>> in politics, can president obama get his groove back. pund ets asking that very question. personally time to take a step back. >> rob ford is back in the news today. new images surface that appear to show him smoking crack. >> what? >> no, no. >> this time it looks like the public shaming may have finally done the trick. abby, i know it's a story you're interested in this afternoon. he's off to rehab. six inches of rain in pensacola last night in one hour is almost a once in a 500-year event. >> it reached its height late tuesday night shutting down i-10 leaving drivers trapped in their vehicles some for up to ten hours. >> driver hs to be rescued leaving cars submerged in water. >> the area saw up to two feet

of rain in 24 hours. >> all my baby's thing, everything i own is gone. >> look at these rainfall totals again. five inches in central park. >> drivers were at times surprised by the roads turned rivers right in front of them. >> it's been about five difs nonstop one breaking weather story after the other. today is the day we all just say what just happened. >> and we begin with the calm after that crazy spring storm. a slow mover that hit everyone from the midwest all the way out east north to south. twisters, torrential rains, once in a lifetime flooding, we've seen it all. in baltimore this afternoon engineers are still trying to determine the structural integrity of this road that buckled sending cars and mud tumbling 75 feet to the train tracks below. >> we heard a very large boom. two seconds later the house swayed kind of like this. >> i think of a sinkhole, i think of florida, not baltimore.

>> everyone was safe there but we've seen at least 30 deaths from the storm system mostly in tornado alley. two people were killed in an explosion in a jail in hard-hit pensacola, florida. investigators are working to determine whether a flooded laundry room was the source of the leak gas that caused it. we're expecting an update from authorities soon on that. pensacola received a foot and a half of rain. that has made getting around on foot, by car or in the air nearly impossible. sips tuesday there have been more than 24,000 flight delays nationwide. many coming from the big hubs of new york and atlanta, washington's dulles airport reported its wettest april day on record wednesday. we've got a team of reporters covering the aftermath of this huge storm. the weather channel is on it from their headquarters in atlanta. but let's begin with the crazy scene from that sink hole in

baltimore. kristin well can her is there for us. >> let me tell you the latest. as we speak, cranes are 75 feet below the ground trying to remove those eight cars that were still on the train tracks as of this afternoon. we just stood with one resident as he watched his car getting smashed and then cart on to a train of sorts to be carried off. he was screaming, no, no, no, as he watched this scene unfold. a lot of residents here still stunned, still trying to accept what has happened in their neighborhood. the good news is that no one was hurt. let me just recap what happened, taking you back to last night. this area in baltimore got about seven inches of rain on top of the weeks of wet weather that they had had prior to that. so that's what caused this partial road collapse. and the retaining wall there gave way, which is what allowed

about 11 cars to fall 75 feet. three of them didn't fall all the way down, by the way. so those were the first to be removed. fire officials have spent the day trying to secure this area. they've capped off gas lines so there's no concern about a gas leak, but residents in this area have been evacuated and there's no word on when exactly they're going to be allowed back into their homes. i spoke with one fire official who said they won't be allowed back until they're absolutely certain this area is safe. an elementary school in the area is closed for the day. a lot of residents are expressing general frustration because they had expressed concerns about this retaining wall to city officials in the past. they didn't get a response. the mayor of the city have said that their concerns will be a big part of this investigation moving forward as they look into how this could have happened in first place. residents who i have spoken with today say they're concerned about other retaining walls in the area.

the cleanup continues here. officials trying to remove the debro. trying to remove those cars that are still sitting on the train tracks. as rnts still watch, they're stunned and frustrated this afternoon. >> such a crazy scene there. kristen welker in baltimore. thank you so much. now to the latest on the florida panhandle as if the massive flooding was not enough. officials are now dealing with the aftermath of an explosion at the county jail that may have been triggered by a flooded-out laundry room. two inmates were killed. 184 other people were hurt. most of them have been released from the hospital at this point. three inmates do remain unaccounted for. we're expecting an update on the confusion surrounding that. chip is in pensacola for us. what's the latest there? >> reporter: this is the latest here. basically as you said, five inmates are missing. two are confirmed dead and still in that jail building. as far as where the other three

are, we just don't know. those three inmates could be in there buried under some debris. that's what fire officials are trying to figure out at this time. or they could be on the run at this hour. the explosion happened right around 11:00 last night central time. it ripped through central booking where inmates are brought in and released. fire rescue rushed to the scene and aided in the triage and evacuation. injured inmates and officers were taken to local hospitals for treatment. those who weren't hurt were taken to other corrections facilities here in escambia counties in florida panhandle. 600 inmates were in the jail at the time and all but 3 were accounted for. is the blast a result of all this flooding we saw yesterday? here's what the sheriff had to say. >> this is speculative at this point. but there was a retaining wall that was built, but there was significant flooding even a week

ago that caused a wall to collapse, then the torrential rains that we suffered through just yesterday i'm sure exacerbated the condition. >> reporter: and the state fire marshal and atf are on scene here trying to investigate, to figure tout cause of the this blast. it could be flooding, that's the speculation at this point. >> clip osowski, thank you for that. what's next for your forecast kelly cass has all the answers. >> mind boggling that we set such a record in pensacola. we're used to tropical systems is along the west coast but wednesday indeed 15 1/2 inches, a new record for the day. we did see 2 feet of rain across the gulf coast. then we saw record breaking amounts of rainfall for d.c., philadelphia, nearly 5 inches. new york city officially at

central park, 2 to 3. so no wonder we had issues at the airports and the phillies, the yankees, they got rained out last night as well. we are tracking some showers and thunderstorms especially in south carolina and all the way down here into northern florida. you can see jacksonville getting rocked by storms right now. thank tflle our severe weather threat is greatly diminished today. if you are at the theme parks in orlando. otherwise a cool day for atlanta. 71 degrees. certainly below average. saturday a much better day for pensacola as we pick up all the debris from those storms. charlotte looking great. then on sunday even florida, we get a chance to dry things out. looks like the sun comes out. temperatures very comfortable. you'll notice humidity is much lower all across the southeast

just in time for the weekend. >> kelly cass, thanks so much. that's your weather update. can the president get his groove back? you got to love that headline from the hill this morning. a lot of politics to go as "the cycle" rolls on.

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ends sunday. ♪ sleep train ♪ ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ president obama's approval numbers are up slightly. they're rebounding a bit from his 39% slump earlier this winter. that doesn't mean he's in demand for every democrat running for office, of course. however as congress heads towards the last elections in the obama era, if that tension sounds familiar, some people don't want to run with him, that's because it is.

the political press was asking just how the president became mr. unpopular. that was before his party took a midterm beating but also before he went on to a resounding re-electi re-election. that article was time magazine's washington bureau chief. welcome. how are you? >> i'm doing very well. >> let's start with one piece. obama will never be on another ballot. how potent is it for republicans to keep running hard against what will be a lame duck president and to ask sort of the middle school question, at some point don't they just look like they're obsessed with it? >> at some point? >> yeah, i think that's true. but the a main factor here is not messaging, not whether they're running against obama or obama care, it will be who shows up at the polls. the early polls so far show a repeat of what happened in 2010. obama just at this moment doesn't have an ability in an off-year election when he's not on the ballot to get the same

voters to the polls. republicans do have the ability to get their voters to polls in off-year elections. they vote every time. the message will matter in a few close races but the big factors in what's going to happen this november are going to be in the house redrrting and who ends up coming out to the polls. on both of those counts democrats are at a huge disadvantage. really the game here is just to play the margins in a few of these senate seats to see if they can hold on. >> there used to be a time when politician, at least some of them, were well respected, even liked among a majority of people. >> i don't remember that time. >> i'm pretty sure i read about it. toure remembers. >> i do. >> but our latest poll that came out yesterday, the nbc "wall street journal" poll was shocking just how low these numbers, president obama sitting at 44% looks reasonably good when you compare it to where the

republican party is at 25%, the democratic party is not much better at 36%, the tea party at 22. but then you look at potential 2016 contenders, hillary clinton is at 48%, rand paul 23, bloomberg 18 and jeb bush at 21. what is going on here? how much is based on these individuals? and how much is the fact that we're so sick and tired of nothing getting done in d.c. that we just blame everyone for it? >> i think clearly the american people have lost faith in d.c. as a city or a place where problems will get solved. they've lost faith for good reason. the polls may be more of just a lot of american voters just don't know those people. rand paul or jeb bush. a lot of americans haven't yet been introduced. if you were polling how many people have favorable views of barack obama back in 2006 he would also have low numbers. just because people didn't know who he was. the premise that the american

people are sick and tired the of washington and the people who occupy washington has been true for four elections. obama has been successful in two presidential elections. definitely in 2008, less so in 2012. you can have some faith in that. but once he gets to washington he's largely been a disappointment especially for the independent voters in the middle who tend to have the biggest effect on things like approval. the reason obama has been coming down since the last election has a lot to do with that. >> i think we tend to look at at least the senate elections for 2014 and a little bit of the wrong way. we tend to think about these big national trends. but the senate level when you're running statewide you have a lot of money to separate yourself from the president, from the party to be your own party and run on the platform that works for you and works for your state. so we are seeing this dynamic where the president's approval ratings are not that good, yet

when you look at these embattled democrats, mark pryor being a prime example here, he's actually up on his opponent. aren't these races really much more about the sort of individual dynamics in their states at the senate level anyway than about the sort of big national trends with the president and with obama care? >> well, it depends on the state. but i think you're absolutely right. in a case like pryor's in arkansas, he's a name, he's a face that arkansans. >> that's a tough word. >> arkansans. >> that's it. >> he's had pretty effective ads, waving a bible at the camera, a couple of medi-scare ads that have been ruled ineffective by the media. his opponent hasn't been able to define himself as well coming out of the gate. i think mark begich in alaska is running a good campaign up there.

both have made it clear to their state that they are not barack obama, that they do not align themselves with him. that they've distanced from him on key issues. voters in those states are smart enough to recognize that. they voted for pryors in arkansas for years and voted for begichs in alaska for years. the biggest factor here for all parties, all candidates is that the electorate is going to be different. and that's different nationally. that's something that just happens with the cycle. and it's not as if one state is going to suddenly have great turnout. >> oh, not with us. got it, cool. i understand. there's quite often a disconnect between the media, the commentary and the folks in the country even though the commentary likes to act that is not the case. right now in terms of where the media elite folks are on foreign

policy and interventionism, i think is completely out of step with where the folks are "the wall street journal"/nbc poll shows a record percentage of people who want america to do less in terms of foreign policy. and that fits i think with the decidedly circumspect and cautious approach the president has taken. >> i think that's right. on those issues, i don't think he gets a lot of points for being a bold leader, but it does matter that he's not doing the kind of things the american people don't want him doing, that is getting involved in new foreign wars. he came into office saying he wouldn't do that, he's been successful with the exception of a surge in afghanistan and mostly keeping us out of new ground wars. there's a disconnect there. next to politicians pundits are wildly unpopular by the american people. the concern in washington is if america continues to be pushed

around and if putin is able to take a chunk of ukraine or maybe more if he starts going to other countries that were once part of the soviet union, you could have real international complications which the american people in polls are not thinking about. they're thinking about iraq and afghanistan and the fact that for a decade we've been in wars that we'd rather not be in. >> everyone's going to kill me at the table for asking this, but i've got to ask it. >> uh-oh. >> i've got to ask about benghazi. i know you'll kill me for this. but we have new documents out. i want your thoughts. how do you think this is going to play out if hilly does decide to run? it does given amunation saying you were a part of the executive branch and there was a failure. if you can't even do that, how can you do this as president of the united states? how will she handle that one? >> there was a failure. hillary clinton won't admit there was a failure. she has a book tour coming and she'll address this scare on. i'm not sure by 2016 it will be

the issue it is now. this is an issue for republicans to fill the void of a slow news cycle to get things going. the white house has clearly made a mistake by not getting all this information out there soon enough. a lot of the scandal of ben gaz ne that e-mail from ben rhodes that we've been talking about is really about why this stuff didn't come out before. the white house has an explanation for why he wrote that, but this is what the white house is trying to do, do damage control. when you have the scandals, best not to too damage control. best to try to deal with everything right away. and i think if more stuff comes out, the drip drip, it will continue to be an issue, but by the time we're voting in 2016, the american people are voting in 2016 they'll be voting on mortgages, jobs, the future, they won't be voting on a tragedy that happened, at that point, four or five years ago. >> i hear you on that.

thanks for joining us. up next a big story. abby is -- >> i'm upset. >> it's a big one. we'll get some of your thoughts. >> so lucky, it's my birthday, you can talk about rob ford. >> back in the news. ♪ [ woman ] the day of my first presentation?

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performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. and topping the news cycle, abby, listen up, toronto mayor rob ford is heading to rehab. he's taking a temporary leave from office after new pictures surface that appear to show him smoking crack as recently as last weekend. nbc news has not verified the authenticity of those pictures. mayor ford says he still plans to run for re-election, everyone, never fear, but is taking a break from the campaign for now. >> will we have more on that when warranted? >> i can't get enough of this

guy. we're learning more about what happened in the moments after malaysian flight 370 went miss. the new details came from an april report just made public today. air traffic controllers did not realize the plane was missing until 17 minutes after it disappeared from radar. search and rescue operation wasn't launched until four hours later. flight 370 went missing eight weeks ago tomorrow. another top story. we're cleaning up from all that rain out here in the east, wildfires are what's new back in the west. a thousand acre fire east of l.a. is only 10% contained. this afternoon evacuation orders have been canceled for now. residents have been told to be ready to leave at a moment's mow. crews are battling 80-mile-an-hour santa ana winds and temperatures that top 100. in the sports world the nba's post-sterling era continues tonight as the clippers try to close out their playoff series against the

golden state warriors. in oakland, let's bring in nbc news' mike taibbi. the weight of the world was lifted off of the players' shoulders the other night. but now the burden of trying to sell the team begins. >> it will be complicated. not quite the post-sterling era yet, toure. he's got to agree to sell it if that's what the other 29 owners ask that he do. we've e-mailed the ten teams involved in a conference call today which will do a couple of things. it will start the process of kicking him out of the club if that happens. all ten teams said there won't be a comment today about the conference call. but we can tell you after studying the nba constitution, that here's how it can go and it can go very quickly within a couple of weeks. this conference call will lead to a charge or charges sent to the commissioner, adam silver. he'll then have three days to essentially serve donald sterling with a list of those charges or that charge. he'll then have five days to issue a written response and within ten days after that, that

would essentially be the equivalent of a trial before the full board of the other 29 owners or representative of his team as well, the clippers. at that trial he can be represented by counsel. and if he's found guilty of the most important charge, which is essentially a violation of the best interests of the game clause in the nba constitution, then 23 of the 29 other owners have to find him guilty for that charge to stand and the commissioner then has the right under the constitution to take over the assets and the operation of the clippers and transfer them or assign them to anothere entity, i.e., another owner. but for all that to happen sterling has to agree, but at this stage he hasn't agreed and maybe there's not a likelihood that he would agree to sell. although it would be while he has a contender and great young players. a contender for years and a very large new tv contract on the near horizon.

all that's happening right now. it could be resolved in a couple of weeks. if sterling decides to stand and fight, it could take months and even years. so we're not at the post-sterling era yet. the clippers have suddenly become america's team, cheered on by fans for their victory over evil and coveted by one-percenters. the chance to be seen in the conversation. there's still no airtight guarantee. as mike said, that sterling will sell any time soon. he could initiate a lengthy legal battle but the other nba owners will be conferencing soon to discuss when they'll force sterling out and they'll be strategizing on how to pressure him out. there's a lot of people that have said, well, there's a difficult lining to all this because sterling will personally profit mightily from this forced

sale if that happens. lee steinberg, the famous agent, cured me of that perspective because sterling has 1.5, $2 billion, something like that. if you add another 700 million on top of that to an 80-something-year-old, his life won't change. there's no other opportunity he will gain. you can only fly in one private jet at a time. you can only sit or sleep in one mansion at a time. even adding a billion dollars to his multibillion dollar fortune doesn't change him at all. what he wanted was the visibility and social capital of owning this high profile asset. not being a part of the nba and go to parties and say i'm the owner of the l.a. clippers, that's more painful for him. that's not resolved by getting a billion dollars in return. what i hope to see out of this, abby, i know you've been on this story, is that we get a black owner out of this so that some

of the wealth that's created by these black players in the nba is brought back into the black community. there are three professional sports leagues, 92 teams, 1 black principal owner, i think you've heard of him, michael jordan. need to have more. >> the person i'm rooting for is magic johnson. toure, you said this would be the perfect ending to such a horrible story. to think that sterling was so racist that he frowned upon probably the most well respected african-american in the country and maybe even in the world. that magic would say i'd be willing to own the other l.a. team, i think it would change the dynamics. i think we're all taking a step back and realizing the impact this has had. i cannot say more positive things about the way adam silver has handled the situation. i've heard kareem abdul-jabbar. he said sports has been a great opportunity for people to step forward and make change.

another example of the way we think and the way we talk about race. >> i think it's going to change. it is setting a precedent in terms the of the way we view owners and the -- >> sure. >> what we expect from owners, you know? this is not sterling's first brush with racism. >> right. >> he has a history, he has a past. i think going forward, no one would be able to get away with what he has gotten away with up till this point. some of the owners reportedly were nervous about the precedent this would set, that their lives would be scrutinized and they could be forced out in the future if they did something that was untoward, racist, sexist like don sterling did. they were right to be nervous. and i'm glad that precedent has been set. i don't see any reason why we should accept that from nba owners. >> a huge story about sports, race and who we want to be as a country. it's a story about ownership and labor, although we don't think

about it first in this way. when we look at the by-laws which i was studying up on today, there's a lot in here about players and rules for players and discipline for players. they're well compensated labor, they're not your normal minimum wage worker. but similar to a lot of workplaces in the u.s. where there's a whole lot more about what's going to hold workers accountable than what's going to hold management accountable. that reflects the politics, that reflects the law. basically there is a best interests of the game and detriment clause and the commissioner has the sole authority to decide whether he thinks you had that detrimental impact. everyone thinks there was a detrimental impact here. then you can vote and not something the lawyers can go fight over. if there's a bigger lesson here for sports, it's good when we hold the owners and the managers accountable to the rules that they usually only use against

their employees. >> very interesting. >> why the d.c. gridlock is making your state races even more important. yes, as abby always says, all politics is local. woman: this is not exactly what i expected. man: definitely more murdery than the reviews said. captain obvious: this is a creepy room. man: oh hey, captain obvious. captain obvious: you should have used hotels.com. their genuine guest reviews are written by guests who have genuinely stayed there. instead of people who lie on the internet. son: look, a finger. captain: that's unsettling. man: you think? captain: all the time. except when i sleep.

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with gridlock in washington most of the major legislating is now happening on the state level. marriage equality takes effect in illinois next month. a higher minimum wage with washington state leading the pack. vermont's push for gmo labeling. georgia's safe carry protection act, aka, the gubs everywhere bill. north carolina's voter i.d. push. plus laws on the books in texas that drastically reduce a woman's access to abortion services. whether you support those are not this is what's getting through our nation's state houses. in her latest "washington examiner" piece, the kind of statehouse fireworks that come from single-party control shows

little sign of abatement. betsy joins us now. one of the things you talk about in the article is the sort of march of republicans through the south continues. they've progressively been flipping legislatures red in the south year after year. what are some of the states that are poised to potentially flip to republicans this november? >> the number one statehouse that has a chance of turning republican is west virginia. the west virginia house is, sources i've talked to, say it's more likely it will flip republican than it will stay democratic. national republican groups will definitely be spending money on the races there. also in kentucky democrats have held the house since i think 1921. national republican groups are hoping to have a historic win in that chamber as well. >> what about the democrats? they have some legislatures that they're hoping to pick up, what does that look like? >> democrats are most optimistic in wisconsin.

there's a decent chance they'll cut into republican majorities spp especially in michigan, the state party hopes they'll be able to run against governor snyder's record and say that michigan is supposed to be blue, let's take the house back. >> in wisconsin yesterday a federal judge ruled -- struck down their attempt to do voter i.d. this is something that's being legislated in a lot of states. it's actually really disturbing that we have this sort of basic civil rights issue being decided state by state rather than at a federal level. and this is sort of the challenge that we have of legislatures having so much power over issues that actually shouldn't vary from state to state. >> it is interesting, yeah. and that's one of the interesting things about what states are capable of doing is that a lot of issues that you might expect to be national, for instance, issues like abortion, issues like undocumented immigrant's relationship with the nation of america should look like, these issues that you

would think should be left to the federal government are under the state's purview. >> the same laws popping up in state after state across the country. and you have a number of organizations, chief among them, a.l.e.c, which is prominent on the right. they introduce this legislation, then introduce it across the country. even though the legislation is being put in state by state, there is actually a nationwide concert eed effort to push the same legislative action. >> there are a lot of unified goals across different states and different geographic regions. when we talk about these kind of laws, it's important to remember that the actual parliamentary rules of different statehouses can have really significant impacts. arkansas the house and senate passed a 12 or 13-week ban on

abortions. the democratic governor vetoed it but because in arkansas the legislature can overturn the veto with a simple majority, they overturned his veto. >> this is where the focus should be on the united states. all politics is local. maybe that's not always been the case but we can't rely on the federal government to get much of anything done. it will come down to the states and legislatures to pass things. >> what's fascinating about this is it gives you a sense of what political parties have to do when they want power. if you want to know what a power might look like look at red states. people talk about politicians lying but in these situations they're very honest. new mexico is interesting, susanna martinez is pushing hard for the law that gives undocumented immigrants driver's licenses. that's something she ran on. if republicans take the house in this fall and if they can take

the senate in 2016 and if martinez stays in power, that can be atop the agenda. that's something you can expect to see more of. >> you've seen even in texas very red state and also in virginia and north carolina real backlash from the single party rule where you have, you know, legislators going way farther than the voters even want them to go, but betsy, one thing that i've been thinking about for a while and wondering if you have a perspective on is republicans tend to be better about thinking at the local and the state level because it's more consistent with their philosophy of state control and local control, whereas democrats tend to not focus as much on those races and spend more of their mind share on the federal level which is really to their detriment a lot of times. >> that's true. especially given the rise of the tea party in 2010, have you this broad national network of very

energized, often very effective local activists and local issues even talk about common core, which you see a lot of activity on the state level. republicans have been very effective. virginia, as you mentioned, is a fascinating example. democrats control the senate and the governorship but republicanses who control the house have fought hard against the medicaid expansion. it's interesting because it does show republicans practicing what they preach in terms using state and local governments. >> interesting stuff. up next it is graduation time for millions of college students across the country. what are they going to do next? probably not get a well paying job. >> ooh. >> the stark reality and what we can do about it.

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♪ college graduation season is upon us. this weekend graduates will flood the job market looking to start a career and build what they hope will be their own version of the american dream. but if they're like recent grads what they may find is anything but bright. a stunning 284,000 college graduates were paid the minimum wage in 2012. these low wages come amid crushing student loan debt now worth over $1 trillion. student loan debt is the only debt where delinquency rates have risen. not mortgages, not credit cards,

just student loans. when you hear about the minimum wage battle playing out in congress, remember, these are the real people it affects, our future leaders. joining us is the co-founder of our time, a nonprofit organization that represents the economic interests of young people. he's the radio host of the new show our time with matthew siegel. congratulations on the new show. >> thanks, abby. >> this is an issue that i talk a lot about on the show and does deserve more attention. young people they're getting the shaft. students graduate college, have a good education, but then are buried in debt, underemployed and they're underpaid. really no surprise there's strong bipartisan support among these young people for raising the minimum wage. why is this not incentive enough for d.c. to act and what impact would it have on young people? >> because d.c. is not accountable to the american people or to young people. look, this is one of the rare issues where you actually see

bipartisanship. "reason" magazine which is a libertarian magazine said 64% of republicans support raising the minimum wage. over 80% of young democrats support raising minimum wage. we know the american people do. how is it possible that the senate voted not to even hear debate on the minimum wage? clearly they're held by the ceos of fast food restaurants. economic gains went to the top 1%. it's clear who they're representing and it's not the college graduates. they love to pay us lip service. but this only further tarnishes our trust of government which is at record lows. >> you're right, they're accountable and focused on the needs of big business and the 1%. they get what they want, everybody else gets the shaft. but young people, part of why they don't get the

accountability that you want them to get or not getting the attention you want them to get is because they don't vote. they don't show up to the polls like older folks do, like social security folks do. why aren't they voting? >> you're in the fact that we have to do a much better job of mobilizing young people to vote. that's part of the responsibility of organizations like ourtime.org to register and get them to vote. a lot has to do with the lingering understanding that the system is rigged, and when the system is rigged people say, what the heck should i vote for? what outcome will it bring? of course, that's ironic because it seeds more power to special interests. but what we have to do is make the case to vote in big numbers and big numbers will ultimately make politicians slightly more accountable to us but we have to make economic arguments in our favor, which is to say if minimum wage is raised, that's going to immediately go back into the economy. it's going to also be used for savings, so we can one day

afford a home or car or any other consumer good that will affect the whole macro economy. let's not be myopic to think it's a minimum wasn't, not in any way affect the overall economy but affect some poor, minority constituency here. >> right. matt, you know, we've seen that young people tend to, in their views, be more liberal, as you're pointing out, supporting minimum wage and more government efforts to combat income inequality. is the tough environment impacting their political beliefs for the long term? >> i think so. i think a lot of the research we've seen shows that young people want -- ironically they don't trust government but want more government intervention from a government that would understand that we need investments in things like national service. we need to ensure that higher education is funded but also colleges are held accountable so

they don't keep raising tuition and we don't raise interest rates on student loans so that by the time you graduate, you're in a deep hole that you can't get your head above water. >> absolutely. matt segal, you're all over the issues. appreciate it as always. >> take care. >> we have one more little note before we take a break today. >> oh, no. >> if you have not noticed, it's abby huntsman's birthday. happy 21st. we'll buy you the first beer later. we could not let the special day go uncelebrated. we have cupcakes for you. >> i have the best job on earth. so sweet of you. look amazing. >> i hate chocolate. >> really? >> no. >> you're kidding. >> i was like -- >> if i had chocolate on my face in the rant -- >> you'll know why. >> have extra cup for the rant. >> that is your present that you get to do a rant. >> i'm so excited. i'm so pumped. >> prepared for the rant in. >> that's coming up next.

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what's your policy? america passed the civil rights ability. also 50 years ago that the republican nominee for president, barry goldwater, voted against it. you know how much of the black vote he won in 1964? 6%. if you're thinking, republicans have always done poorly with african-americans, you'd be wrong. as "the washington post" points out, richard nixon, four years earlier, in 1960 lost the general election but won 32% of the vote. lincoln was the first republican

president. but since goldwater, the party hasn't broken 18% of the national election. here's why i bring this up. history is once again repeating itself. this was goldwater's pledge when announcing his candidacy, i will not change my beliefs to win votes, i will offer a choice not an echo. that choice between conservatives that resisted federal power versus the republican establishment. who at least in the mind of goldwater supporters were too accommodating and to compromising on welfare and civil rights. what happened in that election year? goldwater lost pretty much every state in america. yet here playing this out all over again knowing exactly what outcome will be. a republican party divided between the huber conservative and everyone else. with that divide, a lacking unified message on pretty much anything. democrats to their credit have been smart to jump on this, attaching any extreme view to the broader party overall. the gop makes those an easy task. look to their response to cliven

bundy. i think this guy deserves no where near the attention he craves but initial sympathy from conservatives like rand paul and sean hannity, they've made him a huge story, elevating bundy to hero status without knowing anything about him other than his hate for the federal government. conservatives jumped on the bandwagon. look how that turned out. democrats and left painting the racist brush on everybody who quickly jumped on the bundy bandwagon. this important question, what is the bigger prize? political power and legitimacy conferred by majorities at ballot box or your pride, tied up with individual, unsuited to the role of matter? do not take too long to answer. he's right. the clock is ticking. republicans lose once again in 2016 the party will officially be out 0 of business. they'll be hitting up late night comedy for paychecks for all of the material they continue to provide them. if they play their cards right they might get a guest

appearance on "duck dynasty," toure's favorite show. do you want to win or do you want to lose? i'm not talking about winning congratulationsle seats. many of those are virtually locked in. i'm talking about actually winning the popular vote in a general election. something that the party's not done since 1988 other than once. if you want to win, stop continuing the same mistakes of goldwater in elections past. winning is going to take more than 6% of the african-american vote. let's start by putting the bundys of the world out of the fringe where they belong. that does it for "the sykecycle" >> may day distress call from workers around the world. it is thursday, may 1st, and this is "now." >> people ask me, do republicans care about the poor as democrats do? i'm not sure we do. >> it's may day, also known as international workers day.

>> president obama's lashing out against senate republicans for blocking an increase in the federal minimum wage. >> refuses to act on unemployment insurance. >> the president says their vote denied millions of americans a way out of poverty. >> many republicans want to do away with minimum wage so the workers in america can earn three or four dollars an hour. >> do republicans care about the poor as democrat dozen. i'm not sure we do. >> poverty is very, very high. wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well. >> big wall street banks considered too big to jail. >> no one goes to jail. >> so proud to be democrats, here for an economy that works for everyone, not just wealthy. >> the republican party has become a right wing extremist party. >> people ask, do republicans care much about the poor as democrat dozen. i'm not sure we do. >> workers of the world unite. this may day, protests and demonstrations around the globe are