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. happy friday. here is how congressman paul ryan spent his friday. >> being forthcoming -- >> you know what, i'm sorry, investigators -- >> will you let him answer the question! >> i didn't ask him a question! >> yes, you did. >> gentleman -- the. >> i control the time. >> i realize that disrupting a hearing sort of -- >> no, come on. >> to this sort of people -- >> but the gentleman from wisconsin -- >> i control the time. >> here's what being forthcoming is -- >> regular order. >> gosh! what has got paul ryan so exercised? well, for months the house ways

and means committee has been investigating claims that irs official lois lerner and other irs staff targeted tea party and other affiliated groups before the 2012 election. earlier this week, irs officials told the committee that because of the computer crash, a batch of e-mails dating back to 2011 were lost. republicans aren't buying it. committee chairman dave camp and charles boostny wrote in a press release, surprise, surprise, a few computers crashed, plot lines in hollywood are more believable than what we're getting from the white house and irs. which brings us back to the house's busy friday. >> you bury in a 27-page letter to the senate, asking for them to conclude the investigation, that you've lost lois learner's e-mails during the time in question because of a hard drive crash. monday, our investigators ask your agency whether any other hard drives crash and we learn that six other hard drives of

the people who we're investigating were involved. you didn't tell us that. >> we told you on monday. >> on monday. >> and what did you do with the -- >> because we asked you! you told us in may you would give us all of lois lerner's e-mails and you learned in february that this crashed. >> we did not learn in february that it crashed. >> i'm not asking you a question. i'm making a statement. >> my apologies. >> this is a pattern of abuse, a pattern of behavior that is not giving us any confidence that this agency is being impartial. i don't -- i don't believe you. this is incredible. >> i have a long career. that's the first time anybody has said that they do not believe me. >> i don't believe you. >> now, you can decide for yourself whether paul ryan there is mad-mad or if he's happy-mad, because lots of house republicans seem to be very happy anytime they have a reason to be mad at some perceived

slight or glitch or failure or, yes, "scandal" in the executive branch. politically, they are living off this stuff. the republican house has been raging at these allegations at the irs. why focus on the next election when you can relive the past one? and they've been voting to create their special trey gowdy led select committee on benghazi, lashing out at how they negotiated for the release of prisoner bowe bergdahl. and because congress seems unlikely to do any governing here, the estranged participa d congress here, has pretty much given up on them entirely. instead, he's pushing his own agenda without them, and inviting them along if they ever have a change of heart on even a single issue. today the administration extended marriage benefits, for example, for same-sex families. that allows same-sex couples to take leave from their jobs, to take care of a same-sex spouse, even if the state where they live doesn't recognize gay marriage. and that is news on its own, and it's exactly, of course, what

the president outlined for this year in his january state of the union. >> we are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing americans the kind of help that they need. i've got a pen and i've got a phone. and i can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward. >> you saw him there in a cabinet meeting, describing the message in the state of the union. and when we talk about the federal government, we often use the lens of separation of powers. congress legislates and appropriates. the president signs or vetoes. one political branch checks the other, when the system works. but there's a whole another way to look at this dynamic right now. as long as house republicans are obsessed with oversight, which when properly done is legitimate, but as long as they're obsessed with that, and particularly the politicized oversight practice by ryan, issa, boehner, and goudy, as long as that is their activity,

they have committed themselves to looking backwards. and that may slow down some parts of the white house, but it doesn't stop the president's executive actions, which are focused on the present and the future, on governing and action. when you think about that division of labor, a present-tense president and a past-tense congress, you can see how congress is falling down. take something rachel was covering just this week. the reaction to the important, awesome, no doubt about it, good news that the united states caught a suspected terrorist, accused of killing americans in benghazi. after house republicans had spent all that time and effort drumming up the select committee investigating benghazi, looking backwards towards why the attack mattered, and why they think the white house was to blame, then the u.s. actually does something about it, in the present tense, and they can't deal with it. this is the ship this gentleman is being held on. this is happening right now, this is real. and congressional republicans stuck in the past are having a hard time catching up.

to the extent that they are, it's to interjection of, don't read him his miranda rights, or send him to gitmo, another past-tense policy. the president has kept his word here, moving the ball forward in other words too on policy. there's the smart on crime initiative, where president obama and eric holder have taken steps towards reforming mandatory minimum laws without congress. when house republicans refused to take up legislation on the minimum wage, you may remember, president obama used executive action to raise it at least for federal contractors, which takes some of the economy. after house republicans refused to bring the nondiscrimination act or enda to the floor, president obama says he will sign an executive order doing the same, vis-a-vis federal contractors for banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. the president also made big moves on climate change to lower carbon emissions. the gop response, to do anything they can, simply, to block him on it or take funds away from

the epa. some even talked about another government shutdown to that end. the president has done what he's done thus far, given congress's utter intrance yecintransience. we'll see a letter from the supreme court about whether president obama was legally allowed to jam appointments through while congress was out of session, ie, not working. and the president and congress are so polar opposite right now, it's like they're almost divorced. but not quite, because we know they can't really get a divorce in our system. so maybe it's more like legally separated. separate lives taking separate paths, which has led to an almost awkward truth in a commitment not to work together. over at talking points memo, josh marshall put it like this, both sides of the partisan divide are operating in their own political universe, on their own political turfs, and the most striking thing is both seem content to keep it that way. you may remember, during the

bush administration, there was a lot of talk from republicans talking about operating under what some call a unitary theory, the idea that president bush or sometimes cheney could do whatever they wanted, there were no limits on their unitary power. and the sort of ironic, bitter sum result of what's going on here of republican's current legislative strategy is that it has fomented a great deal of legal solo executive action that you could get out of president obama, if only because that's the logical response of any president who sees that congress is not going to pass just about anything. now, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on how you view it and whether it's the ideal form of relationship that our founders envisioned. probably not. they wanted co-equal collaboration. but if you're going to be obstructionist about everything, you are basically daring the president, in this case, this president obama, to do as much as he can with the power he has. and what we're seeing right now

is him taking that dare. and just yesterday, john boehner went to that weekly press conference he holds, and he went on at length about the irs scandal, the v.a. scandal, what he thinks is a bergdahl scandal. then he was asked about what house republicans were planning in terms of policy. even, for example, funding the highway trust fund, which is currently losing some money or reforming the voting rights act. the speaker didn't have answers for that. earlier this year, "the new york times" asked a slew of congressmen what they saw in terms of substantial legislation for the year ahead, and their homes were, in a word, low. so republicans don't really have a plan or an agenda. they often are pretending to. and there are two problems with that here. substantively, it is deeply cynical. it's an impoverished view of what you can do with your job, of what you were elected to do. but politically, it's also a hard sell. and if you look at how eric cantor fared last week or thad cochran might fare next week in

that mississippi runoff that he was forced into, we'll talk about that this hour, you might find that running on empty sometimes means you don't cross the finish line. joining me now is alan lickman, presidential story, professor lickman, thank you very much for being here. >> my pleasure. >> your thoughts on this divide and what the president is trying to do here from a historic l perspective and perhaps compared to other presidents in this predicament. >> yeah, we're seeing something almost unique here. you know, political scientists measure political polarization and it's about to go off their charts. it's at its absolutely maximum. and you're absolutely right about the do-nothing congress. you know, harry truman campaigned against the do-nothing congress in 1948. well, that congress looks like the do-everything congress compared to this one, because absolutely nothing is happening and nothing is going to happen, as you point out. so the president fills the

vacuum. politics hates a vacuum. and there is plenty of historical precedent for doing very important things, via executive order. few people know, john kennedy actually established the peace corps via executive order, before it was ever put into law by the congress of the united states. in 1930, in the midst of the great depression, with america suffering tremendous unemployment, herbert hoover, in one of the least-known, but most important executive orders, cut immigration to the u.s. by 90%, by tightening up visa requirements. franklin roosevelt issued over 3,000 executive orders. by contrast, president obama isn't even at 200 yet. >> and look at the politics of this as well, right? which is other presidents have struggled, particularly as you get into the second term, with congress' desire to really move on. and if they're optimistic, hopefully get their own party back in the white house. take a listen to something president clinton struggled with

when it got so bad, impeachment being a piece of it, that he was pressed on whether the position of president was even relevant. >> president clinton, republicans have dominated political debate in this country since they took over congress in january and even tonight, two of the major television networks declined to broadcast this event live. do you worry about making sure that your voice is heard in the coming months? >> no. i'll remind you, i had at least one press conference during the previous two years when i had it at night, but only one of the networks covered it, as i remember. but the important thing is for me to do these press conferences on a regular basis, and every three or four months, to do it at night, so anyone who wants to cover it can. the constitution gives me relevance. the power of our ideas gives me relevance. the record we have built up over the last two years and the things we're trying to do to implement it give it relevance. the president is relevant here. >> now, professor, it's almost a

bit of a weird moment there, of him having to say he's relevant. you have the interplay there of the media's role, because hechbhe wasn't getting the coverage he may have previously gotten. but how do you see president clinton's coverage versus whatwear seeing in action from president obama? >> president clinton proved he have he was very relevant after he won re-election in 1996, after the republican sweep in 1994. and he also proved his relevancy by giving republicans welfare reform. there's no compromising with this congress, though, because they're not interested in compromise, and that's why he's got to step into the breach with executive action, like so many other presidents have done. and the critical thing here is not the number of executive orders, they're not that great, but the substance of them. taking action on climate change, perhaps the most important challenge that humanity faces. perhaps opening up whole new

areas of the pacific, as preserves to keep the oceans pristine. these are very important thing. if congress had done these things, we would consider them major milestones, but obama doesn't have that route to follow now. >> al will know lichtman, professional historian at american university, thanks so much for sharing your insights tonight. >> anytime. now, what happened to eric cantor surprised a lot of people who don't live in his zrkt. the same thing may happen to a well-known lion of the house next week. but there is a way to not be surprised. keep watching. a car that can see trouble... ...and stop itself to avoid it. when the insurance institute for highway safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight. not honda. not ford or any other brand. subaru eyesight.

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taste the flavors of the season at olive garden. you know who's not a u.s. senator? this guy. >> it seems to me, first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the nael body has ways to try to shut that whole things down. >> todd akin, the u.s. senator from missouri, who challenged senator claire mccaskill for her seat, and he might have won it until that statement about rape and female physiology put his whole senate bid down the river. but his notorious statement wasn't an outlier about women's u.s. reproductive health. he spent a lot of time talking about and legislating about rape. in 2011, he co-sponsored the no taxpayer for abortion act, which tried to redefine rape to be

something called, quote, forcible rape, a dubious term which served mainly to make him and his fellow 226 co-sponsors seem as anti-abortion as possible. one of his cosponsors who tried to define sexual assault for everyone else was another congressman named cory gardner. now he is the gop candidate running for senate against incumbent democrat mark udall. he co-sponsored a total ban on abortion with no exceptions in the case of rape or incest. it was a bill that would have put doctors in prison for up to a dozen years. he was only of a handful of legislators who voted against giving rape victims access to emergency contraception. during his tenure in the colorado statehouse, he supported not one, but two of

these so-called personhood ballot measures, that got voted down twice by voters in the state, by more than 40 points. he also bragged about going the extra mile to try to get that bill passed. >> thank you. i have signed the personhood petition. i have taken the petitions to my church and circulating into my church, and i have a legislative record that backs up my support for life. >> that was mr. gardner's legislative record on the state level. song remained the same during his federal career. along with the akin bill, he cosponsored a bill that would have made you ask your boss if you could take birth control. he also supported a national personhood bill, that would have made criminal abortions in all circumstances and also have outlawed the birth control pill. gardner was a co-sponsor on that in 2012 and as recently as 2013. when he was running for congress, he said that he would personally sponsor legislation to put an end to abortion. >> my question is, do you believe that abortion is the

killing of an unborn child. and if yes, are you willing to carry legislation to end the practice? >> yes, i have the legislative background to back it up. >> a hat tip to the colorado newspaper to holding on to that audio. if his voting record wasn't consistent enough, you have the tape. and that's inconvenient with him who's seen for radical anti-abortion tapes. so, after all this, sponsoring personhood amendments on the state and federal level, cory gardner now says, hey, it was all a big mistake. he didn't really understand what the personhood bills were all about. he's sorry, he even wants to take it back. i did not know what i was sponsoring is not a position of strength. but that's where the colorado senate campaign is right now. chalk it aus one sort of bright spot. senator mark udall certainly knows who todd akin is and he's

already put out a few campaign ads framing cory gardner on these issues. >> because this really matters, it's important you hear this directly from me. my opponent, congressman gardner, made a crusade that would make birth control illegal and sponsored a bill to make abortion a felony, even in the case of rape and incest. his record is beyond troubling. it's wrong. we're talking about your rights, as women, as families, as coloradans. i'm mark udall. you have the right to live life on your own terms, to make your own choices. and that's why i approve this me think. >> this was a big political story. and you hear it there in his language. life, the right that you have. the udall campaign wants to make sure this sticks. they want to make sure everyone knows all about this important endorsement that gardner got from, yes, rick santorum, even if gardner's team didn't want to put out press blast when they secured it themselves. and meanwhile, gardner keeps saying he didn't know his

staunch and consistent support over these many years for personhood measures meant he supported outlawing hormonal forms of birth control, which includes the pill, something that eight in ten women in this country have used, as if you didn't know. and because some politicians have no sense of irony, cory gardner put pen to paper for the "denver post" op-ed page, calling for the federal government to okay over the counter birth control pills. that is something from a person who tried to get the pill banned in the past two federal legislative sessions. it is amazing what the office will do to a politician. it's pretty clear personhood amendments can't win statewide, especially in a state that have previously rejected personhood amendments. it's enough to make a co-sponsor of personhood legislation get downright anti-personhood, if that's the right political term. or at least try to, despite the record, and despite the tape.

>> i have a legislative record that backs up my support for life. ent my entire childhood seeing the world in reverse, and i loved every minute of it. but then you grow up and there's no going back. but it's okay, it's just a new kind of adventure. and really, who wants to look backwards when you can look forward?

♪

the area 1960 brought with it a film that would revolutionize the film industry. "scent of mystery," featuring peter lori with an untitled cameo by elizabeth taylor. the real story of "son of mystery" was instead the technological breakthrough known as smell-a-vision. the "scent of mystery" movie had smell-a-vision that was supposed to enhance the movie that unleashed a series of scents throughout the theater. li it is a film critic for "the new york times" recounted, when this reviewer saw and smelled the picture, the smell-a-vision squirters weren't on full blast or his nasal apparatus were on

the frits. we do not advise the viewer to depend on these clues or the alleged clues from the perfume of his victim. they are, shall we say, indistinct. smell-a-vision was a bust. the film associated with it was renameded and we released, and everyone forgot about the whole thing, entirely, until now. "scent of mystery" holds some new relevance because science and also consumerism. that story is ahead. stay with us.

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ben! well, that was close! you ain't lying! let quicken loans help you save your money. with a mortgage that's engineered to amaze! this was a very exciting week for america, soccer wise. usa played ghana in the world cup on monday and the game was a thrill from the get-go. americans scored within the first minute and then 80 plus minutes of anxiety across the nation and at the end, usa beat ghana in the first match of the world cup, 2-1. and who better to help the team celebrate their victory than vice president joe biden. >> congratulations. he looked happier in that first goal, you can see it tomorrow on the monitor when the elections -- congratulations. you guys were great.

just spectacular. >> thank you, appreciate it. >> good to see you. are you kidding me? this is a kick, man. >> mr. biden, president, i want to show you i've still got the coin from last time. >> he was not just in town for soccer, though. it was a clearly fun trip, but it was part of a larger four-day mission to the region in latin america that ended in guatemala, where the vice president addressed the recent surge of miner minors coming across the border of our country. he spoke with the president of honduras by phone, telling him the obama administration needs these leaders' help in doing something about these crossings. people say that spiking violence and poverty in those nations is one of the causes of the increase in illegal immigration. today, the vice president stressed the dangers of crossing the border as well as the rumors that have been circulating around the u.s. granting leniency to those who make it

here. he argues that there are no options to come legally to the u.s. through october 2013 through last week, some 52,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended along the border with mexico, double the number that had crossed in the same period last year. and today, homeland security secretary jay johnson was in texas at a border patrol station that's been overwhelmed. also today, the obama administration announced that he's opening new temporary detention centers, along with deterring alternatives to detention, along with some kind of electronic bracelets they release those to track for court proceedings. also deploying immigration officers, attorneys, and asylum officers to speed the whole process that they use. as the number of central american children stuck and alone in the u.s. are far from home, and as this number continues to grow, many on the right have taken to blaming president obama. the idea here is that the influx is related to the much larger immigration reform issues. they blame the president for that. and as a policy matter, we

should note the illegal flow of immigrant minors right now is distinct for any plans for immigration reform. robert menendez spoke out about this yesterday. >> we're here to discuss a humanitarian and refugee crisis on our southern board, and in central america, threatening tens of thousands of families and thousands and thousands of children. and it's simply unacceptable. unacceptable here in america, unacceptable in our hemisphere. let me be very clear. from my perspective, this is not an immigration crisis. it is a humanitarian and refugee crisis. there are no easy answers, but one that i truly believe that would be helpful to this is, which is a long-term answer, but has a short-term opportunity to become a reality, is immigration reform, and convincing our republican colleagues in the house that if they continue to

obstruct the senate bill and do nothing, there will be continue to be a reality of trouble in our borders. >> it was almost a year ago the senate passed bipartisan immigration reform, a bill that has house has, as senator menendez said, refused to bring up for any kind of vote. yesterday, house republicans elected a new majority leader-elect, kevin mccarthy, to replace eric cantor. earlier this year, it was mccarthy who said he was open to some sort of form, although as of late, he has backpedaled a bit. >> do you think that immigration reform can be done? >> i think that's very difficult based on what the president has done. i think it's important that our borders be secure. >> mr. mccarthy is a conservative. and it's important to note he's also from california. in his case, that means he represents a district that's almost 36% hispanic. he replaced a republican who,

according to the new conservative conventional wisdom, was hurt by flirting with immigration reform. but you know, whether that's true or not, everyone does seem to agree, eric cantor did lose touch with his district. for mr. mccarthy, keeping an open mind to some sort of immigration reform or some democracy on the floor of the house, on the issue of immigration, may be as important as any other part of his big new job. joining us now is david ma macamora, thank you for being here. let's start with the idea that they're putting forth. >> this is interesting. the democrats look at what's happening on the border with these unaccompanied minors, they're in holding cells in crowded conditions. they say these people are fleeing gang violence. that's what the obama administration is saying that's driving this. but the republicans are saying, look, we empathize with the kids.

this is an unacceptable condition that they're in, but the obama administration has softened some policies over the year, particularly for young people in 2012, deferring deportations for the dreamer set, and that's created some confusion in these countries and allowed smuggling groups or other media to make the impression that once these kids get here, they're going to be protected. and there's some truth that some of the kids are able to stay for various reasons, maybe some for important reasons, because they do face hostility and violence back home, but this is complicated the current immigration debate, and you're seeing republicans pressure the white house to take a tougher line to try to stop this current crisis. it could make the bigger question more difficult. >> although you mention the perception that they've somehow softened enforcement, softened the word people can argue over. but the numbers reflect a very high amount of deportation by this administration. >> that's the really confusing thing about this. that you have on the left, liberals, immigration advocate groups are increasingly

frustrated by these numbers. they say numbers of 400,000 immigrants a year being deported and saying, look, some have called the president the g deporter in chief, which president obama took umbrage of. but you've got to do the more of breaking up families. a lot of them broke the law to get here, but other than that, they're law-abiding citizens. they should be protected. he did that in 2012 for this dreamer population, the young folks who came with their parents, which they didn't have a say in, and are american maybe other than birth. they said, we're going to defer those for two years and that program has protected about 500,000 yuck people. that's what republicans are saying, we shouldn't do that. the president needs to be firm on all the laws, on the books. immigration enforcement agents are -- >> david, let me jump in. you're on the white house beat. you talk to a lot of those folks on and off the record.

valerie jarrett saying that she actually thinks kevin mccarthy could be someone who's a better ally on this than eric cantor under the right circumstances. clearly, if part of his district wakes up, he might have more pressure to at least look open-minded. >> certainly. and immigration advocated have targeted kevin mccarthy for the past year, thinking he's the perfect candidate. his district is 35% latino, california, a state that relies a lot on immigrant farm labor. and kevin mccarthy himself has said he might be open to some kind of legal status, if not citizenship for these immigrants. but he's also been in the leadership for a long time. and he was with john boehner and eric cantor when he released the principles that republicans might pursue in february and within three days walked that back, because the caucus in an internal meeting was not ready to go forward. and i think this upheaval, with eric cantor's district that allowed kevin mccarthy to askreascend to this position, makes it difficult for him to move forward. >> especially as long as that's become the conservative cw,

whether it's accurate or not. david knanakamura, thanks for bg here tonight. >> thanks, ari. >> as eric cantor's defeat proved, incumbents should feel extra nervous this primary season, and one incumbent may be in central trouble just next week in the tuesday primaries. stay tuned so you'll be ready for tuesday. shingles affected me tremendously as a pilot. the blisters and the pain in my scalp area and down the back of my neck was intense. it would have been virtually impossible in that confined space with the rash to move to change radio frequencies. i would just stop and literally freeze up. i mean it hurt. i couldn't even get up and drive let alone teach somebody and be responsible in an airplane. when my doctor told me that

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political junkies talk a lot about the tea party and their key tactical weapon, primary republicans from the right. the tea party's biggest victories are, when you think about it, against republicans, not democrats, definitely not against president obama, whose re-election was probably helped by the tea party's rightward pressure on mitt romney. it was another tea party primary that forced republicans into picking a new majority leader to replace eric cantor and it's a tea party primary this tuesday that could topple 40-year senate incumbent, thad cochran. but did you know there's a big democratic primary this tuesday as well, and it could topple one of the longest serving liberals in congress. the challenge is to one of the more fascinating figures in democratic politics, charlie rangel of new york. he's been the congressman since forever. well, officially since 1971, and he represents the new york city neighborhood of heaarleharlem, r of african-american cultural and political clout. harlem is home to the apollo

theater, where you should go some time. it's home to the burying place of euless s. grant. if you want to find out who's in grant's tomb, go to harlem. and harlem is home to an ivy league campus right in the middle of a metropolis. it's an amazing place. and to win that kind of seat in american politics, charlie rangel beat another legendary figure you may have heard of, adam clayton powell. he got the nod from harlem as the second world war was ending. and at the time of his time in congress, powell was weakened by an ethics scandal and that opened the door for a young charlie rangle. he was part of the wave of the african-american politicians that represented minority districts and became a count countervailing force in washington. that new power base also practiced an old brand of politics. the politics of who you know and how you help them, so they help you. transactional, local, city politics. when the young barack obama came along as a senator, he followed

a different playbook. he cast himself as the leader of a new kind of coalition politics, proudly diverse and drawing on the successes of civil rights movement, including organizing and church relations, but also promising to transcend some of the perceived limitations of constituency and transactional politics. obama was a fairly low-profile member of the congressional black caucus when he came to washington, where rangel is deemed, and though few remember it now, many of those caucus members declined to join obama in his presidential request. for his part, rangel endorsed hillary and they were not very close. a house committee found that mr. rangel was guilty of 11 ethics violations, the full house censured him for it, and all of that is leafing mr. rangel looking vulnerable in this primary on tuesday. now, he does lead in one poll, but he faces a strong challenge from adriano espiot.

the district has been changing because the district map got redrawn to include a lot more latino voters. just as many republican activists counted eric cantor's washington power as a demerit, some of rangel's constituents now see his long tenure as part of the problem. espiat argues rangel has all the baggage of incumbent and few of the perks, since it forced him to give up his chairmanship of the powerful ways and means committee. rangel held on in a 2012 primary by about 1,086 votes and mr. espiot believes momentum and the current mood may carry him over the line this time in the tuesday primary. charlie rangel knows it. he knows these vulnerable. next week, his seat is on the line. and now he's trying to hang on to his political life, the congressman who never curried much favor with the obama administration has rediscovered an old and dear friendship. >> the question is -- >> shh, shh. >> with the president at least

three times this year, after the state of the union, where he clearly indicated that the creation of jobs has to be through investment. we want to see the president succeed, believe me, i am not married to this job just to stay here until i drop dead. i really think that it's in the, it's in the best interests of our community to take advantage, to take advantage of these last two years >> the congressman continues to talk and tout about his relationships with the president and how he wants to complete his term. in fact, when the president asked him to step down several years ago. >> i just would like the record to state that in the last few months, i have been every month invited to the white house to deal with the president and last week, those of you may have seen on tv, three of us that were involved in the affordable care act, the president pointed out

as a result of passing the 7 million mark. and so, if he knows the president better, that's a different story. but i think the record is abundantly clear, as to who can get the best out of this administration. >> joining me now is darren sands, contributing writer for "the new york times", who spent a lot of time in this district for a new article, "betrayal if charlie rangel's harlem?" good evening. >> good to be with you. >> this was a fascinating race. it was hard to overstate charlie rangel's position and power in harlem and for a long time, in democratic politics. what's going on here in the challenge to him tuesday. >> well, really, the congressman is fighting this battle on two fronts, really. he's, obviously, we heard the sound bite, with senator espiot, who has a real political base in both washington heights and the bronx, where those lines -- the

congressional lines were redrawn in 2012. so he's fighting the -- really, the -- a growing amount of people who want to see senator win this election, and on the other front, he's fighting against a pastor named michael wallren, and he has a particularly strong following in central harlem and so he's fighting both this battle on the home front, which is in harlem, in his own community, against an african-american candidate, and also against the senator, who has, you know, gotten lots of strong endorsements, and he's someone who lots of people in the political power structure want to see elected. >> the fact that congressman rangel is in so much troubling, too, successive primaries in a row, do you think that says anything about an evolution of the type of politics he practices? >> i'm not sure how to answer

that question, ari. i know that since the censorship in 2010, he's passed two bills and he's really touted this relationship with the president. lots of people think that the seniority that he brings to the house is something that is going to help the president with immigration, help the president accomplish some of these goals that he has going in the next two years. >> and yet, darren, if you talk to people in washington, in the democratic establishment, from the white house out to pelosi, a lot of skepticism against congressman rangel at this point. >> well, yeah. and i still think that the congressman wants to do this job. he's probably having more fun than anyone. he's resolute in some of his assertions about what he can do in these last two years.

he hadn't ever publicly said that he was not going to run again in 2012, and he's doing that now. so i do think that he feels really strongly, and again, i can't stress enough that he is having probably more fun than anyone, doing this, certainly something to be said about, given his age. >> and darren, just briefly, from your time in the district, do you expect high turnout on tuesday? >> certainly more high turnout, possibly, than 2012. this race has a lot of intrigue, in harlem, especially, also in washington heights. i think given what happened in 2012, like you mentioned, senator espiot coming within a thousand votes of toppling one of the top congressman, we'll see what happens on tuesday. >> we will be watching and covering it, as i know you will be. darren sands from "the new york times" magazine, thank you very much. now, your smartphone is awesome, music videos and the

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whatever happened to good? good is choosing not to overshoot the moon, but to land right on it. good is maxwell house. ♪ good to the last drop just consider the olfactory bandwidth. >> i then became infatuated with these. give the nose a treat. have a kind of olfactory bandwidth. so i began first on the easiest, roast beef, mown grass, old books, and mexican farm yat. here's one you'll like, snowfall on 42nd street. >> of course, that's maude from the movie "harold and maude," showing the young harold as her odorifics machine.

you can smell the snowfall on 42nd street in new york. that was the fictional odorifics machine, but human beings really do love tinkering with the olfactory bandwidth in real life. this is the eye smell machine, that can fit on a stack of books by your bed. it was supposed to let you smell things on the internet, the way you can smell perfume ads in a magazine. and for about 15 minutes in 1999, the ismell was going to launch the new revolution. they got a spot in the tech fail hall of fame. then there was the aeromet jet company. they made this cute prototype for smelling your video game. you could wear it with your neck with the business end pointing to your nose. i think it's called the pin oak, but it might be the pin oake. when we wrote to the company yesterday, the e-mail bounced. in 2004, we got the scent dome. it came in red, blue, and lime green. it was supposed to let you e-mail a scent to someone. well, that went away.

in 2011, there was something called the scentscape, with 20 different smells, including christmas tree, and the smell-it, another one for video gamers. according to this reviewer, you can order cartridges for the smell naked body and the smell undergrowth and if you translate it right, the good mood smell. i don't know anyone who has any of these smell devices, maybe you do. but i do know that human beings love the future. and in the future, we apparently want to be able to move smells around or simulate them. we can hear each other on the phone and we can send pictures and mail cookies, but we can't just send the smell of the box of cookies and apparently we want to, which brings us to the next new thing, or maybe the commercial for it. >> introducing ophone. it's like a phone for aroma. it works with a mobile messaging app, that lets you take a picture, tag it with over 300 possibilities and send it as an o-note to friends.

when you receive an o-note, you play it on the o-phone like this. >> you may be thinking, because we all think about the messages that will be sent by our delightful 12-year-olds in their lives, making their own use of the olfactory bandwidth. and i know we just got done showing you several other times people have tried this and met with failure and derision and jokes about 12-year-olds with, but that's no reason to say this can't be done. the o-phone went on sale. for $149, you can smell the future date of delivery, some time in 2015. the makers are trying to raise $150,000 for the project and they're at least 7% of the way there. sure, you guys, laugh now, laugh while you can, but this may be the next generation's favorite way to communicate for all we know. it can have us longing for the days of eemoticons. may it all keep coming up roses, chemically coated and transit mitted through dual-smelling

stacks all the way out to the ones you love. rachel will be back monday and you can catch me, crystal, abby and toure on "the cycle," 3:00 p.m. weekdays. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. the first day of summer, 2014, we're giving you a live picture of miami skyline there. just nine minutes away, we slipped into the new season. good morning, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it is june 20th. in just a few minutes, we'll have a look at the weekend forecast for you. but first, a new and alarming video from that terror group, isis. you'll see how they might be trying to recruit people in hometowns across the u.s. could it work? at least one prominent republican is defending president obama's handling of the iraq situation and blaming some follow gopers for the whole mess. >> you have such certainty. how do you know that the fo