terrorists. is there any real answer to why so many women and children are rushing to the u.s. border now? we have an msnbc original report that is an eye-opener. the pope makes his usual sunday rounds b, but this particular appearance is different. information that might make you think twice about when to start reading to your children. hey there, everyone, high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we start with a developing story, dramatic turn into the investigation of a georgia toddler who died after being left in a hot car. police are now raising questions about the mother of 22-month-old cooper harris. joining me now, nbc's kerry sanders. the police began releasing search warrants in the case, what do they reveal? >> this is the second day of

release of the search warrants. they did it yesterday morning and again this morning. i think perhaps what is most interesting is, remember, the wife here, leann, has not been charged with any crime. but in the criminal affidavits which were part of the search warrants, it said the husband's researched through the internet child deaths inside vehicles and what temperature it needs to be for that to occur. justin stated that he was fearful that this could happen. it also says that the wife indeed had looked for similar sorts of information. now, he is charged with the warrants that have been released, among other things, with murder. but what really is sort of shifting the attention is, the suggestion -- because nobody's really talking, it's just inside these papers, that somehow if he's charged with murder, that she may actually be complicit in some form or another. remember, the reason that the authorities realized that

cooper's death may be something more than just an accidental death inside the car, was because they went and got the computer from his father. and when they looked at the computer and they looked at the phone, they looked at all the internet searches, that's what led them to this discovery that somebody, and now they believe it was the father, had researched on the internet that he was trying to find out how long it would take for somebody to die inside a sealed car in the hot summer day. alex. >> i tell you, kerry, one thing also that sort of adds to the intrigue, didn't the father during the day of cooper's death, didn't he go back to the car, and cooper was in the car? and then he didn't see him? >> exactly. there are reasonable explanations the defense attorney would tell you for much of this. because somebody could go back to the car and not see if the child had already died. there was no movement. there was a funeral yesterday for the child. the father dialed in, and of

course, the mother was there. and all expressed that they do not feel any sort of animosity towards one another. we have yet to see her, she's yet to make any public statements. but the pieces of the puzzle is what the investigators are putting together right now. and based on the criminal affidavits and search warrants, it indicates that they see something more here than just an accident. >> okay. kerry sanders, thank you so much for that report. now to politics. president obama plans to ask congress for more than $2 billion to help deal with the recent surge of child immigrants crossing the southwest border alone into the u.s. and the president had new comments today on the border issue. >> we have to house these kids and take care of them until the machinery under current law allows us to send them back. do not send your children to the borders. if they do make it, they'll get sent back. >> kristen welker is at the white house. good day to you. what sort of details are you

hearing about the $2 billion request? >> reporter: they are finalizing the details of that request. but here's what we know. and i believe we have a graphic of what we know. that president obama is going to ask congress for more than $2 billion to deal with the uptick in unaccompanied minors coming over. he'll also ask for expanded authority to fast track deportation procedures. and also, stiffer penalties for those who are smuggling those unaccompanied minors across the border. alex, the numbers are staggering. according to the administration, more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the border since october. they believe most of these are coming from central america. the administration says the reason is an uncrease in violence and poverty, and acknowledged there is misattorney filtered throughout these companies, that these unaccompanied minors will be able to stay.

an extensive campaign by the obama administration to try to tap down those rumors. vice president biden traveled to the region last week. nancy pelosi also traveled to that region to try to clear up those rumors. republicans have blamed the obama administration's policies. here's what the chairman of the house homeland security committee had to say earlier today. take a listen. >> it's a crisis like nothing i've ever seen before at the border. i don't think the flow will stop until a message of deterrence is sent back to central america. the president came out with a strong statement today. i applaud that. but i think, you know, the humanitarian part, at the same time let them know if they do come, they can't stay, otherwise we'll never stop the flow. >> reporter: president obama will make the initial request tomorrow. but we're told that the details will be presented to congress after the july 4th recess. >> you mentioned nancy pelosi. i'm going to speak with her

filmmaker daughter alexandra who has an incredible story to tell. turning the tide in iraq. the iraqi army has driven isis insurgents from tikrit, the birthplace of saddam hussein. now president obama is weighing in on the threat that he believes the isis poses to the u.s. homeland. >> you know, i think we have been under serious threat my entire presidency, and we've been under serious threat predating 9/11 from those who embrace this ideology. >> they're gaining strength, aren't they? >> they're gaining strength in some places. we've seen europeans who are sympathetic to their cause traveling into syria, and now may travel into iraq. getting battle hardened. then they come back. they've got european passports, they don't need a visa to get into the united states. >> joining me now, retired four-star general, division commander in the first iraq war and msnbc military analyst.

thank you very much. general, i'm glad to have you here, sir. the president talked about the european passports. maybe u.s. passports as well. which makes it easier to get back into the united states. let's talk about your concern about the prospects of terrorists coming here to the homeland and what they can realistically do? >> i think it's an extremely come please situation, the president doing the best he can to try and sort it out. clearly one answer won't be assessed of the firepower in the middle east. we're watching a giant ethnic religious war. lebanon, syria, iraq, the protagonists in some cases are in conflict with our own values. maliki government clearly is a shia/sunni default line. it's hard to know what to do. one thing we should do is enhance domestic defenses.

so money invested in the customs and border tropatrol and fbi an marshal service and national security agency for intelligence collection all will go toward keeping us safe. >> okay. sir, there are reports of iraqi army successes this weekend. first of all, how accurate do you think those reports are, and do they surprise you given the nation of the iraqi army? >> well, i think it's a sad thing. look, there's hundreds of thousands of refugees. tikrit, for example, is a sunni city, the home of saddam hussein. here you have a combination of a shia dominated army attacking into downtown tikrit, supported by shia militias. so the sunni civilian population is running for their lives, knowing they're likely to be abused or slaughtered by their federal government. it's hard to imagine iraq's going to put itself back together. the kurdish north is clearly e

autonomous. we're watching a struggle now between the sunni and shia. this is bizarre circumstances. assad, who we despise as a despot, is essentially fighting isis also. so this is a good one for us to stay out of with u.s. military power. >> that said, sir, as you know, there are reports that about 180 of the 300 expected u.s. military advisers are there at this point. at what point do we feel their presence? when will you say, okay, we can see that the u.s. is having a hand in at least helping guide what's happening on the ground? >> well, the biggest good we're going to get out of the 500 military personnel on the ground we'll better understand the situation. we'll be up in the kurdish area, we'll get a better feel in baghdad for what's happening inside the iraqi army. right now, the situation is so

confused, it's hard to sort it out. you know, essentially two full divisions out of 14 iraqi army took off like scald ed hares an ran for it. it's good we're in there with at least intelligence collection assets to see what's going on. >> we're also in there as you know with armed drones, patrolling the skies. the orders have not been given to utilize those, i except in the case of self-defense certainly. but when you see that, do you think air strikes could be coming soon? >> well, hard to know. i think the use of selective strikes with armed drones, reaper and predator in particular, could be carried out for counterterrorism reasons. if we spot a target that we think represents a threat to u.s. national interests, i suppose we could strike it. but again, i don't see resolving

a struggle between the sunni and the shia. by the way, if you use air power, you would have to go after isis in both syria and iraq. you're talking about an expansion of u.s. war aims. this would be crossing a major threshold. so no, i can't imagine why u.s. naval carrier air can help turn around a situation and benefit u.s. national interests. >> great conversation. thank you, general mccaffrey. nine people are recovering at a mass shooting on bourbon street in new orleans overnight. one critically injured. the motive for the shooting also unclear. please aren't say if the suspect is still missing or in custody. a cruise ship is back in port in seattle after a fire broke out in the boiler room. it had just left for a seven-day cruise to alaska when it happened. the fire was put out but flared

up again. nearly 3,000 guests and crew members were onboard. no one was hurt. the ship is fully operational but the crew returned out of an abundance of caution. more severe weather expected through the nation's midsection today. in oklahoma, powerful storms drenched the eastern part of the state saturday. in minneapolis, flash flood warnings were issued for nearly every county in the area. alex wallace has more on how bad it's going to get. >> good sunday to you, alex. more storms to track for you. our second half of the weekend, even into early week, we've got quite a bit of moisture that continues to pour its way into the upper midwest. that's going to meet up with the cold frontal boundary. very slow mover, but we'll certainly seeing that hoping to kick off the showers and storms. some of which could be strong to even severe out there. the threats we'll be watching, damaging winds, 60, 70 miles per hour. hail a threat. even a few tornadoes. particularly as we work our way into parts of iowa, and getting

into parts of nebraska. those areas here, that's the most concern as we head through today. anywhere in the red we'll be watching very closely. tomorrow, the threat extends a little farther east. now we include you in and around chicago, far western portions of lower michigan. that extends all the way back down into parts of the plains. oklahoma could see the stronger storms as we get into the work week. we don't stop there. tuesday, now we start to see it getting into parts of the northeast. mostly the interior spots. syracuse, pittsburgh, ohio valley. active next several days that we will continue to follow. >> alex, thanks for that. we've told you about the crisis on the southwest border and rush of women and children there. now we're learning about exactly why some of these women decided to make this risky trip to the u.s. and the reasons might surprise you. can i get my actual credit report... like, the one the bank sees? [ male voice ] sheesh, i feel like i'm being interrogated over here. [ male voice ] she's onto us. dump her. [ pay phone rings ]

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new today as we mentioned president obama plans to ask congress for more than $2 billion to deal with the massic surge of central american children crossing the southwest border alone into the u.s. meantime, dozens of men, women and children are back in honduras this weekend as the u.s. continues deportations of undocumented immigrants. alexandra pelosi traveled to arizona and texas for a firsthand look at the crisis in this msnbc original report. >> reporter: we're seeing this huge influx of migrants from central america. we have about the same number of families who have been coming here for the last nine months. so the word is spreading through central america is that you can just come here and you won't be sent home? how long has this been going around?

>> reporter: how did you feel when the border patrol picked you up? >> reporter: the government gave you this? what is that? >> reporter: thursday, july 17th. are you going to show up for this? what are you going to tell the judge when you show up for that hearing? are you going to bring a lawyer to that hearing? >> next schedules stop, el pass oh, texas. >> reporter: are you happy? >> yes. >> reporter: how does america look to you?

who told you that america was going to take care of you if you came here with your son? >> reporter: are you going to show up to that court date? how come they have so much false hope. >> there's a lot of misinformation and a lot of people are manipulated into coming up here. sometimes it's to lure them into

servitude, sometimes to get money from them. anybody will do anything and everything to take care of their children. at least there's a hope of survival. they would rather risk their lives of trying and staying rather than change their circumstances. >> joining me now is msnbc contributor and documentary filmmaker alexandria pelosi. i'm so glad you're here. this is a story that has literally exploded just like the 52,000 that have crossed the border. these two women said it was rumors. they're not being fed this by any official information from a government source, or humanitarian aid workers, they're going on rumors to say, this is the land of opportunity here. >> i think it's smugglers, coyotes, they're looking to make a buck, they're eksz ploiting them. i think they're the ones spreading the rumors.

they're all saying, let's get on the bus and go to america. they drive them through mexico. take them to the border fence, between america and mexico, and they just put up a ladder, and they say, go. mothers and children, they jump the fence, sit and wait for border patrol. they're not running from border patrol, they're waiting for border patrol. >> they think, this is great. you talk about how they go to these detention centers and are given deportation papers. they think they're papers, as in legal papers. >> they think once they go to a judge, everyone i talked to, hundreds of them, everyone i talked to said the same thing. when i go to a judge and i explain to him how bad it is in my country, they'll let -- >> asylum type thing. >> i came to work for a better life, they think they'll let them stay. we don't know where they end up. they don't speak the language.

it's going to be hard for them to get to the deportation hearing in the first place. if they do show up, they'll say, i'll tell the judge? they think we're that open hearted of a country we'll let them stay. >> it's fascinating in the film, let's get to the bus story. these people are put on buses, and that's it. they're let go, with them promising if they have family in the country, they're going -- one girl's going to south dakota with her baby. i mean -- >> right. they show up and they say, i'm going to texas. >> where? >> texas. can you name a town? texas. do you have a phone number? no, i just have to go to texas. they have no number, no town, no nothing. in that case, they end up staying with humanitarian workers. >> they get on a bus and a lot of times you talk about their destination point. you've got to change buses multiple times.

they don't have any money or food for their journey. >> right. this is greyhound. they have to travel from tucson, arizona, to new york. tucson, arizona, to memphis, tennessee. most people feel they're going to cities, and they're not. they're going to memphis, florida, all across america. which also makes it interesting. so they get to these places and say, i'm going to go -- say i'm in tucson and they say, i'm going to go to memphis, tennessee. how are you going to do that if you don't have the funds for that and don't speak the language? they pull into a terminal after 12 hours and just sit there. they're exhausted and famished and don't understand what's going on. >> interestingly, south dakota, you say the woman going there was given a chicago appointment. to go to a court hearing. what is she going to get from south dakota to chicago? >> if you ask the government -- >> they intend to go, right? >> they intend to go. but if you talk to dhs, they

say, we have to give these people their day in court. we can't just house them forever. we can't just keep them for a month. we're not in the child -- they can't be babysitting. we're not just going to take care of these families and keep them here. remember, when they're detained, they're getting food, shelter. they're happy. they don't even think of it as prison. they think of it as shelter. their standards are so low, they came from -- imagine where they came from. so to them, they're safe. they think border patrol is taking care of them. they have to leave the facility. the border patrol is saying, get out of here. wait, we want to stay. >> i tell you, great filmmaker you are, telling a great important story. >> thank you for having me. >> you're welcome. stay tuned to this one. it's a great story. the u.s. gears up for the knockout stage in the world cup. and a heart-stopping win. what does an apron have to do with car insurance?

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pediatrics just issued new guidelines urging parents to read to their children often and to start as early as birth. research shows much development of the brain occurs in the first three years of a child's life. the group is also calling on doctors and policymakers to ease the burden on poor and working families, by distributing kids' books for free to children in need. joining me now, one of the lead researchers in this field, psychology professor at stanford university. professor, welcome to you. i long believed what you're saying with my two children, and did the same thing starting early with them. i know that pediatricians are encouraging children to read, having children read to. the guidelines are the first time that it's a policy statement from the american academy of pediatrics. what's changed? >> well, science is showing that this is a very important component in early brain development. you know, 25 years ago, we didn't know that iron was important. turns out that being anemic

during pregnancy, a baby that experiences iron deficiency during pregnancy in the first years, that costs iq points. for 25 years we didn't know that. now we do. and a recommendation that iron supplements be given is obviously crucial to ensure that children are able to develop operate mally, to develop to their potential. now we're adding something new to the list. now we're adding a different kind of basic parenting skill that is turning out also to be crucial for optimal development. >> professor, are you seeing the effect of this age we're in now, smartphon smartphones, and all these little gadgets with screens. are they affecting the way children are developing? has that been studied? >> you know, there are two questions in there. on the one hand, you know, a lot of our work has looked at the big differences between children living in poverty -- between

rich families and poor families, basically, following up on that classic study by hart and risley years ago, showing the so-called 30 million word gap. that's kind of become a buzz word. but when we look across these broad groups, from a socioeconomic perspective, in terms of income and education, we find that within richer families, and within poorer families, there's incredible variability, a difference in how much parents engage with their children. it's not the s.e.c. or socioeconomic status is destiny, those differences are there. with the more advantaged families having all those gadgets, a lot of times they're spending time on those rather than interacting with the children. it's not just the poor people -- >> it's also rather shocking the statistics that you report. i mean, a child at the age of 3

may have 30 million more words if you're a higher income family than the lower income family. i mean 30 million more words, it's extraordinary that kind of difference. >> right. >> you can even chart the differences as young as 18 months. >> yes. now, the 30 million more words isn't the child's vocabulary. >> what they have even been exposed to. >> what they've heard. a child may be in a rich language environment, television's always on, lots of siblings, lots of adults around. so one of the things we did was to make 12-hour recordings in the home, the child wears a little recorder right here. so the recording is made without an observer present, from the kids' perspective. there you get a window into a day in the life of a family. in some cases there's talk swirling around everywhere. but if you listen to those tapes, and identify what's directed to the child, at the child's level, and that doesn't have to be reading, that can be

singing, that can be rhyming, just the fun nonsense that you talk about with children, that it was the child-directed speech that was correlated with vocabulary. it was not the overheard speech. >> it's an extraordinary study. from stanford university, professor, i'm glad to speak to you about this. it's important for all parents to pay attention to this. thank you so, so much. >> thank you for talking to me. >> you're welcome. the pope makes an appearance at his usual sunday services, but it's what he didn't do the last couple of days that has people talking. pride across the country. seattle's great wheel was lit up in color of the gay colors, in recognition of gay pride. a celebration here in new york city got under way about 32 minutes ago. this is kathleen. setting up the perfect wedding day begins with arthritis pain and two pills.

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." now for headlines at the half. calmer winds have slowed a wildfire burning in eastern arizona. crews do not have that fire contained. they're burning 700 acres in an effort to stop those flames from spreading. the fire's already scorched eight square miles. after a month's delay, the oscar pistorius trial is set to restart tomorrow. he testified the shooting was an accident and thought his girlfriend was an intruder when he fired through a bathroom door. he attended a psychiatric hospital. taylor was best known for his roles in the movie mannequin and sitcom designing women. he was 67. pope francis led his first public ceremony after apparent health setbacks. the 77-year-old presided over nearly a two-hour-long mass in vatican city.

so, claudio, the big question, how did he look today? >> reporter: well, alex, i assure you, i've seen him this morning at the basilica, and he looked in a good mood, in good health. you would think he was behaving like that to reassure everybody that he was okay. but this is pope francis. he's incapable of acting. so if i had to judge his health by what he looked like today, then i think he's pretty well. >> okay. you and i have talked recently about this, though. he has canceled some appearances. what are the ones we are talking about today? what's sparked the new concern about his health? >> reporter: he has canceled a number of appearances. about six appearances since december. but usually, he cancels when it's before or after long trips abroad to recover, or to try to prepare for the trip.

but this time there was some concern, because he canceled just a few days ago a trip to a nearby hospital. a hospital very close to the vatican, and he did that at the last minute. the official reason was that he had a headache. but if wasn't serious, he wasn't have done it. and he loves his flock, and he wouldn't have left so many people waiting for him and not show up if it wasn't a really bad headache. >> the vatican issues that statement that he's got a headache. any other statements coming about his health at all, or reasons behind the cancellations? >> reporter: well, i suppose -- they're not saying here at the vatican. they're saying the pope is not sick until his death. you remember it took them 12 years to confirm and accept that pope john ii had parkinson's disease until he was in front of everybody's eyes. but now they're saying, look, there's nothing to worry about.

this is a 77-year-old man. and the weather is brutal here in rome, it's hot. sometimes he needs a day or two to rest. >> claudio, thank you for the update from rome. there are two competing views about the ongoing irs controversy, one from congressman darrell issa. >> the archivists said that the irs failed to do what they were supposed to do in informing, failed to properly keep documents. and that has very little to do with the fundamental problem, which is, lois lerner's unit headed by lois lerner unfairly targeted conservative groups for what they believed. >> at the center of the squabble, former irs official lois lerner and her attorney said this morning he thinks it's absurd for anyone to think she lost those e-mails on purpose. >> i get that it's convenient to

create suspicion. actually, the e-mails are missing are way before the time congressman issa and his colleagues are suggesting there was unfairness or anything like it at the irs. the truth is, these e-mails predate most anything that's of any relevance to anybody. >> joining me now, political reporter for the "washington post," phillip. welcome back to the show, phillip. let's talk about where it goes from here. >> the house oversight committee has been pursuing this investigation for over a year now. it's interesting how it's become a litmus test on how you view politics in washington. there are a lot of republicans who think that the missing e-mails suggest that there is actually some sort of cover-up about what the irs has done, or the irs had done in response to conserve groups applying for nonprofit status. on the other side of the aisle, people tend to see this as just overreach by the house oversight committee, by representative issa who has been adamant in

pursuing this. at this point, everything that happens in this case is being seen by either reinforcing either side's narrative. so it's not clear that this particular thing is going to advance it in any particular way. >> do you get any sense that americans are suffering from scandal chasing fatigue? >> i can speak from personal experience. but i think that there's a lot to politics that is interesting, that isn't necessarily related to scandals. but doesn't get a whole lot of coverage. and i think that people are intrigued by this, because everyone has some experience with their computer crashing. everybody has some experience with people trying to hide things from them. so there's a lot of intrigue that is apparent here. it's not clear what is actually behind that intrigue, if anything. i think people are interested in this -- the irs as a general rule is not something people are interested in. but they're interested in hearing about weird e-mail crashes and what happens as a result of that. >> the president said the gop is working to distract the americans from the real issue.

>> sometimes the news that's coming off is just -- these are just washington fights. they're fabricated issues that are phony scandals that are generated. it's all geared towards the next election, or ginning up a base. it's not on the level. >> do you agree with that? is there any concern that the white house is not responding aggressively enough to these accusatio accusations? >> it is definitely the case that things are exaggerated for political purposes in washington. it is not necessarily a case that that is what is happening here. the president faces a real criticism from his opponents that he's acted in ways that they see as not being the way the president should act. house speaker john boehner is asking the house to sue him for the same sort of thing, that the white house is acting in a way that isn't appropriate for the white house to act. the same with the irs, that it

was not a way that they should act. >> do you think the gop is overreaching a bit, firing up the conservatives? but this suit against president obama may not sit well with the silent majority? >> i cannot speak on behalf of the silent majority. i think that the people who are voting in 2014 are people who are more fervent partisans. i think if you can get them more excited about what is happening, then that is beneficial to you. do i think this is something that will be a huge drag on the presidency for a long time? i think we'll have to wait and see. i'm not sure that the vast number of americans are paying close attention to this. i don't know that they have a strong opinion about it. >> phillip, thanks for weighing in on what you do know. i appreciate that. the number ones and trip to the beach. the season of surf and sun. catching some rays and catching some eyes. and with that in mind, the website hotornot is where you find the hottest people.

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and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? this year marks the 200th anniversary since the day a lawyer named francis scott key penned a poem that would later be set to music and become this country's national anthem. we are getting in you insight about the song, and some surprising new information about its origin. it's in a new book called "star spangled banner, the unlikely story of the nation's anthem." big welcome to you, mark. i want to ask you about the one thing that most of us don't know about the song. what comes to mind for you? >> well, that it was based on a

drinking song, a song that actually did celebrate drinking, and a little bit of sex in a sly 1700s way. >> i didn't know they were sly in the 1700s. anyway, you write about this song's use. in some cases, really abuse by americans over the years. can you explain that? >> indeed. it was a political football for a long time. before they enforced copyrights, they used it temperance, anti-drinking people used it, evangelicals used it, racists used it, people who were for the texas/american war back in the day, also wrote lyrics to support their causes. and in the late 1800s, early 1900s, irish nationalists tried to lobby to force the singing of all four verses, because the third verse is anti-english. so they pretended they were patriotic, but they were really trying to stick it to england. >> that's extraordinary.

what about -- look, many countries have these simple, easy-to-sing, easy-to-memorize national anthems. why do you think congress established ours? just talk about that, why this song? >> it really reflected the people's will. in the 1800s, congress was reluctant to act. and there were many other alternatives. but none of them were really very good. hell, columbia was the best alternative because it was written by two americans. but there was tons of confusion over what was the true anthem. so the war department was getting letters from americans saying, we stand for my country 'tis of thee, but we heard the star-spangled banner is the national anthem. what is it? in 1889, they made the star-spangled banner and hail

columbia the official songs for standing at morning and evening flag raisings. eventually they decided on the star-spangled banner and they pushed it through there. congress didn't want to act because it was controversial. it was almost legislating on motherhood. they let it go. it let the people's will be heard in 1931. >> i'm curious about the traditions that go along with this. you talk about standing when singing it, and often people place their hand over their heart. what are some of the other ones that come to mind that happened over the years? >> actually, the hand over the heart is very interesting. it used to be that when americans said the pledge of allegian allegiance, they would stand and give what you would be considered a nazi salute. of course, this was before the nazis. there was all of them like this looking at the flag. they drop it to their side. in 1942, congress passed the flag code that said you should put it over your heart lest there be any confusion.

>> it is extraordinary. marc, thank you so much. this book is called star-spangled banner. i understand it comes out on august 8th. i hope a few history teachers pick it up in the process as well and bring all this to their students. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. a new honor for the late jackie kennedy. isten up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here! aah! [ female announcer ] the complete balanced nutrition of great-tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and 9 grams of protein. [ bottle ] ensure®. nutrition in charge™. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ [ birds squawking ] my mom makes airplane engines that can talk. [ birds squawking ] ♪ my mom makes hospitals you can hold in your hand.

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welcome to "weekends with alex witt." just about 1:00 p.m. in the east, 10:00 a.m. out west. new alarm about the potential threat of isis here to the homeland. peter king serves on the house homeland security committee and talked about new intelligence that members received this week. while he did not want to go into detail, he described the threat. >> there's at least 100-plus americans who are over there in syria right now. so any of these people can come back to the united states and carry out the type of attack that they've been trained in in syria. and the terrorists are very advanced to have over 100 americans who could come back here, and we could have a lethal attack here in the u.s. >> kristen welker is at the white house for us. kristen, there are also some new comments from the president today on all of this. what is he saying? >> reporter: to some extent, alex, he echoed the concerns you saw from congressman peter king, president obama saying there has

and continues to be a very serious threat from terrorists. and of particular concern is the fact that some of these people are getting trained in the middle east, and then coming back to europe, coming back to the united states to try to carry out their attacks. here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say earlier today. take a listen. >> you know, i think we have been under serious threat my entire presidency, and we have been under serious threat predating 9/11 from those who embrace this ideology. we've got to improve our surveillance reconnaissance intelligence there. special forces will have a role. we may have to take strikes against those who want to do us harm. >> reporter: king believes president obama should be doing more. the administration pushes back against that type of criticism strongly saying they are taking serious action. and all of this comes as the president is sending up to 300 advisers to iraq to deal with the threat from isis there.

those advisers heading to the region to assess how strong isis is and help the iraqi government forces who are fighting against that terrorist organization. at this point, president obama hasn't ordered air strikes but he's not ruling that out. that's part of the charge of those advisers, to figure out if that is something that is actually necessary. the administration continues to urge the iraqi government to come to a political resolution to all of this, saying that prime minister nuri al maliki needs to move toward creating a more inclusive government, to stem this violence that we are seeing in iraq. alex? >> kristen welker at the white house, thank you for that. while the alarm bells are ringing in the u.s., the iraqi army seems to be making some significant gains this weekend. it's taken the center of tikrit. richard engel is joining us from baghdad. richard, to you. >> reporter: alex, for years in this country it was american

troops who played this game of whac-a-mole with iraqi insurgents. the city of insurgents moved to another town and city. this time it is the iraqi military engaged in the same kind of fight against many of the same militants. today the iraqi government launched a counteroffensive, a very small counteroffensive against the city of mosul and tikrit, using some of the very few combat helicopters that the iraqi military is able to call into this battle. there were some losses, on the mill tapt side, we were told in mosul and tikrit. but the militants are advancing in the dilala province. we're not seeing the iraqi army making any significant advances, it's just carried out the limited air strikes and not changing the balance of power here. there are now also american military advisers, alex, who have been brought in to help give the iraqis tactical advice,

tell them how to better maneuver and better use their armed forces. the pentagon is confirmed to protect the u.s. military advisers. armed jets and drones are now in the skies over iraq. they're not authorized to engage in an offensive action. they're not authorized to join in the fight against isis. at least they're not authorized yet to do any of that. that would require a political decision from the white house. instead, they are a weapon of last resort. they are here to protect the advisers, as they move from place to place, and in case one of their convoys comes under attack and the americans' lives are threatened, then those drones and jets could be called into action. but as this continues, i can see a lot of pressure being put on those military advisers, to use those drones. the military advisers are here, after all, to help the iraqi military. they have extra weapons. they have weapons flying above that currently aren't being used. the iraqi government and iraqi military both want to see those drones not just to protect

americans, they want to see them used to fight isis. alex? >> all right, richard engel, thank you very much for that report. to politics now. a brand-in you poll today shows most americans believe hillary clinton can relate to average americans. the nbc news "wall street journal" poll finds 55% of americans say, the former secretary of state can relate to and understand the problems of average citizens, just as well as other presidential contenders can. by comparison, 37% of respondents say she cannot relate as well as other contenders. they came after she and her husband declared they were, "dead broke," after leaving the house in 2001. welcome to you, beth. >> hi. >> let's talk for context here. i know you covered hillary clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign. give me your interpretation and read on this new poll. >> what we're seeing in this poll is basically what we've seen since the talk about hillary clinton's candidacy.

she's popular with democrats. she just is. this is a different situation than she was in in 2008, where there was a significant unrest on the left side of the party about hillary clinton. that's why barack obama sort of swept in as he did, and captured the nomination. in that case, it was because of the war in iraq. hillary clinton as a center from new york had voted in favor of it, and she paid for it because obama was able to exploit the frustration with her record. democrats are very united behind hillary clinton. republicans still don't like her. as you dig deeper into the poll numbers you would see that. in general, democrats like her. there's not a big threat from anybody on the left to catapult her candidacy into some other place. >> do you think because she's a woman, though, as we categorize things and try to analyze the split as democrat versus

republican, do you think that there are moderate or left-leaning republican women who are going to cross the line, if you will, and support her in a candidacy? >> yes. certainly. every state has different rules about whether you can -- if you're registered in one party if you can vote in another's primary. no question she will attract moderate women, certainly with the cast of characters on the right on the republican side. we have a number of very, very conservative republicans. the day of the moderate republican is kind of in the past. the people that we see, rand paul, marco rubio, ted cruz, they are all very conservative republicans. they are not pro-choice. they don't -- they all in some way, shape or form made statements, they're a little bit of at odds on women on social issues. i think hillary clinton definitely has some opportunity there. >> so this dead broke comment that she made, certainly she's tried to dial it back if not apologize outrightly. you covered her when you heard her say this comment.

did you immediately sense that was out of character? it was a political misstep perhaps? >> look, she's an incredibly admirable woman in many ways, but she has a history of making gaffes. she's not the same smooth talker as her husband. there are a couple of situations in '08 that a lot of people remember where she said that she was staying in the democratic primary right until the end, because bobby kennedy had gotten assassinated in june of his primary. she was right. it obviously raised this question whether she's talking about barack obama facing an assassination. it was a terrible gaffe. as first lady, she said she came under sniper fire in sarajevo, which turned out not to be true. but she's talking all the time, and when you look at the balance of what she says, compared to the, like very relatively few number of gaffes that she makes, it's pretty extraordinary. but because she's who she is, the gaffes are always going to be magnified.

>> yeah. bill maher had advice for hillary clinton. >> my advice to hillary, just go away. go away for a while. we're going to see each other. in a couple of years. >> so do you think hillary clinton may suffer from overexposure, or be hurt from overexposure? >> no. i think if you look at the polling, democrats are excited about her, about her candidacy. they're pumped. they kind of want to get on with this, they're ready for the next election. the overexposure argument we could have made ten years. she's been in public life for 20 years. she still maintains a high level of popularity despite all that exposure. no, i don't think that's the danger. the biggest danger is republicans still really don't like hillary clinton, and they're going to continue to find ways to trip her up. and there are ways to do that. on the democratic side, she's very safe and there's lots of enthusiasm. >> beth, thank you so much. >> thank you. developing now, new

information into the death of a georgia toddler who died after being left in a hot car. police raising questions about the mother of 22-year-old cooper harris. joining me again, kerry sanders with the latest for this hour. we have police releasing more search warrants in the cases they did yesterday. what are you reading from them? >> well, it's important to note that the mother here, leanna harris, has not been charged in the death of cooper. the little boy's father has indeed been charged with murder. but the documents in the search warrants, it says among other things, the father is accused of having searched on his computer at work how a child or how an animal might die in a locked car on a hot summer day. the search warrants released now say that leanna harris, the child's mother, was also questioned regarding the incident and made similar statements regarding researching in car deaths and how it occurs.

and so it suggests, just based on the search warrant, because the police are not giving any more interviews or more details, but it may have been if he's charged with murder some sort of collusion perhaps between the two. it's important to note that when cooper was buried yesterday, during the funeral, his mother said, am i angry with ross? that's her husband, cooper's father. absolutely not. ross is and was and will be, if we have more children, a wonderful father. so the investigation clearly has taken a strong turn now, not just towards the father who is in custody charged with murder, but certainly a very close look at the mother who has not come forward and spoken publicly at the funeral yesterday. no cameras were allowed inside. we really haven't seen her or heard from her, other than what she had to say at the funeral, alex. >> so, kerry, this information about them doing these google searches, if you will, people can hear that, and their mind

immediately jumps. it jumps to a presumption of guilt really. just by association. has a lawyer, their lawyer for leanna or ross come out and said -- given a plausible explanation for why they've done that? >> not really at this point. i'm sure a defense attorney can present a logical explanation as to why it happened. but you've got to remember that the reason the detectives investigating this are so suspicious, the reason that they brought around the initial charge against the father of murder, along with a whole bunch of other charges, is it didn't make sense in terms of the timing of what they're looking at. that is what has raised the suspicion. it goes a long way from a discussion like we're having right now about these charges, to actually presenting this in a court, to a jury, with all the details. and remember, a lot of this still has tremendous amount of investigating still to be released. >> lots more information to come on this, for sure. i know you'll bring it to us. kerry sanders, thank you so

much. gauging the progress iraqi forces are making against isis. how u.s. advisers may be helping the iraqi military.

today the iraqi mill tear is fighting back against isis. the army has retaken the center of tikrit, the sunni dominated hometown of saddam hussein. house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers spoke about isis' threat here to the u.s. homeland. >> allowing them to pool up in syria, allowing them to have safe haven the size of indiana between syria and iraq, i say they, al qaeda-minded individuals, who now have an army. that is as dangerous a time for an al qaeda threat to the united states as i've ever seen. >> joining me now, retired colonel, jack jacobs, a medal of honor recipient. and steven clemmons. welcome to you both, gentlemen. general, the gains by the iraqi army, do they surprise you? do you believe the reports are accurately reflecting what's

happening, and is there any impact we can say that you could attribute to the american advisers? >> it is surprising that the counterattacks are so early. i expected them to take quite a bit of time before they got rolling. it takes a long time to train soldiers, with the advisers, it takes a long time to retrain them. we trained them one time before, remember. the iraqi army has gone on the counterattack and that's really what you need to do. but counterattacking alone is not going to be good enough. first of all, they haven't taken back all of tikrit. it's a very difficult area to fight in. river runs through it. but even if they do take it all back, they have to hold on to it. taking things are relatively easy, holding on to them, much more difficult, and that's really where the test is going to be. >> in an interview today, the islamic extremists have been

gaining strength, no surprise to anyone watching iraq, but the president long claimed that al qaeda is on the run and decimated. do you think the u.s. has been focused on the wrong guys? >> well, there's old al qaeda and new al qaeda. old al qaeda has been decimated. and really a lot of the key elements of that organization were dismantled and are the run. what we've seen is a sort of the franchises that have self-initiated. we're seeing it in live action. it doesn't depend on ayman zarqawi. al qaeda formally doesn't like isis. it sort of sees isis as out of control, killing many muslims. that's a tenet that the old al qaeda wasn't accepting. >> steven, richard engel made a very interesting point this morning about all the players that are now on the government side. op the ground you have the iraqi army, the shia militia, sunni

militia, kurdish, iranians, and above all of that is the u.s. how complicated is this battlefield? >> well, we just neglected the russians. the russians are there with fighters now, and advisers of their own in baghdad. which is fascinating. and so you've got a lot of players coming in. while it looks very complex, it's also a tremendous opportunity. because even the saudis and others have expressed huge concern about what isis is doing and becoming. so it's a rather unique element to bring foe of foe, enemy of enemy that had been on the wrong side of some of the things that we wanted to do, but they're all concerned about isis. maybe some bridge building and consensus building about how to more rationally manage the region. but right now we're seeing isis roll forward. richard also said it's like a whackamole game. while you may have seen the iraqi forces take tikrit, they

could pop up very else. you'll have to make a deal with sunni elders in this region. that's supposed to happen on tuesday in baghdad. we've heard nothing about that. >> steve, before i get to the colonel and his experience in vietnam, i know you were speaking with one of our senators that gave you intel. we're engaged here, right, as evidenced by what? >> we're sending a large carrier out there. we have advisers going, as jack jacobs just said. we're also planning on potential scenarios of having to extract americans from baghdad. we're sendi ining apache helicos to take people out of baghdad if things get worse. >> colonel, you had a lot of experience with these irregular militias in vietnam. is it dangerous to legitimize them by working together? >> not necessarily. in this case, they are all fragmented. and trying to see all those guys coaless into some kind of well-oiled thread is difficult

to see in the current environment. i think the real threat to the midterm and long-term ul of allies is the rise of a shia militia, the one most commonly controlled by muqtada al sadr and extremely dangerous and may end up controlling a lot of the oil and be a jumping-off point to very difficult circumstances on the ground elsewhere in the region. >> you know, colonel, we were talking about the complicated battlefield. and steven added that the russians are involved. to what extent is the iraq military improved by the fact that the russians are delivering fighter jets? i think five of them today, right? >> yeah, that's going to be of some utility on the ground, over the short term, but own tactically. over the longer term it's vitally important that the iraqi government actually control terrain. the use of the aircraft will be

fine for achieving short-term tactical gains. and they'll also have to control the air space which is difficult for them to do over the longer term. five or ten or even 20 fighter jets even with precision guided munitions is not going to make a difference on the ground. >> steven, quickly, what's happening with that arraignment in federal court yesterday with the man who's accused of being behind the benghazi attack, khattala? have we learned anything? because he's said to be cooperating. >> he's a very clever man. i don't know much more than what's out in the press other than the fact that this is a person who is out in plain sight for quite a long time in libya. basically, had been denying he had done anything. we've amassed an amazing amount of evidence, film, video and other interviews about him. and i think he's just going to be a reluctant person through this process. so cooperating or not, he's not what we used to see in someone

like mohammed. he's an interesting but also a deceptive person. >> gentlemen, good to see you both. steven, enjoy the aspen festival. >> thank you. win or go home. a two-time gold medal u.s. soccer star tells us what the u.s. needs to do to win. etition, but we're not in the business of naming names. the fact is, it comes standard with an engine that's been called the benchmark of its class. really, guys, i thought... it also has more rear legroom than other midsize sedans. and the volkswagen passat has a lower starting price than... much better. vo: hurry in and lease the 2014 passat s for $199 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. thank ythank you for defendiyour sacrifice. and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel.

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where we spend more than 200 billion dollars a year. american express can help protect you. with intelligent security that learns your spending patterns, and can alert you instantly to an unusual charge. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. in just two days the u.s. will take on belgium in the next round of the word cup. but does the team have what it takes to advance. i'm glad to have you back to talk about this, because lindsey, you're a world class competitor. what is going on right now at practice? how do you handle the pressure? >> you have to turn the pressure into excitement and enjoyment. i think a lot of times pressure creates good situations. so just really embracing the pressure, and making sure that the u.s. team is building on the

confidence from the first three games, where they survived the group of death. anything is possible moving forward. >> can you assess jurgen klinsmann's approach from the past? >> i think jurgen has added to the approach from the past. i think bob bradley did an excellent job of building a foundation from the last world cup. the veteran players now have experienced that. so having that confidence that those players have been there before, and now you're added new players, new tactics, and i'm really excited to see how they do on tuesday. >> these tactics you're talking about, are these european tactics? he's from germany, so -- >> right. i think that he's added a confidence in this team. he's taken a lot of the media and interviews and he's done them himself, which i think has helped kind of take some of the pressure off of the players,

which their performance on the field has been wonderful. i've loved watching it. i think what he's doing behind closed doors is helping that team on the field. >> okay. so when they get on that field tuesday, what does the u.s. have to do to win? >> the u.s. needs to be confident. i would love to see them go at belgium, they should be full of confidence after the first three games, and finding a way to advance out of that group. it's done so much for u.s. soccer moving forward, to show that they can advance with the top -- some of the top teams in the world. >> did they do anything in germany that they can learn from? >> i think in each of the games they've done positive things. against ghana, they scored an early goal. against portugal, they defended really well against cristiano. other than that 15 seconds. >> yeah. >> those things happen in soccer. in germany, i thought they had

the composure to not let the game get away from them. building on all of those three things will be critical. i do believe they should be confident, and they have a -- so many supporters, and so many people are completely tied into their team and rooting them on. >> in terms of the numbers of fans out there, the u.s. is second only to brazil. which makes sense. with regard to what they have to do, though, to beat in this game, to beat belgium, the chances of them doing so, do you want to put odds on it? >> i like the chances. i'm very confident in our team. i think belgium has a great team. they have world-class players in every position. but i really have loved our energy, our mentality, and our goals. i think we've scored some great goals in this tournament. clint dempsey has been putting himself in the right position at the right time. and that's a goal scoring mentality, and he has that. michael bradley, i love his work

and what he's added to this team. i think there's a good solid core of veteran players, and there's a lot of youth that can come in and really add excitement to the game. so i'm excited for it. go usa. >> yeah, absolutely. echo those sentiments. and go lindsay tarpley. thank you for weighing in on all of it. >> thank you for having me. the government ends a 40-year ban on exporting oil while gas prices approach a six-year high. t from alaska, they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america.

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at progressive.com. is that where they show the other guys' rates, too? mm-hmm. cool. yeah. hi. final boarding call for flight 294. [ bells ring on sign ] [ vehicle beeping ] who's ready for the garlic festival? this guy! bringing our competitors' rates to you -- now, that's progressive. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." house minority leader nancy pelosi is in texas this weekend for a firsthand look at the border crisis with an influx of child immigrants crossing the southwest border alone. pelosi said the u.s. has a moral responsibility to address the situation in a dignified way. the border patrol in south texas has been overwhelmed for months now by a surge of unaccompanied children, and parents traveling with young children.

joining me now is msnbc contributor and professor at the university of texas at austin, victoria. it's nice to see you. welcome back to the broadcast. victoria. my first question to you, you have more than 50,000 of these children crossing the border into the u.s. since october. first of all, what's going to happen to them? >> alex, regretly for the short term, we don't know. in order to determine what's going to happen with these kids, we need to put them through immigration hearings. the sense is the bulk of these kids will be repatriated. another portion will stay in asylum in the united states. but i come back to my initial point, they're in limbo. we don't know because of the bureaucratic morass we're in. it points out the need for comprehensive immigration reform. we need to fix this system from head to toe. >> in addition, they may be here for some time, correct? because the courts are overwhelmed. the services, the president, as

you know, is trying to get a $2 billion influx for dealing with all this. they may be here for some time before they're repatriated? >> we had backlogs before the kids coming over. with these situations are of particular interest, they need particular care. we're going to see a long drawnout process, except for the fact if we see some money come in, and be able to fund the immigration courts, notwithstanding that, we're going to see the kids here potentially for a couple of whiers. >> what about the countries from which these children are arriving? what can their governments do to alleviate this crisis and do they care to? >> oh, alex, that is the point. the united states isn't just dealing with immigration here, they also need to engage the countries abroad. honduras. what can we do to work together from a foreign policy perspective to stem the tide of

children? ideally these countries should be doing more, but the u.s. should not ignore the ability that they have to work with these governments at the diplomatic level. >> do you have a sense of how congress is going to respond to the president's quest for $2 billion? >> my hunch is, not well. anytime, regardless of the issue, whether it's immigration or not, the president wants to exert his unilateral executive authority. he's going to ruffle feathers in congress. especially as we're coming up on the midterm elections and we're going to see more partisan stalemate. it's not going to be accepted well. but ultimately republicans also want to see something done with regards to the border surge. so maybe, my hope maybe there will be an opening there for this increased funding because of that. >> okay. you're there in the capital of texas. i want to ask you about wendy davis who's accepted her party's nomination for governor during the convention in dallas. she's reaching out to moderate, and to women who helped richards win back in 1990.

the last democrat to be elected governor in texas. talk about davis and a fighting chance, excellent chance? how do you read that? >> democrats in texas are pumped up. the issue is whether they're pumped for november, that they know that wendy's going to win, or they're pumped up for the medium term. they're saying we're finally seeing our state party turn the corner. we may not get this one, but in 2016, 2018, 2020, there's where we have to win. the path to victory for wendy davis is rather narrow. right now she's at 12 points behind greg abbott. her not so secret weapon, not just being women and moderates, but latinos. >> to that end, let's talk about that. in 2012, mitt romney won texas 57% to the president's 41%. but that state is undergoing this massive democratic shift overall with the latino

population becoming more and more important to the elections. what about the big picture for the state of texas and prospects of it turning from red to blue? >> so, in 2012, alex, what we saw was, you know, the state overwhelmingly voted for mitt romney. however, 61% of eligible latino voters did not even bother to turn out to vote. so if you think about, if we can flip those numbers and have 61% of the latinos turn out in 2014 and 2016 and beyond, then that's where you start to see the purpling of the state, and eventually the blueness of the state. as the student of politics, you know those changes usually don't happen overnight. i think it's going to take a while to see those numbers creep up into the 60% range. >> nice to talk with you, victoria. thank you so much. >> thank you. for nearly 40 years, crude oil exports have been banned in the u.s. but now that's changing. the obama administration will now allow a small number of

companies to allow an ultra light crude oil that can make gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. it's warned that it will make prices at the pump higher. joining me now is allison who is covering this story. read your article. thanks for joining me. can you give viewers who don't know the background on why crude oil experts were banned in the first place? >> sure. crude oil exports for restricted in the 1970s, as a result of the arab oil embargo. and concerns about supplies in the u.s. there are some exceptions, like exports are allowed to canada. but by and large, crude oil cannot be exported, except after it's been refined into a product like gasoline or diesel. >> do gas prices rise if the u.s. opens up the export ban? >> well, i think that's up for some debate. the oil that is being considered for export right now is a very

ultra light gaseous form of oil. it's not actually a very good fit for refineries along the gulf coast. they don't pay as much for it. some energy producers called for more exports so they can seek markets overseas where they might be able to earn more money on that. some have argued allowing this type of oil to be exported will sort of allow for more -- encourage more production which could keep gasoline prices from rising. >> isn't there just two texas companies, if i understand the research correctly, that the president is saying, let's give this a shot. it's almost like a test run to see how this fares, right, with the other markets? >> what the commerce department has appeared to lower the bar for what needs to be done to be considered a refined process fuel. traditionally fuel or condisate goes to a splitter, which is a simple refinery that heats it up

and breaks it apart into components like kerosene that can be exported. the ruling for the two companies, the commerce seems to be saying a piece of oil field equipment, that sort of heats this condensate up, that would be enough for this to be considered a process for fuel export. >> what would be the impact on the energy industry if these exports are allowed? is there a serious concern about jobs? >> i think right now, what the commerce department has done is tweak the existing law. but there is thought about whether this will eventually open the door to wider exports, which would have a huge implication for refiners that had domestic fuel. then again, energy producers really love the idea of being able to export more oil and say that would encourage production. >> as you know, alison, this comes at a time when we have a lot of urn certainty in the

industry, like iraq, ukraine, and libya. can you give a prediction how high prices could go? >> no, i really can't speak to how high prices could go. i know there's been a lot of argument about whether allowing more exports, what kind of impact that would ultimately have. a lot of people argued it would actually be good for u.s. consumers. >> well, we shall see. alison sider from the washington journal, appreciate it. >> thanks. the goal was to try out a new parachute design for future mars landings. it was 23 miles above the earth's sur sfface saturday. the drop triggered a rocket which prop peled that rocket far off the coast of hawaii where it had been launched. but the parachute designed for the splashdown got tangled upon its release so it didn't fully

deploy. nasa wants this one-day use of this technology to deliver some heavy spacecraft. and even perhaps astronauts to mars. it could be the biggest ruling of the supreme court session. ahead, a look at the so-called hobby lobby case. the very existence was in jeopardy, but now the great white shark is making a comeback. where swimmers need to be a little more careful, next. increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. it seems that 80 is the new 18. grannies, bless your heart, you are bringing sexy back! eat up. keep heart-healthy. live long. for a healthy heart, eat the 100% natural whole grain goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. nobody ever stomped their foot and asked for less. because what we all really want... ...is more. there's a reason it's called an "all you can eat" buffet.

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a new report has beachgoers on the eastern seaboard thinking twice about going back into the water this summer. the study by the noaa reveals after decades of decline, the great white shark population is surging off the east coast. but should we really be worried? shark researcher toby has the answer. can you first of all explain why the numbers are surging? >> well, sure, alex. thanks for having me. basically there was a period of overfishing during the 1970s, 1980s, that's affected a lot of shark and ray populations in the

u.s. and around the world. no fishery has implemented conservation in the 1990s. i think what we're doing is the white shark population in particular responding to some of those conservation measures and rebuilding. >> this report, tobey, where people have spotted the sharks between massachusetts and new jersey during the summer. off the coast of florida in the winter. and despite not showing this on the map, there's also a surge along the pacific coast as well, right? >> yes, that's right. there's a separate study that also involves noaa staff on the pacific coast. and they're also showing positive signs of white sharks responding to conservation measures that were implemented nearly 20 years ago. >> but when you see the dots on our map, you see the very populated areas. you know, wintertime you're going to be down in miami. you're going to be up north now. people are in the water in these areas.

you know? are you concerned? do you go in the water without any hesitation? >> yeah, i love going to the beach and i have no hesitation at all. the thing to keep in mind with all these dots is these points were collected over a 200-year period. white sharks are very rare animals and it took a long time and a lot of effort to collect these data points. what you're seeing is the conglomeration of data collection. it shouldn't be seen as a huge mass of white sharks along the beaches. >> i think the way we look at white sharks, certainly comes from the movie "jaws." that, by the way, came out 39 years ago last friday. are these unprovoked shark attacks really that common? are they on the increase? >> not really, no. there's no reason to think the increase in white sharks we're seeing is going to lead to an increase in white shark bites. now, in general, we have increasing human population, that means more people in the water. and white sharks and other

sharks, species may be recovering from -- through conservation efforts. just through basic math, over time, you know, maybe ten years down the line, the risk of shark bite could be increasing. it's really still so marginal, the risk, it's almost not worth talking about. there's so many other things you should be more concerned about when you're at the beach. >> there was a rather humorous approach i think to the lead line from national geographic that said, it's a bad time to be a seal. is a lot of the reason that the seal population has come back, i mean, that's food for these great whites? >> that's right. seals, all the marine mammals have been protected since the 1970s. as the seal population has recovered, it's probably been helpful to the white sharks having a reliable prey base in certain parts of the coast, mainly off of massachusetts where there's a great surge in seal population.

the recovery of the seals and the sharks, is actually a sign that the health of our oceans are improving in this region. >> all right. we'll leave it on a good note right there. thank you so curtis from noaa. the supreme court is poised to make the most anticipated and controversial ruling of the year. the obamacare birth control mandate versus religious freedom. how the justices may rule next. the fact is, it comes standard with an engine that's been called the benchmark of its class. really, guys, i thought... it also has more rear legroom than other midsize sedans. and the volkswagen passat has a lower starting price than... much better. vo: hurry in and lease the 2014 passat s for $199 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. start with the best writing experience.?

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the increasing use of civilian drones is raising concerns about privacy and safety. if you didn't catch my interview yesterday with the leading industry expert, you can check it out on our website, msnbc.com to see why some solutions to our dilemma of the drones may be found in texas. always one for the dramatics, the supreme court has waited until the final day before recess to deliver its most anticipated ruling of the session. by this time tomorrow we are expected to have the justices' decision on the hobby lobby case. at stake is the question of whether corporations can use religious beliefs to be exempt

from obamacare's requirement that insurance plans cover contraception. joining me now is sahill kapur from talking points memo and welcome to the broadcast. nice to see you. >> hey, alex. >> did the justices tip their hats at all in the oral arguments about how they are leaning? >> alex, it's not clear how they're going to rule. what i saw sitting there during oral arguments i think back late in march was a divided court. you had what looks like a 4-4 split in terms of sympathy with hobby lobby. the one who seemed to be in the middle who tends to be in the middle most of the time was anthony kennedy. he expressed some sympathy with the idea that, you know, if you force -- if you're able to force a corporation like hobby lobby to pay for contraception, he said maybe you can force them to pay for abortion as well. he also had a little sympathy for the women who would be harmed by an adverse ruling against the government here when he asked if their rights are

essentially trumped by the religious beliefs of their bosses. it's hard to know. >> it's important to note that this is all about for-profit corporations versus nonprofits. what are the implications far beyond contraception? what might corporations be able to do if they are given rights to religious freedom? >> it's hard to know, alex. if depends on the scope of the ruling. it depends how the justices decide to cabin this. one of the big questions that justice kagan kept hammering was that if you alove hobby lobby to opt out of a generally applicable law, if you allow that, what's to stop a corporation like walmart or exxonmobil from saying we don't want to follow minimum wage laws or we have a religious objection to sex discrimination laws. so, you know, that's the million dollar question. how are they going to do this? if hobby lobby gets this victory, how are the justices going to cabin that? justice roberts tipped his hand

a little bit on what one possible way they would do this which is they could say only closely held corporations, family-owned corporations or perhaps corporations that have very openly expressed religious beliefs can sue and can file a lawsuit and try to opt out of these. so that would preclude the exxon scenario but the chief justice also said he doesn't think we'll see a scenario like this so he doesn't feel the need to go there. >> how quickly might the ruling go into effect for employees' insurance plans? >> alex, i think it would happen right away. this has been percolating in the courts for several years now. if the supreme court delivers their final judgment, i can't imagine why this would take any longer than that to go into effect. >> okay. so can you give a prediction? you were saying the 4-4 split, but does your gut tell you it's going to go one way or another? >> i really don't know. coming out of oral arguments, my first instirnt was that hobby lobby is probably going to win this but then i thought back to the affordable care act winning and the chief justice decided to

finesse it by saying i'm going to uphold it but curtail congress' power in another way. it's possible he could do that. one exchange from oral arguments did strike out to me -- >> okay. >> i'm sorry. >> i'm sorry. i'm going to have to hold that thought because it's a wrap but thanks everyone. that's a wrap of the show. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. other things, you don't. [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is so soft you can actually see the softness with our comfort cushions. plus you can use up to four times less. enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. so we made our own commercial to tell you why. chex makes seven gluten free flavors. like cinnamon, honey nut, and chocolate. when you find something this good, you want to spread the word. [ all ] we love chex!

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next on "meet the press," another summertime showdown between the white house and congress. house speaker john boehner accusing the president of overstepping his authority and says he'll sue. >> they are going to sue me for doing my job. >> with me this morning, the chair of the republican party, reince priebus. plus, my newsmaking interview with former president, bill clinton. his strong defense of hillary clinton and harsh words for dick cheney about iraq. and what does one of president obama's closest advisers think about the prospect of hillary clinton running for president? unique insights as our cynthia mcfadden gets rare, behind the scenes access at the white house.