>> house of representatives, 26 work days until the end of the year. >> let's sue the president while we're at it. >> what did you learn? >> the world stops at noon. >> joe, tell the audience where, if they want to watch it where they want to go. they're texting me, they're tweeting me. >> manhattan. i'll see you there. if it's way too early, it's "morning joe." go usa! stick around. right now we've got chuck todd and "the daily rundown." orders in the court. does a house plan to sue the white house mean that all hope is over for getting anything done for the next two years? we'll get reaction to the latest this morning from the new white house press secretary, josh earnest, in his first tv interview on the job. meantime a shocking gdp shrink shakes the economy. we'll dig into why the white house is well aware that their legacy is on the line, just like it was for recent two-termers,

for better or for worse. and find out why things aren't ending quietly in mississippi and what hillary clinton thinks about her husband's money musings. plus a new twist that could make lindsey graham's bid a bit bumpier in november. good morning from washington. it's thursday, june 26th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." your campaign 2014 headquarters. let's get to my first reads of the morning. the war between house republicans and the white house has escalated yet again. speaker boehner announced on wednesday that he plans to take the obama administration to court. planning for legislation next month that would authorize the house as an entity, the u.s. house, to sue the president over his use of executive actions. >> not only does the president regularly ignore the law, he brags about it and he brags about his willingness to change it unilaterally. in my view the president has not faithfully executed the laws.

>> in a letter to house colleagues, boehner defended his move writing this, quote, we elected a president. we didn't elect a monarch or king. for the integrity of our laws and the sake of our country's future, the house must now act. boehner did not make it clear which executive actions he plans to challenge in his lawsuits. over the last several years, the president has pushed much of his agenda through using, well, as he noted, his phone and his pen. for instance, halting the deportation of some young illegal immigrants brought to the country by their parents as children. raising the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors. requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce their carbon emissions. extending family medical leave act benefits to same-sex couples and changing or delaying a number of provisions in the health care law. the house republicans are likely to target those health care changes, which also fire up their base. now, boehner said the bill would allow the house to file suit through the house general counsel at the direction of the

bipartisan legal adviser regroup. it's a five-member panel made up of the top three leaders in the majority party and the top two in the minority party. in 2011 republicans used this group to defend the defense of marriage act after the obama administration instructed the justice department to stop defending the law. at that time the house spent $2.3 million on that effort before the supreme court struck it down as unconstitutional last year. and now while this has political stunt written all over it, it is an election year, right? it doesn't mean it won't get legal traction. there are plenty of members of congress over the years who have sued, who believe they have allowed executive branch authorities to get too big, too great. but house republicans face an uphill legal fight. they need to establish that the house has the standing to bring the case, number one, and that usually requires showing that congress has suffered a specific personal injury. courts, of course, have alsorel

weigh in on separations of powers fights between the other two branches of governments. even if this challenge would succeed, it would likely take years before we find out what the courts believe. in other words, it would be more likely to set the parameters for a president hillary clinton or speaker steve scalise than for president obama and speaker boehner. what boehner will tell you is all his members when they go home and talk to their constituents, their base constituents, they hear this, that the president is running rough shade ovod over house republicans. so this is their answer. the other thing republicans can get out of this potentially, it gives them something to run or or at least defend in an election year they have gotten very little done. boehner said it is not intended for the republican base during the midterms but the only folks happier of what boehner has done, democrats. house republicans are so against

working with the president they'd rather sue him than get anything done. >> for a long time we have seen republicans block progress in congress, but in this case it seems that republicans have shifted their opposition into a higher gear. frankly, it's a gear that i didn't know previously existed. >> subterfuge. as i said, they're doing nothing here and so they have to give some aura of activity. this really needs to be an adult in that room of the republican caucus. i hope the speaker is that adult. >> they are already fund-raising off of boehner's announcement. on the base right, folks love to throw out the "i" word, impeachment. boehner said yesterday that's not in the cards. but don't ignore the fact that this comes as the republican base feels more and more angst that the president will act on his own to push through some

version of immigration reform. on friday, it will be a year since the senate passed its immigration bill and yesterday a parade of immigration reform advocates in congress declared it dead. in fact check out what marco rubio told an audience and john mccain told "the walls journal." >> we will never have the votes or the political space or any chance at all of having the votes to address that issue of what to do with those 12 million until you've done the other two things first. until people believe that truly the borders have been secured, visa overstays are being controlled and stopped. >> the conventional wisdom in this town is that after eric cantor's loss, immigration reform is dead for this year, maybe dead through 2016. >> i can't tell you, uri, that we have a great shot at it, but i know the consequences of failure. >> the house's leading advocate for immigration reform, luis gutierrez, said the only option left is for president obama to

take unilateral action. >> i kept hoping the better angels in the republican party would tap down the angry angels blocking reform. i gave you the warning three months ago and now i have no other choice. you're done. you're done. leave the field. too many flagrant offenses and unfair attacks and too little action. you're out, hit the showers. it's the red card. >> wait a minute, is soccer this big now? members of congress are flashing red cards on the floor? wow. anyway, today vice president joe biden is meeting behind closed doors with immigration reform advocates. joining me now for his first tv interview since taking the job, white house press secretary josh earnest from the north lawn this morning. good morning to you, sir. congratulations on the new gig. >> good morning, chuck. >> let's start with your reaction to speaker boehner's lawsuit. obviously he says that there are a number of ways that he

believes the president has gone around congress too much, overstepped his bounds. does this mean that boehner's lawsuit will make the president think twice about signing a new executive order or trying to do a new executive action? >> chuck, the president has been pretty clear about what his strategy is. the president has a genuine desire and willingness to work with both democrats and republicans on capitol hill to try to make progress for the american people, to move this country forward. you've had a lot of republicans on your show over the years, chuck, who have articulated very clearly that they have a very different strategy. they have engaged in a coordinated political strategy to block any progress, to block anything that the president supports. even common sense things and even things that have traditionally earned bipartisan support. what the president has said is i'm going to leave the door open to working with democrats and republicans to make progress, but i'm not going to wait for republicans to try to find some common ground. i'm going to use the authority

that's vested in the presidency of the united states to take action on my own. so when it comes to making sure that contractors get -- the employees of federal contractors get paid a fair minimum wage, the president will look to raise the minimum wage. if we're going to reduce the cost of borrowing for student loans so that it's easier for students to repair their student loans, the president is going to take action. republicans may have different priorities, but the fact of the matter is the president is not going to be cowed into failing to use the authority that's vested in the presidency to make progress on behalf of middle class families all across the country. >> does the white house believe this is it, now, there really is no major legislation that the two sides can work on together? >> i don't think -- the president is certainly not closing that door. i think the question all along has been do republicans have enough political courage to try to find -- to do the hard work of legislating. this is, after all, the job they were elected to do, which is to work in divided government to try to work across the aisle

with democrats to move the country forward. the senate has done this on a couple of occasions. you mentioned the comprehensive immigration reform proposal. that was something -- that was a pain-staking effort where democrats and republicans in the senate worked together. neither side got every single thing they wanted in that bill. the president certainly didn't get everything he wanted in that bill. but this is a compromised proposal that would be good for the economy, would reduce the deficit and finally address what everybody acknowledges is a broken immigration system. >> there's a couple of issues that get con flated here. one is executive actions on things that haven't been acted on. but apparently how the administration has not followed a law that was passed by congress, in this case the affordable care act. and i'll go through a number of delays that the president has done through executive action, allowing insurers to reinstate cancelled plans, delaying online enrollment by a year, hardships

exemptions, delayed coverage requirements for businesses, the extended renewal period for noncompliant payments for another two years, extended hardship exemptions, that together this -- all of these different actions are not following a law that congress passed. what do you say to that? >> well, first of all, i'd say a couple things about that, chuck. the first is each of those steps that you just named were part of an effort to give more flexibility to state governments, including some state governments that are led by republicans, to business owners, many of whom are -- i assume are republicans. >> but does it follow the law? >> of course it does, chuck. >> can you make the case that it's still following the law itself? >> absolutely it's part of following the law. in fact it is trying to make sure that this law works best. we're convinced that what we need to do is try to maximize the benefits of the affordable care act for state governments across the country but more importantly for businesses large and small and for families out there who are trying to get access and in many cases have

access to affordable, quality health care for the first time. the fact of the matter is, chuck, that republicans are concerned about this. not because they're particularly concerned about the law, but because they voted against the legislation. we have seen that they have been rooting for years for this legislation to fail and they have used every legislative tactic in the book to try to ensure its failure. they even took the president to the supreme court to try to get the law to fail and at each turn they have been rebuffed. because of the flexibility that's been demonstrated by this administration, a willingness to work with democrats and republicans at the state level as they implement this law, we've seen that this law has had enormous benefits for this country already. and those benefits are only going to increase in the years ahead. it's the right thing to do for the country. >> let me ask you about immigration reform. luis gutierrez, who was the lead house democrat negotiating with that gang of seven inside the house, he's declaring it dead. he wants more unilateral action from the president. is it fair to say the president will be taking unilateral action on immigration reform, it's just figuring out what he can do

within the law? >> well, i think it's fair to say that the white house and the president himself has been pretty disappointed that house republicans have blocked a legitimate common sense compromise proposal that did emerge from the senate. the fact of the matter is, chuck, if the small group of house republicans who are four square ghens compromise proposal would just step aside and allow this proposal to come to the floor, it's fine for those republicans to vote against it, just allow it to come to the floor. if it came to the floor, we know that it would pass the house with bipartisan support, the president would sign it into law. we would significantly boost our economic prospects both in terms of expanding economic opportunity, creating jobs, reduce the deficit and deal with an immigration system that democrats and republicans all across the country agree is broken. >> i understand that but you didn't answer the question about doing more executive action. >> well, what the president has said is we want to work with congress to try to get this done, but at the same time we're not just going to sit around and

wait intermably for congress. we've waited a year already. the president has tasked his second of homeland security, jay johnson, to try to address some of the problems that have been created by our broken immigration system. but the one thing for your viewers to understand is any executive action is not a substitute for robust congressional action and that's why we're focused on trying to get that done. >> the president is going to minnesota today to spend a day in the life with somebody who wrote a letter. it seems as if you guys are looking for different ways that the more traditional settings that the president had used the first five and a half years as a communications guy, are you acknowledging that those are -- have a harder and harder time of breaking through? >> well, i think what i'd acknowledge, chuck, is that we have to mix it up. the president himself certainly enjoys the opportunity to break out of what harry truman famously called the crown jewel of the federal prison system that you see behind me and to get out traveling across the

country, spending time with everyday americans. the president is traveling to minnesota today because he received a letter from a working mom in minneapolis who pretty eloquently described the challenges that are facing her family in terms of trying to balance her responsibilities at work, balance her responsibilities at home and trying to make ends meet. this is -- this is the kind of story that i think feels very familiar to working families all across the country, and the president is looking forward to the opportunity to talking with this family in minnesota, to spending some time in their community, talking to other families in the community about the challenges that they're facing and about how they're benefiting from some of the policies the president is aggressively pushing here in washington. >> josh earnest, i should let viewers know that your harry truman reference was not an accident as a missouri native. by the way, no apologies that the dodgers have taken two of three from your royals there. >> i was looking for an opportunity to bring this up. in fact i fell asleep last night before the game ended and i was speccing my "sportscenter" app to see how the game turned out.

umpl, it didn't go the right way. >> meaning i got to bring it up before you did. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> we'll have much more on this legal argument around the house lawsuit against the president later in the show. you've got to ask the question, they do have the ultimate way of fighting back against the president. it's the "i" word. up next, the big economic challenge that just got a little tougher for president obama. can we bounce back from the latest economic slump. if history is our guide, it's not looking good. but was really the first quarter an outlier. a look ahead at today's politics planner. frankly everybody has got world cup fever. so from 12:00 to 2:00, american productivity will grind to a halt. the gdp at a negative 100. we'll be right back. people like options. when you take geico, you can call them anytime you feel like saving money. it don't matter, day or night. use your computer, your smartphone, your tablet, whatever.

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now to the dramatic and surprising plunge in the gdp. the newly revised numbers show the economy shrank 2.9% in the first quarter of this year. now, the white house insists the number is a one-off event but these kinds of outliars -- outlier been few and far between. the initial estimate was it went up 0.1%. the second estimate showed a 1% drop. this revision shows the number was nearly three times as bad. here's how the white house explained this away. the entire decline can be foktd by a decline in exports and slowdown in inventory investment. in addition, several components were likely impacted by unusually severe winter weather. that may be the case, but as we

said, a rare showing that a single quarter shows a drop of this magnitude and suddenly jumps back up. going back to 1980 we saw only one oar instance in which the gdp went from a positive number to a negative number this low and bounced right back. it happened in 1981. after that third quarter rebound, gdp fell back into negative territory for the next two quarters. the other six times since the '80s we saw numbers this low they were preceded by or followed by another negative quarter. it matters because two consecutive quarters of negative growth mark the beginning of an official recession. nevertheless, we should point out there are several other factors indicating that the first quarter number could be a one-time event. wall street certainly seems to think so. stocks were up across the board on this news. the number of jobs added has topped 200,000 for six out of the last eight months and the unemployment rate remains at its lowest point in five years. 27% of americans believe the economy will improve in the next

12 months. 24% believe it will get worse and nearly half think it will stay the same. housing starts and home sales have actually been surging lately. but these gdp numbers represent a clear and present political danger for the democrats. take a look back at the years before president obama was first elected in 'so07. gdp was 1.2%. there was anxiety surrounding the republican party and the economy essentially sank mccain's chances in the fall election. today president obama finds himself in a six-year slump, similar to slumps that reagan, clinton and bush 43 all experienced. the first two recovered from their political slumps. why? they had gdp amplverages that improved. under reagan gdp gained an average of 3.7% but in '87 and '88 it rose 4.2% and helped secure reagan's economic legacy and a third term bakally. under bill clinton in 1997 gdp averaged 4.4% rise.

then it soared to 5% over the next two years, boosting president clinton's second term and helping him recover from the crazy impeachment business. different story for president george w. bush. for him the economy was a weight on his presidency. gdp declined from an average of 3.1% in 2005 to 2.4% in '06, 1.9% in '07 and as we pointed out did hurt the chances of the gop in '08. this white house is hoping that doesn't happen to democrats this time around. but if the economy doesn't fully recover, it could represent a political body blow to democrats not just in 2014 but perhaps 2016. douglas holtz ekat served as a former director of the cao. austan goolsbee chaired and is a professor at the university of chicago. austan, great to see you.

i know this is an assumption this is an outlier, a one-off event and we'll put this in the rear-view mirror and this first quarter is something we'll never have to see again or at least for a while. are you truly convinced this is an outlier? >> i think it is but if we start getting negative numbers like this, that would be really, really bad. the two things to remember here are though they don't usually have swings of this magnitude, we do see a lot of variability. so if you back up six months, the six months previously was a surprisingly large number, like plus 4.1%. people did not really conclude that the gdp is about to be off to the races because there were a lot of temporary things in it, and they forecast that the next quarter's event is going to be a little larger. the second thing i would observe is this is from several months ago. this is january through march. we have gotten more data of what's the next quarter going to be like.

we see the jobs numbers, they come out in more realtime and that looks a little stronger. i think the problem is the nagging persistence of modest growth overall separated out from just what happens in any one quarter. >> doug, i've read that our economic recovery is very fragile and this was proof. that's sort of like, while everybody believes the second quarter will be much better, it's clear it's going to be a growth quarter, there's still a fragile tee to this economy. >> we've been growing too slow for quite some time. bad things happen all the time, tsunamis, fukushimas, bad weather. it's evidence of the fact we really aren't doing very well. if you flip it around and look forward, after this quarter we have to grow at 3.7% every quarter, second, third and fourth, just to get to 2% for the year. so we've got another bad year almost baked in the cake. we haven't seen 3.7% three

straight quarters in this recovery. >> austan, i've seen estimates where people think in 2016 we'll see 5% growth. would you revise that downward? >> i know there are people saying that and what they basically have in their minds is that the old joke onion headline. furious nation wants new bubble to invest in. i do not see that happening that we'll come rebounding back with that kind of strength. what i've been hoping for is that we get this bubble stuff out of the way and get the economy back on some sustainable fundamentals and grow 3.5%. that would be fantastic. but i think you've seen the fed and others revise down a little bit of what the growth is. >> i think austan has that right. it's real important to recognize that 5 is not in the cards, it's just not. we're not even going to get the 3.5 that he's looking for unless households can spend more money and they're not making enough money. there isn't enough jobs and

earnings and hours to do it. >> that's what i want to figure out. so what could goose this? is it that there's -- frankly there really is a world contraction a little bit. i mean how much is that impacting it? it seems like the american economy is certainly better. >> the american economy is certainly better than it was, but that's not a high standard. this is the worst recession in a lifetime but the world economy is weakening. that was part of the first quarter number, that trade went down a bit. that's a concern. i think what's been missing in action for six years now is the business community. the typical recovery has two pieces that we haven't seen. it has a housing boom. when you build houses, you put driers in it and all that stuff. >> you're kind of starting to see that. >> six years in. so cross your fingers and hope and the other is business investment. we just haven't seen that boom. >> austan, explain the health care spending issue in the first quarter. >> one of the components of the

negative here is people spent a lot less money on health care. so on one hand that looks like a positive because you say, hey, maybe health care costs went down. but for gdp that's a negative because they weren't consuming. look, it's good news that health care costs inflation has been slow and you saw that in the gdp data. i think more troubling is why didn't they spend the money on something else or why haven't you yet seen the rebound of investment. i think to go back to a housing boom, i think, is unrealistic. we got way overbuilt in housing. i think what has to be is business investment and more exports. and there you see the weakness in exports because the rest of the world is not growing. so that part is troubling, but let's hope we get the investment going. >> and you know, doug, i feel like the thing that too many of you guys, you economists, were relying on, consumer spending to get us out of this, remember back in the day of stimulus and all this stuff, could it be that americans looked at the great

recession and said i'm just going to be more careful and that we're in for a long term? that's what happened after the great depression. >> they could have. and that wouldn't be a terrible thing. americans have not saved very much for a long, long time. >> it also means that we're not going to have -- >> but it means someone else has to pick up the load and that's the business investment piece. if they invest, they pay somebody and they hire workers. even if you're saving more, if you've got enough activity of that type, you can still do spending as well and that's just missing. >> it's good to have you guys back together again. it's fun. >> get the band back together. >> there you go. trying to make you economists look at least, you know, somewhat school. >> meet you on tour, austan. >> thank you both. coming up, two tight primary races still not put to bed. nobody wants to concede in new york or mississippi. first, today's trivia question. democratic leaders nancy pelosi and steny hoyer once interned together in which elected official's office? first person to tweet the correct answer will get the

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they have engaged in a coordinated political strategy to block any progress, to block anything that the president supports. even common sense things and even things that have traditionally earned bipartisan support. so what the president has said is i'm going to leave the door open to working with democrats and republicans to make progress, but i'm not going to wait for republicans to try to find some common ground. i'm going to use the authority that's vested in the presidency of the united states to take action on my own. >> that was white house press secretary john earnest a few minutes ago responding to speaker john boehner, who is planning on legislation next month to authorize the u.s. house to sue the president over his use of executive actions. is boehner's action just symbolic or a real threat? actually it could be both. joining me with their expertise, attorney stan brand, who was once general counsel to the house of representatives and bryce fine, who was deputy attorney general under president

reagan. all right. since you were a counselor for the u.s. house, stan, what's the standing? >> well, the standing has traditionally been narrowly defined. there is a window here in the sense that if the entire house of representatives sues, they may be over to get over the standing hurdle but that's the least of their problems. what they're asking a court to do is basically supervise the presidency of the united states. courts have refused to do that from the vietnam war, the giveaway of the panama canal. that's a much bigger hurdle than the standing issue. >> bruce, and it's my understanding, and again i'm not a lawyer, i'm just playing one today, but it's my understanding that you have to prove that you have no other recourse. >> that's not necessarily true. >> because i would argue the house does have ultimate resource. >> they can use appropriations power and imbeachment power. the impeachment power was used against richard nixon. there were three articles voted by the house judiciary committee and they included failing to fate fully execute the laws with

regard to obstruction of justice and watergate. >> so why go to the courts if you have this power? >> it's a political calculation. i believe the clinton impeachment cast some dubiousness on the process and i do think it was a political calculation. with regard to the standing issue, this is not novel. the senate select committee sued president richard nixon there with standing and most recently the house of representatives through the judiciary committee sued karl rove to try to get him to testify. with regard to the general principle that i think is at issue here, it's rather dangerous for the president to defend what he's doing which is basically i don't want to execute the laws because maybe the immigration loss are too harsh or the laws against drug use but that would enable his successor to say i think obamacare is not a good law. i don't think the civil rights laws are very good and that really leads to a lawless society. the last thing i want to say, mr. obama sounds a lot like richard nixon in a dialogue with mr. frost. when the president does it, it's

legal and that's the end of the rule of law. >> it's interesting, the president one time said i would love to do these fixes on the health care law if the house of representatives will work with me but they won't so i'm going to go around them. isn't it almost acknowledging that he's sort of going around the law? >> well, yeah, but presidents do that all the time. the question is what can you do about it. and i think bruce is right, there's a panoply of powers they have, not the least of which is appropriations, oversight, appointment, that the courts really look for them to use first. the courts are reluctant to referee disputes between these two political divisions. to bring them into this and expect them to rule in a broad-based way -- >> and doesn't this oddly give the judiciary branch too much power? suddenly aren't we talking about that? they're supposed to be equal branches of government. if you have one that says they're going to supervise and they're going to be the ultimate decider of who's got more power,

well then they have the most. >> no, not true because the judicial branch is entrusted with interpreting the united states constitution without ulterior motives. they have life tenure, they don't have a political ajebda. they may get it wrong from time to time. it was the judicial branch that ruled against nixon that the tapes had to be surrendered that led to his resignation. it was the judicial branch that said harriet mier and karl rove have to testify a. and without the judiciary to interpret the constitution and i agree it can get it wrong from time to time, we might not have a constitution at all. it's just saying the house of representatives either kbeechz or does nothing and that seems a rather dramatic choice to confront this country with. >> stan, i want to go back to why the speaker is insisting on making this the entire u.s. house. this lawsuit would have a better shot at getting heard, i could argue, look at mitch mcconnell sued the president over recess

appointments but a better shot if it were speaker boehner, would it not? >> i think he's got better standing arguments where the institution as a whole sues. then the defendants can't say, well, they're just a rump group. their remedy is with their colleagues. this way they show institutional solidarity. by the way, there may be a way to test some of this stuff and that is for individual litigants who were harmed by the president's decisions to bring lawsuits. they would have injury in fact. they might be able to test these order by order. but in this broad brush way, i don't see it happening. >> now, bruce, both of you have said the courts are very reluctant to get into these fights but at some point does it -- i understand they're sort of circuit court shopping to see if they can avoid the d.c. circuit. they'd like a friendlier circuit, perhaps the fifth. but why does this even go to the circuit? how is this not immediately supreme court. explain that process. >> well, the supreme court is -- under the constitution has very narrow original jurisdictional

to hear cases before there's a trial. in 1803 the supreme court said to enlarge it's jurisdiction would be unconstitutional so this typically begins at the trial level. that's how the nixon tapes case began. there's nothing atypical about that. this is the kind of case when the president is involved where regularly the supreme court will commit a leap frog over the court of appeals and go directly from a district court decision to the supreme court. that's what happened in the nixon tapes case. >> i was just going to say how long do you think realistically that this process will take? >> for years. it's going to exceed obama's term. >> this will really be about -- like ted kennedy sued nixon over pocket vetoes. we found out about that resolution in the mid-'70s, well after nixon left office. this is really about setting the parameters of the next president. >> and i think it's also partially when a president is weakened, people attack. if you looked at the nixon era, the -- >> when it dips below 45.

>> the war powers act all passed because nixon was weakened. >> very quickly. >> i think the case can go much more rapidly. the nixon tapes case went in six months. if the supreme court views this as urgent, it's not going to sit and daudle. >> the biggest winners are law school deans everywhere. >> good exam questions. >> absolutely. anyway, stan brand, bruce fine, thank you both for bringing your expertise today. we'll be back in three minutes. before we go to break, our tdr soup of the day comes from rehoboth beach, delaware. they're serving up shrimp chowder. we'll be right back.

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favor of veteran democratic member of congress charlie rangel, but stayed senator adriano espaillat refuses to concede. he trails by 1800 votes. there won't be an official final vote from the board of elections for at least a week. down in mississippi, our tea party challenger there, chris mcdaniel, is still refusing to concede to republican senator thad cochran after what was an extremely divisive primary fight. mcdaniel hinted he may go to court to challenge what he says are alleged voting irregularities. several establishment republicans are saying that won't happen. south carolina senator lindsey graham survived a primary rather easily, but could he have a more conservative opponent in the fall? charleston businessman, one-time office holder and one-time famous name to a political family, now a reality tv star, thomas ravenel, confirmed wednesday he is out collecting the 10,000 signatures he would need to get on the november ballot. he says if he gets them, he

plans to run as an independent. ravenel's first career ended when he was caught in a federal cocaine bust. this year he has starred in bravo's charleston-based reality show, "southern charm." from 2014 to potential 2016 fodder, president obama once jokingly suggested he should name former president clinton as his secretary of explaining stuff. he used another word actually. as we showed you yesterday in an exclusive interview with david gregory, bill clinton tried to use those explaining skills to ease the sting of remarks his wife made about being dead broke after leaving the white house. hillary clinton responded again to this controversy and to the idea of her husband coming to her defense. >> let's say i shouldn't have said the five or so words that i said, but, you know, my inartful use of those few words doesn't change who i am, what i've stood

for my entire life what, i stand for today. frankly as i traveled around as secretary of state, as i write in the book, part of what i was trying to do was to figure out ways to create more jobs at home by standing up figure out a way to create jobs at home, standing up to the barriers that hurt american workers. my husband was very sweet today. but i don't need anybody to defend my record. it speaks for itself. turning to this. delaware stands out in sharp contrast. the first state has long been known for its business friendly laws particularly for large corporations. it's home to more than half of all publicly traded companies in the united states. it's america's ireland. in 65% of the fortune 500, there are more than a million private companies in the state. so businesses use space very

efficiently. businesses if they were people, too, maybe delaware would have a second member of congress. this one building is said to be the legal home of coca-cola and so many others and 285,000 other separate businesses. that's right. that one building. if you incorporate in delaware, there's no state income tax on business done outside of delaware and the state's unique court system is perhaps the biggest draw. the courts of chancery was created to handle business affairs. today it's considered the premier form for resolving corporate disputes in the united states. some companies skirt around paying taxes to other states by holding companies in delaware where they are not taxed. pennsylvania and maryland argue it robs their state of millions in tax dollars. but most businesses there make

legal means to reduce tax bills. however, the loose regulations can help shield the identity of a business owner and make it harder to spot tax evasion and money laundering serving as an invitation for corporate fraudsters to set up shop in america's very first state. trivia time. pelosi and hoyer once interned together in which elected official's office together? congratulations to today's winner. we'll be right back.

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