easter. we'll see you back here on monday. >> it's luke russert today. switch watch. secretary of state makes surprising steps in geneva involving ukraine's crisis. meantime, president obama has two numbers in mind, 8 million and 2014. new health care sign-ups shoot past the administration's own expectations and the president urges democrats to, quote, forcefully defend the law's impact. plus, just one month till mitch mcconnell hopes to put a hurdle behind him. democrats find out who's facing their best shot in the south and a primary pitch by mitt romney pays off -- or maybe not. that's all happening on may 20th, the closest thing we have to a super tuesday in this mid-term year and it's just one month away later in the show. good morning from washington,

it's good friday, april 18, 2014. i'm luke russert in for the great chuck todd. we begin in ukraine and the latest deal. after seven hours of negotiations in geneva, they agreed to work towards a diplomaticnd to t end to the cr ukraine. >> we agreed today that all illegal armed groups must be disarmed, that all illegally seized buildings must be returned to their legitimate owners and all illegally seized streets, squares must be vacated. >> but so far they haven't budged. the head of the pro-russian

movement said they're not going anywhere. instead so far none of the buildings okay paid by separatists in approximately ten cities have been vacated. leaflets supposedly signed ordering ukrainian jews to register themselves and their property or pay a fine. at the same time you've craukra officials are offering amnesty to get them to surrender. as president obama indicated on thursday, russia may have the most important role in determining where things go from here. >> the question now becomes will in fact they use the influence that they've exerted in a disruptive way to restore some order. my hope is that we actually do

see follow-through over the next several days. but i don't think given past performance that we can count on that. >> while the separatists plot their next move, ukrainian military is going ahead with counterterrorism operations meant to retake occupied buildings and those 40,000 russian forces remain on the border waiting to see what happens next. jim maceda is live for us in donetsk. is there any sign the separatists will actually abide by this apparent treaty? >> hey there, luke. no one's enforcing the so-called deal so i'm afraid that there is no sign at all of retreat. in fact, on the contrary. the pro-russian separatists here distrust the government too much to surrender their weapons or abandon their positions. we spoke at length to very troubled members of the jewish

community today who told us that a group of about a hundred were just outside their synagogue after passover prayers two nights ago when they noticed three men that were masked wearing back packs handing out leaflets and they ran away quickly. the chief rabbi said when he read the letters are he was in shock. he knew this wasn't a joke because the leaflet looked too serious and too official, but he couldn't believe it was real. as you said, it called on all jews to register or risk losing their citizenship. to test the authenticity, they sent a jewish family to the address on the leaflet to register and found the people completely out of the loop, unaware of what they were talking about. so to the jewish people today, who say they've never witnessed anti-semitic behavior today in

donetsk, they see this as provocation against one side or the other of the great political divide here in ukraine. they see it as a pretty crazy attempt to discredit the pro-russian separatists or the government of kiev with the jews caught in the middle. the 15,000 strong jewish community here is very angry about this. >> joining me, former u.n. ambassador to the u.n. and former new mexico governor bill richardson. thanks for being on the program. >> nice to be with you, luke. >> obviously this leaflet pertained to the jewish people in donetsk has created a new situation in ukraine, a lot of outcrane in the united states. "president putin has accused the ukrainians of being

anti-semitic. president putin should denounce these acts. what should the u.s. do to try to mitigate these so they don't happen anymore? >> the onus is on president putin. he should clearly denounce these anti-semitic acts. russia controls these russian separatists. what can the u.s. do? i think the u.s. had a good day yesterday, the fact that this agreement at least temporarily eases tensions. it helps the europeans because they depend on russian goes exports and i think russia finally was seeing there was a huge flight of investment from russia, the economy in russia was suffering from these

sanctions. and what the u.s. should do is maintain the threat of serious economic energy, banking sanctions along with the european union, which depends on gas imports from russia but at the same time has substantial economic commercial leverage because of the huge trade with russia. russia's a global economy. i won't say that russia blinked, but they did take some steps in the right direction. now they have to follow through. if they don't follow through, they're going to get some big sanctions and the russian economy is going to be hurting. >> we refer to russia as the real player in this situation. there is no doubt that they are. but as far as this has gone now, were a lot of the pro russian separatists within the region have been very much emboldened and having their point of view is becoming almost to some degree what is actually occurring on the ground, even if

putin says i want to pull back or takes those folks that do not have the insignia on their uniform, is there still a risk this is a divided country, even if russia is not playing in the gray area as much as they are now. >> well, yes. it is a divided country. ukraine is having elections in the middle of may. probably a new ukrainian government is coming in. yes, there's a lot of questions about the legitimacy of existing government, the fact that they made military threats, didn't follow them through. they're trying and they're our guys but the problem is that the russian separatists, the key is going to be whether they will disarm. russia has no excuse in saying they have no leverage. they have 40,000 troops in the region. so in the next few days, i think you're going to see whether this agreement works or not. but it's a good, important step. i think secretary kerry deserves

credit. i think the european union deserves credit and russia i think finally saw the light that unless there's a deescalation, their economy, which is already hurting, is going to hurt even more. >> do you sincerely believe that we could actually enforce those types of sanctions with the amount of u.s. business interests in russia, tougher sanctions? could that come about? we are very much extended as a country over there. there is some hesitancy about those being enforced. >> yes. at the same time we do have substantial investment in russia, energy investments, the russians have a lot of investment in europe and in the united states. there are banking sanctions. we've already imposed sanctions on visas, on russian assets. we can impose sanctions on russian energy leaders, on

russian business leaders doing business in the u.s. yeah, they can be enforced. the sanctions that we put on iran have worked. they took some time but we've got a strong and good treasury department that is able to find ways to make those sanctions bite. now, again, we don't have any serious ones on russia now so it's going to take some months to evolve into substantial sanctions. but for now we're saying, russia, you've got to change. if you don't change, you're going to see some very, very tough sanctions. i think rush has blinked just a little bit. >> governor bill richardson, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> let's turn now on the latest on developing news from nepal. an avalanche killed at least 13 sherpa guides on mount everest. four more people were injured, two are in critical conditions.

according to officials in nepal, they had gone out earlier to bring supplies to camp when an avalanche struck about an hour after sunrise. >> the biggest tragedy of this is that it's the very beginning of the season, and to lose this number of people at the very beginning of the season may be the end of the season. >> more than 4,000 climbers have scaled the summit over the past 60 years. >> up next, dealing with drugs. heroin abuse has nearly doubled in this country in the last five years. connecticut senator richard bloomenthal joins us with how his state is grappling with the problem. president obama delivers the commander in chief trophy to the naval football team. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. don't give up the ship. in pursuit of all things awesome, amazing,

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our tdr 50 finishes the week in connecticut, a state that's become the unlikely face of the war against heroin. for many addicts, it starts with easy access to prescription medication, but things can escalate rapidly. while prescription meds can be expensive, officials say heroin is cheap, $10 a bag or less and easy to get as it's trafficked from new york and new jersey up to the rest of new england. it's getting more attention these days because it's becoming more deadly. police are saying more heroin laced with fentinol. there's anne crease of near live

50% in deaths. a heroin addict in connecticut is most likely white, more suburban and probably younger than you might expect, but they stress there's no typical addict. >> you can't pin them down to an ethnic, racial, sex, financial backgrounds. it could be anybody. >> it's not just police that are struggle to cope with the problem. mental health professionals are overwhelmed and looking for more resources. the number of people admitted to heroin treatment programs in connecticut jumped to more than 10,000 last year, the highest total in eight years. senators murphy and bloomenthal called for more treatment and intervention and more support from law enforcement. >> standing by itself, the heroin problem is one that is worthy of all of our attention. this is a national issue.

it is not regional, it's not state, it's not a section of the country. this is a problem national in scope. >> joining me now, connecticut democratic senator richard bloomenthal, previously the state's long-time attorney general, has studied the issue extensively. thank you for being on the show. >> thank you for having me. >> why have we seen all throughout the country, especially new england, the spike in the amount of heroin users as well as the number in heroin deaths. >> one of the reasons is plummeting prices, the result of increasing trafficking, well-organized criminal enterprises and networks and there's a need to crack down on them through the united states law enforcement. but the second point here is we cannot arrest our way out of the heroin problem because it reflects deeper seeded causes like unemployment and this

spreading epidemic of heroin use and abuse also reflects the abuse of prescription drugs, specifically opioids, which are more and more available. >> can the federal government do more to cut down or make it more difficult for those intense pain killers to be prescribed? they're often given away like candy at doctor's offices if someone has a routine surgical procedure. and that's where kids often start, in their parents medicine cabinet. >> that's absolutely right. one of the participants describes rejecting the offer from a dentist for percocet because he was a recovering addict and knew what it would do to him. so the availability already -- can discourage that increasingly

prevalent use of pain kimmers by better standard and practices, but also the fda has a responsibility to approve as soon as possible the kinds of prescription drugs that have some kind of discouraging features, whether it's time release or other kind of abuse resistant characteristics. the fda can play a role along with the department of justice and there need to be more funding. it's only $1.8 billion right now, sounds like a lot of money but it's not considering the, tent of the national problem through the substance abuse agency of the federal government. there's a combination of factors that reflect the reasons why heroin abuse -- >> i wanted to ask you about that. you point to the 1.8 billion and some could say it's underfunded.

how do you appropriate more money in that? it should be a slam slunk. >> we'll pay now or we'll pay a lot more later if we fail to fund mental health treatment. only lately with the mental health parity been actually adopted. so we're beginning to recognize the importance of mental health treatment. it should be much larger in the amount of funding. it's level this year, $1.8 billion. but this commitment to mental health treatment, not on in the short term but also longer term recovery because we all well know now, recovery from drug abuse is a lifelong enterprise and effort that has to be

supported throughout the addict's lives and recognized without the stigma that so often attaches. the discrimination that follows drug abuse because lack of jobs often results from treatment itself, which is the key to recovering from drug abuse. >> lastly i'll just ask you this. i went to school in new england at boston college. if you drove around new england and spoke to people in small towns, it's a national problem but it has a lot of presence in new england. why is this problem with prescription pills like oxycontin -- i don't know if it's unique to new england. the availability of prescription drugs perhaps reflects the greater availability of health care in new england and the cultural problems and issues that come with it but also the plummeting prices of heroin. the drop in heroin prices i think has also shifted a lot of

the drug abuse from prescription drugs like oupoids to the heroin that is now so rampant, exploding in use, a scourge that has reached its tentacles into many of those small new england towns. >> it's a terrible thing indeed. senator thank you for coming on the show and take care. >> thank you, luke. >> time for the first number in today's data bank. $100 million, the amount of state funds an illinois house committee has agreed to designate to the construction of president obama's presidential library in chicago. the bill backed passed unanimously through committee yesterday and now heads to the full house for a vote. the city is interested in being the home of the future library, the location is not expected to be announced until early next year. >> honolulu, where are you?

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president obama says it time to back now with this morning's first read. president obama took a second victory lap on thursday, making a rare trip to the briefing room to tout that 8 million americans have now enrolled for insurance through the health care exchanges. that exceeds the administration's target by a million americans. the white house says more young people have also signed up for health insurance. 35% are under the age of 35. two ferns there. but as republicans point out, 28% were between the ages of 18

and 34, the demographic group critical to ensuring the exchange is a success. the president seized on the number to challenge republicans to stop pressing for repeal and told democrats to forcefully defend it ahead of the mid terms. >> we've been having a political fight about this for five years. we need to move on to something else. that's what the american people are interested in. we're helping because of something we did. i don't think we should apologize for it, i don't think we should be defensive about it. >> republicans immediately rejected that advice retweeting a quote from the president "i think we can all agree this is well past time to move on." the nrc fired back "no we can't." nbc political editor mark murray is here. the gop does not want to budge. republicans cannot and will not accept the law. this is going to be a political

issue, a contentious issue as long as it plays well in mid term politics and possibly presidential politics. >> republicans, you see why they're not stopping this debate at all. this unites their base, unites their party. this is a mid term winner for th them. but moving on beyond the mid-term elections in 2014, there are some long-term problems for republicans. what do you do with these 8 million now on the exchanges and the millions more expanded in medicaid. the 8 million is to grow to 24 million, 25 million but 2018. so the question is what do you do with these people? republicans still don't have their own plan in legislative language scored by the congressional budget office. i think it's a very short-term winner for the party. so that's a real voting base, too.

the interesting point that i think you touch on in some conversations i've had on the hill, is that even if the republicans wanted to shift -- they don't have the play book on that. so it's at least two years away if it happens at all. >> there is one potential scenario. say republicans take back control of the senate and come november, december is a time for wheeling and dealing. republicans say we want these changes but that would have the whole fundamental change. that would be a big see how -- >> a lame duck session, oh, no. >> quickly, can't documents or a new bag of them coming out around 1:00 today, a little put off the radar because of the announcement that chelsea clinton is going to give birth

and the clintons are going to be grandparents. there could be some interesting stuff there. >> most definitely. there will be a treasure trove of enough documents, 75 hoon pages, spielberg, the transition, this will be great for historians looking to file a story on the clintons. in these past document dumps we haven't seen anything, big news. the clintons and bidens have been in this news an entire week. they've known how to grab the headlines this week. >> fascinating thing to see. mark murray, thank you for joining us. mr. two seed, she's going up against al gore in the last day of the elite eight. go to rundown msnbc.com to vote for the final four.

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we're back with our tdr 50 rising starts in connecticut and rhode island, a favorite of all

you political reporters out there across the country, starting with connecticut democrats. a candidate with name recognition like none other in new england, the namesake son of the late ted kennedy announced he's running for state senate. he opted against running for his dad's old seat in massachusetts in 2012. if he wins, this would be his first elected office. does a lot of work in business. >> next up, beth bye. she and her partner were the first same-sex couple to be issued a marriage license. and to rhode island, gina raymondo is the state treasure who could be the first woman governor. she led a pension overhaul in 2011 but now it's hurting her and unions still royaling for that push. and her opponent could be the

state's first latino governor. he closed most of the state's $110 million deficit and improved education. >> dawson hudson -- hodgeson is trying to oust a democratic incumbent who reportedly has a war chest seven times his own. it's going to be a heck of a fight. our other rhode island republican is state representative brian newbury. after three years in the statehouse, he was the highest minority leader becoming governor in 2011.

>> and last year robin is now the second youngest serving mayor in the state. she served on the city's board of education and was a legislative aide at the state capitals. selectman tim hearse is the last rising star on our list. he was the youngest chief executive in the history of his town. the 33-year-old is running for stay treasure. interesting to see the millennials. now on the latest of that tragic sinking of the south korean ferry. the ship's captain was one of the first to flee the sinking vessel. more than 270 people are still missing and 28 people are confirmed dead. >> i just want to express on behalf of the american people our deepest condolences to the republic of korea and the

families of all those who have seen their loved ones lost. >> cnbc's eunice yoon has more for us from seoul. >> reporter: grief has turned to anger on day through for search of the survivors of sewol. investigators say the captain was one of the first to flee the sinking ship. authorities say he wasn't even at the helm at the time of the incident an a junior officer with only a year's experience was piloting the vessel. authorities are pumping in oxygen and divers are fighting strong currents and poor visibility as they attempt to find survivors. most of the passengers were high school students on a field trip. what we learned today is that the vice principal who was traveling with them and survived the tragedy himself hanged

himself in a wooded area outside the gym because he was overwhelmed with grief. four cranes have arrived on the scene. more are on the way ready to raise the ship. authorities, though, have not yet said when they plan to do that because of of the potential signal it could send to the families that this operation has now moved from a rescue to a recovery. back to you. >> eunice, thanks for that heartbreaking news. coming up, our big may primary preview, but first our tdr 50 soup of the day. they're serving tomato basil at the gw tavern in connecticut. and 18 acres, that's the amount of space its newest visitor gets to call home. first spotted last year, a red fox has been roaming around as an uninvited guest and today he landed on the front page of the wall street journal.

he tore up the garden during the government shutdown last year. he was probably angry. despite many attempts, nobody has been able to catch the fury friend yet. we'll be right back. maybe the reincarnation of somebody who wanted to be president, who knows. maybe it's nixon. when it's donut friday at the office

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get ready for prima primary

palooza. half a dozen states will give us important clues about the political landscape. first up, a primary hat trick will test the strength of the tea party. in kentucky republican leader mitch mcconnell is fighting a two-front war for political survival. he's being beaten the living day lights out of tea party challenger matt bevans spending $12 million on the race so far. bill bevan is writing radio ads saying mitch loves to run for obamacare. he tells people "we're going to find a way to get this fixed." when a voter asked senator rand paul why he's backing the senate leader, paul refused to answer the question publicly, saying he'll explain his endorsement in

private. >> moving on to georgia, there's a seven-way fight with no clear front-runner to take on michelle nunn. if no two get top votes, they will complete. a runoff seems inevitable at this point. this week the chamber of commerce backed jack kingston, which is a good boost for his candidacy. but despite all that, the ugliest fight may be in idaho's secretary district where mike simpson is fighting off a challenge from tea party candidate brian smith. the race has become a proxy fight between the gop's business wing represented by boehner, mitt romney, congressman paul ryan and the chamber of commerce and tea party groups like the club for growth and senate conservative fund and both sides are flooding the airwaves with ads. romney himself visited last month to campaign for simpson.

>> you can take it for me, the conservative choice for congress is mike simpson. i know because i've seen him in action. >> arkansas, the primary signals the official start of what will be one of the most bitterly fought fought battles this year between mark pryor and tom cotton. moving on to pennsylvania where a four-way democratic primary will decide which candidate will take on one of the most vulnerable republican candidates in the country, tom corbett. tom wolf leads the others in a recent poll. nearly half of pennsylvania voters remain undecided. finally in oregon, four republicans are fighting it out to take on that state's democratic governor. joining me now, nathan gonzalez

and -- i knew you as sierra, bu not anymore. congratulations. >> thank you. >> and it is mitch mcconnell and matt bevin, and he is spending like he wants to win in a resounding manner, but it has opened him up to attacks from the right, and rand paul is not publicly endorsing him. >> and unless the dynamics change, he is going to win, and i avoid talking about the margins, but it is applicable here, 70/30 or 55/45 and the answer is somewhere in between, but then the task is that we will look at in the polls, how quickly can mcconnell consolidate the republican base over the couple of months

afterward, will that jgeneral election ballot shift, and start to gain an advantage over grimes, because the republican base is coming home when they were upset with him in the primary. >> and schirra, how much is this race here? too much emphasis in d.c. and one of the things that mitch mcconnell will get past in may, and we will forget about it when he is attacking machine against grimes shows up in the fall? >> well, it is tempting to cover this race, because he is after all ta minority leader and kentucky has elected democrats statewide in the past, so some kernels of the signs that it could be a competitive race, but really, we have always thought of it as a roll call for a long shot of mcconnell the lose both in the primary and lesser degree in the jen hall election, and we think that he is going to be fine. we will say at the start of the cycle when maitd evan w-- when

matt evan was funding his own campaign, so we believe he is go ing to be safe. >> and no matter how much people hate him, the message of i could be majority leader, resonates. i like how you put that one as a tough one for him to lose. and now over to ohio and this divide between mike simpson and you have mitt romney with the big ad out for him, and there is a big race. >> yes, a lot of money spent in this race than a lot of the senate races here. congressman simpson started with the good polling numbers on the surface level of the top line, because he was so much well known than brian smith, but in the surface, there was vulnerability because of the voting for raising the debt ceiling and the things that the republicans used to vote for all of the time, and now it is

playing out the spending is fairly even between the pro s simpson and the anti-simpson group, and he is holding up so far and there has to be a game changer for congressman simpson to lose. >> shira, it is interesting to see that the bailout is very much a focus on the ads. but read into it a little bit. if mike simpson were to go down, what message would that send regarding the 2014 midterms? is. >> well, it would empower a lot of the tea party groups or the conservative groups and empower them ahead of the few big, big contests, for example mississippi and thad walker's fight there or maybe kansas down the line, but so much, as you said earlier focused on this one date in may, it is going to be difficult for the tea party to gain a whole lot of momentum out of that, and that said, it is a club for growth versus the chamber of commerce battle when you talk about outside of the groups, and this is a big mantle

for the club for growth and a huge win in the cycle overall. >> yes, and one thing about the house races and the house primaries and going back to the last cycle, it was not the house races that got the most attention where the incumbents lost, but it is the ones that didn't have the big group like gene schmidt, and cliff stearns in florida, so even if he wins, it does not mean that the other incumbents are safe in the primaries. >> not a good year to be an incumbent. and in georgia, a lot of the strong contenders in the race, and you are seeing this establishment versus the tea party narrative play out, and it could go to the runoff, and s r shira, you were up there on capitol hill a lot before you were a woman of harvard, and with one person that we all enjoyed covering was paul broun, because he does not hold a lot back, but there is a danger that if someone like paul broun were to get through to the final runoff you could presumably push the candidate on the republican side very far to the right ahead

of the opponent like michelle nun who is pretty much pragmatic moderate democrat. >> yes sh, and make no mistake republicans on capitol hill who want to keep the senate seat know it is in play if paul broun wins the nomination. and so it is a really crowded and totally unpredicted primary, and the most recent poll showed that nobody is getting more than 20%, which almost makes sure it is going to go to the runoff. and we sent a reporter to cover this very race, and he interviewed paul broun on the race, and he is the more subdued and the low-keyed paul broun than we know of the interviews on capitol hill. >> and paul broun is at a financial disadvantage, because he is not a great fund-raiser and he needs outside groups to come in on his behalf, and because it is a challenged race, and you come in to attack the candidate, you don't know who is

going to hurt you. >> that is a political junkie's dream. >> and it is going to go all of of the way to july. >> thank you, both. pay attention, may 20th is a heck of a day. that is it for this edition of "the daily rundown." chris jansing is up next with joy reid and krystal ball to talk about the upcoming weekend. we will see you next week. i'm msnbc bill karins and as we head into the holiday weekend, the forecast is shaping up nicely for many areas, but there is always exceptions. the southeast is drenched friday through saturday. it is going to improve eastern sunday. and speaking of easter sunday, it is going to be mild for tooerns part of the kun tcountrd a few showers in the northern plains, have a great weekend. with scotts turf builder lawn food

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arrest looming as the captain of the ferry fled as his ship went down. and hopes for a miracle fade. >> and now shocking allegations about the russian anti-semitism in ukraine are met with swift condemnation, but there are a lot of questions about who is behind this flier asking jews to register with the government. >> and chelsea is having a baby.

how will that fit into the great expectations of hillary clinton? and the swagger is back declaring that the affordable care act is not only working, but it will not doom the party in the elections. saying positive stories that one woman with breast cancer is saving her home, because now she is able to have health care. >> i think that the democrats should forcefully defend and be proud of the fact that millions of people like the woman i just described who i saw in pennsylvania yesterday we are helping because of something that we did. i don't think that we should apologize for it, and we should not be defensive about it. there is a strong good right story to tell. >> so that is the new number 8 million people signed up, beat ing the early estimates before all of the website troubles, and that includes