tv The Reid Report MSNBC April 17, 2014 11:00am-12:01pm PDT
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we start with the talks that many believe have very little chance of giving a peaceful resolution to the crisis in ukraine. nbc has not confirmed reports of pro-russian supporters passing out leaflets in one eastern city. kerry said it demanded jews identify themselves as jews, with the implied threat that otherwise they would suffer the consequences. >> year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it's grotesque. it is beyond unacceptable. >> kerry's remarks today followed ominous ones by russian president vladimir putin in a televised q&a in moscow. putin called eastern ukraine new russia, reminding listeners that
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parliament has given him the right to use troops in the ukraine if necessary, and that there were russian troops in crimea prior to the referendum to join russia. he called the uniformed troops in ukraine now local citizens. one of the people who got to ask questions of mr. putin was none other than edward snowden. we'll have more on that later in the show. the big story at this moment is what the white house should do if not much comes of the current negotiations. ukrainian forces were able to repel pro-russian forces in one eastern city today, leaving at least three attackers dead and others injured. the story this week escalating tension has the pro-russian forces taking and holding government buildings in as many as ten cities. on wednesday, several republican senators visiting another former soviet satellite lithuania said the u.s. should arm ukraine. however, president obama insists the current round of sanctions with possibly more to come are working.
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>> what you've already seen is the russian economy weaker, capital fleeing out of russia. mr. putin's decisions are not just bad for ukraine, over the long term they're going to be bad for russia. >> u.s. ambassador to the u.n. for special political affairs during the bush administration. i want to start with this notion of sanctions. the president said the sanctions are working. in your view, is that enough or is there more of the u.s. could be doing to try to stop russia from seizing more territory in ukraine? >> thank you, joy, it's good to be here. first, i think the most specifically impactful sanctions would be economic and energy sanctions. these would have a devastating effect on the russian economy. and a domino effect on the region. but in the short term, it appears they made some progress in these talks, at least in defusing the current situation, with the threat of sanctions
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looming if the agreement is not adhered to by the russian side. >> you're saying they've made some progress, but you still see these russian troops, the people putin is calling simply ukrainians protesting, they're still seizing government buildings, there is still russian activities and russian troops amassed at the border. do you see russia just getting more aggressive? and the second piece of that would be, if they get to continue the way they are, and nothing pushes them back, what stops them from taking more of ukraine and even threatening regional neighbors? >> ukraine, as you mentioned earlier in your show, you talked about the new russia. everything east of the niger river which divides the ukraine has long been claimed by russia as an intrinsic part of its country, its culture. and it's very different from places like latvia, lithuania, astonia, where our government
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leaders are today. and the may 25th elections, what president putin wants is not that russian forces have gone in and taken this land, what he wants is for the eastern provinces to in effect vote in russian sovereignty. >> and what does putin get out of that? is this for domestic political consumption? what do you think he gets out of if that happened? >> i think there are two things. one, he's getting a lot of domestic political support. but he's got that anyway. what he really is doing is pushing back against what he sees as a tide. a tide which started with countries like poland and the czech republic and romania joining nato. for them, the idea of nato coming into the ukraine was an absolute -- what he's doing is taking a stand as what an old kgb officialer believes is the national security interests of russia. >> sounds like a movement from the point of view of weakness rather than strength, fearing all of their former satellites
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have gone over to the west. >> yeah. he's acting from a position of weakness. this was precipitated by the fact of the majority of ukrainians wanted closer ties with europe. this also reflects the fact that ukraine's been divided for centuries, between these two very different regions in the east and the west. >> and yet, or i should say, despite that, despite the fact this is apparently sort of an act of weakness on the part of putin, you do have some republicans, including senator john mccain, who have essentially said the weakness is on the part of the united states. they've really been hammering president obama. i want you to take a listen to what senator mccain said in lithuania on wednesday. >> the fact that the united states will not give defensive weapons to ukraine, including body armor, night goggles, jet fuel, spare parts, the fact that we will not give that in fear of
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provoking vladimir putin only encourages vladimir putin. >> sir, in your view, should we be arming ukraine, and i guess the second part of that question is, are ukrainian officials even asking for military support? >> i think they would welcome it. although they would be a little nervous about provoking russia, too. i think senator mccain is right, we should be supporting the ukraine with some of these defensive light kinds of defense equipment. but when you talk about arming the ukraine, or really equipping them to fight russia, that's a whole other category. and we're just not in a position to do that, in terms of a major land war that the u.s. or nato would engage in, in the you krab. the question is, how do we stem the tide and ensure putin isn't emboldened by this and look for other opportunities to expand his reach. >> give us an assessment of where the european union stands on this? this is happening right on their doorstep. is there more that they should be doing?
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>> fers of all, they're conflicted as well, right? they're very much about the new world order of world rights, democracy, you know, tolerance. and this is a slap at everything that new europe stands for. that said, they're extraordinarily dependent on russia for natural gas, their energy supplies. they have the tendency over the last decade, as spending on defense has gone down, to really always advocate a diplomatic solution. although you've seen more tough talk out of germany recently from chancellor merkel. >> and lastly, we do talk about sort of the psyche a little bit of vladimir putin and the possibility he did sense weakness in his satellites going toward the west. but give us an assessment of how nato looks in all this. could putin's goals show the weakness of nato? there doesn't seem to be any real credible threat that nato would act with any kind of military force to stop ukraine
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in advance. >> they've got an obligation to defend nato members. ukraine is not a nato member. so, you know, nato doesn't really have a mandate to come to ukraine's military defense. that said, nato is allianced to be a body pushing back against the expansion of any kind of russian dominance in the region. so i think that unfortunately, other than these exercises that you'll see, i think moving to more defensive ballistic missile systems in eastern europe and so forth, there's not a lot they can do in ukraine specifically. >> ambassador holiday, thank you for being here. >> thank you, joy. coming up, just when you thought the immigration mess couldn't get uglier, it got uglier. the president pushing republicans to do something about it caused big pushbacks and yet another setback. an update on the deadly
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ferry accident in south korea. search crews battled strong currents and low visibility. the confirmed death toll stands at 18. with 278 people still missing, that number is expected to grow. today a crew member said the captain did not issue an evacuation order until 30 minutes after the ship started listing. 475 people, mostly high school students, were onboard when the ferry sank off south korean's southern coast. (laughs) it's more than just a meal, it's meow mix mealtime. with wholesome ingredients and irresistible taste, no wonder it's the only one cats ask for by name. but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself.
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>> all the major denominations and churches and religious bodies of this country agree, that it is a moral imperative that we get immigration reform. it is the first and only political issue in this country where we all agree. >> and so, on the heels of his spiritual summit, and on the one-year anniversary of a senate passed immigration reform bill that went nowhere in the house, the president fired off this statement. i urge house republicans to listen to the will of the american people, and bring immigration reform to the house floor for a vote. a few hours later the president called up his good friend house majority leader eric cantor. according to the white house the call was to wish cantor a happy passover. and immigration reform just happened to come up. cantor said he was the one to wish the president a happy easter, and the president responded by wishing him a happy passover. whatever. the bottom line is the two sides are still as far apart as ever
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on immigration. after the call, cantor revealed he told president obama in no uncertain terms, house republicans do not support the democrats' immigration bill and amnesty efforts. he suggested there are plenty of other areas for compromise. yeah, nice try. but this issue isn't going away. that's because more than 11 million people are currently living in this country without legal status. immigration advocates have taken to calling president obama the porter in chief. florida congressman tried to appeal to his republican colleagues in the "washington post," saying if we don't move on immigration, obama will go it alone. and if he does that, the window for republicans and democrats to negotiate on this issue is closed until the next president. the republican congressman from florida raises two very important issues. one is how far can the president go on his own. and two, how long will presidents sideline the number one issue of a demographic that could eventually make or break their party.
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here with me now to tackle those issues and more, founder and editor in chief of the freedom club. it does feel like there's a genuine stalemate on immigration that even in a phone call, you have president obama and eric cantor, they couldn't even agree on what they talked about, let alone on a first step to passing immigration reform. how in your mind can this stalemate be broken? >> i think the key is going to be with this coalition, an incredible coalition that has been built around immigration reform that has the u.s. chamber of commerce, silicon valley, faith-based groups as you introed, you've got people from all walks of life, i like to call them immigration strange bedfellows. you wouldn't think these groups would be together. throw in labor. i think it's going to be that continued pressure that's going to eventually move us forward. the problem, of course, is that if we have to wait until 2016,
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we saw in 2012 mitt romney's self-portation vote, you might see a move in 2016, the problem, of course, with more than 1,000 people being deported every single day, this community can't wait. families are being torn apart. and it's got to move right now. >> dana, when you look at -- and it is a broad coalition from business groups to activists, et cetera, that are pushing for immigration reform. the people it seems to be moving are the same people who want immigration reform. namely democrats at the white house. to that point you have the white house now trying to do more on its own. they're going to roll out today, at least expected this week, a bunch of administrative changes, things like bond hearings to reduce the number of deportations. that could allow the release of thousands of people if judges approve bond in the coming weeks. that could allay some of the groups of the latino groups and others of deportation. it would allow within the law the white house acting on its
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own. is that the way forward? will we wind up with presidential action which then annoys house republicans even more? >> well, that may be the only alternative now. the president is in the middle of this, and he's getting it from both sides. what he did is he made a calculation that he could win over some good faith with the republicans by being tough on deportation, by saying, see, i'm sympathetic to enforcing the law, tough on border enforcement. what he's gotten for that? absolutely nothing. even a dispute over who said happy easter or happy passover first. what's the point of trying to curry favor with these conservatives who have no inattention of passing immigration legislation at least in this congress. and then at least he can ease up some of the pressure that he's getting on his base. because he has been setting all kinds of records with the amount of deportations, even for people not convicted of any crime.
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>> and viviana, the thing is that the president is between a rock and a hard place. i think dana makes an excellent point, that he tried to buy some space with republicans, by being tough on enforcement. yet, if you look at the data, from the department of justice, their data shows a 43% decline in the number of deportations through the courts. and that's over the last five years. when you actually look at the work load of those immigration courts, it's de greeced by 17% from 2009 to 2013. the bond hearings would increase that number. but you do have sort of an attempt, i guess, on the administrative side to reduce the deportations. and there's a very simple reason for that. when you poll hispanics, poll latinos, deportations is far more important to hispanic voters, even than the pathway to citizenship. so for the community, when you see the white house really agonizing over this, and really trying to scale back, which side do you push?
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>> so let's clarify a couple of things. the new data from the department of justice is really important, because it looks at this nitty-gritty and how it is that overall deportations are up, but there has been a lot of relief precisely because the advocacy community in 2011 took to ramping up the pressure on the president, and saying, hey, look, for example, january, state of the union, we're going to do whatever it is i have to do says the president to move action forward with the obstructionist congress. and for at least a couple of years, the latino advocacy community has been saying, we have a great idea on immigration, what can you do to give these families respite. so i think what's going to happen going forward is precisely what you said, joy, a lot of these people, these are people whose families are being torn apart. these are church groups. these are neighborhoods. these are schools. these are the kind of people we're talking about. what they're asking the president is, continue to please give us respite. we don't need comprehensive
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immigration reform, but what we need is a break. that's, i think, where the community has been moving. at least for the last six months. >> and of course, the irony is, you still need a willing congress. the question is, are there 18 republican votes to pass in i form of comprehensive immigration reform. >> absolutely, joy. that's what it comes down to, those 18 votes. >> absolutely. viviana and dana, thanks to both of you. >> thank you. to suburban kansas city where attorney general eric holder and sam brownback join family members at a memorial for three victims killed in sunday's shootings at jewish community centers. a 73-year-old supremacist has been charged. there's enough evidence to classify the killings as a hate crime. holder paid tribute to the victims. >> all of us, here in this moment, surrounded by the people who loved and held the hearts of innumerable others, we are a testament to the limitless desire in this country for healing, for compassion, and
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♪ coming up, we read between the lines on how the idea of senator kathleen cebull use may not be as crazy as you think. today, you're buzzing about three things. peace, snowden and scandal. first, selfies. you can't stop talking about vice president joe biden posting this selfie with president obama. we're happy to see presidential selfies are still allowed. the white house considered a ban just days ago. i'm sharing one of our favorite selfies. that's me and larry epstein. he is our version of joe biden. and there's more selfies where that came from, including this viral pick from the season finale in advance. because the scandal season
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finale airs tonight. an episode so explosive it literally contains a massive explosion. according to promotions for the show. "scandal" addicts are taking over twitter. #scandal finale is exploding at over 3,000 tweets an hour. katie sent this tweet, my mom bought us a bottle of red and popcorn for tonight. i quickly let her know one bottle would not be enough. but i love this one. quote, gladiators, you fought your defibrillators and eye rolls ready? from selfies now to snowden. the nsa whistleblower is trending for asking vladimir putin this question in a q&a session. >> does russia intercept, store, or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals? and do you believe that simply increasing the effectiveness of
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intelligence or law enforcement investigations can justify placing societies rather than subjects under surveillance? >> putin, of course, answered of saying, of course he spies on russian citizens. no, he didn't. putin actually said with a straight face that russia would never surveil its citizens. and that spying is sanctioned for specific cases only. duh, under official court order. does snowden know he's living in a country run by a former kgb member? because he is. you can weigh in by joining the conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and msnbc.com. here's how prisoners in peru are marking holy week behind bars. with diabetes, it's tough to keep life balanced.
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as a federal court in detroit decides today whether to allow a vote on a bankruptcy deal that could mean smaller pension cuts, a report that the white house may step in with cash to help the pension crisis has some conservatives up in arms. the detroit free press quoting unnamed sources is reporting that the white house is working with the state's republican governor on a $100 million deal to help with the pension crisis. funds would come from money already allotted to a $7 billion fund created to help municipalities in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. some on the far right naturally are calling it a stealth bailout of the motor city. one gop senator david vitter of louisiana is working on a bill to prevent this kind of aid, and had this to say about the free press report. by no means should the federal government be in the business of
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bailing out businesses in the red. they need to develop sustainable fundings. it's unfair to rely on taxpayer funded bailouts. that is senator vitter of louisiana. which contains new orleans. steven henderson is not only an editor for the detroit free press, he's a pulitzer prize winner for commentary. congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> is it fair to call this a bailout? >> no, not at all. what's being proposed is essentially a displacement of money that we've already allocated to tear down blighted homes here in detroit. we would take federal money that's already here in michigan, then allocated to deal with demolition and other housing issues, in urban areas, and we would just dedicate $100 million more of that to detroit, so it would give us room to move that $100 million into these underfunded pensions. and that would make a big
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difference to pension recipients in terms of the cut that they might be asked to take under the bankruptcy. >> i think it's incredibly ironic that somebody like david vitter would be so vigorously objecting to the idea, really helping a great american city when his state, too, contains a great american city who needed help because of a natural disaster, but also human failings that helped make that disaster worse. do you feel the country has not been cognizant enough of how important it is to save a city like detroit? >> well, i mean, look around. look around at chicago, which is dealing with a massively underfunded pension this month. rahm emanuel, the mayor there, is trying to push through a bill to try to manage that there. look at baltimore. this is a national problem, not a local one. it does have something to do with local management and how we deal with retirement benefits and guarantees. it also has to do with the
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economy. and poor performance and things like that. and so, you know, we need -- we need a national urban agenda that's about investment, about attracting people back to cities. my city here of detroit has lost 2 million people almost in the last 50 years. or more than 1 million people in the last 50 years. we've got to reverse that trend. because these cities are the economic heart of the states that they're in. without detroit, what's michigan. without new orleans, what's louisiana. at the national level, we need our leaders to be more cognizant of that importance and what they can do to help us out. >> i want to quote to you from one of the pieces that was cited in your selection. something you wrote last july, called wake up, white house, get in the game. you took the president to task as well as the vice president for not helping detroit. do you feel with the leak of this potential deal now, that they're actually in the game? >> well, they've been in the
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game here for a while. shortly after that piece, they assigned several people from treachery, from hud, from some other departments to deal with the federal dollars that come to detroit. we already get quite a bit of federal money. it's not expect well often. sometimes we end up sending it back because we didn't spend it the right way. they've been here for several months on the ground, really working with local officials about what washington can do better to help us in detroit. this deal actually has much more to do with the state, which has $490 million in the hardest hit fund that it could use a portion of to dedicate to allow us to shore up these pensions. i feel like we're getting some help from washington here in detroit. i think to push that further, what we need is more of a national agenda to shore up cities, to say that detroit's not -- detroit's bankrupt and that's an extreme, but there are
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cities all over this country that are struggling with eroding tax bases, declining population. the kind of things that are hollowing them out. we need a national policy that helps figure out our industrial policy, which is the economic life blood of these cities. and a host of other things. we've got to get them much more centered on that stuff. >> yeah. kind of makes you wish you had a congress that would pass that kind of a national agenda. thank you very much. >> well, you know, if we were a hedge fund, we'd have a bailout by now, right? >> indeed. well said. thank you. and congratulations again, stephen henderson. pulitzer prize winner, we should say. and next, we all know politics make strange bedfellows. why is the texas naacp teaming up with the billionaire koch brothers? we'll explain next on "the reid report." cars are driven by people. they're why we innovate.
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the koch brothers are the $100 billion net worth, fifth richest people in the world and second richest in the united states. they're also increasingly influential in american politics. when something happens with the koch name on it. case in point, last night's symposium promoted by the charles koch institute on criminal justice reform. one of the panelists was the president of the texas naacp. which for some might seem ironic because the naacp and libertarians are on very different sides when it comes to things like voter i.d. and minimum wage. but one thing that libertarians like the kochs and rand paul agree with liberals on is the agreement on mass incarceration. here's bernie carrey who spent three years in prison for tax fraud talking about that last
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night. >> somebody in the congress, somebody that creates these sentencing guidelines, and mandatory minimums, they think that that's better for society. i disagree. i don't think it's better for society. i think it destroys society. the system contradicts its own mission statement. and it's doing it overwhelmingly. >> so does the fact that they have genuine points of agreement make it all right for the head of the naacp to make common cause with the kochs? jerry is the president of the texas naacp. he was one of the aforementioned panelists at last night's forum. sir, thank you for being here. >> thank you very much for having me. >> i want to start by asking you, how did you get involved in last night's forum? >> well, i worked with the texas public policy foundation on a number of issues, on criminal justice reform in texas, and i think they are working with the koch institute, and through my connection with the texas public
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policy foundation in our efforts to conduct criminal justice reform in the legislature in texas that probably led them to asking me to be on the panel last night. >> what did you hope to get out of it? >> i think this is a -- this thing is not being koch brothers, this is about our criminal justice agenda, this is about trying to take the lives back for all those young people who have been ensnared in the criminal justice system, who now have second-class citizenship and don't have a real opportunity to actually become real constructive citizens in our country. you know, when you don't have compromise, you have zero sum game. and we're trying to avoid that. >> right. and are you lacking allies in that effort in texas? >> it's essential that we get allies. we've lost a number of good people in the legislature due to attacks from the far right. and they've been eliminated from being potential allies in the legislature.
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and so that's been a major problem in our state. and so i think it's really important to have individuals who stand on the right to come and stand with us on criminal justice reform issues, to take those things out of the political discussion. >> right. >> so that there would be a safe harbor, so to speak, that might be provided. so that our legislation can continue to advance in an increasingly conservative legislative environment. >> last question, are you concerned, though, that you're sort of mainstreaming the very far right that is involved in the political campaigns, to remove those legislatures you talk about? they're getting the legislators run out of office. >> we continue to fight for the things that we need to fight for, whether it's redistricting, whether it's voter identification, and we need to have allies that will help us advance the interest of the lives of the young people who
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were ensnared in the system. people can't get jobs now. we're fighting attorney general abbott in his lawsuit against the eeoc because of the excessive nature of how companies have used criminal background checks. there are so many things like that, that take young people out of the process. so i think if we get the koch brothers, the texas public policy foundation, whatever, whether it's rapnd paul or mike lee, if you get people to stand with you to push an initiative, i think it only helps to advance that issue, and that initiative. and i don't think it has a downside otherwise. we continue to fight these groups on other agendas, agenda initiatives that we have. for example, the texas public policy foundation has been fighting us in reference to the social study changes that were made by the state board of education in texas. we fought them vigilantly. so i think there's nothing wrong
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with that. i think that's smart. like fred douglas said in politics, you have no permanent friends, you have no permanent enemies, and that's where we are. >> gary bledsoe from the naacp, thank you. by the way, we reached out to the charles koch institute to find out more about last night's forum. we want to know how this epicked the topic and who invited the panel. the event is part of cki's, quote, well-being initiative. last night he did say it, quote, seeks to improve our quality of life for research and dialogue. he also referred us to the institute's communications team and we reached out, but as of show time, we had not heard back. so charles and david koch are no strangers to charitable giving. long before they became famous for spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence american elections, and even before you knew who they were, the kochs were always active in
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civic affairs. charles koch ran for president in 1980 on the libertarian ticket. here's sanders in the "huffington post," quote, they want to repeal every piece of major legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and most vulnerable in this country. the kochs haven't been shy about using their money to try to the influence the country in a more libertarian direction. they're not just spending their money to influence politics, quote, the koch brothers funnel millions of dollars into the education system using their network of conservative groups. a new report from the center on public integrity, found they delivered more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities around the country in 2012. two koch groups that are funded by the koch brothers are either vaguely more specifically
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oriented around libertarian and conservative ideas. for example, the charles koch foundation contracted the economics department at florida state university to select professors through a koch appointed committee. it's not exactly unusual for an institute with the koch name on it to go outside the realm of traditional politics and toward social issues. but will forums like the one last night in texas change the view of the koch brand. senator, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> i don't know if you were able to hear gary bledsoe from the texas naacp, but he talked about working with the koch institute in the area of criminal justice even as he's fighting in many cases koch funded groups who he says are the far right that are removing the moderate members of the republican party from the state legislature. do you see a contradiction there? >> well, i don't want to question the motives of people who are involved on that issue, which is a huge issue.
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we have a significant percentage of young african-americans who are in the criminal justice system, and we've got to do something about that. but this is what i do know. the koch brothers, as you've just mentioned, are the second wealthiest family in this country. as a result of citizens united, they have and will spend hundreds of millions of dollars, if not over a period of time, billions of dollars to elect candidates to office who believe in more tax breaks for the wealthiest people, and major cuts or the privatization of social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, education. they are the koch brothers helping to lead the war in my view against working families in this country. and are part of the reason that we have so much wealth and income and inequality, such that the rich are getting much richer, while everybody else is seeing a decline in their standard of living. >> i want to pull a little bit of a quote of from what you have
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put on your website. you said the libertarian platform in 1980 called for abolishing the minimum wage, and income taxes. david koch was a candidate for haven't that year. they thought ronald reagan was too liberal. today david koch and his brother charles have turned it into the republican orthodoxy. they're really taking to highlighting them specifically, highlighting the kochs specifically. why are you doing that? >> joy, i will tell you why. i feel very much, and i think people may think i'm overstating this, i fear very much that this country is losing its democratic foundations and moving toward a formal society where a handful of billionaires will control not only the economy but the political life of this nation.
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what you're looking at right now is an extreme right wing family who believe all the things that you've just indicated. they don't believe that we should simply not raise the minimum wage, these guys believe we should do away with the minimum wage. and if you had to work for $3 an hour, or $2 an hour, that's freedom. that's your freedom. and these guys believe we should privatize social security, massive cuts in medicaid. no support for women's rights, et cetera. they believe the federal government is terrible. and they want to move toward a society where the big money interests control the economy and the political life. i highlighted the 1980 libertarian platform for a simple reason. in 1980, that party got 1% of the vote. and most people thought that these guys were pretty crazy, pretty extreme, pretty out there. if you look at the issues they talked about then, their point of view, many of those same ideas are now mainstream republican party.
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you talk about minimum wage, you have most republicans now in congress, not only oppose to raising it, they believe we should abolish the concept of the minimum wage. that's what the koch brothers talked about 34 years ago. social security, medicare. look at the ryan budget. what you are seeing is, as a result of the koch brothers, and others, a republican party moving from what used to be a right center party, a moderate conservative party, to a right wing extremist party. that is probably the most important development in recent politics. the degree to what the republican party has moved to the right, and has no stomach for moderates in their party anymore. >> yet there is some irony that the one area there seems to be converted between left and liberal right. bernie sanders, thank you for being here. >> thank you. next, cebull usebelius for ? all stations come over to mission a for a final go.
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it's one of those tantalizing headlines that makes you say, they can't possibly be true. jeremy peters writes for "the new york times" that in her darkest hour last fall, kathleen sebelius suffered one of the deepest cuts from a family friend for the rollout of the affordable care act. now she's weighing revenge. mrs. sebelius is considering democrats who want her to run against the old friend, senator pat roberts, republican of kansas. now, if the idea of cebull use who recently announced her resigning from the hhs, some say she's toxic. she's too associated with the rollout of obama care to even think about running for office ever again. on the other hand, sebelius was
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a popular two-term governor of kansas who won election the second time with 58% of the vote. which is where president obama tapped her in the first place and considered her as a possible haven't. according to peters, some unnamed democrats consider her name is being dropped more frequently as they weigh who could give mr. roberts, who's 77 years old, a run for his money. they told peters they had no idea if she's taking the idea seriously. doubters point to the fact that post-obamacare, her popularity dropped below 40%. not for nothing, but this was the electoral map for kansas in 2012. as the "washington post" aaron blake points out, sebelius could nationalize a race that democrats have a decent shot at competing in, and make it harder to pick up other seats as far as taking the kansas governor mansion. on the other hand, politics is often overwhelmingly about name
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i.d., and sebelius clearly has it in her home state. she would be in a strong position to defend the health care law, when the poll of obamacare fatigue is outwei outweighing. if she drew right wing super pacs to kansas, so what, that would force the gop to spend money where they hadn't planned to. this is not a prediction. i'm not even sure it's even likely. i'm just saying it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened in kansas. that wraps things up for "the reid report." "the cycle" is up next. i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke.
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for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto. like warfarin, xarelto is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk. but xarelto is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to that monitoring routine. [ gps ] proceed to the designated route. not today. [ male announcer ] for patients currently well managed on warfarin there is limited information on how xarelto and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. xarelto is just one pill a day taken with the evening meal. plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the healthy foods he likes. do not stop taking xarelto, rivaroxaban, without talking to the doctor who prescribes it as this may increase the risk of having a stroke. get help right away if you develop any symptoms like bleeding, unusual bruising,
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or tingling. you may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto with aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. talk to your doctor before taking xarelto if you have abnormal bleeding. xarelto can cause bleeding, which can be serious and rarely may lead to death. you are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. tell your doctors you are taking xarelto before any planned medical or dental procedures. before starting xarelto, tell your doctor about any conditions such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. xarelto is not for patients with artificial heart valves. jim changed his routine. ask your doctor about xarelto. once-a-day xarelto means no regular blood monitoring -- no known dietary restrictions. for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com.
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gl blaming the anti-vaccine movement. anything could happen in the november midterm elections. it's possible nothing could happen. we'll sort that out when we spin. >> plus, in the news cycle, biden is running for higher office. how is that for a tease? they're not interested in any kind of military confrontation with us. understanding that our conventional forces are significantly superior to the russians. we don't need a war. what we do need is a recognition that countries like ukraine can have relationships with a whole range of their neighbors, and it is not up to anybody, whether it's russia or the united states or anybody else, to m
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