commissioner adam silver for giving clippers' owner donald sterling the harshest punishment that he could for those racist comments. is it ironclad enough? coming up here, nba legend kareem abdul-jabbar joins us live with his reaction. >> we're looking forward to -- to some very positive changes that will make this city an even more wonderful place than it already is. state of emergency. historic and deadly flooding pummeling the southeast today where more than two feet of water has been drenching the florida panhandle in the last 24 hours. worse than any hurricane the gulf coast has ever seen. >> we've been seeing some incredible pictures coming out of pensacola. florida's governor has just declared a state of emergency for 26 countiecounties. the florida panhandle really is at a standstill. and rescue our daughters. fury. demanding action.

women across nigeria are marching today for more than 200 girls still missing. teenagers abducted from their school two weeks ago. what we are now learning about the terrorists behind the attack and the young girls being held hostage. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the l.a. clippers' fans today are celebrating victories on and off the court. the team took the lead in their playoff series against the warriors last night, just hours after the nba took its toughest stance yet, banning owner donald sterling for life. using his silver hammer, nba commissioner adam silver imposed a $2.5 million penalty. that was the most he could. and he urged owners to force sterling to sell the team. >> i will urge the board of governors to exercise its authority to force a sale of the

team, and will do everything in my power to ensure that that happens. >> sterling hasn't responded yet officially. but before yesterday's press conference, sports reporter jim gray says that sterling told him the team wasn't for sale. it would take a vote of three-quarters of the owners to confirm sterling's ouster. joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza, bloomberg news political reporter jean cummings and chuck todd, nbc news chief white house correspondent, political director, host of "the daily rundown" and jet setter. just back from asia. >> i wish i were a jet setter. i'm a lagger. >> chuck, first to you. let's talk about what adam silver showed us yesterday, what he has done, and the fact there still is some wriggle room. this is precedent setting. and it's not clear the owners, upon reflection, will go along. three-quarters of the owners have to -- >> i think they will because there's a -- the way the bylaws work it's about financial -- they can remove an owner if

there's some concern over finances. baseball had a similar issue. they just did this with the los angeles dodgers. >> baseball has different rules. >> they do have different rules and tighter rules. however, the league is a private club. clubs can decide, we know this, who's allowed to be in the club and who isn't. and you can make a financial case the longer he stays as an owner, the more that hurts the bottom line of the other 29 owners. i think that is why i will be shocked if it's not unanimous. >> chris cillizza, there are reasons why they all are very vulnerable if they don't take action. and it would have to be unanimous just because then we would all start reporting, well, who was the person to support sterling here. but that said, couldn't they start, and we saw a little bit of, you know, from mark cuban yesterday before he got on board, could they start saying, well, wait a second, if comments alone and behavior, past behavior, could get me ousted and banned for life, what if in this day of cell phone video and

everything else, what if i then were the next to get tagged by comments that i make off the court? >> oh, i think some of them will say that privately. probably to one another, andrea. but look, i'm with chuck on this. here's the issue. no matter what they believe about -- mark cuban essentially made the slippery slope argument before he totally reversed course. no matter what they believe, a vote against getting rid of donald sterling would be perceived as a vote for donald sterling and would be cast many as a vote for donald sterling's ability to express his views on race, which are quite clearly, as we've seen, way out of the mainstream. so do some owners probably think, oh, this may set a dangerous precedent? probably. does that mean they will vote to keep donald sterling? i would be stunned. >> i'm sorry, though. i have no sympathy for these owners. they're public figures. we live in the public square now. this is the way -- you don't

want public scrutiny? then get out. all these owners go to the cities and counties and states looking for free tax -- tax free money in order to build arenas. they're going to be in the public -- i kind of think it's -- they can't be -- >> the other thing they have to consider is the impact on the players. the best players that bring in the most money for them have made it clear that this is intolerable to them. it's what chuck said right at the get-go. this is all about cash. this is about money. and that's what's going to motivate them and it ranges from professional sponsors, corporate sponsors, to the kind of athletes that they can bring into their club and sell tickets and make money. >> and, by the way, we should also remind people that the sport is mostly african-american in terms of the star players. the fan base as well in many cases. but the fact is, and i'm going to be talking to kareem abdul-jabbar about this in just a few moments. haven't we really been ignoring this, everyone, the media and

everybody else, because sterling was not a mystery. he had a history -- >> he's had lawsuits. he's had complaints launched against him. >> he won some of those lawsuits. perhaps there was not an audio tape. we don't know what the burden of proof there was. his record in housing as an alleged slum lord. >> which is also why this is going to be unanimous, by the way. because he had a history. this is not something, oh, my goodness. we didn't know about this. they knew. >> i would say just one quick thing on that, andrea. they did know, to chuck's point, he was a ticking time bomb. it is amazing, i think, that, you know, for those of us who follow the nba closely, the nba essentially took chris paul, who was on the new orleans' franchise, and said, you can't go to the l.a. lakers, but you can go to the l.a. clippers. it's amazing david stern, who played a role in that, the previous commissioner, did so given the fact that it was an open secret.

this was quite clear donald sterling's views on some of these things. not on an audio tape. but in public court records. that they did that. because, you know, obviously at this point, they knew what was going on here. and they knew that this guy was quite clearly a problem, if not a huge problem. at the moment he had the potential to be one and now he is. >> let's just talk about the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. the other part of your -- just back from asia with the president. the poll shows slightly better numbers for the president. but some really underlying problems. >> here's the thing. this is a case where the numbers are better. the numbers are still bad. the good news for the white house is that six month high in his job approval. six month high in the views on health care. the problems are his job approval rating is still in the toilet with independents. it's still under the number it needs to be to be helpful to democrats in 2014. and health care is still viewed

more negatively than positively. there's just less hostility. the good news is the 8 million thing mattered. it went back -- all of the other lows were due to the website, right? it all sort of spiralled out of control from there. >> we're back up to 36% approval. >> we're now back to sort of where things were just before the website debacle. so it's -- he's not above water, but he can at least see the surface. >> what they might be able to see here is a potential turning point. not necessarily that the numbers are going to go soaring. but have they hit the bottom. >> right. >> are they starting to turn. if they're starting to turn now, in may, that's good for them. because -- or may tomorrow. we have one more day of april. you know, we have time now for these numbers to turn around. that health care number is the one that democratic strategists are watching the most closely. >> looking towards the mid-terms. looking beyond the mid-terms towards 2016, what about chris cillizza the number of people who agree with barbara bush? we've had too many bushes and

too many clintons. even though hillary clinton -- 69% agree with what barbara bush said to matt lauer on the "today" show. we need somebody other than these two families. >> i feel like there's this fundamental disconnect, andrea. which is 7 in 10 people say, yes, we're done with these political dynasties. and then who are the two candidates that certainly are at or near the top? hillary clinton's case, at the top. jeb bush's case at the top or near the top. it's jeb bush and hillary clinton. if you don't like political dynasties, here's a hint, american electorate. don't vote for american dynasties. fascinating. not that people can't hold two different notions in their head. but on that question, it's kind of remarkable. >> by the way, though, the question is important for this reason. it is her fundamental problem, hillary clinton's problem, going to be potential problem. we don't know. is how does she look like the future? what we saw in the answer to

that question is americans always believe in looking to the future. we want to always look ahead. we don't look liking behind. we like to march forward and look ahead. how does hillary clinton look like part of the future? i've always joked, hillary is the future. clinton is the past. she's got to be able to run as just hillary. >> she's always used that as her bumper sticker. >> that's a very valid point. what her advantage is, she's history. she's both the future and she's history as a potentially first female president. >> good point. jean cummings, chuck todd, chris cillizza, thank you very much. on to the future of the nba, hall of fame player kareem abdul-jabbar now joins me from los angeles. great to see you. thank you very much. we played a little bit of your immediate reactions earlier on tape from yesterday. but just your reaction to adam -- to what silver has done and the -- the punishment of sterling. is it enough? >> i think it's certainly enough

to let everyone understand where our hearts are in terms of how the nba views mr. sterling and anyone who would espouse ideas and feelings that he has -- obviously he supports those things. >> are you persuaded that the owners will vote by three-fourths of them? will any of them have sort of some kind of second thoughts about this? or do you think that he will be forced to sell the team? >> i think that the owners will support commissioner silver's stance on this. there's no way that they can continue to own a team and, on the other hand, support what mr. sterling espouses. those things are totally incompatible. i don't see how they can support him and still want to own an nba team. that would really be an amazing bit of tight rope walking if it

did happen. >> what is the view of the players and former players from the people you've talked to, kareem? how does this happen? how does someone like sterling get forgiven over and over and over again for what is clearly racist behavior? certainly proved on tape. but so much happened in his past. how does that happen? how do we in the media ignore it for all of these years? >> well, in mr. sterling's case, i think it had to do with the fact that he employees a lot of people to help keep his image on the up and up. the naacp was going to give him the lifetime achievement award. okay? that's how much he was able to divert people from the way he really feels about things. he's -- he did a masterful job of keeping his -- his bigotry under wraps. and if it was not for this tape, we still wouldn't know for sure exactly what was going on with him.

>> we know the clippers won last night. they're in the middle of this playoff with the golden state warriors. they showed so much character last night. but this has to be so corrosive to team spirit to just their ability to play. >> anyone playing for an owner like that would have to be conflicted. they probably love their job and they probably aren't very happy with who they're working for. even some of the people who work for mr. sterling have come out and made public statements just in the past couple of hours saying that this is a great idea and it's good to know that this is being taken care of. and that's people in -- that work for him in his organization. so you can imagine, you know, how far that extends. >> you did a film "on the shoulder of giants." the story of the harlem wrens who won the first championship against the celtics that paved the way for the civil rights movement within sports. talk about the bigger picture here. how sports -- professional

sports have been able to pave the way in many instances after a very bad history in some sports. we know what happened in professional baseball and football to a certain degree. but what does this mean now, what happened with sterling and the state -- the stance that silver has taken on behalf of the nba? >> well, i think what this means is that the whole idea of bigotry is, like, repulsive to a lot more people than -- that people might not know about. it's much broader than you would expect. it's not just nba people. this is outrageous to a lot of people. especially in the black community. that's what my book was all about. how black americans supported the integration of the nba. it's at thegreatestteam.com if you want to look it up. >> we will. >> so many people have been involved in this. and what has made me feel the best is that the support that

has come from all segments of society. it's not just sports fans. it's people who understand that there's no place in our society for people that maintain these types of attitudes. and that's been a wonderful thing to see, all that support coalescing on this issue. that's been wonderful. >> do you think if the players hadn't indicated that they might be boycotting, if major johnson hadn't been forcefully, along with you and others, representing the players, that this would have happened? that this would have unfolded as it did? we have a picture up now of you and major johnson, you know, watching the sacramento player, of course, player rep in this instance, watching that silver news conference. >> i think that commissioner silver really understood how serious this was and his tone and the direct nature of his attempt to deal with it. everybody was really inspired by that. they're not asleep at the wheel at the nba offices. they understand what's going on. and they did the right things a

t the right time. all of the players were 100% behind what he did. in the room as we watched the press conference, when he made the announcement, mayor johnson and a couple other guys stood up and applauded and gave each other high fives because this is just what we wanted to see. >> do you have any thoughts, kareem, about who should buy the team? there's talk of magic. there's talk of oprah. y you're an insider. maybe you can give us some insight there. >> geez, i don't know. but i know whatever happens, if they manage to get the team sold, it will be an improvement. and that's what we want. we want an improvement. it doesn't matter who sits in that chair, as long as they have the right attitude. it doesn't matter who the owner is. >> kareem abdul-jabbar, thank you so much. thank you for the book, the movie, for all you've done. you were here and we talked about your children's book. and we hope you'll come back as we continue to follow this and not let this drop this time. >> great to talk to you, andrea. >> thank you very, very much.

historic rainfall. we can hear some of it right here in the studio over in washington. it's really serious down south, in florida in particular. the past 24 hours has brought the southeast to a standstill. it's being called a once in a generation flood in an area already hard hit by severe weather this week. the tornadoes, of course. the danger is not over yet. nbc's gabe gutierrez reported on the latest from pensacola, florida. >> reporter: andrea, we've been seeing some incredible pictures coming out of pensacola. florida's governor has just declared a state of emergency for 26 counties. the florida panhandle really is at a standstill. that train behind me isn't going anywhere. and many businesses are reporting a lot of damage. this is a major problem. residential areas are heavily flooded. many roads are also shut down. including i-10. that is pretty much impassable. water rescues are ongoing. overnight the florida highway patrol confirms at least one driver died in the rising floodwaters. a major road on the east side of

town, the scenic highway, we understand, is also collapsed. authorities had a tough time getting to some of these residents overnight because of these flooded streets. this area got about 20 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. and more rain is expected later today. andrea, back to you. >> gabe gutierrez in the florida panhandle. extraordinary. we'll get the latest from the emergency operation center there later in the hour. stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ female announcer ] crest presents:

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still 200 are missing. today the parents o f those girls were saying they were sold into marriage to militants. joining me now is michael leiter, msnbc counterterrorism expert. and masi sheegan joining me by skype from abuja. let's talk about boko haram, the group that is credited being held responsible for this horrific kidnapping. and now selling these girls into slavery for a pittance. >> this is a very, very violent group which is -- the name boko haram actually means roughly western education is a sin. over the past five to ten years it has fought against nigerian government and north of nigeria extremely violently. has also been associated with al qaeda. in that sense there's an international flavor to this organization. but it has been absolutely brutal in its attacks. not just kidnapping, but massacres at school. this is another illustration of

a really serious violent islamic extremist element in northern nigeria. >> tell us what we know about the girls and their condition from the reports that you're getting from human rights watch. >> it's honestly been extremely difficult to get much credible information out of northern nigeria right now. the area where the girls were abducted from, there's a bit of mun kags problems around that area. the little we're able to get is from the few people we're able to speak with over the telephone. and none of this information is entirely credible. but we're able to -- what we're able to garner out of all of it is that there are still at least 230 girls being held by boko haram. some of them also confirmed by military forces have been taken out of the forest camp where they were initially taken by the

group. some have been taken across to the border to cameroon. some of them have been taken to chad. and a few are still within the country. but their whereabouts is difficult to assess at this time. the identity of these girls has been held out of media reports for security reasons. the families are concerned. some of the parents have spoken boldly. but we know very little about the girls except that they were in the highest class of secondary school in nigeria. they were writing examinations. all the schools in borno state have been closed until now. this particular school,

secondary school is an examination center for the school examination. not all of them are students from this particular school. they were pulled into that school to write examinations. you would find many of them would be between the ages of 16, maybe a few will be younger than that. but between 16 and 18 years old. >> and, michael leiter, what about the nigerian government? doesn't the central government -- i mean, this is not a poverty stricken country. this is an oil wealthy country with many international corporations there. can't they provide security for their girls and women and can't they move against boko haram? >> well, it's very difficult in this part of the country. as you say, nigeria is not poor. enormous natural resources. huge numbers of western energy companies there. it's the most populous nation in africa by more than two. 155 million people. the problem is that the government's writ of authority is really relatively narrow.

and they have problems in the south in the nigerian delta. they have problems in the north with islamic extremists. and they can't control all these areas. frankly, when they have, lots of their actions have been almost as ruthless as boko haram's. they have gone in with very little discretion and they have killed lots of people, too, fueling some of the radicalization that we've seen in the north over the past five years. >> michael leiter, thank you so much for your insight. mausi segun, thank you for joining us from abuja by skype. we really appreciate that as well. can the world powers in another part of the world save ukraine's economy from russian strangle hold. imf chief, managing director christine lagarde will be joining us tomorrow to discuss a giant aid package to help kiev's struggling government hang on. how will the u.s. deal with turmoil in egypt in egypt's foreign minister nabil fami joining me next. stay with us here on "andrea itch ma mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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the state department is expressing major concerns about human rights violations in egypt. especially after this week's sentencing of 683 defendants to the death penalty. this is only the latest issue with egypt, a historic ally and recipient of a billion and a half dollars in annual u.s. foreign aid. secretary kerry met to discuss this and other issues with foreign minister nabil fahmy only yesterday. he joins me now. it's great to see you. i know you're former u.s. ambassador to washington so we know each other well. explain to our audience, 683. a mass sentencing, death sentences for all of these people. how does egypt defend that against the charges of human rights abuses? >> first of all, by collecting the facts. they have not been sentenced to death. there's no sentence of capital punishment to these people. there's been a request to the senior clerk to see whether the death sentence applies to them or not.

there was a case -- and then the court will decide. and then there will be an appeal process. there was a case just last week, similar consequence. original numbers were 500 something. which, of course, is very large. one death sentence is something of concern to all of us. and you need to ensure due process, transparency, accountability, everything in the process. but the previous case went the same process. starting off at 500. ended up with 37. then immediately it was appealed by the attorney general again. so this is going to be a long process before it ends. the courts are independent. but the legal process reviews itself at each phase until it ultimately reaches a decision. >> there's a lot of concern in the journalistic community, the community to protect journalists and others, about the three al jazeera journalists who have been in jail and have not been given, they say, due process. what can you tell us about the independence of the media and

the jailing of these al jazeera journalists? >> after they were arrested, the government issued a statement to assure foreign journalists that they will have free access, the right to work throughout egypt, security and safety and all that. there have been no other journalists arrested, by the way. this case, once it went to the court, is going to be dealt with completely within the court system. that being said, our president sent a letter to the families of the journalists assuring them there would be a transparent, fair trial. and i would add to that that if there's any need for medical treatment and so on and so forth throughout, he will do that. but like you in america, whether we like it or not, we cannot interfere in anything once it goes to the court system until the end process.

when it ends. one way or the other. if sentenced, the president at that point only can decide whether he wants to confirm the case or provide clemency. until they're finished with all the appeals, they can't interfere. you don't interfere here. democracy is base ed on the separation of powers. >> there is, as you know, a lot of criticism on capitol hill. there's a billion and a half dollars in foreign aid including military aid, apache helicopters and some talk on the hill of cutting back some because of human rights issues. can you, first of all, assure the american people that this election will be held in a fair and transparent way? there's been criticism of the state department and the administration of leaning over backwards to not say what happened with the ouster of the muslim brotherhood, as critical as some are of the brotherhood, were of the brotherhood, that that ouster was not a coup. >> it was not a coup.

it was a popular impeachment. that being said, to answer your question, we've had two revolutions in 2 1/2 years. we've had four presidents in 60 years. and we will have had a fourth president in three years at the end of may. >> that's a lot of turbulence. >> a lot of turbulence. a lot of transformation. we're changing our whole society. if any egyptian authority, president, minister like myself or otherwise, does not recognize that the people want freedom, want democracy, he would be making a huge mistake. but to get the whole system working, it needs to take time. guys, i'm not justifying any mistakes. but look at your own evolution. it didn't happen overnight. we can't afford to take as long because we are late in the process. but the commitment is there to the egyptian people. they're going to hold the new president accountable. as long as you see a positive progression, i think one needs to be optimistic. and we will correct mistakes if they occur. but, again, i think that people

jump to conclusions a bit too quickly. they take information as -- and put it in larger context. but let me just make one last point. one needs to look at the egypt/u.s. relationship a bit more strategically. i may disagree with something in america or vice versa. you're giving us aid and it's highly appreciated. you're giving us aid, for example, military aid for security and stability purposes. a lot of it is about security against terrorism and border security and ensuring peace. >> and not breaking the treaty with israel. >> and not breaking the treaty with israel. if you use that simply as a tool to -- as leverage against every argument or disagreement you have with egypt, you'll end up, if you want, questioning and shaking the very roots of the strategic relationship. we will do better not because

you want us to do better. because egyptians want us to do better. we're on the right track. i'm committed to the road map. and, yes, to the answer to your question, this election will be transparent. you know, as foreign minister, my portfolio is foreign policy. i can tell you we have more foreign organizationsle coming in to follow this election than i know what to do with. because we have responsibility to provide them facilities and access and so on and so forth. it's going to be transparent, believe me. it will be fair. and hopefully the next president will be supported not only by egyptians, but by our friends. because this is going to be a huge challenge in a very volatile region. >> minister fahmy, thank you very much. thanks for being with us. we will follow up after the election. and during. >> thank you. iraq's prime minister nuri al maliki is facing stiff opposition as he's seeking a third term in today's elections there. the country's first nationwide vote since the withdrawal of u.s. troops. the voting takes place, though, under heavy security as sectarian violence continues to plague iraq. 46 people died in a wave of

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our best value plans ever for business. every family member needs to be careful. watch local weather. be careful of tornadoes. don't drive into down water. be careful of downed power lines. be cautious. >> that was, of course, florida governor rick scott this morning declaring a state of emergency for 26 counties crippled by severe flooding. it's already killed one person. the storm system is pushing through north florida and up the eastern seaboard. at many points leaving neighborhood streets and even highways along the panhandle at a standstill. joining me now by phone is bill pearson, spokesman for escambia county in florida, the pensacola area. what is the situation now? i know the i-10 was completely flooded earlier. >> it was, andrea. it's since reopened to slow

traffic. we're starting to see some water receding. in fact, governor rick scott is -- just left our emergency operations center here in pensacola. he's on a tour of escambia county to get a firsthand look of the damage up close and personal. what we're seeing, like i said, is the waters are receding. but the level of concern about people's safety, traveling around the community, has not lessened. the main concern right now is the safety and quality of the structures of the bridges and roadways. we feel with so much water having moved through the area, a lot f o those areas may have been compromised. we're still asking people even though they're seeing some more sunshine in the air, in the sky, to stay home, to stay off the roadways. let us get out there and really do a test to make sure the roadways are safe to travel through. >> with this flooding, you had 20 inches of rain in 24 hours. how long will it take to absorb that water? and is more rain in the forecast? >> we do have some more rain in the forecast, andrea. and we are cautiously optimistic that our ground will be able to

handle that. the topography in northwest florida allows it to recede fairly quickly. we hope in the next six hours, seven hours we really see progress in that and that by the end of the evening we can start focusing not so much on the rescue/recovery phase which we're in right now with people who may still be stranded. we want to turn our attention to the recovery phase which begins tomorrow. the recovery phase will begin with assessment really of how bad the damage is with the roads and the bridges. then we'll move out from there when we talk about structures and places of business, whether they're safe for people to return to. we have a plan in place. we feel like we have nature on our side even though we've been dealt quite the blow. we'll be able to rebound pretty quickly. >> bill pearson, thanks so much. a real can-do spirit there against some really tough odds. thanks for joining us today. coming up next, cruel and unusual. how an execution of a convicted murderer went terribly wrong in oklahoma. stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ups is a global company, but most of our employees

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oklahoma governor mary fallin has ordered an immediate investigation into the execution or attempted excuse of an inmate that went terribly wrong. at issue were the drugs oklahoma officials were using for the lethal injection to execute clayton lockett last night. witnesses includining kfor reporter courtney francisco from our affiliate said they noticed things were not right. >> reporter: after watching lockett's execution for about 16 minutes, it was clear something was not right. he was struggling to get up, to talk, to move around. once the blinds went down and we had no clue of what was going on on the other side of those blinds, no clue of what was happening to the inmate at that point. later they let us out of that room. and we found out that it took him until 7:05 to actually die.

>> lockett died of a heart attack. it was 43 minutes after receiving the first injection. the state immediately postponed a second execution that had also been scheduled for last night. at least for two weeks until they can figure out what happened, what went wrong. joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete william ts and huffington post political editor sam stein who's been following this intensively as well. pete, law is very clear. they had the legal right to execute these two prisoners. but there is an issue of cruel and unusual punishment. and these lethal injections, the meds used, are very much at issue. >> they are. this has been a furious legal battle in oklahoma about whether the state could do this. what the lawyers for these inmates have been saying in cases that have bounced to the supreme court and back again is the states are having trouble getting the normal chemicals they use for lethal injection. so they're having to go to new suppliers and use these drugs in different combinations. the lawyers say, we need to know who's making these drugs, what's

in them, so that we can assess whether the execution is going to be well carried out. the state supreme court cleared the way for these executions by saying, no, these inmates, these condemned prisoners have no right to know who is making these drugs. and now the lawyers are saying, look what happens when you use an untested procedure. >> sam stein, this is a national issue. there are a number of states and defense lawyers around the country saying that these lethal injections are no longer reliable. and are cruel and unusual punishment and should be stopped by the u.s. supreme court. >> yeah. i mean, it's been a national issue. the actual support for death penalty is on the gradual decline. pete made a very valid point which is that because we're running out of supply of the commonly used chemicals to have these executions, people are looking for different cocktails of drugs. there's even been a movement to bring backfiring squads in some states. but this is a huge issue now that we've seen another botched execution. keep in mind, a botched execution happened in ohio not too long ago in which an inmate

was made to wait 24 minutes or so before he died. and this is a huge problem facing the governor. in part because of the state supreme court initially stayed the execution so they could figure out what was in the chemicals and was under pressure from the governor's office that they reverse their decision. she ordered officials to go ahead with the execution anyway. a state representative in the state had threatened impeachment of the justices on the court. so, yeah, now it's in the limelight. >> lockett's attorney, the inmate who died last night, but not from the lethal injection, this is dave ottry, his attorney. >> this was a horrible thing to witness. one of the things he said was something's wrong. he said, man, at one point. he kept trying to raise up. they wanted to hurry up and get it done. with as little transparency as possible. this is what they get. >> and the fact is from these witness -- eyewitness reports, not just the attorney but the reporter as well, he did try to

get up. after he was supposedly sedated and receiving the lethal dose. >> or according to other witnesses, at least was sort of twitching or spasming or something. not clear exactly what happened. but here's the background here. 2008, the u.s. supreme court upheld lethal injection with three commonly used kem cchemic. they said it's not completely painless but seems to be better than the alternatives. the suppliers of those chemicals have slowly been saying, no, we're not going to provide the drugs anymore for lethal injections. >> why? >> they don't want to be part of it anymore. >> moral grounds? >> yeah. either makers in the u.s. aren't making it or suppliers overseas where there's much more opposition won't send them to the u.s. states are going to unknown suppliers or using older stocks that may be expired or go to what are called compounding pharmacies which will make the chemicals up. who knows who the compounding pharmacies are? nine states have laws saying you can't know who they are on the theory that if you make it public, they'll be subject to

harassment by death penalty opponents. >> sam stein, you mentioned the american people are less supportive than in the past of the death penalty. what do you see happening here politically? >> well, the governor is supposed to speak today to what happened. i can imagine that there's going to be some intense political pressure in her state to explain what exactly went wrong, why she was pushing so strongly to see this execution through when there was questions about the chemical composition. but also you have to keep in mind the timing of this is extraordinarily bad. it was just two days ago that a study came out that said that 1 out of every 25 people on death row who have been executed are likely innocent of their crimes. so there's been a renewed spotlight put on this. i'm not sure how long it will last, frankly. but for the time being, we're having a really -- we're having an important national discussion over it. >> sam stein, pete williams, thank you both so much. stay with us right here. there's more ahead on "andrea mitchell reports." so i tried depend last weekend. so i it made the difference between hearing about my daughter's gym meet, and being there. yeah! nailed it! i got back to doing what i love.

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and which political story

will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza is here. chris, we've had the vote. the senate republicans as expected blocked the vote on the minimum wage increase. it's election year. democratic bill. one republican, bob corker, crossing the lines. only one republican. but now the president is going to be speaking about this at 3:00. >> yeah. the president speaking about it at 3:00 was pretty planned. but not by accident, andrea. this, as you said, an expected block procedurally by senate republicans. president obama to talk about it in the east room, fresh off of his asia trip. probably a little bit jet lagged, to be honest. this is the issue that democrats think is part of sort of a little pallet of issues that focus on, they're not for us. this repeat of the argument made in 2012. that republicans are looking out for their wealthy friends and donors. not looking out for the middle class. they think this fits that narrative and they'll be pushing it hard. >> may i just say, 6 out of 10 people, americans, making the minimum wage are women. chris cillizza, thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, my exclusive interview with the imf managing director, christine lagarde. you crane aid. ronan farrow daily is next. aflac. ♪ aflac, aflac, aflac! ♪ [ both sigh ] ♪ ugh! ♪ you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days.

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big news today. and it's all a little embarrassing. a grisly, botched execution embarrasses oklahoma authorities. an embarrassed paul ryan tries to explain himself to the congressional black kcaucus. and who will by the l.a. clippers from the embarrassment that is donald sterling. i mean, i'm starting a kickstarter right now. >> we are one! >> the los angeles clippers take to their home court for the first time since their owner received an unprecedented lifetime ban from basketball. >> the big question, will donald sterling fight to keep his team if the owners force him to sell? oklahoma's governor is demanding the review of the state's execution procedures after a botched execution. >> they wanted to hurry up and

get it done. with as little transparency as possible. this is what they get. we have pivoted from the severe weather to the flooding. >> the flooding has been historic. worse than many of the hurricanes we've dealt with recently. >> flooding from new england all the way down to the panhandle of florida. the poll shows that 38% approve of the president's handling on foreign policy. overall, though, the president's job approval ratings are better than last month's records low. this photo was posted oen the official "star wars" site. join the cast of the franchise seventh film assembling at a london script reading. >> so far we know mark camel, carry fisher and harrison ford are all going to be in the new movie which will be titled "episode 7: a new hip." first up today, the clippers scored a big win on the court last night.