cycle" score one for the establishment. i'm jonathan capehart in for ari. we are closely watching the markets as they hang on the every word of one woman. >> who? >> not me. janet yellen. she's on today with some good news and a warning about the economy. >> krystal, i hang on your every word. the most infamous intern is back. 16 years after her affair with president clinton, why is monica lewinsky speaking out now? a lot of people are wondering that today. so is abby. if millennials are twitter, washington much aol. i'm abby huntsman, can we click our way to better government. come into our domain. it's "the cycle." we start with the comeback of the gop establishment, maybe. last night's primary results in

north carolina appear to show the tea party cooling. senate candidate tom tillis cruised to victory with 46% of the vote avoiding a costly runoff. his victory with help from the u.s. chamber of commerce and gop figures sent a stinging message to the party that the road to senate majority goes through them. >> it's not the end of the primary, but the beginning of the primary mission, that's to beat kay hagan and make harry reid irrelevant. >> before tillis gets there, he has to defeat current north carolina senator kay hagan who'sly won her primary last night with 77% of the vote. with the gop sails at their backs, the dems majority in jeopardy, with the defeat of the tea party last night, who you think was in a better mood when they woke up this morning? republicans or democrats.

always in a good mood is friend of the show, political columnist dana milbank. dana, answer the question. who was in a better mood? >> or jonathan capehart. >> jonathan capehart has all reasons to be in a good mood. i think it's sort of a mixed bag. the good news here is, as you point out, the republican establishment has found a way to beat back the tea party. the bad news for them is the way they've beaten back the tea party is basically by becoming the tea party. so, yes, they found a way to repel the insure general seerks but have done this by going far to the right. this guy tillis, he's hardly some return to the moderate republicans, he's every bit as conservative as a lot of these tea party guys are. so the democrats are also saying, yes, we may not be getting christine o'donnell, but we're getting the next best thing and that's a real far right establishment republican. >> dana, funny you should mention that.

i have compiled a brief list of a few of the highlights of tom tillis's sort of views. he doesn't believe in climate change, opposes increase in minimum wage. even seemed sketchy on whether there should be a minimum wage at all. he supports personhood, helped pass the most restrictive voter law in the country. he banned sharia law. that's vital. >> that's a good thing. >> he is a very far right conservative guy. he led this conservative movement in raleigh which went so far to the right that voters really revolted against it. i actually think for kay hagan, it's sort of a good thing that she now has her opponent and can start to talk about him and defy him. the narrative in the primary was that he was the, quote, unquote, establishment more moderate candidate. the reality is that he is extremely far out there. >> i think she wouldn't have minded if he had to spend more

money fighting it out in a primary before she had that chance to define him, but certainly now she has something to focus on. the choice is always the incumbent or unknown, you can always say, well, maybe that unknown would be something better than what we've got now. now they actually have an actual alternative. they go into positions on the things you mentioned, on birth control, all kind of other issues and make it more about him and less about kay hagan in defense of obamacare or anything else about this president who is not so popular at this moment in north carolina. >> the takeaway, though, from last night it was a huge win for especially the establishment republicans. what this does do is give them even more hope to take the senate in the midterms because i think north carolina being a purple -- a state that many people are watching closely sets the tone in a lot of ways for the rest of the country. "washington post" "the fix" had this out last night.

they give the gop an 82% chance of taking the senate which is much stronger odds than even the most bullish republican strategists. i'm wondering what your takeaway is from this. how much of this prediction and the fact we're seeing it a lot more likely that republicans could take the senate, how much of it is about the quality of the candidates and how much of it is about how people are feeling about the sluggish economy, about president obama and, of course, about health care that is still struggling to get a majority of support? >> i have the high ertd regard for my colleagues who put out "the fix." there's a 50% likelihood of it being correct. >> we call that a burn. >> we have no idea what's going to happen in november. we don't know what's going to happen between now and what even the issues will be. there's still a long time and a lot of things that can happen. it's not going to be a good year for democrats. it was never going to be a good year for democrats because it's

the second term of an incumbent democratic president. and because the vulnerable democrats are running in some pretty red states. now, north carolina being not as red as some of the other ones. this is always tricky. it doesn't mean democrats are necessarily weak around the country. it means they're weak in seven or eight states which, if you do the math in the senate, if the republicans take those, that's the end of the majority. >> that's absolutely right. this year we're fighting on romney territory, red territory, 2016 a lot of these senate race also be in obama territory, blue territory and the predictions will look a lot different. getting back to the idea that this year is a tea party referendum, surely the anger that existed in 2010 is not in the zeitgeist now. there's a lot of angry folks, not quite that angry. but sort of this idea of waiting for the end of the tea party and watching each race to say, does

this mark the end or are they getting stronger? it misses the idea that this is just the newest name for a movement that has existed in this country or a sentiment that has existed in this country for well over 100 years. >> exactly. it's become a catch-all for all the various strains of what we have on the right. rand paul didn't do will in his endorsement in north carolina. that doesn't mean the tea party is struggling, or does that mean that libertarians have difficulty? there's so many different strains. at this moment the pendulum seems to have swung away from the resurgence and the rebellion, in large part because they've been co-opted. i think every time we write the obituary of the tea party, in a way it's pointless because if there is an obituary to be written, it's only because their body has been entirely occupied by the republican party. >> that's an interesting image. >> dana, in terms of our

colleague, chris ill liss is a and the 82% likelihood that the republicans will take the senate, you see all sorts of polls from all sorts of organizations saying the republicans intend to take the senate, hold the house and make president obama's life miserable, how much of a disservice are those polls doing when we're focused on who is going to win as opposed to what the candidates are saying and the positions they're take? >> certainly we can be moan the effect of poling on our system. we might as well be whistling into the wind. there's not much we can do about it. i would prefer in an ideal world that we'd be dealing with the issues. but jonathan, we can just be happy. >> like a room without a roof. >> pharrell. that's what's up. >> dana milbank, thank you. up next, she's back, whether

hillary likes it or not. we'll spin on the profile that's been trending all day as "the cycle" rolls on for wednesday, may 7th. you, my friend are a master of diversification. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*? i dbefore i dosearch any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust.

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this is pretty big. for the first time in ten years, monica lewinsky is breaking her silence about her affair with bill clinton for a new essay in "vanity fair." in the essay she says it's time to burn the barre, bury the dress and move on. americans said, we did 15 years

ago. where have you been? we're over it. >> that was jimmy fallon last night expressing what many are feeling about monica lewinsky's "vanity fair" article set for release tomorrow. one person who isn't over it is monica. for the first time in over a decade lewinsky writes about her after fir with president clinton and of the public humiliation she faced in its aftermath. she claims she was taken advantage of but that the affair was conventional. she writes in detail about how hard life has been since, including having a hard time finding work. one of the big questions is why write it and why not? let's start there and spin on this. we have a lot to talk about. everybody is talking about this "vanity fair" spread. here is the thing. she wanted to tell her story. anyone in her situation would want to tell the other side of it. shees probably wanted to tell it for 16 years. what time better than now when the media can't get enough of the clintons. here is the other thing. i think republicans need to

realize this. they are struggling to figure out the right tone in all of this. this story has not impacted the clintons in 16 years. bill clinton became the most popular politician in the world after this. hillary ran for senate a few years later and she won. why is this going to impact them now? if anything, it makes hillary look better. it makes her more human which is something she struggles with. she tood by her family. she also takes some of the blame, says i actually feel like part of me is to blame for what happened. i think republicans need to tread lightly. >> speaking of republicans treading lightly. let's talk about monica lewinsky, "vanity fair" and hillary clinton. >> i wonder if this isn't an effort on the clinton's part to get it out of the way.

would "vanity fair" publish anything about monica lewinsky that hillary clinton didn't want in "vanity fair"? >> that's very interesting. >> hillary clinton, former first lady, former senator from new york, and contributing editor to "vanity fair." the clintons have these super powers -- republicans seem to think that the clintons rule the world, secretly moving the gears and shifting things, that they can stop stories from being run. the idea that hillary clinton would collude with monica lewinsky to put this out in order to help her presidential bid by getting it out early is beyond ridiculous. >> she doesn't want her life defined by others. this is pretty much the last moment she has to make that

case. she says if i don't do this now, i'll have to be quiet eight to ten years. she says it now, she has the least possible impact on the presidential race as opposed to any moment going forward. in a month hillary's book comes out and the potential race grows and gross. the last thing she needs is clinton world coming after her once again. she's already injected into this race by folks like rand paul who she speaks directly to when she says we were both consenting adults. she admits she needs money. she had a $10 million book deal that fell apart for whatever reason. she's going to get a nice check or has gotten a check. i have friends written for "vanity fair." i can imagine it's worth $30,000 or $40,000. if you're not working, a fantastic bump for her. another interesting thing is she says she's not been paid off by the clintons. a lot of people thought she must have been being paid off by the

clintons for not having spoken for all this time. she's working on a book. they didn't call hillary and say, do you think we can do this? >> this is what amazes me about this entire story. this happened and it had zero negative impact on the clintons, none. >> they're teflon. >> krystal and i have been going back and forth. imagine if this were reversed. imagine if hillary clinton when bill was president, she was the one having the affair. she would be toast. no way she'd run for the senate. no way she'd be running for president back then or we'd be talking about her running today. i think it's totally hypocritical. it reminds of being back in high school. they get a high five in the locker room and the girl is considered a slut. >> i totally agree. we have to speculate about that because it's essentially never happened, a woman political

official has been caught in an affair of this sort. the thing i've been thinking about as a few of you mentioned, monica has had a hard time. this is something she did when she was in her very early 20s. it's essentially ruined her life. in the excerpt released, they talk about the tough times she's had getting a job. she interviewed for various jobs but because of what potential employers who tactfully refer to as my history, she writes, i was never quite right for the position. this is a woman with a master's degree, highly educated, should be pretty well sought after and has been unable to recover from an incident that happened in her 20s. she also talks about how she was the most humiliated person in the world. meanwhile, bill clinton is one of the most popular politicians in the world. i just think this is so typical of what happens in these situations. we talk about the powerful man

and can he recover and is he going to be rehabilitated. generally he is. the woman meanwhile goes her separate ways, full of shame. monica also talks about how she considered suicide. life ruined. i'm glad to hear her story. >> you never see the other woman, right, hillary clinton, explode out of this. her likability was below 50 before this happened. it has never been below 50 since this happened. you talk about humanizing her. this connects her to so many women who had the same sort of thing happen to them. look how she handled it. she's a regular person like me, has to deal with this tough stuff. this has been the career boost she would never ask for. >> maybe jonathan your conspiracy theorists will say she did it on purpose. it was all planned. set her up to run for president. >> ooh, the theories. here is something e find interesting. we're hearing from monica

lewinsky for the first time in 16 years. imagine if monica were -- if it were to happen today in our society today, what would have happened? we would have heard a whole lot from monica lewinsky. >> she wouldn't be able to escape. >> she would have had a reality show, would have had a column somewhere. >> a twitter handle with millions of followers. >> exactly. i think the thing that's been most impressive to me from the very beginning is how monica lewinsky has held herself back. >> held herself back? she's been trying to do lectures, trying to do a book deal. she's been trying. shes's just not able to give up all the goods that people want to hear. she tried to sell the story and failed. >> she's tried but won't do what publishers and speaking folks want her to do. she's not going to sell herself

in order to survive which i think by today's standards, i think it's rather impressive. >> i do, too. >> but the story happened to her. she doesn't have anything else to say. >> i think she's got plenty to say. she just won't say it. >> i love awkward moments. >> up next. >> to your point, i think a scandal today, that would never recover itself. i do think a president would be impeached today if that happened. that's my honest opinion. hopefully we don't have to see that happen. up next, how to get d.c. into the 21st century. the nation's first chief technology officer says the healthcare.gov debacle is just the beginning. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. jenny doane of hamilton, missouri turned her quilting hobby into the missouri star quilt company. her company is booming as well as other small businesses around

her on main street. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 a.m. e e one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

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a check of the markets. the dow is up big while tech stocks are lagging. federal reserve chair janet yellen testified today that the economy has bounced back from

the rough winter but she has concerns about the housing recovery. what's boosting stocks is russia's signal it may be willing to open up talks with ukraine. russian markets soared nearly 4% on that news. not sure where toronto mayor rob ford is rehabbing, but apparently is having a grand time. he told a canadian newspaper that he feels great and is enjoying himself. the mayor compared rehab to football camp he attended as a kid. ford temporarily suspend tsz his re-election campaign last week after new pictures surfaced appearing to show him holding a crack pipe. winning nba's most valuable player in the lebron james era is quite a feat. doing it with grace and humility is something else entirely. that's exactly what we saw from forward kevin durant who turned the award into an early mother's day present. >> the odds were stacked against us. single parent with four boys by

the time you were 21 years old. we weren't supposed to be here. you made us believe. kept us off the street, put clothes on our back, food on the table, when you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. you went to sleep hungry. you sacrificed for us. you're the real mvp. >> that is incredible. >> oklahoma city continues its push for the title in the finals against the clippers tonight. turning back to politics, the first primaries of the 2014 primaries went off. there was a report of voter files accidentally being deleted in ohio. it was quickly fixed. what's in a few months when a handful of votes could mean a difference between a republican-held senate and a democratic-held one? voting machines vary state to state and district to district. different technology can cause different problems or more importantly a lack of technology

is the problem, and not just at the voting booth. in his new book "innovative state" the white house's first ever technology officer argue ag stronger democracy is just a click away. he joins us at the table. anish, thank you for being here. >> when president obama ran for president in 2008 and 2012 his campaign was lauded for its technological prowess. it's had problems transferring that. >> like what? >> we'll find out in a minute. how can they pull the federal government into the 21st century? >> i'd say it's a tale of two stories. one is the overarching concerns you saw with healthcare.gov. we's shifted towards an innovative state.

w the key to an innovative state is we have handshakes from people on both sides of the political spectrum who want to put the new tools in place to hand off opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators to build better government services. we're seeing that tick place every single day. it's just not quite as told as the big challenges from healthcare.gov. >> you mentioned healthcare.gov, the biggest example of washington not catching up with technology. president obama has even said that the roll-out of this website was the biggest mistake of last year. as we look back, it could be the biggest mistake of his entire presidency. how does something like this happen so poorly in the 21st century? >> let's talk about what was good. there was a version launched in july of 2010. 90 days after the signing of the law. it reflects all the key elements of a more innovative culture. number one, the government employees who stood up and said we've got to launch essentially

a startup in 90 days, they went to work and built a successful, comprehensive catalog of all public and private insurance options. here is the bigger point. they opened the data so anyone else could build new products and services on top. you didn't have to go to healthcare.gov to get the information. as we speeblg, "u.s. news & world report" health insurance finder on their dime is powered entirely by the data from the original healthcare.gov, an open example. unfortunately with the version that went live in 2013, as we now know, a bigger problem there was the procurement cycle. the center for medicare and medicaid services put up a call forbids from a small pool of vendors who didn't have a lot of experience building exchanges, per se. there's a lot of reasons why that happened. one of the most kur row sive is the culture of procurement in washington. if you bid on a government project and lose, you immediately call the red flag and protest the award. what that basically means is the

site would never have gone live at all, it would have been held up in procurement legal mumbo jumbo. to by pass that, they had a smaller pool of folks that became one of the challenges. this will not happen again. >> that is very high on the president's agenda. it should be. we got past the healthcare.gov debacle and now we have a system working pretty darn well. we still have a problem with our voting system. how can we modernize the way we vote? >> this is an amazing opportunity for us to build a more innovative state. here is an interesting question. when i was virginia secretary of technology, then governor kaine was among the first to open up voting data. we have a website, there's now an industry -- >> aneesh, hold on. we have the president touring what remains of arkansas, 15 people killed in last month's tornado outbreak near little rock. let's listen to the president.

>> obviously we just had a clans to tour some of the areas that were devastated by last week's tornadoes and had a chance to meet with some of the families who lost loved ones. also had a clans to thank some of the first responders and recovery workers andem the national guard who have been working non-stop to help families and businesses pick up the pieces after this devastating tornado. i want to express my deep appreciation for governor bibi and his outstanding leadership, senator pryor, congressman griffin, mayor firestone. they all showed great leadership and were here hands on on the ground throughout these difficult days. i'm here to make sure that they know and everybody who has been affected knows that the federal government is going to be right here until we get these

communities rebuilt because when something like this happens to a wonderful community like this one, it happens to all of us. we've got to be there for them. after the tornadoes touched down, i immediately approved a major disaster declaration to help folks in faulkner county and other areas affected by the tornadoes. at my direction fema deployed incident management assistance teams to support local recovery efforts. craig fugate who was down here the day after the storm and a team of the army corps of engineers has been helping search through the debris. here in vilonia, the recovery process is just beginning. it's especially difficult because this town has seen more than its fair share of tragedy. almost exactly three years ago another tornado leveled parts of vilon vilonia, and some families and businesses had just finished rebuilding when they were forced to start all over.

but folks here are tough. they look out for one another, and that's been especially clear over the past week. immediately after the tornado hit, about 200 people including fire crews from other counties were ready to go house to house searching for injured neighbors. some survivors were driven to the hospital by complete strangers, and in the days that followed thousands of volunteers showed up to help remove debris and hunt for belongings, pick up trash, deliver supplies and water. one volunteer, 16-year-old casey williams did such a good job coordinating relief efforts arkansas state troopers started taking orders from her. i had a chance to meet her. she's extraordinarily impressive. i don't know what she's going to be doing in the future, but i know it's going to be something great. more than any disaster, it's that dedication, that commitment to each other that truly defines this town. as one resident said, we just say a prayer and then get to work.

so the people of vilonia and all the other towns devastated by the storm understand there's a lot of work that remains to be done, but i'm here to remind them that they're not doing this work alone. your country is going to be here for you. we're going to support you every step of the way. you are in our thoughts and prayers, mr. mayor. thank you for the great leadership you've shown. i know you can count on your governor and your senator and congressman here to make sure every resource we have available to you is going to be there. one of the things that the mayor expressed to me that we've got some concerns about is, when this happens in a town like this, it's not just the infrastructure and the buildings that are torn down. you also lose part of your sales tax base. we're going to have to figure how how they can make sure they get back on their feet. i'll be sure to work with congressman griffin and senator pryor and governor bibby to see if we can do something on that

front as well. i could not be more impressed by the spirit of the community that's here. we've got this gentleman right here, i just had a chance to meet, who was in one of these homes where he lives when the storm hit. thankfully he and his 16-year-old son and wife are okay. it's a reminder obviously that as important as possessions are, nothing is more important than family. those families i had a chance to meet with, they're still mourning those they lost, but they couldn't be more grateful and thankful for the way the community has responded. so this is a testament to the strength of this community, the strength of arkansas and the strength of america. and i could not be more proud of everybody who has participated in the recovery process. thank you very much. >> you've been listening to the president after touring dade-damaged and hard-hit arkansas. he promised residents for all the help from the federal government for recovery.

up next, the most important gift all of us could give our moms this mother's day, senator bob casey joins from the capital to explain.

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and give you fifty dollars back that's the expedia guarantee you might think that it being the 21st century in america any woman's job is protected when she becomes pregnant and the fact you're having a baby doesn't matter when applying for a job. you would be wrong. right now there are only seven states that have some sort of laws for protecting pregnant women while at work, without which employers can put pregnant women on unpaid leave, fire them or make it harder for them to do their jobs, effectively forcing them out of the workplace altogether. our next guest is looking the give all moms to be something extra this mother's day, a few federal law to help to protect them. joining us is pennsylvania democratic senator bob casey, sponsor of the pregnant workers

fairness act. senator, thank you for being with us. tell us what this act does and why you see it as so important and vit snl. >> thanks very much. i appreciate the opportunity to think about this. you would think as you said that in 2014 these protections would be in place. unfortunately they're not. all the while you could have employers discriminate against women in the workforce who happen to be pregnant and not have the kind of sanction or pressure that would lead that employer not to engage in that kind of activity. the tragic irony of this is we've had a model out there since 1990, the americans with disabilities act which created the opportunity for an individual with a disability to have the kind of protections, the term of art here is reasonable accommodations. it's right in the first lines of our bill. so senator sheheen from new hampshire and i are trying from our other 23 co-sponsors to make sure that a pregnant woman on

the job has the same reasonable accommodations that others have a right to expect in the workplace. it makes sense, but it's hard to believe we still have to debate this. >> senator, what this does come down to it seems is money for many of these businesses. i know this from a number of friends who have been through this process and are pregnant a. to think about passing legislation, it's hard to see businesses getting on board and even republicans getting on board when it makes it that much more expensive for many of these businesses to accommodate. >> well, the law continued plates, as does the ada that if the accommodation or the practice that allows a woman to be able to continue working while they're pregnant, if that creates an undue burden for the employer, then they have a remedy not to have to take that

step. but i think this is -- this should be settled law after all these years now, decades now, since the americans with disabilities act has been in place. of course, those were the days, we were hoping to get some republicans to join us on this because those were the days back in 1990 where president bush, president george herbert walker bush was in office. attorney general thornburg from pennsylvania, he and his wife were long-time advocates for folks with disabilities. they teamed up in a republican administration working with the democrats in congress to pass it. you would think that pregnant women in the workplace would have the same intensity behind the protections we should afford them. >> senator casey, how do men benefit from improving protection against pregnancy discrimination? >> well, i think in a lot of ways. first of all, obviously if it's

a family member and if they eerts forced out of the job or the workplace is such because of the practices of the employer that that person either loses their job, meaning the woman who happens to be pregnant, or her work is so difficult because of these discriminatory practices, that somehow she's having real trouble there. that affects, obviously, someone in her family. even if you're a guy that isn't related in any way to a woman who is in the workforce and pregnant, if you're an employer or if you're an employee, you want a workforce that's stable, a workforce that doesn't get undermined or impacted by discriminatory practices, whether it's pregnancy or sex or race or whatever. we want to make sure that we put laws in place that are not only designed to protect that individual. that's our first priority, but there's an ancillary benefit as well when the workplace is more

stable, and i think we can do that in a way that doesn't upset the workplace unduly. >> it benefits us all when the entire population can be fully engaged in the workplace. senator bob casey, thank you so much. up next, this is not your average ceo story. meet the self-described nasty gal who turned her pension for shoplifting and thrift store rummaging into a $100 million business. on friday "the cycle" broadcasts live from atlanta. head to our fis book page to learn what issues your cyclists hope we can tackle together. we want to hear from you. what is your hope around an issue you care about. come tell us at msnbc.com/growinghope. text. (whispering) oh ten gigs sounds pretty good. (whispering) yeah really good (whispering) yeah and for a family of 4 it's a $160 a month.

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when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs.

advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. who would have thought masterthree cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right.

are you type e*? [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. that is japanese '70s clip "girl boss gorilla." a dumpster diving and petty thieving teenage bad ass to an internet entrepreneur bad ass who heads a $100 million retailer nasty girls, making her

own rules, doing it her way. welcome. how did you make it to a successful ceo. >> through a lot of trial and error. i think i'm one of the people who has to remove all the other options before they get to the place that they should be. so i had to try a lot to get here. a lot of those things would be called failures, but i think it's important that i did those things because it's why i am who i am today. i think there is no such thing as failure if you're learning and adjusting and constantly evolving. that's what girl boss is about. there's no prescription. it's important that everybody writes their own story. i want the reader to throw half of my advice awra and find their own. it's also important to learn from mistakes like mine. >> one of the things i love about you and your story and clothing line, it has this very bold sort of sexy glamorous look. i think a lot of women feel

there's this tension between being sexy and pretty and feminine and being powerful and taken serious in the workplace. have you found that to be a challenge that you've had to navigate at all? >> it's not a for me. i don't think woman should have to masculinize themselves. i don't know if that's a word. i think you can be sexy and smart. there's no reason why women shouldn't be able to feel good about themselves. put effort how they look and look however they want to. >> you said you had a lot of brazen wake-up calls in your career, in your journey. what are they? >> oh, man. i learned a lot through employing people. i learned when i was, you know, starting out, i had someone running my performance center, for example. i learned i needed to be loyal to my team before i was loyal to

any individual contributor. and i loved the people who i worked with. i had someone who was in over their head. i was loyal to the point of not hiring a manager over him. i wanted him to grow in the company. and i was giving him an opportunity to learn on his own. and he got over his head and he quit on black friday. >> talk to us about adhd. when you started out, you were doing everything yourself. buying the clothes. delivering the clothes. how did you use that to your advantage to be success if? >> i think people who have a.d.d. are actually able to focus on small tasks maybe better than people focused on creating strategy which is my job today. and leading a group and thinking long term. i'm not even sure if i have a.d. d. >> like so many of us who say we

have it, we're not sure. >> i love the story that the first thing you sold on ebay was something you had stolen. tell us that story. >> i think maybe i was always an entrepreneur. but i was misdirected. it was my goal to smash capital when i was a teenager and it didn't work and i'm glad it didn't. >> smashing capitalism in your company. >> rewriting the rules. >> redefining what it means to be a ceo. i think she's our favorite ceo. >> i was just going to say, you're the most fashionable guest we've had in a long time. >> what do you want people to take away from the book if there's a take away? >> just permission to be ourselves. go to school, go to high school, get good grades, get better grades. there are people who want to go to med school and they're very happy.

i unfortunately are not one that relates to that. most of the women have pedigree backgrounds. they have the mbas and the ivy league educations. >> sophia amoruso, thank you very much. up next, the thing that jonathan heard on this network so much this morning that made him so mad he could spit. with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin but wondered, could i focus on something better? my doctor told me about eliquis for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. and three, unlike warfarin there's no routine blood testing. [ male announcer ] don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke.

eliquis can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. those three important reasons are why i'm shooting for something better. eliquis. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor today if eliquis is right for you.

there was a discussion on "morning joe" that made me so mad i could spit. >> is it going to be as big as 2010? >> i don't know if it's as big as 2010 but it's not just at the

national level but the state level. >> nobody votes in an offyear election. >> remember, you're lucky to get 30% of people turned out for the electionses. >> there's all this chatter that republicans are going to make president obama's final years in office a living hell because there's a strong belief that the democratic party base stays home during midterm elections. this isn't idle speculation. it's a political truism grounded in years of evidence. so why does this conventionalism make me angry? because it doesn't have to be this way. especially if black voters show up at the polls in 2014 in the same numbers as they did in 2008 and 2012. but they have to show up. here two reasons why they should. pride and power. first, pride. 93% of african-americans vote fod obama in 2012, so they should keep in mind even though he isn't on the ballot this november. he is on the ballot this november. the gop will tie obama's

policies, particularly obamacare, to every democrat running for office. so if democrats really want to make sure the president's last two years in office are not the equivalent of an oval office vacation they'll make sure to show up and vote which brings me to power. according to a census report last year, the late of african-american voters in the 2012 presidential election surpassed that of whites for the first time in history. a study by a george mason university professor showed that this actually might have happened in 2008. and with the demographic shifts already under way in the country the power of the white vote will only diminish further. now, let's get specific. last month, aaron blake of the "washington post" listed the four way that washington voters could decide the nat in 2015. he wrote six of the 12 states with highest black population, holding key senate contests in 2014. that includes north carolina where democratic senator kay

hagan is an uphill battle to keep her seat. the key nugget in blake's piece is this, basically every black voter who stays home is a democratic voter who stays home. black voters generally vote more than 90% democratic. so just about every drop in turnout among black voters pretty clearly comes at democrats' expense. if this is too much theorizing for you just look at what happened in the race for governor in 2013. ken cuccinelli the ultra conservative republican candidate was a problematic figure but there wasn't universal trace tour terry mcauliffe either. mcauliffe was able to either out a three-point win. according to polls right after that election, not only did mcauliffe win almost the same percentage the black vote as obama did in the 2012 presidential election. but the same percentage of black voters who showed up in that

election showed up for mcauliffe in 2013. the message is when you show up, you swing elections. as much as it makes me angry that pundits and politicians completely right off the black vote, i'll be apoplectic if african-americans stay home and don't vote. "now with alex wagner" starts now. democrats with a choice on benghazi, try to corral the conspiracy or watch the freak show from the sidelines? it's wednesday, may 7th and this is "now." >> it's a very thin line between investigative hearing and kangaroo court. ♪ >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> benghazi. >> congressman gowdy, is this is not going to be a political

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