now. . we ought to have those feelings, but policy toward our first responders and our soldiers and our vets really matters. we have to make sure that we are not just having empty feel-good feelings about them, but that we are taking responsibility to make it right. we, the people, have to get this right. ambitious house republican, it is time to crack that whip. it's thursday, june 19th and this is "now." >> happy election day. ♪ ♪ it is election day on capitol hill. >> eric cantor's stunning primary loss last week has launched an equally fierce campaign for his leadership job. >> i appreciate your patience as we transition from a campaign

that many have ignored. >> house republicans elect a new majority leader. kevin mccarthy. >> i congratulated him last night and he said not so soon. >> mccarthy join john boehner can they control tea party figures in the caucus. >> the kamikaze caucus. >> steve school ease appears likely. >> a lot turned toward scolese and protects john boehner. >> he is sort of a tea partier. he's shown a desire and ability to work with the leadership. >> not mckarthy? >> it's that's the million dollar question. >> you never know what's going to happen. >> i was thinking about it and i was praying for the republicans in church as i do at least every sunday. ♪ house republicans have new leadership. there is a new number two in the u.s. house of representatives and a new whip.

in a vote that took place just moments ago california congressman kevin mccarthy ascended from majority whip to majority leader in the sudden sweepstakes for house republican power, a sweepstakes that were, of course, precipitated by the surprise and very swift primary defeat of majority leader now former eric cantor. there was no upset victory for mccarthy's lone rival. conservative idaho congressman raul labrador and it is unclear how happy or unsatisfied that will will keep the tea party and we have just heard that steve scolese is the new majority whip. joining us now is luke russert. let's start with the breakingest of breaking news and steve has beaten rosscompaum, trying to w up some voteses. how surprised are you that steve

scalise will be taking the u.s. house of representatives? >> going into this i saw him as the slight favorite and yesterday his team pretty much guaranteed they'd win on the first ballot and i thought that was perhaps a bit of an overreach because rosscum is the chief deputy whip and what this comes down to is the house gop conference said we're not having another blue state guy in the leadership. we want a red state true conservative at least as true as we believe steve scalise can be and they spoke up. this is a conference that's 40% from the south and they felt they were underrepresented in the leadership table and steve scalise will represent him. he was head of the republican studiy committee which was the house gop conference. he is somebody who has voted against a lot of these controversial bills that have been on the house floor for the house gop conference. he has not liked to raise the debt limit. he does not like to do those types of bills so him at the leadership table will be interesting because i think it provides john boehner some

cover, but it it also means that a lot of these red state concerns will be looked at more closely because steve scalise knows if they have to vote a certain way he has to answer to his friend who put him in charge. >> there is finally someone from the republican south in republican leadership which i think in many ways make sense. luke russert, thank you as always, my friend for the latest and breakingest. kate naseri and the huffington post media group howard feinman. as luke said steve scalise does not like to raise the debt limit which is one of the most primary and basic functions of the u.s. congress. how much is john boehner ruling this day? >> think he rules it in part, but i think in an odd way it may be an advantage for him to finally have a tea party person in leadership especially one from the south, especially one who has expressed these kinds of

views because leadership does require compromise, at least in theory it does, and now we'll get a real test to see at least a portion of the tea party especially the southern faced portion, the one that would like to say no to everything and having to help and in some way govern, and so in a way, it gives -- it gives -- it gives john boehner a window into and a tie to the disruptive branch of his own majority in the house and it will be interesting to see how he can work with scalise. and scalise will have to try, i think. >> kate, jason chafits has the quote of the day, look at how many legislative days left there are. you get to whip the august recess. good luck with that. written in there is who really cares? that's one reading of the situation, but on the other, this election is -- it does set

the table, if you will, for what happens after the midterm elections in which leadership will once again begin anew. how do you read this in terms of importance and a legacy for the republican party? >> i think it is really important. i mean, what this does is it sets up kevin mccarthy for steve scalise and john boehner. if he can maintain that support it will be really hard to unseat him come january which a lot of the conservative caucus has talked about significantly. i spoke to a number of conservatives yesterday who made very clear that if they wanted to shake up the leadership it was this race that they would do it in and if they failed this time it was going to be very, very hard to mount a challenge in november. >> howard, when you see steve scalise in that trip deck that we just showed, one has a hard time imagining after the midterms which is when the leadership contest will begin anew whether kevin mccarthy

takes over the speaker's gavel if john boehner will give it up. >> first of all, i don't think boehner will give it up, but if he does in that trip tick you had there which of these three is not like the other, you know? >> right. >> and it's steve scalise, but i don't know if he would be able to muster the kind of support and enthusiasm across the -- across the republican conference necessary to win. my reading on this is that boehner, in a way, lucks out here assuming he wants to stay. eric cantor was both a help and a hindrance to boehner. cantor was always maneuvering for himself and maneuvering on his own and boehner spent time working with cantor and the other half looking over his shoulder to look at what cantor was up to. i don't think mckarthy is quite that kind of guy. i don't think mccarthy would be

maneuvering to oust boehner and i think mccarthy would have trouble if he would attempt to do so. so my guess is that you're looking at the leadership not only for right now, but assuming boehner wants to stay, and i think he does for the next session of congress and by the way, in terms of what it means for legislation, none of this -- in the legislative terms i'm not sure how much any of this matters because none of the reps were prepared to move on anything to move with democrats and barack obama. >> kate, the readout from politico is new leaders will be focussed on self-preservation. well, what have they been focused on for the last year? does it -- i mean, to howard's point, is there anything we can expect from this house other than, you know sort of vanity votes? >> no, frankly. as chaffetz says we have the august recess and everyone will

be running for reelection and at this point it's a stabilizing vote that the leadership wants to stay in a place where they just don't make too many wave, right? that was part of why mccarthy ascended in the first place because they didn't want a huge shake-up to disrupt what they have going on until january. >> kate, let me ask you a follow-up question since you're underneath the cap toll dome. how did scalise win this? to what degree stutsman was a kingmaker and gave his vote to rosscum or scalise? do we have a read on internal mechanics. i know they don't release the final vote tally, but do you know anything about what happened in that room? >> i don't know anything about the mechanics and the details and i know that scalise walked in with all ofs this whips and supporters behind him sort of as a show of, hey, look at everyone i have, and i think that really what it came down to was just as

others have said, they didn't want another blue-state republican at the leadership table. not that people were super jazzed about scalise being in that position, but he was the better alternative to rosscum who hails from illinois. >> i have a -- i have a sense that kevin mccarthy may not, who has become well known and well regarded for his vote counting and his own whipping abilities necessarily went all out for the guy who was on his leadership team just before now which is rosscum. kevin mccarthy who is a pretty shrewd politician inside the corridors there realized it would be better for the stability of the situation if they did bring in the southerner in and if they did bring the governor from louisiana in. it didn't help rosscuh that he came from the same place henry hyde came from and the old midwestern sort of midwestern republicanism that the new tea party people are trying to get beyond. they don't like the symbolism of

that, and kevin mccarthy gets a pass because he's from california, but not the guy from illinois. >> right. the fact is you could have featured one man from ohio, one man from california and one man from illinois and if we're talking about the modigliaern republican party it is not those three states. thank you both for your time and thoughts. coming up, the obama doctrine. this afternoon president obama announced that he will not send u.s. forces back into iraq. e.j. deion and michael scherer talk about the president's abundant and not very good at all options next on "now." ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪

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hours-long vote to name their new house majority leader and their new whip. let's listen in. >> we reached out to the president in join us in solving those problems and we'll continue to move forward in the house as a united team building a stronger team to address those problems and continue to work to get our country back on track and our economy moving again. >> this has been a big day for the republicans, and i am proud to stand with our new leadership team for the 113th congress and congratulations to our new majority leader kevin mccarthy and our new majority whip steve scalise and more than anything, we are united and we are united in our efforts to move america forward and make america strong and hake sure that moms and dads can bring home higher paychecks for their children and provide for their family and we are united in getting americans back to work. we are united in getting the job done here on capitol hill and we want to be putting forward solutions rather than continuing to see inaction out of the

senate and we'll continue to work on behalf of the people that have said to us here to make them proud and to give them more opportunities. >> a couple of questions. >> chad? [ inaudible question ] >> how did you have this number down? >> we built a strong team that was representative of our entire conference. i'm proud to be chairman of the republican studiy committee which is 176 members of our conference and i've worked very hard over that year and a half that i've been chairman to build consensus, to move conservative solutions forward in a way that united our conference and resolves problems facing our country and the results i've had over the year and a half have had broad appeal throughout the

conference and including the rnc members that have upon helped strengthen our teams to address the problems face facing america and we built a very strong team and a team that's representative of the entire conference which shows that our conference wants to move forward even stronger so that we can do a better job of addressing the problems facing country and now have the white house and senate start working with us to join us in addressing those problems, as well. [ inaudible question ] >> this is a win for america because we'll be a more united team moving forward. you look at a senate that's dysfunctional and there are so many bills that will solve real problems and taxpayers that the senate won't even act on. the president doesn't want to engage and he wants to sit in the oval office with a pen acting like there's no legislative branch and people want to see washington working together to solve real problems and the house is united to address those and now we're waiting to let the senate and the president follow suit.

[ inaudible question ] they elected a guy who is the grandson of a cattle rancher, a son of a firefighter. only in america do you get that opportunity. they elected a guy that's only grown up through the grassroots. they elected a guy that spent his time going around recruiting many of these individuals to get the majority. look, i've always had to struggle for whatever we've wanted to overcome. i think that's the greatest part about america that they always give you the privilege and the opportunity and that's what this party brings as well. i think you get an opportunity

people would be impressed about what we're going to do and where we're going to go. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> that was house -- that was house republican leadership announcing their new team. very exciting development in the u.s. house of representatives. coming up, president obama announced earlier that he will not send u.s. forces back to iraq. e.j. deion and michael scherer are coming to join me to discuss all of his options. that's next. if i can impart one lesson to a

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with members of his national security team president obama briefed reporters on his latest policy and the plans that may lie in store. >> american forces will not be returning to combat in iraq, but we will help iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists. we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it. it is in our national security interests not to see an all-out civil war inside of iraq. >> amid reports that the white house was considering whether to press prime minister nuri al maliki to step down, president obama also made clear that the fate of iraq would not be determined by the united states. >> it's not the place for the united states to choose iraq's leaders. the united states will not pursue military actions to support one sect inside of iraq at the expense of another. there's no military solution inside of iraq, certainly not one that is led by the united

states. we've got to make sure that we do what's right for the iraqi people and that's a challenge. that's not something that the united states can do for them. >> the president announced he would be sending secretary of state john kerry to the region this weekend. joining me now from washington is washington post columnist and senior fellow of governance studies at the brookings institute e.j. deion and michael scherer, this week's cover piece focuses on the underlying factors influencing the current upheaval in iraq and it is an awesome, awesome piece. michael, let me start with you. the president is a very reluctant wartime president and he opened the door to possible greater military engagement, but i got the sense that he is going to do everything to make sure we don't go any further than we already have gone. >> well, i'm not sure. i mean, we won't put troops on the ground. he said that before. he repeated that again today, but he definitely left the door open to further military action

and i read that to mean air tracks to prevent the fall of baghdad to preserve the current government that exists now. there is a habit obama has always had especially with foreign policy. if there is a choice to a and b he always answers c and splits the middle and goes in a different direction. on the one hand we're not putting troops in iraq, but sending 300 people to work on the ground in iraq, military advisers to work on the ground in iraq. we're not going to force al maliki to leave office, but at the is imtime the only future forward for iraq and the one that we'll send the military advisers to defend is one in which al maliki or whoever replaces him changes the way they do business. it's a very complicated message he's sending here and it's probably, you know, the obvious one. i think he's moving forward along the lineses that american people probably expected at this point. >> e.j., the white house seems to really, really want the people of iraq to take it upon

themselves to sort this out and for a political solution to sort of coalesce. how reasonable do you think -- or not -- it is reasonable to want that, but how likely do you think that is? >> i don't think they know how likely that is, but here is why it's possible. you know, i think what they are looking at is an election that voted for maliki's party, but didn't give him a majority and that they would like to have the iraqis form a government quickly. ideally, they'd rather have someone other than maliki and the possibility is that it would be someone from maliki's predominantly shiite party, but just not him and someone who would agree to make some concessions to the sunnis, essentially to stop putting up a wall of hostility to the sunnis. the alternative that would satisfy them is a maliki who would be willing to take a

difference course with them. they've got the opportunity with the after the election with the iraqis trying to form a government and the problem is that could take weeks and weeks and that's the last thing and the thing they really want is for the iraqis to form a more open government as quickly as possible, and i think you've heard a lot of talk about the resurrection of, you know, federalism of looser confederation, joe biden floated that back in 2006 and 2007, and i think that's probably what we're looking at again if we're going to get this, and if the iraqis are going to get some control of this situation and push back isor or isis, whichever acronym you prefer. >> the cover story on the magazine puts it auspiciously, perhaps, in a worrisome fashion, on the other hand, perhaps, suggests the end of iraq, and it

feels like and looks like the borders that were established after world war imai be completely erased, and i wonder what your estimation of this situation is when it comes to that question. >> we don't know how it will turn out in the end, but the point the cover story is making is that the borders in this part of the world were always drawn by europe, essentially after the war and have always been under tension and the fighting in syria and the breaking apart of syria and now that war spilling over the border, the missteps by the iraqi government combined with the sunnis in the north of the country aligning themselves essentially, the tribes there aligning themselves with isis or isor, depending on what you want to call it depending that it will be difficult to maintain those old borders and the best outcome in a lot of ways is that federation that we were just talking about, a far worse

outcome would be an ungoverned part of the world here that would stretch from parts of syria into parts of iraq that would be, you know, another place for international terrorism to form the islamic radicalism that's caused problems in that region for that parts of the world, and it's a situation where it becomes again a situation for the united states a direct national security threat which it isn't quite at this point, but you could foresee five years from now, you know, looking at this part of the world and saying it looks a lot like afghanistan in the late 1990s. >> e.j., watching the president speak this afternoon, we've seen him in this position before, someone who has inherited a heavy mantel and is trying to come up with the least worst option. i wonder if we can wax a little bit philosophical about how the president has handled foreign policy crises. i want to read an observation

from "the los angeles times k" t about the president's and then what approach. the syria, he solicited scores of opinion, planners, returned with possibilities and he would always reply with the same question, and then what? over the last several days with obama mulling involvement in another middle east conflict, this time in iraq, that dynamic has held. do you think the and then what approach has served the president well? >> i think the and then what approach doesn't look as good as looking terribly decisive and making a clear, sharp move, but i think especially after the the iraq war and then what is exactly the question most americans ask, and i think that president obama is very clear in believing that getting americans engaged in land wars in the middle east is just a very bad idea. we didn't do it for a very, very

long time, and so i think what he's trying to do is find a way to fight terrorism that is a real threat to us and he's defined it as a national security threat without getting us bogged down as we were for so long in iraq and afghanistan especially since so much of the world is in asia and not in the middle east, and i think here i like michael's line about obama choosing c when given a choice between a and b. i think he wants to stop isol without committing a lot of troopis and think that's probably what most americans want and they're probably being uneasy about 300 advisers. >> michael, we were just playing footage of the president at the medal of honorer is moneyy this afternoon which was a poetic and sharp sort of distinction between the podium he'd taken earlier in the day to talk about iraq and the one he took in the east wing or in the roosevelt

room. i'm not quite sure which one it was and we heard from the president about some of the most moving parts of his presidency and the memories that are seared in his mind and involved seeing the caskets of american soldiers come back to dover, delaware, and i wonder, you cover this white house beat. knowing that the president was going to be standing next to this soldier and reminded of the cost of war, one wonders how much that factors in to the discussions he had with all of his national security advisers earlier today? >> i think it is absolutely true that anybody who has held this job of president takes the lives of the soldiers they send into battle and then the families they have to console afterwards incredibly personally. it's really the most personal, most intense part of the job and for obama that's clearly true. he visits hospitals a lot like several other presidents. you see george w. bush still bike riding with veterans and it personally affects them. i don't think that automatically means that that gives them a bias against going into future

intervention, but i think for obama that has been a lesson. >> e.j. dionne and michael scherer, thank you as always for your times and thoughts. >> you, too, alex. coming up, it has been two years exactly since wikileaks julian assange went into exile. i will speak to him live regarding the latest round of secret documents that he's making public. that's coming up. and it feels like your lifeate revolves around your symptoms, ask your gastroenterologist about humira adalimumab. humira has been proven to work for adults who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. in clinical studies, the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief, and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma,

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. well, the white house weighs its options in iraq there has been a near ubiquitous presence of cheerleaders from the initial invasion, but those critical of the war in iraq and america's role in that conflict are also speaking out. in a new york times op ed over the weekend, chelsea manning said the concerns that led her to leak do you means to wiki leaks in 2010, those concerns remain unresolved. as iraq erupts in civil war, america contemplates intervention, the press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance. whether you agree with manning and wikileaks julian assange or not, the publication of the iraq war logs unquestionably provided a much grimmer perspective of the war than the time, including many previously unreported

instances in which american soldiers killed civilians. u.s. authorities failure to investigate hundreds of reports ever abuse, torture, rape and murder by iraqi police and soldiers. a reliance on private contractors on a scale not well recognized at the time and hugely relevant to recent reports about possible u.s. cooperation with iran in the current iraq crisis. the war logs revealed the extent to which iran intervened aggressively in support of shiite combatants offering weapon, training and sanctuary and in a few instances directly engaging american troops. julian assange published the iraq war logs four years ago. today marks the two-year anniversary of his confinement at the ecuadorian embassy under threat of arrest and extradition to the united states. joining me now is publisher and founder of wikileaks julian assange and also joining us is president emeritus for constitutional rights and attorney for wikileaks michael rattner. julian, i know there is a short

delay so i will get right to it. let me first get your reaction to the presence of dick cheney and paul wolfowitz having greater military presence in iraq. >> these two individuals have no credibility with the world public, and i hope they have no credibility anymore with the u.s. public. we were all lied into this war and, in fact, it's a feature of democracies that they do tend to be -- they do tend to be lied into wars, and we can look at what's happened in syria. it's not just what's happened with dick cheney and wolfowitz, but actually what has happened in syria is obama's war, and that war has now crossed over into the border in iraq. the u.s. policy positions on this latest isis position are quite incomprehensible.

it supports isis in syria. it supports saudi money supporting sunni militants in syria. it it supports iran's position on the isis in iraq and more broadly speaking, it supports a position against iran, for example in syria and i think perhaps the one thing that might come from this very difficult situation for the people in iraq is a greater collaboration between the united states and iran, the united states and russia to try and build something from the situation that is not a complete disaster. upon. >> let me follow up on the contention that syria is president obama's war. >> what would you like to see from him if it is his war in syria? >> i think one can say, i think pretty factually that the president is getting criticized from both sides both from hawks who would like to see greater involvement and liberals who say

don't open the door to engage military engagement in the middle east. from your perspective, what should he be doing? >> i think he's in a very difficult position now and this very difficult position has a past. we have to understand that the sunni population in the northeast of iraq and in the southern parts of syria has a right. they have chosen with some coercion to support in various ways isis because of what they perceive to be oppression from the malaki government and that oppression was something that was documented in our cables. it's something that chelsea manning very importantly drew attention to that sunni activists were being rounded up before the the last election simply for issuing scholarly critiques of corruption in the malaki government. we have to remember that there's a reason that u.s. troops are no longer in iraq.

it is not simply that president obama said that they should be removed, but rather the iraqi government insisted that u.s. troops not have immunity as a result of the succession of abuses and documented in our material, but also similar incidents with blackwater. so u.s. troops could be there if they were willing to accept being prosecuted for committing murder, for example, and iraq as a sovereign state, as americans wouldn't that are not falling under their own legal regime. >> let me ask you, when you talk about the various ways in which wikileaks has been involved in revealing dimensions of the war in iraq, what do you think has been the most meaningful or important piece of information that you guys released as it pertains to iraq in particular? >> we've released more than 400,000 documents that are

directly about the war in iraq and the largest compendium of information about a war that has ever existed that is a had history of the u.s. and iraqis, people that are engaged together over the past seven or eight years, and it is the compendium that's the most important thing. from that you can extract the number of people recorded having been killed in the circumstances under which they've been killed more than 100,000 people in those records themselves from 2004 to 2010. it's the everyday squalor of war at scale is what finally comes through. >> julian assange and michael rattner. michael, we will get to you after the break. please stay with me. we have so much more coming up.

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just moments ago 52 human rights and press freedom organizations sent a letter to attorney general eric holer

calling on the department of justice to, quote, officially close all criminal investigations of wiki leaks and its editor in chief julian assange. michael rattner are still with me. michael, let me ask you from a legal perspective how likely is it that the u.s. would consider closing criminal investigations? >> you know, they certainly should. this is remarkable. it's the biggest, probably most serious investigation of a publisher, journalists that's ever been taken in this country. despite the fact that journalists and publishers should be able to publish this kind of material, the warlordses on iraq that chelsea manning revealed. that's information we all know. do i think it's likely? eric holder has said that he would not be putting publishers and journalists in jail. we want to hold him to his word and the organizations that signed this, the 52 organizations are important. i mean, human rights watch signed it it and anthony romero,

the head of the aclu and the freedom of the press foundation, we would hope he listens to it and finally closes, a four-year investigation and the way you opened this program to me was that you pointed out that chelsea manning's importance of wiki leak, had the american people listened to that, had the politicians listened to that we might not be in the situation we're in today, but we are because they're basically prosecuting the wrong people. they have chelsea manning in jail for 35 years and julian assange for wikileaks. upon it should not be that way. those two people are the heroes giving us the truth about the war. >> julian, let me ask you, i think often about edward snowden and you behind locked doors as it were and while there is a lot of outcry about that situation, i wonder if you think this administration would much rather have you overseas and under lock and key than actually back in

the u.s. facing a court given the complications that would arise for this president in particular who is a constitutional law professor and a democrat, for him to have to battle, i think, a huge part of the progressive wing of the democratic party over your potential extradition or a criminal prosecution would be a very complicated situation for him indeed. >> i think you're probably correct, while that said this president only has a couple of years left so a matter could actually proceed into the next presidency, but we have, through a lot of effort including by people like michael rattner who you are interviewing now, gradual willy boxed the administration backed into a corner, but it was very aggressive. as a result of ecuador formally assessing my situation and granting me political asylum and similar reports going to the

united nations this week about my situation. i think we are making it quite hard for the doj to successfully froms cute us without inflicting serious damage, serious political damage on itself, so i call on eric holder to do the right thing, dismiss this prosecution against -- and investigation against myself and my staff. it will proceed to a chilling effect on all other publishers involved in national security journalism. there seems to be an attempt, in fact, to split off national security journalists from other forms of journalism and severely marginalize them. it's not just happening to me. we can look at james risen, for example, with "the new york times" and his source. president obama has now initiated more espionage investigations and prosecutions than all previous presidents combined going back to 1917.

in fact, more than twice. is that really a legacy that he wantses on his record? is it really a legacy that the u.s. democratic party wants to hold? >> julian assange and michael rattner, gentlemen, thank you both for your time and thoughts. after the break, breaking news involving wisconsin governor scott walker. new documents linked to none other than karl rove indicate that governor walker may have been part of a criminal scheme. details on that are coming up next. when it comes to good nutrition...i'm no expert. that would be my daughter -- hi dad. she's a dietitian. and back when i wasn't eating right, she got me drinking boost. it's got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones

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how can a tablet replace your laptop? start with the best writing experience. make it incredibly thin. add an adjustable kickstand, a keyboard, a usb port, and the freedom of touch. and, of course, make it run microsoft office, with the power and speed to do real work. introducing surface pro 3. the tablet that can replace your laptop. members in the state of wisconsin of their most of the collective bargaining right, republican governor scott walker and some of his fellow state senators faced a massive public

backlash in 2011 and 2012. tens of thousands of union workers and their supporters protested against walker's policies and the signatures of over 900,000 wisconsin residents triggered a recall election against him. there were also recall elections for a handful of state sen, to most of them republicans. in walker's own recall he outspent his opponents by nearly 8 to 1. americans for prosperity, the super pac bankrolled by the koch brothers spent $10 million on walker's recall alone. and on june 5, 2012, scott walker kept his job as governor and captured 53% of the vote. that recall took place two years ago, but today new documents revealed just hours ago showed that federal prosecutors are now accusing governor scott walker of personally overseeing what they describe as a criminal scheme during the 2012 election. prosecutors allege that the governor, his chief of staff and others on his campaign tried to

bypass state election laws by working with national conservative groups during the recall elections. as evidence of the degree to which walker made his state election a national referendum, in may 2011 governor walker personally sent an email to gop strategist karl rove saying one of his aides, r.j. johnson, a top aide, would lead coordinated efforts to beat the recall. if, in fact, governor walker illegally raised money in his state's recall election, the one in which he outspent his opponent by nearly 8 to 1, if that money was raised illegally, then the people of wisconsin rightly deserve a recall of their recall. that is all for now. i will see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is coming up next.

good evening, americans and welcome to "the ed show" life from new york. are we ready to go? let's get to work. >> here at home, iraq sparked vigorous debates. >> do you think that president obama is dangerous? >> yes. >> the white house has known for months about this situation in iraq. >> we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action. >> what has the united states of america done? >> president obama's withdrawal, regarding iraq has proved deeply harmful. >> american combat troops are not going to be fighting in iraq again. >> barack obama has stated repeatedly that terrorist threats are gone. >> we have counterterrorism interests. we will remain vigilant and we will continue to do everything in our power to protect the security of the united states and the safety of the american people. >> the spread of terrorism has increased