frog. fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. we're totally on the same page. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. fraud protection. get it at discover.com some hidden messages, maybe some political insight on 2016 from president obama on washington's big night of the year, the white house correspondents' dinner. a night for the president to poke fun at the press and himself. >> what a year, huh? i usually start these dinners with a few self-deprecating jokes. after my stellar 2013, what could i possibly talk about? >> we'll have some political talk and comic review this morning and a surprise guest will join our round table. grammy award winner, innovator and social activist will.i.am will be here. plus, the conversation continues about racism and sports after

the controversy surrounding donald sterling, i'll speak exclusively with a former nba call star who played a big role in the punishment, sacramento mayor kevin johnson. and the president has ordered a review of the death penalty. rick perry, governor of texas, the state that executes the most prisoners, will be here. i'll go one-on-one with him this morning. from nbc news in washington, the world's longest running television program, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. and good sunday morning. the white house correspondents' dinner and the weekend of socializing it has spawned has become a highly charged, pretty heavily scrutinized mix of washington and hollywood. it is a night when the capital comes together in bipartisan good humor for the most part, but with sarcasm, the tensions pretty easy to spot. what did we learn from president obama about how he sees the 2016 race for his job among

democrats? here are a couple key moments. >> let's face the facts. you will miss me when i'm gone. it will be harder to convince the american people that hillary was born in kenya. >> later, the president joked about a recent encounter hillary clinton had in las vegas. >> it's a long time between now and 2016, and anything can happen. you may have heard the other day hillary had to dodge a flying shoe at a press conference. >> that, of course, the vice president doing some joking around. so was obama tipping his hand about 2016? i have got my political round table here. joining us for the first time, will.i.am from the black eyed peas. obviously the founder president of i am angel foundation hoping to transform young people's lives through education and opportunity, an innovator, also a supporter of the president. good to have you here.

from "the washington post," kathleen parker. our political director, chuck todd. former communications director for the obama administration anita dunn, and congressman from utah, jason chaffetz. welcome to all of you. all right, chuck todd, you got some humor there. you also maybe had some clues 20 -- about 2016. >> some clues? there's even a third joke you didn't do about showing him moving out of the oval office and everything said hold for hillary, hold for hillary. you know, people say, oh, it's just joking, it's just humor and all this. there are people that are supporters of biden that get a little cranky about how easily the president talks about hillary clinton as his successor now, and it is sort of this fait accompli among a lot of democratic donors and elites, that that's just what it is. the baton is about to be handed to here and it's up to bill clinton, buzz she want to run for bill clinton's third term or barack obama's third term. she gets the choice, but the

president certainly sees her as the heir apparent. >> and almost this making fun, kathleen, of joe biden as a guy who gets a lot of laughs but is not seen seriously stepping up to this role. >> it's hard to take him seriously sometimes, not only because he is famous for putting his foot in his mouth and smiling brilliantly, but he himself said as the other comedian last night said, joe biden said, well, why not run for president, as if he might eat a hoagie. >> he did this sketch about "veep" and they were all taking each other on. will, how did you look at the evening, but specifically this moment of looking at here is a president frankly even now in the waning years of his second term, and everybody is so focused on are we making this big step toward first female president as the nominee for the democrats or a different generational choice? >> being there, this is my third time there, from the first time i was there in 2008 we didn't

really have a twitter, instagram society. >> yeah. >> so being there this year, you see everyone's face glowing looking at their phone. >> that's so true. >> it's true and sad, it's scary, it's cool, it's a.d.d. society. we really don't pay attention to, you know -- i, too, was looking at my phone, but -- so that's a difference i have seen between 2008 and now. >> i wanted to get you to tweet that you were going to be on this morning. which you did. >> i hooked it up. >> yeah, you hooked it up. here is the president knocking himself. >> last year was rough. sheesh. at one point things got so bad, the 47% called mitt romney to apologize. >> jason chaffetz, congressman, always works. president, republican or democrat, to take on themselves. >> i wasn't there. i was sleeping on my cot in my office looking up at the screen

but the president was very funny. i mean, he's brilliant when he gets to the self deprecating humor. it was fun, but i think two years from now it might be a little different with a republican president there. we'll laugh and joke about hillary clinton and joe biden. >> anita, how about the president weighing in on the fait accompli that is hillary clinton. is that the view among democrats? >> i think amongst many democrats, and chuck would probably agree, it is the view. however, i think history tells us that nobody actually wins nominations without having to go out and win them, david, and so -- >> you don't win them at the correspondents' dinner? >> are you sure about that? >> or even the gridiron. so i have to believe that -- i think nobody is more aware of that than hillary clinton to be perfectly honest and the team around her, and they understand that if she chooses to run,

she's going to have to go win this thing, but in the democratic party it's as close to a fait accompli as anything. >> we're going to have more on this, a little more comic review coming up in just a bit when we hear more from the round table. effective immediately i am banning mr. sterling for life from any association with the clippers organization or the nba. mr. sterling may not attend any nba games or practices. he may not be present at any clippers facility, and he may not participate in any business or player personnel decisions involving the team. >> we move to the other big issue this week. that, of course, nba commissioner adam silver, leveling the harsh punishment against los angeles clippers owner donald sterling after his racist comments caught on audio tape. i'm joined by kevin johnson, he's the mayor of sacramento,

california, a former nba all-star. he now heads up the players association selection committee. mayor johnson, welcome to "meet the press." >> thanks, david. >> good to have you here after a tumultuous week. let's look at where this is headed now. all the emphasis is on whether donald sterling is going to sell this team and sell it fast. he appears to be dug in. what's going to happen? >> well, i think first of all i'm really proud of the players because the players came out very strong. from lebron james to kobe bryant, they articulated their position, did it very effectively, and the players wanted to speak in one voice, so that was very important. secondly, commissioner silver's unequivocal sanctions sent a really strong message around this league. in terms of where i think we're going forward, i think the owners had a phone call thursday, two days after the decision. they're meeting next week. i think they're in a position where we'd like to see a unanimous or near unanimous vote to force -- >> but do you expect a legal fight that will keep it in his hands for a bit? >> i think everyone is

anticipating there will probably be a legal fight. however, i'd like him to rethink that position. i think if mr. sterling was going to approach it the right way, he would apologize. he would embrace the sanctions and spend the rest of his life proving he was not a racist. >> where are the players on this? jarrett jack, a player, was on the radio on thursday, and he made very clear that the question of whether sterling still has the team should be a real issue for players and whether they move on even in the playoffs. here is what he said. >> it's a league issue, and we all should take a stance on it. like i think all of us, white, black, hispanic, we have a tremendous european influence in this league, like everybody should have felt the way about those comments because he didn't say -- he said blacks at a lot of points, but he said them and they. >> and what he was saying in this is that they should not play another game as long as sterling still has the team. is that a real danger, that players will refuse to play? >> here was the important point, david. so the players sent me in to

talk to commissioner silver, and the players wanted an immediate investigation. they wanted to have a voice. they wanted to make sure that they weren't passive participants, and, thirdly, they wanted the most severe sanctions possible. commissioner silver exceeded those expectations in 72 hours. there's no way -- no one decides things that quickly, and did he it in a very strong way. had he not come out as strong, i think the players were trying to determine what next steps would be, but he exceeded everybody's expectation and he did it for the right reasons. >> but sterling selling the team, does that have to happen almost immediately for players to continue to play the game? >> i think players feel very strongly they have confidence in the owners to make the right decision not just for owners but for owners, players, and the fans, and i think the owners are going to put the clippers in a position where this owner, mr. sterling, is going to have to sell the team.

whether it happens this week or next week, it's going to have to run that process. >> you were a player, you're now a political figure. there's a lot of attention on this now. what was it like as a player being in the nba, the specter of racism, mostly white owners, mostly african-american league of players. what did you experience? >> i think this country has a history of allowing sports to advance civil rights. if you think about john carlos and tommy smith in the '68 olympics and you think about some of our great leaders in jackie robinson and arthur ashe. we have a history of letting sports transcend. >> they had to go through a lot. >> they had to go through a lot, but those examples are shoulders we're standing on. >> what did you experience? people in the l.a. community are saying they weren't surprised. there was the settlement on the fair housing issue. that he had a record here, an unfortunate record of race -- racism that people knew about but tolerated. >>in 1988 i got traded to the suns.

in that month the martin luther king holiday got rescinded. i was thinking where did i land? who takes a holiday away are from king, for crying out loud? the owner of the team stepped up and this is an example of owners doing the right thing no different than the owner of the sacramento kings. he immediately said zero tolerance. there's no place for kind of racial institutional racism in our league and i think that's what commissioner stern -- commissioner silver did. the players spoke out strongly. . it's real, it's prevalent. it's a stark reality that we have a long way to go and this is a very important conversation that is now taking place. >> is there a path of redemption for donald sterling? how does he do that? >> if i was him, if i was counseling mr. sterling, i'd apologize unequivocally. number two, i would accept and embrace the sanctions and say, you know what? i did do some things that aren't right. i'm not fit to be an owner. i'd embrace those sanctions, and thirdly, again, i'd spend the rest of my life proving i wasn't

a racist. i'd do all i could to give back to society and right now it would not do anybody any good if he tried to fight this and maintain a hold of that team. it's just not good for the league. >> what about some of the broader debates about this? this was a private conversation that was recorded, released by a third party. you know, some of the details here are frankly a little sleazy about how all of this happened. kareem abdul-jabbar wrote in "time" magazine the following. shouldn't we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? didn't we just tall to task the nsa for intruding into american citizen's privacy in such an un-american way? goes on the making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplish to the crime. we didn't steal the cake, but we're all gorging ourselves on it. how do you react to that? >> i think that's fair, but i think the moment his comments became public, i think that twisted view is not good for our country and i think that's the reality today. so i think that will run its course in terms of how those --

for me the important point is when commissioner silver said, this investigation is complete. i am here to say that that was mr. sterling's voice on the audio tapes, and there's a lifetime ban. once that happened, i think the nba did the right thing, and i think those recordings and how they were attained, that will run its course. >> the sports world is big. there's other controversies. this is washington, d.c., with the washington redskins and you even have the majority leader of the senate taking an opportunity in this sterling controversy to speak out about what the nfl ought to do. here was harry reid speaking this week. >> but since snyder fails to show any leadership, the national football league should take an assist from the nba and pick up the slack. it would be a slam dunk, madam president. for far too long the nfl has been sitting on its hands doing nothing while an entire population of americans has been denigrated. >> is it time to change the name

from the redskins? >> i think it should strongly be considered. i think the native american community and many others feel that's not the right name going forward and i think the nba set a great example. that you can act swiftly and decisively. >> i will be speaking to governor rick perry of texas in a minute. i'm sure you're well aware as a california political figure there are jobs moving out of your state going to texas -- >> yeah, i harassed him. >> you harassed him back in the green room. what worries you? >> we have to be competitive. there are too many companies leaving california and you have a governor who is very effective at recruiting. >> what's stopping california from being more competitive? >> i think we need to change the environment. the governor needs to come out strong. we need economic policies in place that we're retaining our best businesses. the regulatory challenges, it's very expensive to do business in california. my goal as the mayor is i want sacramento to be the easiest place to do business in california that way rather than companies leaving, they will move up to sacramento. >> is governor brown doing a good enough job? >> i think he's committed this term to even up the ante to make sure we're competitive.

>> kevin johnson, mayor of sacramento. thanks for being here. i want to turn now to the fallout from this week's botched execution in oklahoma. >> what happened in oklahoma is deeply troubling, so i'll be discussing with eric holder and others, you know, to give me an analysis of what steps have been taken, not just in this particular instance, but more broadly in this area. i think we do have to as a society ask ourselves some difficult and profound questions around these issues. >> that was president obama friday raising questions about the execution of convicted murderer clayton d. lockett. he died of a heart attack after attempts to kill him through lethal injections failed. since the supreme court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, texas has executed more than 500 people, the most in the country.

i'm joined by republican governor of texas rick perry. governor, welcome. good to have you here. >> thank you, sir. >> i wanted to start here because of all the controversy around the death penalty. again, you have got 273 people on death row in texas. after what happened in oklahoma, do you expect more challenges? >> state by state those decisions are made about how you're going to punish those who commit the most heinous crimes against your citizens, and in texas for substantially long period of time, our citizens have decided that if you kill our children, if you kill our police officers, for those very heinous crimes, that the appropriate punishment is the death penalty. i think we have an appropriate process in place from the standpoint of the appeals process to make sure that due process is addressed and the process of the actual execution i will suggest to you is very different from oklahoma. we only use one drug, but i'm

confident that the way that the executions are taken care of in the state of texas are appropriate -- >> and humane. >> and humane. >> was this inhumane? >> i don't know whether it was inhumane or not but it was botched. i hope that not only the governor, the legislators will look at the process in oklahoma -- >> even somebody convicted of a heinous crime, you don't want to see the government responsible for forcing a heart attack because they couldn't inject the proper lethal drug. >> there's an appropriate way to deal with this and obviously something went terribly wrong. >> is it appropriate for a pause in our national discussion and application of the death penalty, the president talking about uneven application, soul searching questions he'd like the country to take. >> it may be appropriate for a pause in oklahoma but here is where the president and i disagree. he all too often, whether it's on health care or education or on the issue of how states deal with the death penalty, he looks for a one size fits all solution

centric to washington, d.c., and i will suggest to you that's one of the problems we have in this country. we're a very diverse country, and allow the states on these issue that is aren't addressed directly by the constitution to come up with the solutions. i think the country would be happier for one thing. i know the country would be more economically viable. >> let me ask you about the economy. a lot of discussion about the obama recovery this week. people will look at that in different ways. here is a couple of different stats, and i want to get your take on it. the latest jobs report has the creation of 288,000 jobs in april. that's the most in more than two years. but here is another stat which is the labor force shrinking by 806,000 people in april. people getting out of the business of looking for a job. of those two stats, what best represents the obama recovery, the obama economy? >> well, let me say this, job creation is good, and if the president and washington would

focus on policies that help create jobs, then this country would be substantially better off. >> do you give this president credit for more robust growth that we've started to see after the winter months? >> that might be a bit of a stretch. i think the bigger issue is the people who have lost hope. >> yeah. >> i mean, those 800-plus thousand people who have just quit looking. they know they're not going to get a job. it's the people who are underemployed in this country that we need to be focused on. the policies that allow for job creation are really pretty simple. it's tax policy. it's regulatory policy. it's a legal system that doesn't allow for oversuing, and it is putting policies into place in the will you be pick schools in particular that make them more accountable so you have a skilled workforce. those four things, if you will put those into place, then allow the private sector to respond with the confidence that they know they're going to be able to keep more of what they work for.

i think that's the real dilemma today. because of a national health care program that people really don't know how it's going to effect them other than it's going to cost them more money at least, there's a real dampening down of hope, if you will, in the business. >> but you talk about a lack of hope. in your state of texas, we look at poverty. people who are suffering, who may be without hope. in the united states that rate is 15.9%. it's higher in texas at 17.9%. >> and higher, i might add, even in california. >> and we'll get to that in just a minute. and yet there's a debate about what you do to help people who are struggling around wages, around the minimum wage. tim pawlenty, he was on msnbc this week. he said this about how republicans ought to look at the minimum wage fight. have a look. >> i also think, by the way, the republicans should support reasonable increase in the minimum wage. if you're going to talk the talk about being for the middle class and the working person if we have a minimum wage, it should be reasonably adjusted from time to time. >> are the politics shifting in your party on that?

>> we focus on the maximum wage rather than the minimum wage. 95% of all the jobs that were created in my home state were above the minimum wage. so the idea that you should be focused on the minimum wage when, in fact, you ought to be focused on policy that is create this environment where jobs can be created. you know, this discussion about minimum wage when there are no jobs available, i mean, most of us didn't start in the corner office, david. i mean, you worked your way up, and most people understand that concept. i think it's an easy political line to pitch out to say i'm for raising the minimum wage when we're looking past that in texas from the standpoint of how do we create the maximum wage available? how do we put more people into the workforce? and almost a third of all jobs created in america in the last

decade were created in the state of texas, and that's where the focus should be. what are the policies that send the message to the job creators that you know that you can risk your capital, have a chance to have a return on investment, hire those people out there. that's the real issue, and i'll suggest to you one size fits all policies out of washington, d.c., tampen down that reasonable expectation of being able to create wealth. >> a lot of talk about you running in 2016. you ran in 2012. a lot of people thought that was a botched effort on your part. how do you get a second look now? >> i would tend to agree with them on the botched effort side of it. >> so what went wrong? >> i think america is a place that believes in second chances. i think that we see more character out of an individual by how do you perform after you fail and you go forward?

so i'm really focused on the next nine months of being governor of the state of texas. i'm going to be recruiting businesses. i'm going to be across the country talking about red state versus blue state policies hopefully engaged in a good, thoughtful conversation about how do we make america more competitive, not only domestically but internationally as well. >> but you also have to think about your party, about how to get a nomination. so when i ask you how to get a second look, what do you want to say to your party to say, look, here is the path to getting the white house back and here is what rick perry can do to get us there? >> i think it's important first to really listen to the american people, and i think americans are really concerned about how am i going to be able to take care of my family. i'm really worried about those 90 million people that are out of work. i mean, the idea that there are more women out of the workforce now than at any time in our history, that's just not right, and there is a blueprint. there are blueprints in states like florida and louisiana and what nikki haley is doing in south carolina. you look at ohio and what kasich is doing. there's a clear blueprint about how to get americans back to

work and i hope over the next six to eight months there's a good focus on that type of an approach. the republican leadership on job creation is pretty good in this country. >> in texas, it's a big state, there's a lot of political figures, you have ted cruz making waves looking like he's going to run in 2016 and one former president bush who said this week he'd like for his brother, jeb, to run for president. you know george w. bush, the president, very well having succeeded him as governor. is there room in texas for all of you in the presidential race? >> like you said, it's a big state. >> so there is. >> it's a big state. >> governor perry, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> we hope to have you back. >> yes, sir. coming up on our round table, we'll talk about these newly released documents about benghazi and they've reignited the debate, the big political debate, over the attack.

now secretary of state john kerry has been subpoenaed by congress. critics calling these now documents a smoking gun. are they? our round table will be back with us in just a minute. "meet the press" is brought to you by -- ♪ ♪ ♪ ben! well, that was close!

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will.i.am, kathleen parker, chuck todd, anita dunn and congressman jason chaffetz. welcome back, everybody. one of the big stories we'll be following is the fact that benghazi is back as a huge political issue. congressman jason chaffetz, you're on the house oversight committee. you're a big critic of the president on the issue. here is what you and others on the right called a smoking gun e-mail that was released by the white house. ben rhodes, who is an adviser to the president. we'll put it up on the screen. these were talking points about susan rice's appearance on the sunday programs after the attack and the goal to underscore that these protests are rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy. what have we suddenly learned, do you believe, and what is it helping us get to the bottom of? >> well, we want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and the white house has long denied personal involvement and manipulation of the talking points.

we have the cia, the military, you have the state department themselves that said that it was not a video. it was -- >> they did say it was a spontaneous event and it was a logical conclusion to go to the video, right, but video was -- >> no, i totally disagree with that. i think that was a false narrative from the beginning. it was perpetuated over the course of the time. in my mind that became a lie. it was never true in libya. look at what was happening in real time, and there is nobody, nobody that thought there was a video that was causing a protest in benghazi, nobody. >> but, again -- what i was referring to was the intelligence committee does refer to a spontaneous event at the embassy in cairo that evolved into a direct attack on benghazi and the argument by critics is, this is a conflation of issues and the white house trying to obscure it and certainly trying to make the president look good. anita dunn, and that was the subject of that e-mail. >> that is unprecedented in the history of white houses, okay? >> trying to make the president look good? >> or at least --

>> or politicizing national security? >> no, trying to get a coherence message out there on shows like yours. it's been called a smoking gun. if you look at this, it's a lot more like a leaky water pistol. there's not a lot that's new in here. frankly, it's a broader kind of e-mail that gets sent around probably every friday and then agencies fill in other things. there's nothing in there that's inconsistent with the e-mails that have been released before, and there's nothing in there that's inconsistent with what the cia had written. i think that, you know, this is a committee, with all due respect to the congressman, that has been looking for a scandal and conspiracy theories for the last four years. there's a lot more theory here than there is conspiracy. >> let me turn to kathleen on this point in terms of what you see in the overall here. >> i think the important point is whether the white house tried to -- well, in the beginning the white house said we really had nothing to do with these talking points.

these were from other agencies, and it's clear that there was some communication within the white house about how to handle the narrative, and the congressman was showing me a little earlier in the green room that there was -- the date -- i should let you say it because you're the one with the document. >> i'm trying to get to the overall point. the argument i'll get back to you, congressman, the central charge by critics is that the white house failed to call this what this was from the get-go, which was a terrorist attack, and the criticism is that they relied on a narrative about a video that would have been a lot more convenient for the white house to advance because it would help them say, look, we were just trying to deal with a spontaneous situation rather than being caught unawares by a terror attack. they said they had an intelligence community telling us these were the factors at play, a spontaneous event. david petraeus initially saying on the hill it was not terrorism related. i'm giving that backdrop to pull back and say what are we trying to get to the bottom of?

>> that's is the talking point the scandal or is the fact four people died in benghazi that we didn't necessarily have good intelligence on the ground? was this a case of interagency cya that was going on if you logically look at this, it clearly is between state and cia whether it's because state is uncomfortable letting the world know that the cia really does use a lot of state department outposts for their own operations. was it the fact that the cia didn't want to admit that it didn't know what was going on on the ground. i think what makes it hard and why there's such a disconnect between the two parties on whether republicans truly believe this is a scandal and democrats are going i don't understand because two days later you had somebody going on capitol hill saying this was a terrorist attack. the question is do you believe that saturday and sunday, right, before, do you believe that the white house somehow knew it was

a terrorist attack and wasn't ready to admit it and falsely went out there and decided to push it onto the video or do you believe at that moment in time they were still sort of shaken by what was going on in yemen, what was going on in egypt, and all of this stuff at that time, and then -- so i think that seems to be the central sort of disagreement here. do you believe they were intentionally misleading that weekend. tuesday they come back and say, yes, terrorist attack. >> here is one of the fundamental problems i have. i have a document in my hands, an internal state department document that goes to cheryl mills, hillary clinton's chief of staff. this is on september 12th. the state department had told the police that it was a terrorist organization that had committed these attacks. so why is it that we told the libyans the truth and told the american people a lie? that's right at the heart of that. what happened, for instance, as journalists, you do not know the answer as to why was the ambassador there? what happened, for instance, on april 6th, 2012, when our facility was bombed? it was bombed again on june 6th of 2012. the british ambassador had an assassination attempt. what did secretary clinton do to

secure that facility. when you have testimony before congress saying he felt like the taliban was in the inside of the state department, are we just supposed to sit back -- >> we do know that security -- it has been well established that was a huge issue, kathleen. and an issue that whether people deem it as fair or not that if secretary clinton is the nominee, she will face these questions. >> she will definitely face them and the defense from the administration all along has been, look, we wouldn't have been able to do anything, we couldn't have gotten there in time. at the time you didn't know how much time. the other thing we have to remember is this is in the days leading up to the 2012 election, and this would have been -- could have been a tipping point and so there is question -- i think it's fair to question, was this -- was there a delay in acknowledging this as a terrorist attack in order to protect -- >> i want to jump in here though because, first of all, you know, the oversight committee on thursday had a hearing in which the chairman of the house armed services committee, a committee that has looked very carefully

into this question of, you know, the supporting whether military forces could have gotten there in time actually did the rare thing of disagreeing with a fellow republican chairman, with chairman issa over the committee they had on thursday and the hearing they had. david, when something like this happens, which unfortunately happens when you have people stationed in unstable and dangerous parts of the world, in retrospect, it is always easy to say, should have known this, should have known this, and we learned that during the bush administration, and, unfortunately, we learned that during this one with a bipartisan investigation of this. the reality of this is when something like this happens in the first 48 to 72 hours, you don't know, and you have to go with this your intelligence agencies tell you. >> let me ask you a political question. how big of an issue will this be for hillary clinton as a

candidate? >> i think it's impossible for any of us to say how big of an issue it will be. i can tell you that i think should hillary clinton decide to be a candidate for the nomination, she'll be prepared to deal with this and she'll be prepared to deal with it as she did on capitol hill and as this administration has dealt with it, transparently -- >> litmus test for her, jason chaffetz? >> it's key. what did she do? our facility was bombed two times? what did the secretary do? we had 30 security personnel. by the time we got down to the end of august, that number had dwindled down to nine. >> here is what i think is one of the bigger issues out of this. there's a lot of the back and forth on this that is not necessarily going to be resolved. it's highly charged and you want more answers. democrats have a view about this. there's no question that the issue of invading a country and having a lightfoot print and getting out quickly created huge security vacuums. that's been acknowledged. i want to bring will.i.am in on this point. here is "the economist" cover this week. "what would america fight for?" will, as so many young people kind of came of age post-9/11,

the iraq war, chuck, doing some polling, u.s. involvement in the world affairs should be, look at these numbers, less active say 47% versus 19% as more active. all of this says something about the fact that a lot of people do not want america involved overseas. >> as a world traveler, i have the same viewpoint. you know, when you go to germany and australia and brazil, especially brazil, and then india, you see these developing countries and they're developing in one particular area, in education and technology, and then when you come to america, you see this like -- we grow, but the citizens aren't growing, right? our colleges are still the best colleges, but the people in the neighborhood i come from aren't trying to go to mit. they're not thinking of stanford

or harvard. people from india come to attend these colleges and then they get educated and go to their country and create jobs in their developing countries. when you travel the world, you get to see like the country you are from and how we are developing or not. >> and also embroiled in these kind of debates as opposed to addressing those things you're talking about. >> and then you look at like this industrial prison complex where half of -- actually the majority of people in prison are african and latino, african-american and latino. it's like -- that breaks my heart, right. why? >> well, i think to your point about, you know, being a world traveler and seeing other cultures and other countries, you begin to identify these other places, these foreign countries, as places where human beings just like us live and the idea that we would somehow militarily involve ourselves is a little less -- you know, you step back a little bit more, but on the other hand when they're being slaughtered by their governments, you know, you feel like we have to do something.

>> it's interesting, that number is an economic number, what i have been telling people, that 47% being less active in world affairs. that is not saying, hey, i'm -- yes, some of it is world weariness. a lot of it goes to what i think will was just addressing which is this feeling that you know what -- it's something governor perry said. there may be jobs out there, but people feel underemployed or feel as if there isn't -- the american dream is harder. it's harder to advance. it's harder to get up the ladder, and i think that frustration -- what do we make? what -- >> isn't this a big part of our foreign policy, right, to what will is saying, getting our economy right, building something. even in your party there may be a lot of conservative critics of the president on foreign policy, but there's still a weariness about projecting american power to try to somehow transform parts of the world. >> i believe in american exceptionalism. i believe we have a leading role. i believe in peace through strength. unfortunately, we have a

president who is not believed around the world. he's lost the credibility. if he had the credibility and had the military strength to back it up, there would be a lot more peace out there, and in terms of trade and opening up markets, there's so much more that we can do, but our nation is so heavily regulated. you have so much uncertainty in our nation about taxes and obamacare. it's forcing these jobs overseas where we should be growing those right here in the united states. >> can i ask a question? when it comes to like education, like america, we fought a war on drugs and lost, and all it did was put young people in jail for petty drug crimes and our prison are overpopulated and prison guards get paid more than teachers. why can't we all agree we should fight a war on education. 8 years old to 19. why can't s.t.e.m be mandatory. why can't we as a country keep all the jobs that are around technology in america? i don't get it.

it doesn't make any sense to me at all. >> i really do like what you're doing in terms of not just having s.t.e.m. but making it s.t.e.a.m. i believe arts is one of the keys. if you can take those people in science and technology and math one of the beauties of the united states of america is we're creative, we create things. having those arts engaged in that. i believe the best way to do it is at the state level. we don't want the federal bureaucracy. there shouldn't be a federal department of education. i want to drive that down to the states, let them innovate. let us in utah figure out how to educate our kids. >> however you do it, why aren't we doing it? >> we're going to continue this. let me take a break here. more on this. some of the challenges that maybe washington is missing and a little later on we'll have a little comic review from what we started with, the white house correspondents' weekend with president obama and joel mchale coming up after this. >> hillary clinton has a lot

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we're back with our round table, we're back with our round table, will.i.am and the guests. one of the reasons for having will is to talk about what is

washington not taking on. what is the washington debate somehow missing especially for young people who are connecting to each other in a much different way, who are looking at washington in a much different way. chuck, you looked at this in some of our polling. i will put them on the screen and interpret their importance regard priorities. president obama's approval among ages 18 to 34, he's at 53% to 40%. significant disapproval among young people. here is also a party identification congressional preference. 53% for democrats, 36% for republicans. >> these are falloff voters. these are people who voted in 2012, did not vote in 2010. so this is the math problem for the democratic party in 2014. the president now talks about it publicly all the time, which is

how do you get his coalition, the people that he uniquely got into politics, got people fired up, got people excited in 2008, how do you turn them into habitual voters? this is going to be make or break for the democrats whether they hold the senate or not. what i find interesting is his numbers are still pretty good with these folks. >> but isn't there some disappointment -- isn't some of what you're talking about, will, disappointment among people who maybe thought the federal government under president obama could do more, could get so some of these things that are bigger priorities? >> i don't know if it's

disappointment. it's frustration and frustration leads to just like turn off, right? so it's frustration of i don't understand the complex between republicans, democrats, congress. like that whole dance to me just turns me off. >> right. >> can you explain that? >> so it's like when i went out there and said, yes, we can, yes, we can means what are you going to do as well as -- when you support obama, are you going to dedicate yourself to finding solutions? so i went out there and created this program in the ghetto i came from, that i come from, and i can change that, right? i go off and raise money. i use my own money.

i get these kids, you know, amped up about science and technology. these kids are at risk. they could have been in a gang. and now these kids they have been to china to learn mandarin, they have been to d.c. to take a visit to the white house. mit. these kids want to get enrolled in mit. >> and i love that he's doing that. it's the private sector that grows the economy, that makes a difference in people's live. it's not big federal government. and the disconnect the reason that apathy happens is because government is not going to come in and solve all their problems. health care is a major issue now. one of the big issues i see is -- >> but why is it -- why when you politicians say what private sector should do, the only thing you can use is health care as the thing that fails? what about like making the consumer electronic product? why is it if i want to singapore and created jobs i would get a grant and it's hard for a person, an entrepreneur, to out with a product in america. where do you go? >> regulation, the epa, the over burdensome federal government that makes it so difficult at every step. one thing i think is an opportunity for republican,

right now it's a jump ball, but an opportunity for republicans is on privacy and safety and security. >> there's opportunity for america to make sure companies like apple are in detroit and we're educating young kids at an early age to learn and be technical, digital literate. we can't just have basketball courts in every elementary school. they need to have ios, android. they need to be learning on qualcomm technology and intel technology. >> anita, a comment. >> i think listening to this conversation is a perfect example of your question, david, which is america versus washington, right? because will is talking about looking for solutions without actually looking for a political party to provide those solutions or saying one side is right and one side is wrong and it gets to washington it immediately devolves into the political party. i think what's interesting about education and education policy in this country is that increasingly everybody is discovering it isn't one size

fits all and there's room across the board for charters. there's room across the board for different styles within the public education system and that this goes a little to what the congressman was saying, that the more flexibility you have in the system the better off you're going to do, but rewarding entrepreneurs whether they're in education, whether they're in manufacturing, whether they're in technology is something i think this country has always done pretty well at. and so the question is why aren't we doing a better job now? >> let me get a break in here. we'll come back and our final moments with our round table including a buttoning up of the big white house correspondents' dinner. chuck todd with his comic review as we debate that coming up after this. >> "meet the press" is brought to you by --

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some of the week's "images to remember" including that one with kathleen sebelius there in on the joke with president obama last night. coming up, final moments with our round table. we'll have some of the funniest moments from washington's big night coming up next. time now for time now for cnbc's executive edge week ahead brought to you by comcast business, built for business. >> tuesday marks an infamous anniversary. four years since the so-called flash crash which triggered the

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gridlock has gotten so bad in this town, you have to wonder, what did we do to piss off chris christie so bad? >> that was president obama at last night's white house correspondents' dinner with a dig at new jersey governor chris christie. joel mchale also said a few things about governor christie. we're going to give you a little sample and then i want your comic review. >> washington seems more dysfunctional than ever. gridlock has gotten so bad in this town, you have to wonder, what did we do to piss off chris christie so bad? >> i promise tonight will be both amusing and over quickly, just like chris christie's

presidential bid. chris christie is here. he's actually here tonight. wow, sir, you are a glutton -- for punishment. >> the obama clip was so funny we thought we should play it twice. what did you think? >> i laughed a lot. president obama has immaculate timing as everybody always says and he's got the perfect delivery. i thought the comedian was probably -- he took the most risks of anyone else i have ever seen. he was over the top, but at least he was bipartisan in his over the topness. one of the jokes i thought was pretty funny was about the healthcare.gov which is so bad there's nothing to compare it to. that's become the term for something to compare it about. did somebody healthcare.gov on my new rug? >> chris christie was at least pleased they were making jokes about bobby jindal.

>> it was funny to hear the chatter ever and everybody was like, wow, he had a lot of chris christie jokes. talking about joel mchale. but it was interesting to me. i thought he was edgy, i thought he pushed the envelope, and there were times people were laughing very loudly even if they were then looking around going am i allowed to laugh at that? >> i saw a lot of open mouths. like i can't believe he said that. >> and then they laughed and then, oh-oh, did the camera catch me laughing. >> will.i.am, there's a lot of hand wringing in washington over whether this was gotten too big. what do you think of the spectacle? >> last night? >> yeah. >> it was cool. i mean, i'm used to like the brits and the grammys and i'm used to, you know, a different environment. you had a lot of like, you know, politicians, celebrity-ticians. >> he's not impressed. >> we're not used to all those events.

we're going to leave it there. will.i.am, to the round table, everybody, thank you so much. we'll leave it there this morning. thank you for joining us. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." it's a long time between now and 2016. anything can happen. you may have heard the other day hillary had to dodge a flying shoe at a press conference. [ laughter ] >> 2016, front and center as washington takes a little time-out to make fun of itself. that was a real picture. that was the shoe. hey, everyone. i'm t.j. hall in today for craig melvin. you are watching msnbc. as the world waits to see if she'll run, has hill ary left roomo