which are well laid out and founded in experience, prior experience. >> john, why do you think we didn't follow those procedures? >> i think malaysia has not had an accident. i don't think they were prepared for the events that transpired. >> would it vo behave been inappropriate for other countries to step in sooner and say let us help you out here? i know there were offers of help. but with a more emphatic tone to

it? >> the treaty we have with the world community is pretty clear. but you really don't step on the rights of another country. so you have to wait until they invite you in. there's some discussion going on right now that may change. >> the black boxes usually have a battery life of about a month or so, 30 days. here's what prime minister australia tony abbott is saying. >> we're now getting to the stage where the signal from what we are very confident is the black box is starting to fade, and we are hoping to get as much information as we can before the signal finally expires. >> as you know, john, it's been four days since the last alleged ping sounds were found relative to the black box. so what is your thought on the difficulty trying to pinpoint this area, which is about 17 miles within this -- these ping detection area? i mean, how hard is it going to be to find this plane?

>> it's going to be quite difficult. we're going to be moving to the area of side-scan sonar pretty soon looking for the biggest pieces of wreckage. we're going to have the difficult job of bringing it up. many of us believe the recorder may still be captured within the airplane and that's why the signal's had so much trouble being detected. >> both at the litom line, if w heard those pings for four days now, do you think we'll hear them again? >> probably not. we're at the end of that battery's life. >> ntsb board member, john, thank you so much. casey hunt caught up with senator ted cruise. [ female announcer ] who are we? we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!"

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welcome back. some high-profile republicans are gathering in new hampshire

right now. at the first ever freedom summit. nbc political reporter casey hunt is in manchester new hampshire for us. a i know you just spoke to texas senator ted cruz a little while ago. >> we talked a little bit about scott brown. we also asked him his take on kathleen sebelius's resignation. >> kathleen sebelius resigning this week is the latest indication of the absolute disaster that obamacare has been. in my popinion, the reason she resigned this week is because senate democrats are scared. they are running for the hills. they're looking for a scapegoat. >> so he's looking at the senate landscape broadly and making the argument her resigning was something that these vulnerable democrats in the senate really wanted to happen. he also stepped back a little bit and talked about harry reid's role in the senate and

focus ed on new hampshire as the state that could send the 51st republican to the senate that could potentially be senator scott brown but we asked him whether or not he would support brown in his bid to win a -- there's a republican primary here in new hampshire in the fall. cruz refused to go so far as to say he would support brown because brown has, for example, supported at assault weapons ban which is something cruz has railed against in the senate. so kind of a tricky place for him to be. >> yeah, absolutely. i suppose ted cruz can lack at kathleen sebelius and realize she was one of the original members of the cabinet and quite often in the second term there's a turnover. did he at all acknowledge that? >> for cruz, this was a -- just political event, if you will. that was not something that sort of entered into the conversation. in his defense, other republicans have casted that same way. although democrats have defended her, saying hey, you know, this

was her decision. she told the president she was going to resign once the enrollment was complete. >> right, the report is she told the president in early march. can i ask you, this inaugural freedom summit. is it really looking ahead a couple of years? >> this summit is funded by americans for prosperity and citizens united. the americans for prosperity group is funded in large part by the coke brothers. coming to this is in some ways a message to those donors that as a candidate you may be interested in working with them in the future. it's important to point out this is really the conservative wing of the republican party. you have senator cruz, you have senator paul. we're later going to hear from governor huckabee. all of those candidates are potentially ones that don't fit with the moderate strain that runs through candidates here. >> okay, kasie hunt, thank you.

ukraine's acting prime minister has called an emergency meeting on the security situation in east u crane. we learned militants with russian separatist flags are seping up checkpoints on roads into the eastern ukraine city. showing a military presence there, doing so on the ukraine border. nbc's amman hudan is joining us. the atmosphere, describe that for us. >> reporter: it's very tense. we just came back from the eastern part of the country and we dove about two hours of donetsk and on to the cities of luhansk and those nearby and we saw some of those checkpoints. they were civilian, at least they appeared to be civilians, but they did carry weapons with

them. furthermore into the actual city, they have now taken over the police building in that town. we went into that police headquarters to see for ourselves. while we were there, we spoke to people who have barricaded the police headquarters. men flying the russian flag. no sign whatsoever the ukrainian state, that it is actually in control of several of these towns that we visited. keep in mind, this is the fifth city or town in the eastern part of the country that has had at least one or several government buildings overtaken by these pro russian separatists. it is a situation that remains very tense. there has been no violence. without a doubt, the president of pro-russian separatist militias continues to grow in the eastern part of the country and it's certainly posing a security challenge for the government but more importantly the state of ukraine seems to be losing control in these areas by the day. >> yeah, ayman, these photographs from nato, satellite photographs showing about 40,000 troops amassed at about 100

different sites, what does this tell us about russia's next step? >> reporter: well, it's certainly telling us russia has a strong presence on the border. the russian government saying this is a routine military exercise, this is nothing out of the ordinary, and ukraine should not be concerned russia wants to inva invade. however, ukrainian officials believe it's the very presence of russian troops on the border that is instigating these types of pro-russian separatist movements now gaining traction. a lot of the people we've been speaking to show clear evidence of russia's influence in the eastern part of the country, some of it with weapon, some of it with men helping coordinate some of these separatist militias so certainly an indication russia is playing some sort of role in the eastern part of the country.

will the senate finance committee has approved an extension of tax breaks that add up to $85 billion over ten years. those tax breaks, which include everything from rum producers to hollywood film shoot, will go to a full vote. joining me now, president of the committee for a responsible federal budget. welcome back, good to see you. so how do these so-called tax extenders work? >> this is something we go through every year, which is there are a number our tax breaks which aren't permanent. and so as they expire, in fact, these have already expired at the end of last year, they have to go back and determine which ones to put in place and extend. instead of thought if i thinking about which tax breaks make sense, many of them do not, and getting rid of the ones that don't make sense and offsetting the kcost of the ones we extend that's not what happened in congress. what we saw this past week was people throwing all sorts of tax breaks into the pile for their favorite -- their favorite tax break and saying we want to keep

this and add this to the national tab. and you talked about the cost of this just extending them temporarily. but if you look at the cost of doing this, making these tax cuts permanent and not offsetting the cost, it would actually take back all the money, all the revenues raised from high-income earners around the fiscal cliff deal. sort of looking at the politics of this, democrats are leading the charge right now, and extending a lot of these tax breaks not offsetting cost, which amounts to a massive tax cut at a time when the nation is already steeped in debt. it would be wise to think about which ones to keep and pay for the ones we want to extend. >> these are not just all special interest tax breaks. they include things like college tuition, breaks for school teachers, commuting costs, things like that. is there any sense there's a danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water? >> well, we shouldn't do it in a blunt way. if you lack ook at what we've d

that is the wrong way to do policy. no, what we should be doing in the ways and means committee, they've started doing this, we should do this in finance committee as well, look at each one of these one by one. go through the 50 expiring tax breaks. think about which ones make sense. when you bring up education, there's a real need in the education area to consolidate and make more sensible how all these different education tax breaks actually work together. and other places, they don't belong. there were some there that were stimulus. others are incredibly important. we should make them a permanent part of the tax code so businesses and families would know what to expect instead going through this circus every year instead of are they in or out. >> what we're talking about is with the state finance committee. but the house is also working at least on an extender's plan. what do you expect a final bill to look like? >> i expect the final bill will be one of those sort of the worst of all worlds. the house was talking about overhauling the whole tax code.

the tax code is just so broken. anybody who thinking about paying their taxes right now knows it's just too complex. they had been talking about a fundamental overhaul of the tax code. as it's been clear that's not going to move forward this year which i think is unfortunate, they are going to end up doing a lot of the same thing. where instead of as they were going to with reform, they assumed any of these tax breaks you kept in a reformed tax code would have to be paid for. they may go the way the senate finance committee has. i do think they've started taking a harder look at getting rid of some of the tax breaks. that's something the republican and the democrats originally thought about doing. i hope they can find a share them that they just decide we don't need anymore. but as often you see, the only time bipartisanship really works is when people are kind of doing something kind of fiscally irresponsible. they may just keep a lot of these tax breaks. >> all right, thank you.

rand paul wants the gop and says the gop needs to attract a specific voting bloc. which one is he talking about? should voters give a second chance to the kissing congressman? dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there?

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when i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] could've had a v8. two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. it's time for the big three. today's topics, block the vote, calls to resign and best week/worst week. nbc contributor goldy taylor whose column is featured every monday. republican strategist newell nickpour. and principal of impact strategies angela dry. lady, it's good to see you all. let's first go to bloc the vote. president obama denouncing the republicans for trying to pass voter registration laws. let's listen to what republican senator rand paul said while in new hampshire. >> the big states, illinois, michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, we win 80% of the gee og gaography

we're losing the cities. why are we losing the cities? because we're not getting the african-american vote. i say don't give up on that vote. >> the president was talking about voter restriction laws. goldie, is there any legitimate path for the gop to actually capture african-american voters or was senator paul just, you know, giving it a good old shot but it's just not going to happen? >> there is a legitimate path but that path involves not just going into cities and areas where there's a large concentration of african-american voters and not just talking but doing some listening and taking that listening back and crafting policies that reflect real solutions for those communities. yes, there does exist a meaningful tangible path for them to gain more african-american votes but there doesn't seem to be the political will, there doesn't seem to be sort of the sensibilities necessary to do the real work. >> noel, here's part of what the president said about with the gop and voting restrictions

yesterday. >> the stark simple truth is this, the right to vote is threatened today. in a way that it has not been since voting rights act became law nearly five decades ago. a cross the country, republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, in the easier, for people to vote. >> so, noel, how can the gop expect to gain african-american voteers when as the president contends they're actively try to restrict voting with a disproportional impact on african-american voters? >> this going to be something hard for the gop. it's going to be hard for us to defend something like that. i think that, you know, we need to really look at how we are going about outreach to attract african-american voters. we're not really doing a great job and i think that these laws and i think that these, you know, he's right and it's going to be very hard for us to defend that and that's one of the things that we're having to work

out. it is a problem. >> so, angela, you know, an example of how this is disproportionately affecting african-american voters, 2008, you had black voters making 56% weekend voters. in ohio's cuyahoga county, despite being 28% of the population. here's the president. >> i know it's better going to the polls on sunday. you can go to church, get a little meal, got the bus waiting for you. i understand. but you can do it without that if we have to. >> so is it easier said than done, angela? i mean, how much of a challenge is this? >> i think it's a major challenge. ironically or maybe not so ironically, of course these vote-suppressive measures came about right after the first black president was ever elected. so the american legislative exchange council pushed these measures through their state legislatures, the participants

that are state legislators, rather, and a part of that organization. what you saw were i.d. recommendations put forth. in fact, one thing that just recently happened is former ambassador andrew young presidented an idea to the president that says, hey, let's look at social security cards and placing picture i.d. there. maybe that's a potential compromise. i don't know if that's the best bet. but we know this is changing and it's going to continue to change because the very folks the gop say they want to outreach to they're going to continue to suppress. the same thing we saw with the supreme court decision. they're going to pay their way to politics and getting their ends met. it's going to be an ongoing fight. >> all right. let's move on to calls to resign. i'll begin with you, noell. calling on vance mcallister to resign after caught kissing a female staffer. should he? >> yes, alex. one of the things i don't like, especially with our side of the

block, is hypocrisy. look, this guy mcallister campaigned or morality and family values. so you know what? it is a big deal. if he wouldn't have campaigned on it, then it wouldn't have been a big deal. but the guy is a hypocrite. >> okay. you know what? we're going to throw up the statement that he issued in the wake of all this. my question to you, this is a private matter by some esteem here. do you think he should resign? >> i actually do think he should resign. while i believe in private matters remaining private, this gentleman had a social contract with the people who elected him. they elected him on a plank of family values. they elected him, you know, on the plank of investing in communities and families and this conservative ideology. so he broke that social contract with his constituents. and he owes them a real answer to that. he apologized to everyone except the husband of the woman that he was with. >> his friend, we should make that point. angela, your take?

>> this guy is really not that religious. he's the least religious guy he knows. more importantly, they need to look at moving along and getting someone who can actually represent their interests, not someone who's just using religion to bait them. >> okay. a confrontation in congress and a host of the president. the best and worst of the week next. 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. ♪

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it is time now for the best and the worst of the week. let's go to you, goldie. >> best of the week is nbc legal analyst lisa bloom and her book "suspicion nation," which is an extraordinary read. my worst of the week is texas's first district. keep electing him back to office. >> noelle, your best and worst. >> the best of the week was paul ryan when the house approved his budget. the worst, well, once again lois lerner with the irs. >> okay. angela, how about you? >> best is reverend al's

national action conference and having president obama speak. my worst is the loser who threw her shoe at the former secretary of state. maybe she thought what happens in vegas stays in vegas. boy, was she wrong. >> yeah, she was wrong there. thank you very much. that's a wrap, everyone. up next, milissa rehberger. i'm alex witt. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

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disturbing the pantry. ortho crime files. a house, under siege. say helto home defense max. kills bugs inside and prevents new ones for up to a year. ortho home defense max. get order. get ortho®. this. the right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the voting rights act became law nearly five decades ago. >> and he places the blame for that squarely at the feet of the gop. good afternoon. i'm milissa rehberger in for craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. president obama is talking in some of the harshest terms yet. how his comments are being sefed, ahead. >> if you want to be consistent, if you want to grow the movement, we can not be the party of fat cats