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. thanks for disrupting your afternoon on this mother's day. i'm karen finney. and this hour, a historic moment in america sealed with a kiss. and the gop continues to raise money offer of the death of four americans and a crisis overseas continues to escalate. >> the st. louis rams select michael sam, defensive end, missouri. >> this is going to drag the nfl into the 21st century. >> this is the moment where michael sam got the news that he was going to be a member of the st. louis rams. >> a lot of cheers and a kiss from his boyfriend? >> in he had not been drafted, can you imagine the questions?

>> you're going to rock it. next season and all the years to come we'll be rocking in st. louis. >> this is a serious investigation. don't want theater, i don't want a side show. >> we should be talking about what have we done since benghazi? what have we done to make americans safer? >> i have more questions than answers. >> this cannot be politicized. >> it is appearing to be a smoke scene so they can raise campaign funds. there it is a tall order to try to keep this inquiry. >> it is a political farce and intended to stir the republican base and turnout for this election. all right. your political forecast this week, benghazi, benghazi, benghazi. following a string of good news on the affordable care act, benghazi has replaced it as the

g gop meme for 2013. not only did the national republican congressional committee set up a donation page, even after select committee chair trey gowdy condemned any fund-raising off the hearings, but the benghazi fund-raising has already gotten out of control. casting even more doubt on the proceedings. you can now visit benghaziwatchdogs.com, a whole website to raisings money off an attack that killed four americans. if you head over to google shopping, can you even purchase your very own benghazi baby onesies. shower curtains. check it out. and underwear. isn't that charming. but even though the hearings might open donors' wallets and rev up the base for next fall, it could backfire on the gop as the hearings become a partisan witch hunt. not just me say so.

editorials nationwide show people just aren't buying it. not just talking about the "new york times," either. these are papers in different communities all across the country and republicans know they have a reason to be worried. >> if we overplay our hand or if we engage in a process that's not fair according to the american people, we will be punished as we should be for that. >> this is a serious investigation. i don't want theater within don't want a side show. >> this cannot be politicized. it has to be done, again, in a very thoughtful, deliberate way. >> it is a tall order to try to keep this inquiry from being written off as just political antics. >> our panel this afternoon, buzz feed congressional reporter kate nosera, executive director of color of change, rashad robin been, kate, i'll start with you. here is my question about this. if they are so concerned about legitimacy, why don't they establish fair rules? why not have -- if it is going to be seven republicans, seven democrats and let the democrats

have the same rights and privileges as the republicans. >> so here's the thing. i do think that john boehner and the leadership actually really, really, really want democrats to participate in order to make this seem like a fair committee. i also think that their conference actually just won't let them do that. the committee's already set up. everything's already baked in. at this point any deal he is going to make with pelosi about the rules is going to be a handshake. democrats are going to kind of have to trust that that's what's going to end up happening. why he doesn't go do that, i mean they point to precedent. they point to previous select committees when democrats were in the majority, they had more members. so i don't think that's going to shift but i do think democrats want to see some more fairness around subpoenas, around what happens when witnesses come in and the guarantee that they'll be able to interview. >> that's always the thing, that sort of tit for tat, be careful

how you treat people when it is your hearing and committee because when you're on other side, basically you'll get screwed. alex, here's the thing. this past week they've basically failed to land any punches, as one headline said, with obamacare. right? had he heard from insurance companies that said no, things are actually pretty good. that strikes me that since obamacare not working, now it's shifted. it is all about benghazi. >> i think they were counting on riding obamacare all the way to the election. that's not going to happen since obamacare has recovered to a national degree. this is something congress can be doing when congress isn't doing anything else. it is sort after base mobilization tactic so you hate obamacare, you hate healthcare.gov, now just subin benghazi. it all speaks to the same larger idea that the administration is corrupt, that democrats are hiding the truth for you. they sort of serve a similar purpose in the same way. you get the positive message from the individual candidates and you get the negative base

mobilization from the national party in washington. >> and yet, margie, there is fund-raising going on. not just fund-raising. as we pointed out, you can buy all kinds of benghazi items. >> benghazi clothes for my toddler. benghazi onesies for all your friends. look, i don't begrudge campaigns or campaign committees from fund-raising by doing whatever they can to fund raise. certainly when you work in politics fund-raising people say i don't care what kind of hit you take, we want to raise as much money as we can. but the fact this works as well as it does, they decided this is what we are willing to expose ourselves to here, because it is such a base consolidating issue. it is an issue that is just going to be a proxy for are you upset with president obama? here's an issue to focus your attention on. that's why it's work so well in the fund-raising. that's why they're going to continue to do it. >> it does strike me publicly you've got trey gowdy saying we shouldn't be fund-raising.

you've got other members avoiding the question and sort of say that they shouldn't be fund-raising off of this. but if they wanted it to stop, they could make it stop. it is not like the nrcc is not directly connected to republican members of congress. >> they could make it stop tomorrow. this is absolutely what the other folks have said, it is about base mobilization. but for the democrats, right? strategically for the left. this is also an opportunity for base mobilization. we have seen how attacks on obama have really turned out and spurred the rising american electorate. black folks in particular. black women who will be needed in this election if democrats hope to hole on to the senate. in particular we saw in 2012 with pew research and others, why people waited in long lines, why people turned out was because of these attacks on president obama that folks felt were unfair. how this gets turned around and flipped on its head to ensure the american public knows how republicans are using our tax dollars and not really concentrating on the real issues facing all of us. >> i want to play sound from mr.

gowdy earlier trying to flip this back around on democrats crying hypocrisy. >> the duplicity and hypocrisy of democrats all of a cud concluding that certain things are above politics. they raise money on sandy hook. they raised money on katrina. they raised money on iraq an afghanistan. >> um, i think that's not quite the right comparison. >> i think he is pointing to outside groups and different groups that they do raise money, they do -- these tragedies, talking about politicizing tragedies. i mean everyone does it. democrats do it. republicans do it. the thing with gowdy is that he does -- if you talk to democrats in congress, they actually believe that gowdy is legit player and that he actually does believe that republicans should not fund raise off of this. i think there is a split in republicans over whether or not they should be doing that or not. boehner very pointedly would not

answer questions the other day at a press conference, like do you think that the nrcc should be doing this? and he would not answer it. i think that was really telling. >> but i do agree, alex, i do think it opens the republicans up to krit siccriticism that th politicizing it particularly when we saw this week one of the family members of one of the people who was killed in benghazi actually said we don't want you to do this. >> that's a big danger for them here and trey gowdy said that this morning on fox news. there's precedent here. dan burton, the oversight chairman under clinton, famously shot a watermelon or pumpkin -- not really sure what it is -- he just looked like a total clown. that completely undermined his credibility and hurt the republicans in november. i think actually part of what's going on here, among many reasons why boehner wanted to create this select committee is to pull this away from darrel issa who's been somewhat embarrassing on this front, if not quite shooting pumpkins, and give it to a former federal prosecutor, who is widely respected by democrats and to

try to reign it in a little bit and put more of an adult in the room. >> it is interesting. we were looking at some of the editorials and some of the coverage. "if this becomes an excuse to criticize democrats and try to win votes just shut it down now. it's disrespectful to the families of those four men who died to use an investigation into their deaths as a way to raise money for a political campaign. if there is no actual case here, then it is also a waste of time." that's in augusta county, virginia, where romney won by 70%. obama got 28%. this is the "new york times," conservative areas of the country saying the questioning of the legitimacy of this. >> i think no matter how they fine tune the proceedings here you are still going to have a lot of voters saying are you really fighting for me up there or are you just doing more partisan bickering? when they see this kind of squabbling, it doesn't matter what rules they set for how the committee's going to go, the

tone of this guy versus that guy, who walks back the comments. it doesn't matter. they'll say, look, this is the least productive congress ever and here's what you're spending your time on. that's something that they really need to worry about. >> i hope they will, actually. the panel will be back with me. next, the pick is in. it's changed everything. former nfl player wade davis joins us. and later, in honor of mother's day, we'll take a look at what moms are thinking. you really love, what would you do?" ♪ [ woman ] i'd be a writer. [ man ] i'd be a baker. [ woman ] i wanna be a pie maker. [ man ] i wanna be a pilot. [ woman ] i'd be an architect. what if i told you someone could pay you and what if that person were you? ♪ when you think about it, isn't that what retirement should be, paying ourselves to do what we love? ♪

paying ourselves to do what we love? [baby cries] ♪ [baby laughs] ♪

i want you to know stuff i want you to be kind. i want you to be smart. super smart. i want one thing in a doctor. i want you to be handsome. i want you to be awesome. i don't want you to look at the chart before you say hi...david. i want you to return my emails. i want you to keep me doing this for another sixty years. at kaiser permanente, we want you to choose the doctor that's right for you. find your perfect match at kp.org and thrive. now to the intersection of sports and culture. missouri defensive line man and

2013co-s.e.c. people of the year michael sam embracing his boyfriend after hearing the news he'd been drafted by the st. louis rams become being the first openly gay player to be drafted in the nfl. local st. louis paper proudly called it a place in history and just ours before the news came, many wondered if the team would step up and be part of that history. the nfl.com even highlighting it with sam watch on its home page. that watch ended in the final moments of the draft. here was sam's reaction to a reporter from our local nbc affiliate ksdk. >> i am overwhelmed. i'm excited and i'm proud to be a ram. >> as the weekend went by, what were you feeling like as draft pick after draft pick went by and kind of the picks were dwindling to precious few? >> i knew i was going to get picked somewhere. and every team that passed me i was thinking how i'm going to sack their quarterback. >> even the white house weighed in this morning in this statement to nbc news -- "the

president congratulates michael sam and the rams and the nfl for taking and important step forward in our nation's journey from the playing field to the corporate boardroom, lgbt americans prove every day that you should be judged by what you do and not who you are." so what does sam's pick say about where we are in our culture and how much did his difficult decision off the field to come out play in to a team's decision to give him a shot on the field? kate, rashad and margie are back and with us in studio, wade davis, a former nfl player who came out in 2012 and is now the executive director of you can play, an organization that advocates for openly gay athletes. and from washington, d.c., jason reid, a sports columnist for "the washington post." thanks to you all. i want to start with you, wade. we were just talking before we came back on. what is it like when you are waiting and waiting and particularly to have just come down like to the wire like that. >> you're literally not breathing. i remember when i was waiting to get drafted, i literally didn't breathe. your family is there, your

friends are there. you feel the appreciate sthur have that moment when they are around and all that excitement. as are you waiting you start worrying, they start worrying. i think for michaelle sam there had to be fear that maybe i made the wrong decision, maybe that coming out really hurt my actual draft status and i think that you saw with his crying and his release like this exhale going, wow, i made the right decision to live in my truth. >> do you think it did affect his standing, his coming out? >> i would be lying if i said there weren't a couple of teams that were probably afraid of the unknown. but my work with the nfl over the last couple of months i truly believe most teams evaluated him as a player. a lot of people who don't understand that process say he was a defensive player of the year in the s.e.c. there have been heisman trophies who were the best players in went undrafted. charlie ward, big star in the nba, won a championship, he didn't get drafted. it isn't as black and white as many may think. >> jason, what strikes me is that yesterday as we were

watching this draft and waiting to see what was going to happen, it did feel like the question was would he. right? there was not a lot of discussion -- or there was less discussion, i should say, about his qualifications as an athlete as there was this would be a historic moment. >> i mean, clearly he is a talented football player. but i think when you go through the draft process, there are many different variables that teams look at in terms of, okay, well is this guy a fit for what we did. you heard some football people say that he was a tweener meaning that he wasn't really a lineman size to play defensive line in the nfl. maybe he couldn't fit as an outside linebacker. when you have that tag placed on you that you are a tweener, there are going to be some teams that just on that kind of back away or downgrade you and i mean there's been so much talk about him and the potential that -- okay, having him in the locker room, would it be a distraction, the media attention. there are a lot of things that weigh in and i think contributed to where he was finally pick.

>> i am learning all kind of new football jargon from this story. wade, talk about that for a moment. this idea of being a distraction in the locker room. i feel like that's insulting i think to be individual. was that something that you worried about? >> yes. i'll be honest. at the time in 2000, there were no conversations around being gay in sport. i think that we have to give the nfl a little bit more credit than we do and say that nfl players are used to being around people who are different from them, right? whether different race, different class, different religion. they're used to dealing with difference. the difference this time is that there was a little bit of the unknown. right? i think fear entered into that space but i think what you're finding that by the experience that michael sam had in missouri that players are much more capable of dealing with this than we might imagine. >> you also spoke, i believe, earlier this year to some of the owners. from what i understand, you actually got a pretty positive response. >> i had a coach tell me it was the best speech he's ever heard at the owner's committee.

right? what i found was that so many of them came to me afterwards and said can you come visit my team. there are a lot of coaches and gms who i've been speaking to, so i'll be working with their teams throughout the next couple of years. >> rashad, how big a moment is this for the lgbt community? >> i think it is absolutely huge. for myself, just growing up and not having any role models who were gay, not seeing openly gay people in high positions. for young people watching this, for the community at large, it sends a different message about what's possible. and we need the michael sams of the world to make those statements. we needed his team in missouri to be able to come together. we needed the nfl to be able to stand up. over the course of the next several months and next several years i think more doors will open up. i remember when he willen came out on television. folks said her career was over and they said that nothing new was going to happen for her. we just saw her hosting the oscars. change is coming but it takes brave people.

it takes our culture to change. all of this sort of policy change that we're seeing in the lgbt right space is a result of the culture change, the result of people telling their stories and the result of folks like michael sam who are brave and stand up. >> jason, i want to read something. i guess my question is, is the nfl ready for an openly gay player. this was from "sports illustrated." someone said, "i don't think football is ready for an openly gay player just yet. in the coming decade or two it is going to be acceptable but at this point in time it is still a man's man's game. to call somebody a gay slur is so common place, it would chemically imbalance an nfl locker room and meeting room." >> i think the owners definitely are much more tolerant than they were in the past of different people and different ideas and i think that when you look at the stance the owners took, making it clear right from the get-go that, hey, this is something

that we support him and he -- we support his courage in coming out and he has a place in the nfl. if he's good enough to play here. i think when you talk about players in general, yes, will there be some layers who will have a problem with michael sam's lifestyle? i think i'd be naive to say that there is no one in the nfl who would feel that they didn't like his lifestyle. but i think the nfl as a whole, i think it is a much more tolerant group than it was 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago. really, when you look at our society right now, the change that's occurred i think these sports leagues -- jason collins is an openly gay basketball player for the brooklyn fetnets. i think we're just living in the age right now people who are on the wrong side of tolerance and the wrong side of change are going to get left on the side of the road. >> i'm going to shift gears a little bit here. there is a little bit of a controversy senator majority leader harry reid has been very hot on. that is the redskins' name.

it's interesting, henry waxman is now calling for hearings. he sort of made the point that his rationale was, okay, in the nba those were comments that were made in private. but this is the name of the team, which is public, and the head of the nfl has actually defended that name publicly. he wants to bring them in and see if it is really in the public interest. >> he does. this has actually gotten a lot of pick-up on capitol hill. obviously we're in washington, you'd have to ask my boss who's a big washington football team fan about dan snyder in particular. but as things move forward on capitol hill, and i think with donald sterling and the nba, i think more politicians kind of looked and said, maybe we need to get involved and at least like elevate this conversation a little bit to find out what is going on here. why have we just sort of accepted that this is the status quo and i think a lot of

washington redskins fans are saying, it's fine, this has been the name of the team for so long. but from a lot of people, even tom cole who is a republican from oklahoma, a native american man from oklahoma, he's also called for the redskins to talk about changing their name as well. so it continues to get attention. >> it is not just the redskins. there are a number of pro-sports teams that have native american logos that some might find offensive. jason, dan snyder has been pretty adamant in saying that he is not going to change the name. to some degree, is this political posturing or is there really a chance that snyder would reconsider his decision? >> i mean the whole sterling element of it, it is not an apples to apples comparison because daniel snyder was not called on tape obviously making disparaging remarks about native americans saying he didn't want native americans coming to his games. however, having said that, i do

believe the name clearly is offensive. it would probably be a good idea for them to change it. however, i don't think he will change it unless you see the type of economic pressure that was brought against the clippers after sterling's comments. i don't think -- otherwise, i don't think it is going to happen. people want to say that donald sterling lost -- is in the process of losing ownership of his team because of the comments he made. no, he's in the process of losing his team because he could no longer execute the partnership agreement that he had with his other partners because his comments created such undue economic pressure on the league and his team that the owners had no choice but to side with the nba commissioner saying, look, we can't do this because it is a revenue sharing league and you're costing us money. yes, i do believe the name is clearly offensive and it would be best for everyone involved in daniel snyder just changed it. but unless you see the type of economic pressure from state farm and kia and company after company, i don't see it ever happening. >> it will be interesting to see if mr. waxman gets his hearings. thank you to wade davis an jason

reid. the panel will be back with me later in this hour. up next, with shots fired today, the situation in ukraine may have gone from bad to worse with today's referendum vote. richard engel joins us live from the scene when we come back. yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business. i'm j-e-f-f and i have copd. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs

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there? >> reporter: well, the latest on that incident, there are several different videos that have emerged showing the same incident. there are ukrainian troops. they had had moved in to take over a building that was occupied by pro-russian separatists, by russian militias. this is not a simple vote or referendum that's taking place in another part of the world that is considered legitimate and credible. you have a russian separatist movement here that has taken over towns and cities and government buildings, and today really held a vote among its own supporters. those are the only people who turned out. people who want this referendum. it wasn't nationwide. it was kind of an internal straw poll, if you will. what happened in that town, which is just due west of here, is a bunch of these supporters moved on to the ukrainian soldiers as the ukrainian soldiers felt that they were

surrounded. they started firing in the air. one man grabbed a weapon and ended up getting shot, it looks like, in the abdomen. there were reportedly other casualties. these are the kind of incidents that are happening now in many of the different towns and villages across eastern ukraine. >> richard, one question about today's vote. it struck me just in reading different comments from people who had turned out to vote, it doesn't seem to me like everybody is on the same page about what they're actually voting for. some people responded that they were voting to be set apart from kiev and ukraine. some were saying, yes, we want to be absorbed by russia. some were saying we just want to be independent. >> this vote has no transparency. the balance lots were not printed with any kind of markings that would make them difficult to counterfeit. we have no idea how many polling stations there really were. how many votes were cast. so i don't think you should

understand this is a clear, transparent process here. what people were voting for is independence. but it would be independence that would be aligned to russia. so when we ask voters themselves, they said they want independence and they want eventually to be part of russia. this would be a first step to absorption. not like the vote in crimea where they were voting directly to be part of russia. but effectively, if these people got what they wanted, they would be independent and they would be part of russia, if not technically but certainly in practice. >> thank you. nbc's richard engel in ukraine. next, one ivy league student says there's no need for him to check his privilege at the door. if he only -- if only he really knew what privilege is. that's coming up. hey. i'm ted and this is rudy. say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ]

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 and i felt this horrible pain on one side of my back. i saw this red, blistery, rash i had 16 magic shows to do. i didn't know how i was going to be able to do these shows with this kind of pain that i was in. i told my wife what i had. she went on the internet and said "i think you have shingles." i could feel the shock in my back and it was like "wow its got to get better than this or i'm in big trouble."

check your privilege. it is ane increasingly common expression on college campuses intended to remind students to evaluate how their personal experience has influenced their world view. but some people are taking issue with the phrase questioning what they feel is a dismissive undertone or an attack on character. a princeton freshman penned his dismay with a check your privilege movement in an op-ed for the prince son tory. he wrote "the phrase handed down by my moral superiors descends recklessly like an obama-sanctioned drone and aims laser like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness and the nerve i've displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal weltanschauung. check your privilege to explore how i got where i am and a reminder i ought to feel personally apologetic because

white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world. while his gripe has earned him stripes from the right wing media machine, his critics have accused him of everything from being immaturity and petulant to all-out racism. but is there a merit to what he says and how can this privilege checking be used in a way to open up conversation rather than shut down debate. my panel is back with me to weigh in. i found this very interesting because i could actually relate to what he was saying. certainly you don't want to shut down conversation but at the same time, how do you teach people to be aware that you -- there are differences? >> it comes with age. first, i feel bad for the guy because half of the stuff i say now i don't want public. right? definitely nothing that i said in college would i want public to this day. >> college freshman. >> right. so i feel bad for the guy. i think a lot of these things are lessons that come with time.

in college sometimes those identity politics conversations can get a little intense. i think maybe he's responding to some of that. you are right, a phrase, as he interpreted it, was to say you have nothing to say about any of these debates. that's what he heard. and that shouldn't have been -- i don't think that's what really the phrase is about. and that shouldn't be what we mean by that. it should be about understanding that everyone comes to the table with a lot of obstacles and it is good to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to understand them before you speak. >> or just that everybody comes to the table with a different set of experiences. i want to play some sound because he was indeed on fox news earlier this week. let's take a listen. >> in one way, it's that i should certainly feel empathetic towards other people and take on their perspective. and i don't see any problem with that and i don't disagree with that. i think the assumption that i haven't done anything like that because of the opinions that i hold is problematic.

>> i mean there he makes a good point i think. and fairly puts on the table sort of again what i think is the sort of tension within this conversation. on one hand you want people to have a level of awareness. on the other hand -- it seemed like he really internalizes as an attack on his character. >> you are talking about a real third rail here. talking about race, talking about accusing somebody essentially of racism. that's how he feels it. no one wants to be accused of racism, even cliven bundy says he's not racist which shows you just how much it is engrained in our culture that you don't want to be accused of racism. i think you want to come to people like this with some empathy and understanding and talk to them. i went to a very privileged high school -- i'll use the word -- elite boarding school. there was an incident of racivity grace ivi

raceivity graffiti. there was this one speech that we got that actually resonated with those dopey speeches in high school. if you're white, if you had male, if you had nothing to do with it, you're not racist, you still benefit from this systemic privilege. it is not go personal privilege. it is not about racism. it is that you personally benefit from a systemic level. >> rashad, what's interesting to me though, too, we kind of took this immediately to a race conversation. at least that's the criticism. but it also can be socioeconomic. part of it is, privilege comes in many different forms. >> it comes in many different forms. gender as well. we need to have a broader conversation. i think the interesting piece of how the media used a story that was in a college newspaper, the conservative media took this out to sort of paint for america for the broader public as we head into 2014, as we head into 2016, this victim, this sort of white male victim as the country's demographics are changing, as we just saw the supreme court rule on affirmative action, that

there is this idea that certain people are being harmed as this country's demographics changes, that i can no long ver have my voice. my ideas are being shut down because this sort of new, emerging, kind of coalition of people are taking away my rights. and i think for that we need to be really concerned because these trojan horses of young people being used or the next sort of story we see, they try to take cliven bundy and make him that as well until they got to hear what he really had to say. >> right. >> then they were like, oh, no, no, not him. but him. and we're going to need to continue to see this. but strategically we need to keep our eye on the ball about exactly what we need to do from a policy perspective and a culture perspective to get a country where we all have the opportunity to be able to grow and prosper. >> kate, one of the criticisms from "time" magazine, they said, "privilege is not an idea aimed at muting opinion or

understating the worth of accomplishments. it is not a stab at personal character, nor is it something for which one needs to apologize. but it is also not a myth. privilege refers to the very real benefits it that society afford certain groups over others and is manifested in many ways." i guess in this whole issue again, the question i keep coming back to, how do we -- to what rashad was saying, ensure that we are moving forward, ensure that everybody gets to be heard, but again make people aware we don't all start in the same place and we don't all have the same opportunities to make the same choices in our lives. >> i think the conversation on both sides, having -- i don't know. i'm not a college freshman right now but i don't know how many college freshman are walking around going check your privilege, dude. i don't think that is constructive either, to this conversation. i think what needs to happen is having a broader conversation about not assuming where people are coming from. part of his argument was like,

you don't know my family history. his grandparents survived the holocaust. that's an important part of who he is and an important part of conversation that he clearly wants to have. so i think coming at it from both sides and not having an immediate shutdown and not having an immediate defensiveness, that's kind of the problem here. >> all right. we have to leave it there. the panel stays with me. tell us what you think of this check your privilege movement. you can tweet us @msnbcdisrupt or find us on facebook. but don't go anywhere. we have much more "disrupt" right after this. and you want to get an mba. but going back to school is hard. because you work. now capella university offers a revolutionary new way to get your degree.

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increase in the minimum wage. it's something to think about. just sayin'. to all the moms out there, especially mine, happy mother's day. coming up, we'll look at the poll and see what moms reilly think about politics, their home, their children's future. and that's next. really... so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 dollars a month? yup. all five of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. new at&t mobile share value plans. our best value plans ever for business.

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we're really looking for someone who might have a degree in medicine, in finance and the culinary arts. you must be able to wear several hats. associate needs constant attention. sometimes they have to stay up with an associate throughout the night. >> being able to work in a chaotic environment. if you had a life, we'd ask you to sort of give that life up. no vacations. in fact, thanksgiving, christmas, new year's and holidays the work load is going to go up and we demand that. the position is going to pay absolutely nothing. >> excuse me. >> what if i told through is someone who currently actually holds this position right now.

billions of people actually. >> who? >> moms. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> moms. >> that's awesome. >> oh, my god. moms are the best! >> happy mother's day. moms are the best. in honor of these heroins, we're taking a look at a number of polls and surveys which gauge what moms are thinking and feeling nationwide. this week's "parade" magazine featured moms who shopped at walmart in the past month. needless to say their lives are a constant balancing act with worries ranging from financial issues to their needs and whether the politicians are meeting them. the panel is back to help me evaluate the findings. margie, a mom herself -- i can verify that. i've seen her precious child -- was a pollster on this special

report. margie, i'll start with you. it was interesting, i know the intention was not necessarily to ask political questions but obviously it was interesting that so much of what women are talking about, what they care about, do connect to policy issues that we are talking about, particularly financial worries. >> right. we asked it several different ways. we'd been studying walmart moms, along with a republican pollster, for years. they are proven swing voter. they voted for obama, then they voted republican. then they voted for obama again. in this latest survey with "parade" and walmart, in partnership, we found financial issues were a top concern. they are the top worries they have at night. they are the top dreams an concerns they have for their kids' future. and their biggest regret. we asked a series of things what would you do differently, number one is, i should have learned more about financial literacy, learned more about managing my finances. it is something that really came

up a lot. but they're still optimistic. still a majority still say they are going to achieve the american dream. they feel more likely to achieve the american dream than their parents. they still have a lot of optimism. >> one of the things that was interesting in these polls, child care costs came up a lot as a top concern. for us, financially, it would make absolutely no sense for me to work because paying for daycare would cost more than i would make. that struck me because a lot of times in the policy conversation that we have about chooiild car and the importance of child care, people don't realize that's why someone isn't working. it's not that they don't want to work, it is that the cost of child care doesn't make sense for them to work. >> i think the financial stress that's on mothers is going to play so deeply into 2014. you can already see -- i have ten press releases in my in box that are moms for sewing. i'm serious. this is already happening. you'll hear the candidates hit

on those. republican candidates are going to go straight to the economic message for mothers. democratic candidates, minimum wage. child care. what can we do. that is a battle that they're going to have and continue to have for the next several months. >> looking at the issue of the minimum wage, 58% of walmart moms say they are living on or near the financial edge. similarly, the shriver report found that 42 million women across the entire country are living on the brink of poverty. this message about increasing the minimum wage is very potent for women. >> absolutely. there's countless polls that show this. that 58% was the most striking thing to me in the survey. because these are people who are living their lives day to day. 58% is a sizable majority that are worried about this issue. throughout the survey you just see they're concerned about nuts and bolts, pragmatic issues.

you turn to washington ande're w talking about benghazi. it is so depressing in some ways. kate and i are in it like every day so it is easy to lose sight of these larger things. you pull back and there are people in the country who just want to have a job, just pay, go to walmart and buy food for their kids and we're talking about benghazi. >> we had somebody in our focus group say i would workfy could afford it. if that was the calculation, if i could afford it, i would work. >> too often that's not the way the conversation happens in washington. it is either you're a maker, a taker, a this, a that. without thinking about what does that full cycle actual lie look like. my favorite part of this poll was 41% said the country would be better off if more women were elected to political office. how smart are those moms! >> very smart. every single day we campaign on economicic use, protecting the social safety net, working to fight for fair wages, working to fight for walmart moms actually

who are having a really tough time. pregnant women at walmart, walmart mothers are having a hard time, folks who work there. we hear their stories an their willingness to fight and go deep. the question will be as these groups of mothers are coming out, the moms rising, the moms working around gun control. how do we pipeline more of those folks to running for office. how do we give more of those folks an opportunity to have their voices heard in their capitol hills, in their states, in washington. because that is going to also be what we need to really shape and reshape our democracy, making sure more people who are affected by the policies are being represented, are representing us. >> i think that also means we should raise the minimum wage. we need to deal with child care. i feel like this poll lays it all out what we need to be doing. i want to thank my panel this afternoon, kate, rashad and margie and alex. that does it for me. thanks so much for joining us this mother's day. please don't forget, share your

thoughts, find us on facebook or tweet us at msnbcdisrupt. i will see you back here next weekend at 4:00 p.m. eastern. have a great night. so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? that's right, no hidden fees. it's just that i'm worried about, you know, "hidden things." ok, why's that? well uhhh... surprise!!! um... well, it's true. at ally there are no hidden fees. not one. that's nice. no hidden fees, no worries. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

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