>> the long-awaited inspector general's report confirms the extended wait times and misconduct we heard about in recent weeks. plus, the latest push to stop potential killers from buying guns. we'll tell you what's happening from coast to coast, and in between. plus -- >> the feature between the relationship of black and white america. >> an author delves into america's troubling history and a controversial piece makes the case for reparations, creating a national conversation. but we start with the va scandal, and the growing calls for the dispass al of secretary shinseki, who tells nbc news, is on thin ice. republicans at a news conference with veterans seized on a new report about the allegations of cooked books and long wait times, demanding accountability from the va, but also from president obama. >> accountability for this starts at the very top.

senior appointed leaders in the cabinets and agencies ultimately report to president obama. >> it's much larger than secretary shinseki. there has been no leadership from the white house as it relates to this crisis that exists. no urgency that exists. >> it's not just republicans. earlier today, senators tom udall, michael heinrich and mark warner demand shinseki be shown the door. many are up for reelection. they said it's now investigating 42 va facilities up from 26 nationwide. of the phoenix office that kicked off the current investigation, the report found 1,700 veterans waiting for care that they didn't receive. the report also found that, quote, inappropriate scheduling

practices are systemic throughout the health administration. investigators found the average waiting time for an appointment was almost five times as long as reported by the va facility in phoenix. shinseki has responded with an editorial in "usa today" say he ordered the va to contact the veterans still waiting for appointments. and that, quote, we are doing all we can to accelerate access to care throughout our system, and in communities where veterans reside. shinseki adds, i've challenged our leadership to ensure we're doing everything possible to schedule veterans for their appointments. the question is, will that be enough for general shinseki to hang on to his job. dennis wagner is an investigative reporter for the arizona republic and "usa today." dennis, let's actually start with phoenix. that is obviously where you are reporting. i'm wondering if these reports about veterans awaiting care and having problems with the va are something that is new, or something that has cropped up from time to time over the years? >> well, it's apparent it's

something that's come up for almost a decade, or at least a decade i would say. if you even look at the inspector general's interim report that just came out yesterday, it reels off a list of previous inspector general reports at other locations around the country, where they identified wait time, manipulations, false any indication of data, that kind of thing. there was a gao report a couple of years ago that documented it at numerous locations. so it's not something that is new. phoenix is the tip of the iceberg, the last straw on the camel's back, whatever you want to call it. it's something that climaxed with what happened in phoenix? i want to play you what congressman jeff miller, one of the many senators from the white house calling on this issue. this is what he was discussing regarding shinseki. >> there's already a vacuum at the top. it's already there. that vacuum goes all the way up

to the white house. >> and that was on the question, dennis, of whether getting rid of the head of the va would fall to someone who now has to learn the system and then try to fix it. i'm wondering if in arizona there is a sense among people familiar with the way the va runs that putting a new person at the top in washington would actually impact the systemic problems locally there in phoenix. >> i think you have to ask that question in the context of who would be the person they put in that spot, what qualifications they have, what integrity they have. then you also have to look at, are you talking long-term or short-term. i think this is a long haul proposition in terms of reforming this agency and cleaning up problems that have developed over a year -- over years and have become ingrained in a bureaucracy. >> dendennis, the other questio would have down to the secretary down to the phoenix va, have

there never been members of congress that represent phoenix, members of congress that represent the state of arizona, the senate, the two senators, have they never heard of these allegations before? do you have any reporting on whether or not veterans have tried to contact their member of congress over the years to report these problems? >> there have been an incredible number of veterans who have come to me, who have told me their horror stories about delayed care and other problems with the va. many of them have gone to members of congress, to senator mccain, other members of congress and made complaints to them. some of them say they got help. many more of them say they didn't get any help at all. i've talked to the congressional liaisons for many members of the delegation here in arizona, and they tell me they're overwhelmed with complaints. they do what they can. if you listen to what members of congress have said in the house and senate hearings, repeatedly, there's no transparency, there's

no cooperation and there's no accountability in the va from their point of view. so what they're saying is, they do what they can, but the va's not really responsive to them. >> you're saying essentially that they're reporting at least from veterans who have spoken to you, is that they feel the responsiveness was wholly on the part of the va and not from their member of congress, or do they have complaints about the response from their representatives? >> there are quite a few of veterans who are very upset with their members of congress. it's hard for us to penetrate that, because constituency records and constituency communications with members of congress are not public records. i've asked to interview senator mccain's department of veterans affairs. and i've been turned down. so they will also talk about the members of congress, saying there's a confidentiality requirement that they have, so they're not going to discuss particular cases. >> yeah. and in addition to being the senior senator from arizona, of

course, senator mccain is the ranking member on the armed services committee. do you have any reporting on previous investigations, prior to this year, pi the armed services committee or by any other member of the arizona delegation about the problems in phoenix? >> not by the armed services committee. i'm not aware of anything. i believe this is more of a providence of the veterans affairs committee in both the house and the senate. i would think they would be the ones that would focus on it. >> at this point, is the entire delegation from arizona asking for general shinseki to resign or be fired? >> i would not say that it's the entire delegation. there are some that are not. but the vast majority. >> the vast majority? and lastly, is this one of those issues within arizona, at least according to your reporting, that is bipartisan in nature or are you starting to see it become a matter of some politics within the state?

>> it's clearly politics, but so far it has been for the most part in a very divided era. it has been extremely bipartisan. you may see that starting to break down now. i noticed on your broadcast, there were hints of that. but overall, so far, it's been kind of a unanimous, we need to fix this attitude. >> lastly, actually, one more question for you, dennis. do you see evidence that veterans groups are organizing to take these complaints public? there have been a long history in this country of veterans' protests. is this something that is visible, let's say, on the streets of arizona, or is this really an issue between members of congress, their individual constituents and the va? >> no. this is something that there's, in addition to the political overview, there's a groundswell of outraged veterans who feel like they've been dismissed, discarded. and at town halls here in arizona, they've spoken out telling their stories, and it's

really sad. i've interviewed many of them, too. i've interviewed hundreds of veterans. they will start telling their stories. and you're talking about grizzled world war ii or vietnam veterans, and they'll start crying, trembling lips, because they're so frustrated, so angried and they don't know what to do. i would say at least among that population, there's a tremendous amount of angst. and right now, aggressiveness, too. i will say, there are some veterans who get really good care at the va and they are also trying to stand up and say, no, no, this agency december me good. there's that side of the story as well. >> dennis, thank you, sir. appreciate it. >> you bet. joining me now, nbc's kristen welker. i was speaking with the reporter from the "arizona republic" that made the point that you had individual veterans for years who have been reaching out to their members of congress, to senator john mccain's office,

making the complaints over the course of years, and in some cases not feeling like they've gotten that much response. do you detect on capitol hill, looking in the mirror on the members of congress, or is this 100% being focused on the white house? >> reporter: i think there is some of that, joy, certainly. but right now, this is being focused squarely on the white house and the department of veterans affairs. and i think that interim ig report was so problematic for secretary shinseki, because it outlined what appears to be systematic misconduct, and failures at va hospitals. so that is why you are hearing the white house officials say things like secretary shinseki's on probation, he's on thin ice. certainly the president was concerned. he expressed that publicly yesterday when he was briefed on that report by his chief of staff, dennis mcdonough. now the question becomes, how systematic were these problems,

and how much did secretary shinseki know, and when did he know it. i think those are some of the questions that the white house is going to answer. having said that, these problems have existed within the va for a number of years. that's the other thing that you will hear. this white house talk about. and other lawmakers on capitol hill. so that is certainly something that is under consideration. but joy, what you're seeing, a really mounting call for secretary shinseki to resign. democrats, a lot of them facing tough reelection fights, of course, in this midterm election year, and then you have some republicans. there are those republicans like john boehner, though, who are refraining from calling for secretary shinseki's resignation. they are looking to the fact that these problems have existed within the va for years. this is something that needs to be addressed, not only right now, but really at a broader, deeper level to determine how this happened and how to prevent it from happening again. >> indeed. kristen, i look forward to, or

maybe not, what could be confirmation hearings for another secretary. i can't imagine how that would impact trying to fix the problems if we were to go into a contentious hearing. kristen welker, thank you so much. after a mass shooting, have we finally reached a tipping point where new gun laws will finally at least attempt to stop the carnage? today, that answer could be yes, or at least maybe. but surprise, surprise, the answers are not coming from the federal government. then, in our thursday political strategy session, democrats are running on health care, as republicans run away from repeal. in a state of increasing confusion. [ rippling ] [ male announcer ] what if...

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days after a mass shooting and stabbing spree by a california college student, a number of state lawmakers are pushing to make it more difficult for potential killers to get their hands on a gun. in california, state lawmakers are now considering a bill called assembly bill 1014. it would create a first in the nation gun violence restraining order system similar to the way domestic restraining orders are issued. it would allow people concerned about an individual who could potentially be violent to make a petition to law enforcement or go directly to the courts. a judge would then have a full hearing and decide within seven days whether to grant the restraining order. if granted, police could temporarily seize any firearms the person already owned, and add their name to a list of people prohibited from purchasing weapons. meanwhile, in chicago, a city so stricken by sporadic gun violence, some residents have taken to calling it shiraq.

in january, a federal court judge struck down chicago's ban on gun sales within city limits and gave mayor emanuel six months to come up with new rules. it would require gun dealers to videotape sales and ban guns sales near schools and park. it would require a 72-hour waiting period for purchasing handguns and 24 hours for rifles and shotguns. that wouldn't do much to stop the flood of illegal guns from nearby states with looser gun laws, like indiana. supporters say the bill could stop people from purchasing guns intended for criminals who can't legally buy them. even in massachusetts, a state with the nation's second lowest rate of gun related deaths, state lawmakers are trying to clamp down on a 17% rise in firearm related injuries between 1998 and 2011. a new proposal would give local police expanded discretion to consider a person's suitability

to own a gun. it would add the state to a national data base for criminal and mental health background checks and allow all private sales of firearms to be conducted in the presence of a licensed dealer. but the question is, can any of these laws all in blue states withstand the money and the lobbying power of the nra. joining me now, california state assemblywoman nancy skinner, a co-sponsor of california's new gun violence restraining bill. does your bill have any chance against the nra? >> joy, glad to join you. yes, it does. california has a great history of excellent gun control laws. that have been effective. while we can never say any particular one will be successful, in this case i think it's a good sense measure. and it would put in a gun violence restraining order and actually california's not the first state to have this. you mentioned indiana. indiana has a gun violence

restraining order law, so does connecticut and texas. >> i want to show a map in addition to that. we're accustomed to feeling, people who are for gun control are totally defeated by the process. this is a map of states, more than a dozen of them that actually prohibit possession of firearms by domestic violence, misdemeanor, people who have been convicted of misdemeanor for domestic violence. there are four states that require convicted people. as far as you're concerned, is there a new law, including the law that you're proposing, that would have stopped the shooting at uc santa barbara? >> well, in the case of santa barbara, the mother of the shooter had concerns. she was very, very fearful that her son was at risk to being violent, dangerous to himself and others. so she did contact the police. and the police, having limited tools themselves to do something, visited him. but he was in a calm state when they visited him.

and he assured them that he was just depressed. basically at that point there was really not a lot they could do. now, if the mother had access to a gun violence restraining order, and if she knew he had been stockpiling guns as we know now, and she did know, or if she did know that he was making these credible threats of killing people, she could have gone to the court or law enforcement and asked for this temporary restraining order that would have allowed law enforcement to repossess his guns, again, temporarily, and put him on that list to not be able to purchase a gun. at least it would have prevented his shooting deaths. >> california state assemblywoman nancy skinner, thank you for finally answering the question what law could have potentially stopped this catastrophe. up next on we the tweeple, your reaction to edward snowden's exclusive sitdown with brian williams. [ female announcer ] grow, it's what we do.

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coming up on "reid between the lines," a decades old report on congress. today, snowden's interview with nbc news anchor brian williams which aired last night, he defended exposing classified information about nsa data collection on american citizens. this led many of you to debate on twitter whether this makes snowden patriot, or a traitor. her's what he had to say about it. >> being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen. >> nbc news asked viewers to tweet their opinion using the #patriot or traitor.

immediately after the interview, the number of people who tweeted that snowden's a patriot actually skyrocketed. some of you sent angry tweets like this one. quote, edward snowden is a traitor and coward and hypocrite. civil rights leaders went to jail, they did not hide in the ussr. and then, quote, he's both a traitor and a patriot until someone opens the classified box with all the facts. now, to levar burton and his quest to revive the reading rainbow. you can't stop talking about his kick starter campaign. it raised $1 million in under a day. watch the moment burton got the news that he met the milestone. >> yeah! woo! >> $1 million. >> i am overwhelmed. thank you so much.

this is going to enable us to really, really, really do a lot of good. >> the actor is still taking donations for a web-based version of the popular show that promoted reading. it will take burton's message that books can take you anywhere, directly into classrooms. levar burton isn't the only one raking in the dough. lucky residents of san francisco have been scooping up the free buckets through a scavenger hunt sent by the twitter handle called hidden cash. the account run by an anonymous donor directed people to thousands of dollars since its inception on may 22nd. over 260,000 people have followed the free money handle. in a copycat hidden account in boulder, colorado, is also spreading the idea of giving away no strings attached mulla. you can join the conversation.

keep telling us, what's important to you. now this news. sports safety and head injuries. here's more on the concussion crisis "by the numbers."

i always wanted to design a bike that honored those who serve our country. and geico gave me that opportunity. now naturally, we wanted it to be powerful, innovative and we built this bike as a tribute to those who are serving, those who have served and their families. and i think we nailed it. geico. proudly serving the military for over 75 years. one of the big questions in 2014 politics right now is whether one gigantic gaffe can move the needle to unseat mitch mcconnell in kentucky. mcconnell's campaign has been a bit gaffetastic this season. last friday he may have made his biggest oops of all appearing with rand paul at a campaign event. senator mcconnell was asked what

he and his fellow republicans would like to do with obamacare if they had the majority in the senate. his response, quote, we ought to pull it out root and branch and we ought to start over. now, by itself, that kind of comment is nothing new for mcconnell. however, it comes a month after kentucky's democratic governor announced a final tally for their state obamacare exchange known as connect. more than 400,000 signups, a rousing success. when he was asked just two questions later what his root and branch excisement of obamacare would mean for connecticut in the hundreds of thousands of people who have insurance because of it, mcconnell said this. >> i think that's unconnected to my comments about the overall question here. >> yes, kentucky, my comments about dismantling our successful health care exchange ur totally

unconnected to my comment about dismantling our health care exchange. he said kentuckyians should decide for thems whether to keep kynect, which is obamacare. the question now for democratic challenger grimes and other 2014 democrats is what role will the affordable care act play in their plans to retain the senate. perhaps with a new majority leader. joan walsh is editor at large, and msnbc political analyst, and michael, a special correspondent at "the daily beast." normally i would go ladies first, but i've got to go to you, michael. you wrote a great piece about this very thing. the smarty smart people, you may admire mcconnell, but he's proven in umpteen elections that he doesn't make mistakes, that's what insiders say. he's run an awful campaign. was this a gaffe or just a fundamental contradiction in the republican position that you have to get rid of obamacare no

matter what, but some of them are in states where people have it and like it? >> that's a good point, joy. it is the latter. it is a fundamental contradiction, i think, that republicans face. you can't want to get rid of obamacare without getting rid of the medicaid money that came to these states, and the, in kentucky's case, 413,000 people and other states however many hundreds of thousands, or tens of thousands of people are benefiting from the law. you just can't make those two work out together. and mcconnell's mistake here really dramatized that republicans have a problem here. democrats in other states, democrat maybe grimes herself may be have their own obamacare problems to be fair. but this is a big, big republican problem. and they're going to have a hard time justifying their position. and i notice that mcconnell today just released a statement again attacking grimes. but saying, again, today, after

all this, that he wants to repeal every part of obamacare. >> joan, that's the problem, right? now you wouldn't be talking about in the abstract getting rid of something, a law that people call obamacare, they don't like it because it has the word obama in it. they're running essentially to say, i'm running to take away with your health care. how can you run with that position? >> you can't. he's reflecting the reality. i would love to see his poll. he must have numbers that are telling him he's in real trouble. and he can't be honest about what he thinks. so he's tried this, if you like kynect, you can keep it. the federal funding goes away if obamacare goes away. it's up to the state to keep it. okay. are you saying that the state should keep it, when obamacare goes away, and take it out of its own stretched budget when there's no federal money? no, you're not saying that. so he's not -- it's not clear what he's saying.

i think it hurts him with everybody, even the tea party. he's such a washington politician. he thinks he can get away with this kind of evasiveness, and he's getting caught right and left. >> the polls are really close. michael, so you have this issue where you said democrats have their own obamacare problems. one of them is the inability to sort of answer the straightforward question, if you are in the senate, would you have voted for it. grimes actually had a response to mcconnell in which she said mcconnell has voted to destroy kynect and he said he will do it again. is the answer to the democrats' conundrum on the affordable care act is to say republican x is trying to appeal, fill in the name of the state version? >> i think that's a big part of it. and simply saying, look, it's law and try to move the conversation from the past, from 2010, when that vote happened, to the future, and to say, it's law, john roberts said it was law, the supreme court said it was law, it's here. kentucky has already benefited

from x billion dollars that we've gotten. and 413,000 people now have insurance. and try to make it, you know, more future oriented conversation. i think most non-ideological people will say, the past is past, it is law, let's deal with it. i think the democrats are on potentially stronger footing there than republicans. >> to make that point, joan, you have the congressional bust offi -- budget office who looked at the numbers. there's objective facts on the table, and within states like kentucky, you have kynect that's positive. obamacare is down 24. i want to play you one senator who seems to have figured this out and done what michael has called the future oriented version of defending their vote. mary landrieu, who people say is in trouble, who i think is running a really smart campaign,

let's listen to mary landrieu. >> in law is perfect. in louisiana, we've got hundreds of thousands of people without insurance at all. the governor has refused to take $16 billion of our own money. it's not other people's money, it's our money, and use it for us here to help support rural hospitals, nurses, doctors in all areas particularly rural areas and create 15,000 jobs. forget the health care issue, it's an economic issue, a jobs issue. >> three hot buttons hit there. he's not taking our money. the second one, of course, being jobs, and also saying rural hospitals. >> and rural is often a code word for white. and she's right. the people who are being hurt by this, especially in kentucky, but also in louisiana, the vast majority are white. these rural hospitals are in real trouble. whatever your race. you have to care about them. and people are squawking.

so i think she's been really brave on this. she's really gone on the offensive. and i think it's going to help her. i'd like to see allison lunderman grimes learn from her. >> or wait for mitch mcconnell to be gaffe-tastic. still ahead, the story behind these stories, awakening the consciousness on race and race relations in america. starts with back pain... ...and a choice. take 4 advil in a day which is 2 aleve... ...for all day relief. "start your engines" ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need.

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policy, still reverberates today. i recently caught up with coates in harlem for a candid discussion on the story behind the story. and i started by asking, what led him to spend two years researching this painful aspect of american history. >> i had this piece that i saw, and it was in "the new york times," and it was about competitive schools here in new york. >> okay. >> it was focused on basically a straight test, how you get in. it was about how, you know, increasingly asian and asian-americans were really dominating it. many african-americans and latinos were upset about this. felt like there should be other ways. basically what the asian students and asian-american students were doing this test. and they were working really hard, being good at the test. there was a feeling among, like

i said, a lot of the blacks and latinos, that it should be wide open, that it shouldn't be so hard to get into a school. one of the women at the end, she had a quote and basically said, i don't understand why my daughter should have to study sunday to sunday. to get into a good school. and i felt myself mostly in sympathy with the asian-american parents. and the asian-american kids. hard work should be rewarded. actually, i was upset about it. i said, everybody has to work hard. then i went to sleep and i woke up and i was still thinking about that piece. what occurred to me was that some people actually don't have to work hard, some people don't have to study sunday to sunday to get into a good school. they live in neighborhoods where they're guaranteed to get into good schools. the fact of the matter is this woman did not live in such a neighborhood. so that was why she had to work so hard to get into a school like stuvarsant. i knew something about

redlining. and it became clear to me, you know, and in my mind for a while, that a lot of the things that we ask our educational system to answer for our housing policy today to answer for, have roots in the deep, deep past. >> what's interesting about what you did is typically when you have this conversation about reparations, you go right to slavery. everybody talks about obviously the theft, you call it literally that you had the theft of people's work, the theft of people's assets. i think people generally understand that. even though you visit the horror of it. but you're going to the north, talking about something that's a nationwide burden, not just the south. >> right. i think the defining feature of the relationship between black america and white america in this country is one of theft. and people don't really get that. they think it's one of, don't

sit at my table, don't drink out of my water fountain. that's cool. you should be able to drink out of whatever water fountain. at the end of the day, when somebody is barring you the right to vote, they're barring for you to determine how your tax dollars get used. if you're in mississippi, and terrorists -- that's the only way to call them -- are barring you from exercising your right to vote, they're saying that you have to pay into a system, that you have no say in how the system is run. >> it's interesting as i was reading the piece and you were talking about chicago and talking about housing, a lot of people look at new york and say, here's a place where you have some of the most valuable real estate in the country in harlem that is increasingly inhabited by people who are not african-american and sort of priced out of it. in a situation like this, when we talk about gentrification, are you then talking about theft or are you talking about maybe people not having a vision for what a neighborhood could be?

where do you put that? >> it's when theft compounds. you don't need to steal at this point. when you have a gap of 20-1 of wealth, and a place becomes desirable, what's going to happen? it doesn't require -- this is one of the things we have to get why it's so important to go back to the past. because that's what the malice is done. when the malice is done, you don't even have to do it again. you can smile, shake hands, do whatever at that point. it's over. the game's over. the thing i compare it to is, you be stab somebody, leave them bleeding on the street and make a decision to stop doing that, that they magically get up and they're whole. >> do you think we'll get to a point we have a serious discussion? when you put it in the terms that you did, when you talk about the amount of land that was physically taken away, essentially, at gun point through what you said is terrorism, you quantify it, do you have any expectation we'll get to a serious discussion

about reparations for african-americans in this country? >> no. no. i hope we do. >> do you think the resistance is more because you essentially create an argument that for parts of the community, for white americans, is a non-starter because it assumes sort of a mass guilt? or do you think the problem is just garillous? >> i think we have a definition of patriotism that allows people to be very proud of america, when everything's good. fourth of july, everybody's happy. george washington monument just reopened. everybody wants to go see it. that's very nice. but you don't want the other side of the ledger. you don't want the entirety. we love when things are good. we don't want to love when things are bad of the we don't want any part of that at all. the way you see that, when you bring this up, what people say is, they say, i didn't do it. no, no, but the question is, did society do it. did the government that you are loyal to do it.

did the country that you're proud of do it. yes, it did. you're part of it whether you came here in 1980, or 1880 or 1780. you're american or not. when it's inconvenient, no, i'm not part of this. >> an interesting post-script. today the city of providence, rhode island, will file suit against a bank claiming they deliberately refused to lend to potential home buyers in predominantly black neighborhoods. the bank is not commenting on this. for more from coates including what he says about race relations in the obama age, check out our web extra at "the reid report"@msnbc.com. lots of finger pointing going on about the va scandal which should some of those fingers be pointed at congress. a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is

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in 1917, as the united states entered world war i, congress passed a package of veteran benefits to include disability compensation, insurance and vocational assistance. three different government agencies administered the benefits which up to then had been strictly the province of the states. the main federal agency, the veterans bureau, was established in 1921. it wasn't long before the problems started. the very first man to head the veterans bureau, colonel charles r. forbes, resigned two years after the agency launched, after being convicted of entering into corrupt agreements with contractors, including some who were involved in hospital operations. and selling government property at a fraction of its value. in 1923, forbes went into prison for the offenses. after that, the agency was taken over by brigadier general hines

to make way for a new agency, the veterans administration. thousands of world war i veterans were marching on washington over unpaid bonuses and poor health care. by 1945, president harry truman accepted general hines' resignation amid accusations of poor care. the agency had similar troubles and scandals pretty much throughout its history. in 1972, vietnam veterans protested the 72 republican national conventions that nominated richard nixon. including disabled vietnam veteran ron covick who said in a speech, i'm a vietnam veteran, i gave america my all and the leaders of this government threw me and others away to rot in their va hospitals. he then went on a 19-day hunger strike to protest the poor treatment veterans were getting at the va in california. he went on to write the book "born on the fourth of july." in the 1980s, the va secretary robert nimo was criticized for

downplaying the health effects of agent orange while enjoying the benefits of a chauffeured car. there were ig reports in 2000, and right up to the present day. the latest report includes the neglect of nearly 1,700 veterans in phoenix. probably the most famous veteran in the country, john mccain, and the ranking member of the armed services committee. he and the rest on the delegation are asking for secretary shinseki to be fired. veterans have always been really vocal about the problems in the va. they do speak out in protest and make noise. do the members of congress just never hear it? did john mccain not hear anything about what's happening in his state? members of congress have beenen sparing of their criticism of

the handling of the va. but congress created the va, funds the va and presumably provides oversite. what do these members of congress doing all this time? that wraps things up for "the reid report." join us back here tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern. "the cycle" is up next. >> hey, joy. >> we're going to start off with the latest on the va scandal. will secretary shinseki step down. as we know, the problem is much bigger than that. what happens next? we're going to spin about edward snowden in the big interview last night. does putting a human face on the human story we've been following so closely, does that change the way we think about him? leah thompson is talking about her new movie "ping-pong summer." i'll talk about time management. how we should spend time doing things important to us, like maybe watching t"the reid repo " report." >> of course. i can't wait to see that,

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news is breaking right now in "the cycle." will he stay or will he go? embattled veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki faces the very vets he's sworn to protect. the markets are in a frenzy today as wall street shatters new records. the main street shouldn't be celebrating. officially lost. a major development today in the search for malaysian airlines flight 370. well, it's more the opposite of a major development. searchers admit they are stumped. so what now? and brand-new sounds you ha of not heard from edward snowden. the part of the constitution he is determined no longer exists.

secretary shinseki does not step down voluntarily, then i call on the president of the united states to relieve him of his duties, fire him. >> funding has not been the issue. a supportive issue has not been the issue. the issue is hands-off leadership. even the secretary's response to the ig investigation today was a failure. >> the va won't tell you the truth. if you're relying solely on the management of these facilities to tell you the truth, you're not going to get it. you're just not going to get it. >> the president is going to have to step up here and show some real leadership. >> we're focused on getting to the root of the problem. and determining the full scope of the problem. so we can get, most importantly, veterans the care that they deserve. and that they need. and that they've earned. >> triage, that is what the white house is trying to execute