key bridge safer for commuters and families and even for members of congress to cross. i haven't heard a good reason why they haven't acted. it's not like they've been busy with other stuff. no, seriously. as long as they're doing nothing, i'm not going to apologize for trying to do something. >> little random fact of the day, today's event was held in front of d.c.'s key bridge, as the president mentioned. it was named for francis scott key. he wrote the lyrics to "the star-spangled banner." of course, the fourth of july is this friday. but he penned the poem during the war of 1812 overlooking ft. mchenry in baltimore harbor. recent history has not been so kind to our current president, who called an all-hands cabinet meeting today, and who also held a hastily put together rose garden event during our hour on yesterday, monday, where he hammered house republicans for

stalling on immigration reform. but he wasn't done there. >> congress chooses to do nothing. the failure of house republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security. it's bad for our economy. and it's bad for our future. while i will continue to push house republicans to drop the excuses and act, the only thing i can't do is stand by and do nothing while waiting for them to get their act together. if house republicans are really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, the best solution to that is passing bills. >> just an hour later, the president tried to regain control of the va system crisis, appointing a former veteran and top business executive to head the agency. he's especially busy this week, even while congress is off for the fourth, and it looks like it'll be up to him for the near future anyway. there are just 16 more legislative days until congress recesses for the rest of the summer. school is already out for summer

over at the supreme court, but they ended their year with a bang, delivering a failing grade to a key portion of obamacare, access to certain forms of birth control. the situation continues to spiral out of control in iraq, where the president late yesterday quietly announced an additional 300 american troops will be headed to baghdad. so much for a holiday week there. let's bring in one of the hardest working guys we know, washington post columnist dana millbank. always great to have you. >> hi, krystal. >> let's go back to the immigration announcement yesterday and the timing of that. ironically, it seems like eric cantor's stunning loss has moved up the timetable in terms of immigration action from the president. did it really take him this long, though, to realize that republicans were not going to do anything on immigration? >> yes, that was a sort of frank i was still dead moment. it's been obvious to everybody for a long time nothing was happening well before eric cantor was dispatched. so i suppose now it's official,

but anybody who was counting on that legislation or anything else happening for the rest of this year was probably kidding themselves. >> yeah, but the message yesterday, though, is one, dana, we've heard so many times before from president obama. it's i'm great, republicans suck, the only way we're going to make any difference is if i go about it my way. and i have to ask, if it were up to merks i would say, why not do something bold? why not focus in 100% on something that you want to get done? let's say immigration, for example. this week is the nation's birthday. some of the -- summon the leaders of congress to your office and say, we will not leave here until we make progress. he called the cabinet members just today. we know he has the power and ability to do that. worst case, if nothing happens, he can say, look, i have done everything i can possibly do. and ultimately, he will earn a lot more respect among the american people. >> i mean, i suppose he could lock the house republicans in a

room in the white house and, you know, make them listen to john kerry speeches or something until they said uncle and agreed to pass immigration reform, but it just seems quite clear they're not going to do it. i think you raise an excellent point there. as you saw at the beginning of the show, the president is all over the lot. this morning he was talking about the world cup. then he's on to the va. then he's on immigration. then he's on the dysfunction in congress. he's right on all of these points. the problem is, the bully pulpit is not quite tsh it's attenuated from where it once was. he needs to keep the focus on one issue. >> people have tuned out. >> he needs to focus on the issue and keep hammering it away. this president has an idea that, okay, i addressed that in a speech last week, i can move on to something else. if you don't stick with something, like he did with obamacare, until it's passed, it doesn't happen. because there's so much inertia out there. >> the supreme court yesterday acted. you didn't seem to like that. it was classic dana millbank in

"the washington post" talking about the fiction of fiction of corporate personhood. you write, the high court not only affirmed corporate personhood, but expanded the rights of corporations who enjoy more protections than mortals or quote/unquote natural persons. it appears we're stuck with this concept of corporations being people and their rights keep expanding and expanding. dana, do average americans get anything out of the bargain of corporations being considered as people? >> well, depends on if you're talking about average americans. the corporate type of american or the natural type of person. >> no, americans in general. you, me, do we get anything out of it? >> i'm not so sure the natural flesh and blood people get anything out of it. certainly those who run corporations get a lot out of it. you know, it's sort of a quirk of the law that corporations have been considered people.

in that sense, mitt romney was correct. corporations are people, my friend. i suspect he's over there in his car elevator in la jolla laughing about the supreme court ruling right now. but they're actually expanding it. it's extraordinary. not only are corporations people in the sense they can give as much as they want to campaigns, they're now people in terms of actually having religious beliefs. so they're corporate religious beliefs. unless you own a corporation, you're not necessarily benefitting from corporate citizenship. >> yeah, and dana, to that point, one of the things people have missed about this ruling is that it was not just abstract interpretation of the constitution. they were looking at a law from over 20 years ago, a bipartisan religious law, that referred to protecting people's rights to practice their religion and to pray. and the court found something that congress never even discussed at the time it was so unimaginable, the idea that protection would apply to nonhumans, to this corporate form. there are things we can do to change that. some senators, senator murray among them, are talking about

that. what i want to ask you is to take a listen to chris christie's response here. because he's a lawyer. he knows a lot about this. he seems a little confused. take a listen to this from today. >> was the supreme court right in its decision? >> who knows? the fact is that when you're an executive, your supreme court makes a ruling and you have to live with it unless you can get the legislative body to change the law or change the constitution. the point is, why should i give an opinion on whether they're right or wrong? in the end of the day, they did what they did. that's now the law of the land unless people in the elected branches try to change it. >> why should he give an opinion? maybe because he is a leader, wants to run for president, and the laws that we write here, one could clarify that law if they wanted. >> i think he's not giving an opinion because he wants to run for president. he doesn't want to get tripped up. and he wants to claim if he still can what's left of the republican moderates.

but, you know, it's not a decision that's going to affect many people's lives to a large extent. it was written in a narrow way, but i think when you step back and say, what was the court doing there? they were saying, no, actually corporations should be considered people for purpose of having rights. of course, corporations have rights that us flesh and blood people don't have in terms of shielding themselves from liability and all that. so it was extraordinary in what it was saying about the power of corporations, if not in its practical application. >> what does it say to you, dana, that he would be -- other than that he wants to run for president, but that he would be reluctant to weigh in on this decision. i've long thought it's a bit awkward for conservatives. on the one hand, they want to talk about religious liberty. on the other hand, they don't want to be the party keeping women from having birth control, which was an issue that got, for example, rick santorum, in trouble back in 20012. is there a reluctance generally among conservatives to sort of

associate themselves with this case? >> i don't think necessarily i've seen a lot of conservatives jumping on board this particular hobby lobby horse here. i think chris christie is just being extraordinarily cautious. i think he doesn't like to discuss what makes him appear to be discussing washington. when he was down here giving a speech recently, he was entirely dismissive and not willing to engage on that. if you look at it as a political calculation, he's hoping that all of his would-be opponents are carving up the social conservative vote there and leaving this field open to him. so equivocation actually has some political benefit. >> that doesn't play so well, though, once the primaries begin. >> we'll see where that gets him. dana milbank, thank you so much. all right. up next, the countdown to the world cup game. everyone here is watching the u sau versus belgium. ari is super psyched. it's less than an hour. we have live reports from the stadium in brazil and a massive watch party here at home as "the

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k today. world cup excitement hits a fever pitch. we're less than an hour away from kick-off in what could be the most-watched soccer game in u.s. history. team usa takes on belgium in a make-or-break match at 4:00 p.m. eastern, which has folks ducking out of work early and meeting up at viewing parties from coast to coast. tens of thousands are expected at chicago's legendary soldier field, and that is where we find nbc's jay gray in the heart of

the excitement. do you believe, jay? you better with all of those fans around you. >> reporter: abby, it was unbelievable. they opened the gates about 30, 40 minutes ago. people are still pouring into soldier field here. take a look. they've been known to do this all day. it is absolutely crazy right here. for the first time all day, i don't feel like i stand out anymore wearing this shirt. it is a party atmosphere here. a lot of excitement. they're all here just to see that tiny screen way up in the end zone. everybody here is showing up to see that, cheer on team usa. look, this is going to be a tough match, but there's no question when you talk to the people here that the u.s. team is going to move to the round of eight. they're all excited. when the team walked out on the big screen, huge round of applause. this is only going to build as the crowd continues. abby, if it gets crazy enough, if the u.s. team wins -- and i'm

dating myself with the reference here -- but i'm going to go all mark spitz up in this place. >> jay, this would be the furthest they would go in 50 years. how much pressure is on team usa to make it through this next one? >> reporter: you know, i think they're playing on hard money at this point, to be frank. a lot of people you talk to who are avid soccer fans say they weren't supposed to make it out of the group of death. now they face a team that on paper is better than they are, but as they've shown throughout this tournament, anything can happen here. and anything can happen as far as these guys -- this team has captured the spirit of this nation. they are excited, and they want to do all of this again saturday. they want the chance to play argentina. >> jay gray, thank you so much. one team will advance. one team will go home. nbc's bill nealy is live in salvador, brazil.

a high-stakes game for belgium and the u.s. . already a little gamesmanship off the field by the u.s. coach. set this up for us. >> reporter: yeah, the atmosphere here really buzzing. literally the helicopters overhead, the u.s. fans and belgian fans and lots of brazilians arriving here for the game that will kick off in just over 45 minutes' time. a little bit of mind games by the u.s. coach. he objected to the algerian referee on the basis that the algerians spoke french and a lot of the belgian players speak french as well. it's really not good enough, but i think he does a lot of this kind of thing. he's been doing with t with the u.s. team as well, trying to get inside their heads, trying to say to them, look, the group of death you got out of it. clap yourselves on the back, but that's over. now you've got one chance, one chance to prove yourself. and he's also been saying that not a single one of them has actually proved they've gone 100%. so he's asking these players to step up a gear. and they really have to because,

you know, they've got the second worst attack of the 32 teams in this world cup so far and belgium has one of the best defenses in the world cup. they haven't conceded a single goal from open play. only one goal against them. that was a penalty. however, a lot of the belgian press say this team is underperforming. they're a collection of marvelous individuals, but they are not clicking as a team. so the u.s. really does have a chance, and it is the last chance for people like clint dempsey, playing again today with a broken nose, people like tim howard. he knows a lot of these belgian players from playing with everton. so there's intelligence. there's hunger and desire in the u.s. team. real really, it could go either way. as you say, it's make or break, and it could be decided by a single error or a single piece of brilliance. we saw that in the game that ended just a few minutes ago with argentina really struggling against switzerland until, guess who, that man, messi, seesawed

his way through the defense and gave that last-minute pass. so that's the kind of thing, that moment of genius that the u.s. are looking for. what a mouth-watering tie awaiting them against argentina if they should go through. so there's every chance for this team. remember, belgium ranked 11th in the world. the u.s. are not underdogs. they're ranked 13th. but everyone is tipping belgium to win. but really, it's anybody. a fantastic atmosphere building here for the final game in the round of 16. kicks off shortly. >> bill nealy, thanks so much. enjoy the match. so what does team usa have to do to advance against a tough belgium squad. friend of the show jordan schultz is here. he's sports columnist for "the huffington post." you heard it there first, bill saying united states does have a shot. you are big on predictions. what do you honestly think is going to happen in this next game? >> i think you're going to see pressure early. which team can break early,

which team can wilt stand the storm. belgium, as we said last week, likes to attack. hazard, one of the best young players in the world from chelsea. bill mentioned tim howard, from everton, the u.s. goalie, played with three belgium players. interesting to see. and al thtidore. injured with a hamstring. >> will he play? >> i think he will play depending on the game. he's not going to start. i would expect the u.s. to come out early and be aggressive. that worked well against portugal after they withstood that quick goal. they can't do that against belgium because a belgium team that's won three in a row, even though they haven't played great, playing with a lot of confidence. >> america's going to have to have more offense in this game, jordan. we're strong defensively. tim howard is one of the best goalies left in the tournament, maybe in the world. i wish we could see more of that mexican goalie. he was fantastic. but we need more offense. we need altidore.

we need clint dempsey. >> they have to score goals. i would go to michael bradley. i think having altidore back in the lineup would really help him. he's been considered the u.s.'s best all-around player, perhaps more so than clint dempsey. has not played well, as we know. the u.s. has to attack. the fact they got two shots against germany, they have the second worst corner kick conversion rate in the entire world cup, not a high-scoring team. a good defense. but you can't just play defense and counter against a team like belgium. you have to be aggressive early. >> but everyone always says defense is what wins championships. >> maybe it's us americans just not wanting low scoring. maybe that's what this is about. >> what about this bit about the referees that bill nealy was setting up for us? it's an algerian ref. he speaks french. is there something real there? is he just laying a marker down there? >> this is classic. the guy loves to be coy with the media. total gamesmanship. remember, he's a dogmatic guy. he fired his long-time assistant, one of his best

friends. he's benched michael bradley and altidore. he doesn't include landon donovan on the roster. he does things his own way. i've always said he's a much better motivator than a tactician. i think you got to give him credit right now for the psychology of it. >> i don't mind all those moves, but noting that, oh, the referee and the other team both speak the same language, that's kind of obnoxious. >> you know things are getting serious when you have a potential objection to a referee. >> because that never happens. >> it's a pregame objection, which never happens. >> you know you have a problem when you're asking ari about the situation. >> oh, the burn. the burn comes out. the summer burn. no, i mean, that's hardball. that's as hard as it gets, complaining about a referee in advance. belgium won 4-2 the last time they played the u.s. what's different now? >> different is we didn't have tim howard for part of that game. also, you look back at the usa in that game playing with landon donovan. there's a couple other elements to this. what's the biggest difference is the usa right now is playing

really confidently. we can forget about belgium, the red devils, by the way. let's forget about them for one second and focus on the usa. what have they done so well? they have defended really well. they have a great goalie right now in tim howard, who's playing really hot. and by the way, clint dempsey, despite the broken nose, has been really good. >> they haven't won a game in a week. what are you talking about? where's the confidence? how are we super confident? what are you talking about? >> first time in consecutive world cups that the u.s. has been through. and this is my favorite stat. i read this in "the wall street journal." usa in terms of google searches, the u.s. right now double per capita the words world cup since 2010. >> that should help them on the pitch. >> the south, which traditionally hasn't been a big soccer climate, is really into it. everybody is getting on board except ari and toure. >> that's a burn. >> i was going to ask you why you refer to google. abby huntsman only uses bing.

>> oh, search engine burn. >> well done. >> search engine burn. >> abby, i would suggest you sit this segment out. >> i think it's time to go. the round of 16 has been unbelievably fun to watch. argentina against switzerland a few moments ago. we will have you back tomorrow, jordan, of course, to talk about the game. we will win, i'm hoping. coming up next, we've got a lot more "cycle" ahead. stick with us. sfx: car unlock beep. vo: david's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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from headquarters in atlanta. >> yes, krystal. a lot of people keeping a close eye on this one, especially if you have beach plans for the holiday weekend. jacksonville, florida, one of the spots that needs to keep an eye out at this point. no real problems in that area. just a few clouds. we are seeing some of the impacts, though, further off to the south. let's look at tropical storm arthur and start there. winds right now 40 miles per hour. pressure, 1,007 millibars. we have seen some of the outer rain bands affecting the coast of florida, down towards, say, miami. we have wind gust around 20 miles an hour in some of those spots. very heavy rainfall affecting parts of the bahamas. tropical storm watches have been posted for ft. pierce all the way towards daytona beach. places like daytona beach could being looking at very heavy rainfall rates. it could cause some flooding. also some of those gusty winds to come along with this one. i think flooding is going to be one of the big concerns. rainfall forecast, could see

isolated totals of 3 to 5, even more inches of rainfall in a lot of those spots. where you see that deeper green, that's where we could see 2 to 3 inches. also, just south of jupiter expecting some of those higher rainfall totals. 1 to 2 inches a good bet throughout a lot of sections of the eastern half of florida. so here's what we're watching for as we go through time. you can see wednesday morning we expect this to strength an little bit. could be approaching hurricane strength by thursday morning as it nears, say, the coast of the carolinas. then as you mentioned, it's going to continue up along the east coast. we could be looking at perhaps a low-end hurricane by early in the morning on friday. that would be the fourth of july. we'll have to watch for coastal flooding, rain, and wind along a lot of those coastal beach spots. back to you. >> alex wilson from the weather channel. thanks for that. the two-decade nightmare, changing topics now, for the

central park five is coming to an ends. new york city has agreed to settle with them for over $40 million. four of the guys spent years in juvenile prisons. cory wise spent 13 years in adult prison. when i met him a year ago, he said, i want to be free, even though he was out, he still felt trapped inside his odyssey. yesterday i sat down with cory and his lawyer and asked him now that the lawsuit is over, do you feel free? >> i do. i do. i do. meaning, as of lately, i see that my name is separated. so that's being free. it just felt like slavery. that's not who i am. so, you know, i feel good with that. >> because khorey was a juvenile

in prison, our conversation turned to the value of putting juveniles in prison, a subject his lawyer had a lot to speak about. >> so do you think that juvenile prisons should be abolished? >> i don't think they should be abolished, but i think they should be restructured in such a way where it focuses on rehabilitation and not simply confinement. you know, kids don't end up there for no reason. you know, if they've committed crimes, i think there's a reason why they're behaving in that way and we need to help them as opposed to simply punish them. that's what happens now with juveniles. they only receive punishment. they don't receive any help. >> as a lawyer, have you seen good come out of sending people to juvenile prisons? have you seen people sort of changed and turned back toward the right path? >> no. never. i mean, the juvenile facilities,

you know -- i think that the juvenile facility for somebody who is 18 or younger is probably better than being in prison, but i don't think it makes you -- it's not focused on rehabilitation. it doesn't do anything to better the kids. they hang out and learn more bad behave. it just per we hapetuaterpetuat. >> put some more pls here. >> the police -- that give kids a place to go. >> right. so when there's nothing -- them type of facilities going on, the only option is getting locked up. there's no outlet. there's no outlet for them. >> for a long time, criminalnologists have said prison does not deter crime, especially juvenile prisons. in "the new jim crow," criminologists recommended all

juvenile prisons be closed because they create crimes, not prevent them. since then, we've only built more. now senators are pushing the better options for kids act, which encourages states to seek alternatives to incarcerating teenagers. senator murphy is with us now. what are the alternatives you would prefer to see? >> well, the main reason is, as you mentioned, that incarcerating kids just simply doesn't work. there's a new study out of illinois that suggests that when you take two kids from similar backgrounds that have committed the same crime and you put one of them back into the community with some resources to help them and you send the other kid to prison, the kid that goes to prison is 25% likely to commit another crime. it actually makes our communities and our streets less safe, not more safe, when you lock up kids. and the reality is that most of these kids who commit crimes, most of which are nonviolent, have pretty awful histories of abuse and neglect. they have mental illness, sometimes substance abuse.

they just need a little bit of help for their problem to deal with their past abuse. they can get back on the straight and narrow. so diversion away from prison into community solutions where they actually get help is the best thing for the kid and ultimately the best thing to keep our communities safe. >> yeah, and senator, it's important to point out that youth incarceration has actually dropped to the lowest point in nearly 40 years. and this is in large part due to state governments but also conservatives who have changed their tune, pushing for less expensive alternatives. how are you getting conservatives on board with this bill? because obviously they are an essential part of making the progress that we need to make on this. >> yeah, it is really fascinating that you're starting to see an alignment between, you know, progressives who come to this issue trying to find a better way to take care of these kids with significant issues and conservatives who are starting to really look at the price tag and blanch at the amount of money we're spending. in connecticut, for instance,

when we look up a kid at our juvenile prison, we call it the connecticut juvenile training school, it costs up $174,000 just for a six-month stay. that's a ridiculous amount of money to spend on incarceration that actually doesn't make the kid better in the end. so rates are going down nationally, but it's actually driven by only about nine or ten states that are starting to do the right thing, diverting kids away from prison, stopping school policies that criminalize schoolyard misconduct. so senator booker and i have put in a bill that says, let's take those five or six things that those states are doing right and extrapolate them to the rest of the country. because if all 50 states were using these kind of strategies, you would see an absolute plummeting in the rate of juveniles that are incarcerated. today it's still 70,000. 70,000 kids on any one given day are sitting in a prison somewhere across this country. >> better options for kids act does that, as you mentioned. looking at the bipartisan piece, there's also bills to deal not only with the states but with

federal reform, the smarter sentencing act which roll back some of the excesses of the war on drugs. where are you on those, specifically getting them to a floor vote? >> well, i think as we look at what can get bipartisan consensus in the senate as we head towards an election in november, this is one of the few places that we can do it. you've got people like dick durbin and rand paul working on sentencing reform. i think senator booker and i will be able to find republican support for our idea as well. it just marries together two great ideas, helping kids and saving money. so ultimately, i hope that this is going to be one of the few areas of bipartisan achievement that we can get. the trends, as you said, are going in the right direction, but we're still the most powerful, most affluent country in the world, and we lock up more adults and more kids than any other first-world country. that's something to be ashamed of as a nation. >> indeed. senator chris murphy from the

great state of connecticut. more "cycle" right ahead.

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back now with politics. money can't buy you love or an election, apparently. right now close to $1 billion has been raised for november's midterms, and that's for a midterm cycle. we all know citizens united opened the flood gates, but as our next guest says, raising money has proved easier than actually changing the country's politics. just look at the $1 billion karl rove helped to raise and spend to unseat obama in 2012. didn't work out so well. ken vogel now calls rove the dr. frankenstein of the american political money monster. he's author of "big money." it's a title so long ken had to run an excerpt in politico magazine. ken joins us now. welcome, ken, to the table. >> hey. great to be with you guys. >> great to have you.

you have this great quote from karl rove in the excerpt that we've got in politico. it says, people call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we're really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. now it's time to get serious. i love that. what you talk about is the fact that rove saw the direction that big money was heading in, even before the citizens united decision. >> yeah, that's right. he was really out front. part of it was seeing what the left had done and what democrats had done prior to citizens united back in 2004 when these liberal billionaires and multimillionaires spent upwards of $200 million trying to defeat george w. bush. obviously that was unsuccessful, but what that showed is that you could build something outside the party structure that would enable very wealthy people to spend a lot of money and have a big impact, at least on the debate, if not on the election results themselves. karl rove set out to do that and it was very fortuitous timing because the citizens united decision happened and he created something well beyond anything

that democrats had done and had a big impact in 2010 helping republicans retake the house. obviously you alluded to less successful 2012. that's what he's struggling to sort of come to grips with and convince donors he can still be successful. >> "big money" is a fascinating book. a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what's going on with the finances both on the left and right. you talk about rove in that he's able to raise so much money that he is the head of a shadow gop that is more powerful than the actual, real, official gop. where do we see the impact of that? >> well, we see it in the debates. you know, what we're talking about. you don't have to look further than the 2013 government shutdown where it was almost -- it was the establishment republicans with the rnc, with karl rove versus some of the tea party republicans. and these lawmakers, these tea party republicans who refused to go along with john boehner in supporting a compromise that would raise the debt ceiling,

fund the government, they were looking towards their next election and thinking, you know, i don't really need the party and the party's good graces to win re-election. i need these outside group, and i need the money they can spend outside of the system because it's a lot more money. and they're going to be pretty pissed off at me if i vote to reopen the government. so i'm going to oppose it. that's what happened. it took democratic votes. so far we've seen this problem sort of more on the right where the party has sort of lost control. i think we could see it on the left as well headed into 2016. >> i think you're exactly right. i love the please in "politico" magazine. i love the book. i think this is the greatest challenge in politics, money. another person you quoted in the piece is mark hanna, who's a former gop operative, who karl rove likes to be considered like. he was quoted saying, there are two things that are important in politics. the first is money, and i can't remember what the second one is. and what first came to mind when reading this quote was that money doesn't necessarily always win elections.

something that we've seen more recently. but it does have the power to control elections. it reminds me of hillary clinton running in the democratic field this next go around. she's basically frozen it up because it's perceived she's already locked up all the money. who's going to want to run against her? how difficult would 2016 look for democrats if money were not this big of an issue? >> oh, i think it would look very different. in fact, to go backwards, i think hillary clinton probably could have beaten barack obama in 2008 had citizens united happened four years earlier and had she had this type of coalescing of major donors behind a super pac that could get her over the edge. that was one of the problems. interestingly, obama, despite really talking about money and politics as a major problem throughout his career, he actually benefits from outside spending more than almost any candidate in 2008. >> pretty ironic, huh? >> yeah, and in 2012 by necessity he really embraced -- he and other democrats talked about they couldn't unilaterally disarm. now hillary is coalescing these

big donors in a way that could be prohibitive but all it would take is one very wealthy democrat to throw $20 million in behind elizabeth warren and then chaos. >> which is partly what with we saw in the republican side in 2012 with newt gingrich and rick santorum. ken vogel, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and up next, the cyclist personalities put to the test. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas

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and upload them to allstate. really? so you get a quicker estimate, quicker payment, quicker back to normal. i just did it. but maybe you can find an app that will help you explain this to your father. introducing quickfoto claim. just another way allstate is changing car insurance for good. most people care a lot about their reputation, but how much of our reputation depends on our personality or even seemingly

small ways that we like to be perceived? well, here's a leader you'll recognize showing his soft, somewhat indecisive side in a restaurant interview from a long time ago. >> i ordered the southern sampler just because i couldn't make up my mind. since, as i said, i eat there quite a bit. i wasn't sure what i was in the mood for. i said, just bring me a little something. >> he wasn't sure what he was in the mood for. now, how do our preferences and personalities shape our work and lives? a new book written by former creative director for brands like nike and coke, argues that personality matters more than ever, especially in a culture with shrinking attention spans. sally founded her own agency at the age of 27 and now leads reputation personality research, including a test that tells you what kind of leader you might be. welcome. >> thank you so much, ari. i appreciate it. i'm glad to be here with you. >> good. start by telling us what you mean when you say personality and how that affects the

reputation you might want to have, say, in the workplace. >> normally we think of ourselves according to how we see the world. this is a traditional personality assessment like strengths finder or disk or colby. they measure how you see the world. as the world becomes more distracted and competitive, it doesn't matter how you see the world. what really matters is how the world sees you. and what people value in you, what your co-workers, clients, commerce value in you so you can do more of what you're already doing right. >> so of course, sally, all of us here had to take that test that shows what type of leader you might be. it asked a number of questions like, do you dominate the conversation? what is your daily routine like? and on and on and on. the results were interesting. i was the people's champion. i guess that means i'm naturally supportive, emotionally invested in others. >> i think that's all right. >> i have passion and power. i want to ask you, though, because there are a number of

these surveys out where it helps you try to figure out your prnlt and what type of leader you're going to be. what should we take away from the results? >> the main thing to take away is that in order for you to succeed and communicate successfullyaway, in order to succeed and communicate successfully in a crowded world, you have to understand how the world sees you as your best. we studied 300,000 people and focused on the high performers. we found high performers have a signature personality trait that the world sees them in a specific way and they are likely to add value in very specific patterns. this assessment is designed to measure how the world sees you so you can focus on those ways you're likely to win over and over again. >> so, sally, another thing that you argue, we've long known that first impressions make a big difference but you're saying they are actually more important now than ever. how do you -- what are the tips for having a really successful -- >> the editor in chief.

>> krystal, the way you'll make a positive first impression, feel most authentic to be focused and details. when we look at your history, you've been very successful in areas where you can be skillful and communicate in a way that allows people to see exactly what the traits are. ari is a maestro, ambitious, focused, confident, goal oriented. the people's champion on the other hand will communicate best by bringing people in as advocates and being expressive and communicative. >> sally, i took the test, i was really pleased with my result. >> you're a rock star. >> that's right, primary innovation, passion. >> nobody saw that coming, right krystal, that might be more about how he perceives himself. >> krystal is right, i like taking the test and would be interested to see other people taking the test. it seemed to be a measure of how

i see myself rather than how others see me. wouldn't you have to pool other folks like krystal who can't keep it together right now, to see how the world sees me? >> that's an excellent question. most assessments are built on psychology, how you see the world. this is first assessment built on branding. i drew upon my decade of experience in marketing leading top brands and found the signals and patterns and cues that you intentionally or unintentionally give off that make people likely to focus on you trust you and admire you. companies like at and t, ge, unilever, high performers how the world perceives them so they can focus on personality traits. >> are you going to take us out? >> are we done? we're out of time. sally, thank you very much. on the eve of a historic day in

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tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the civil rights act, a monument of sorts to the ability of our government to right wrongs and improve lives and effect revolutionary change without the revolution. but on this semicentennials had hard not to feel sad about how short the system falls when measured against the yard stick against that era of progress. in the face of the national devastation of sandy hook, congress couldn't take the action of passing a background check bill. in the face of historic

long-term unemployment and soaring unequality, congress can't be bothered to give a raise to low income americans and in the face of an immigration system that is a factory of human tragedy that everyone agrees broken, congress can't do anything to mitigate the crisis. a new gallop poll tells us what we know, confidence in all three branches of government is at or near record or historic lows. confidence in congress stands at 7%. pathetic. and yet we're recently offered a glimmer of hope and what could be a solution in mississippi senate race. when this career was threatened by a tea partyier, thad cochran did not run as fast as he can i trying to play to the extremist who would vote in the state's primary. instead he did something revolutionary. he got more people to vote. the result was a small win for democracy and for governance. thad cochran is a staunch

conservative but has at times been willing to work with democrats to do the basic business of government. thad cochran's campaign shows really the only answer to the politics, greater participation, more people, a lot more people voting is the only thing that can triumph over the money and politics, gerrymandering and hijacking of our political system by motivated extremists. the party isn't there's a tea party, but that politicians know they will show up and they will vote. they are not so sure about the more moderate minded voters. it's the absent middle that's really killing us. if you've watched the show in the past, you know i believe a solution as radical as mandatory voting of the sort they have in australia is actually called for. but i'm well aware of how improbable that policy is. instead we should make expanding the electorate in any way we can our number one priority. getting as many people to vote as possible is the only answer to the problems of our current system that didn't involve a

revolution or catastrophic crisis. when few people vote, extremists win. and when extremists win, obstruction and dysfunction reign. the story of the civil rights act is told through the narrative of great men of dr. king and lbj. but the civil rights act is often explained like a one man play when in fact it had a cast of thousands. there's no political super woman on the horizon and it's up to us to return the country to governance, we the people are the only ones who can save us. that does it for "the cycle." now" with alex wagner starts now. >> how broad can a narrow decision really be? it's tuesday, july 1st and this is now. >> democrats trying to turn a loss into a win. >> supreme court's 5-4 decision. >> closely held corporations can

refuse to cover certain forms of contraception. >> very slippery slope. >> this is a new legal precedent. >> a corporation can hold personal beliefs. >> corporations are people, my friend. >> it does completely draw a straight line -- >> there's a appearance of narrowness but the implications are broad. >> there's been an outpouring of men and women outraged. >> five conservative men say it's not description at all, just freedom. >> allowing a boss to make a decision for a woman about what type of birth control she can or can't use. >> this was so stunning. >> continuing to try to chip away at obama care because they hate the law. >> women's health and contraception that is not a fleeting topic of a woman's mind. >> the contraception think back in my days they used pure aspirin, gals puts it between their knees. >> the losing side in the supreme court ends up the political