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tv   The Reid Report  MSNBC  July 7, 2014 11:00am-12:01pm PDT

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plus, the political blowback for republicans who last week were high fiving over the supreme court's hobby lobby ruling. but we start in the middle east, where israel is in the midst of a careful balancing act at this hour. on the one hand, managing the outrage over an apparent revenge killing of a palestinian teenager as well as the fallout over the beating of his american cousin. while at the same time carrying out retaliatory strikes against hamas, blamed for the killing of three israeli teens. amid protests over the killing of the 16-year-old, israel has arrested six jewish suspects, while prime minister benjamin netanyahu phoned the family, reportedly calling the killing reprehensible and abhorrent. a preliminary autopsy report released this weekend states that evidence suggests the boy was lit on fire while he was still alive. on sunday, the teen's american cousin was released from custody after police arrested him during
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protests that faollowed the killing. video is alleged to show israeli forces beating the american teenager. we'll have more on that portion of the story in a moment. making the story even more con my kated, hamas launched more rockets at israel today. possible retaliation for what it says was the death of at least seven of its fighters from overnight israeli air strikes. nbc's ayman mohyeldin has been following events in jerusalem and has this report. >> reporter: good afternoon, joy. there is growing concern that the tension in the gaza strip could lead to an all-out conflict between israel and palestinian factions in the territory. overnight, israel carried out at least a dozen air strikes on what it said are suspected targets belonging to palestinian militants. israel denies it was targeting any palestinian fighters in any of its targets overnight.
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but it gives you a sense of the kind of tension that has gripped the southern part of israel. meanwhile, here in jerusalem there is growing outrage of a video that has gone viral. that video shows israeli police beating a 15-year-old palestinian-american teenager. now, that teenager was released on bail yesterday, and he was also placed under house arrest until he leaves israel and returns back to the united states. his family has been outraged by the israeli court's decision and say he should not have had any restrictions imposed on him since he was not charges with any crime. meanwhile, israeli officials say they are making progress in the investigation in the killing of the 17-year-old palestinian who was kidnapped and burned alive. they say at least six jewish nationalists have been arrested. they're calling them extremists and say these individuals, they believe, were responsible for the kidnapping and his murder. it was his murder that triggered the wave of protests over the course of the last several days. joy? >> all right.
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nbc's ayman mohyeldin in jerusalem. thank you. on sunday, ayman interviewed the palestinian-american teenager who was beaten during protests over his cousin's death. >> they started stepping on my back and beating me from behind. here's when they were punching me and kicking me. >> what happened to your wrist? >> these are from the handcuffs. >> joining me is the chief executive director for the council on islamic relations. thank you for being here. first of all, tell us how tarik is doing and where he is at this hour. >> thank you, joy. right now he's actually mourning the loss of his cousin who you mentioned was brutally slaughtered and burnt to death last week. they're having a family funeral sort of service right now at this moment. but right now tariq is suffering from major headaches. his eyes are still bloodshot. he still has stitches, and he's really, really not feeling well.
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we need to bring him back to the u.s. as soon as possible so he can get proper medical treatment for the severe injuries he suffered when israeli soldiers restrained his arms and really beat him unconscious. >> does the family know whether he is being charged with something? is there a reason he's still under house arrest? what information do they have about the circumstances of how he's being, i guess, held in israel? >> yeah, he's being held under house arrest for nine days. the judge actually wanted to keep it for two weeks, but they said, no, we have to return home to america. we want to bring our boy back home. so the judge put it down to nine days without any charges. that's just outrageous. it makes no sense why the victim of severe brutality by the israeli officers would be placed under house arrest while the officers who engage in this violent attack walk free. >> members of the israeli government, including prime minister benjamin netanyahu, have condemned the killing of tariq's cousin and contacted the family. does the family feel like the
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israeli authorities have been proactive? what was their response to those contacts? >> not really. nothing was happening. in fact, they fear that tariq would still have been in jail right now with no charges and no proper medical treatment had it not been for the international attention that his plight has received. they're actually very grateful to the media internationally and activists worldwide who contacted the u.s. state department and said, you need to bring this american boy back home so he can get the proper medical treatment. meanwhile, his own cousins, as young as 13 years old, are still languishing in israeli prisons with broken bones and suffering without medical treatment, but they're not getting the same sort of treatment because they're not american. >> and what was happening at the time that tariq was confronted by israeli police? what was going on? >> no, he wasn't doing anything. he was outside his relative's home. he was on his own family's land when he saw people started running in his direction. he didn't know what was going on. he's just an american kid from tampa used to playing basketball, going fishing.
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he's not used to being in a conflict area, nor was he expecting there to be conflict. he was going just to visit friends and family. when he saw people running, he naturally turned and started running. that's when the israeli officers caught up to him, slammed him to the ground, restrained his hands and started to brutally, brutally beat him, kick him in the head, punch him, use really deadly force against him until he was unconscious and woke up finding himself in an israeli prison not knowing why that happened. >> the picture we just showed was of the cousin who was killed, reportedly burned alive. six people have been arrested. what do you know about the status of investigation into his murder? >> well, right now we're still waiting for a lot of answers. of course, the killing of mohammed was extremely tragic. the killing of the three israeli teenagers was unjustifiable. the killings that happened before that were extremely tragic. we need both sides to stop this cycle of violence that's taken
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the lives of innocent children. when innocent children start getting killed, it really means we're losing our humanity. we need to value the lives of all children. regardless of their race and religion and stop this violence before it leads to more deaths. the israeli government needs to take action to ensure its officers are not abusing their power and brutally attacking innocent young children. >> and to that point, the fact that there was an american child involved really did obviously open the eyes of the americans and have more americans pay attention to this. what does the family want to see happen more broadly? there is a lot of fear, i think, in this side of the world that there will be another -- that this will lead to endless, endless escalating violence. what does the family want to see happen now? >> i just got off the phone with tariq's mother. they're very scared right now. the israeli soldiers are on their street for no apparent reason. they're out there, scaring the children in the streets. right now they just want to come back home to america. they want to bring tariq back to get the proper medical treatment
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he needs. also, they want the israeli officers to be held accountable. just today they met with the police forces to file a formal criminal complaint against the officers involved. care florida today is also sending a letter to israel making it clear that we're representing the family and we demand a full and fair investigation and that those officers be held accountable. and the key message really is we don't want any other child to go through the traumatic experience he went through. >> all right. thank you so much for making the very key point we need to make sure all children, no matter what their ethnic background, should be valued. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. and now, a reid alert on the surge in children flown across our southern border. immigrant families gathered near the white house today to protest how the administration is handling this humanitarian crisis. >> our brothers and sisters are fleeing violence. we don't want the u.s. government to treat our children as criminals. >> the president is requesting $2 billion to respond to the
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more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border into the united states just this year. including money to facilitate sending the kids back to their home countries. after the break, i'll talk to reverend william barber, the naacp leader leading the fight against voter suppression in his state, where a voter i.d. law that hits students directly is in court even as we speak. plus, the white house begins to lay out the options for how to provide contraceptive coverage to women who had the rug pulled out from under them last week by the supreme court. . at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if frustration and paperwork decrease... the gap begins to close. so let's simplify things. let's close the gap between people and care.
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we head now to north carolina, where right now the state's strict voter i.d. law is in front of a federal judge. one key group that's among those arguing against the law is
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college students. they joined civil rights groups who have been battling against the law since it pass the last year and who are in court today looking to block the most egregious elements of the law. those include highly restrictive i.d. requirements that exclude voting with a college i.d., the end of same-date voter registration, and slashing the number of early voting days from 17 to 10. and given the fact that in 2012, 70% of african-american voters cast their ballot during that early voting period and 41% used same-day registration, not to mention the fact that more than one-third of black north carolina voters do not have a valid i.d., it's clear who this law would harm. the reverend william barber joins me now. thank you very much for being here. >> hello, ms. reid. how are you today? >> i'm doing very well.
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you have called this the worst voter suppression law since the days of jim crow. explain. >> no doubt. this is the worst, most egregious law that we've seen since jim crow to suppress and isolate the vote. this bill, house bill 4589, has more than 40 changes. not just voter i.d., 40 changes in the law. same-day registration, others as you have noted. this bill is trying to take away access to the polls that citizens have had. this is not blocking access. they're actually rolling back access. and we know in north carolina the federal government over the last 30 years has had to intervene through preclearance more than 60 times. this bill shows the nation what happens when you remove preclearance, what happens when the federal government no longer has preclearance. when this bill started out, it was 12 pages. after shelby, it was 57 pages. 57 pages where they identified the voters they want to suppress and conjured up these policies
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to go after those voters. i.e., young people, african-american, women, and the elderly. >> when you talk to republican legislators, those who suppo supported, endorsed, and got this law through, what did they say was the purpose? what is the purpose of so sharply reducing the early voting days in their words? what do they say they're doing? >> well, first of all, they don't do a lot of talking. they just continually repeat tea party extremism talk points. they say that it's about voter integrity and voter i.d. what it's really about is a radical plan to identify voters that you believe may not support your extremist policies and then you systemically write voter policies regardless of what the constitution says to exclude and suppress those votes. in fact, today in court, this is how they opened their argument. the lawyers said to the judge, judge, these laws have already
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been used. therefore, you should not enjoin this case because of the status quo. in other words, we're using these laws, they may be unconstitutional, but we've already started. mind you, they fought coming to court. they fought having to testify. they fought giving up their records. now they want to say since the laws are already in effect, we should not do anything about them. well, if that is the logic, they would have never undermined the laws we had in the first place because the status quo was same-day registration and early voting and no voter i.d. so it's a kind of convoluted, irrational argument that they're making. basically, they're saying because we have a political majority, we ought to be able to do whatever we want to do and nobody should challenge us. but that's not going to happen. we're going to fight them every step of the way. >> and just to give people a sense of north carolina, the landscape, the voting landscape, the turnout among african-americans increased dramatically from 2000 to 2012 from 42% turnout to 69%.
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a lot of that driven by early voting. then you look at the presidential races. this law is supposed to take place in 2016. in 2008, look at that. barack obama actually won the state of north carolina, shocked a lot of people. very narrowly, but 49.9 to 49.5. really only very narrowly lost it in 2012. so north carolina is obviously a swing state. do you think that's what this is about, 2016? >> well, it's about that. it's about the shifting demographics in the south, 23% to 25% of our voting population are african-american. 3% are latino. that's 28%. you only need about 22% of whites to vote their future, not their fears. what we see here is an extremist group of politicians led the governor who know their policies cannot survive if everybody doesn't vote. we know the laws like early voting and same-day registration made it so that north carolina had one of the highest per
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capita increases of voters since 2004. but that kind of change in the electorate scares those who have a homogenius view of the world and only want certain people to get engaged. this is clearly about power. it's clearly about the electorate. it's clearly about the change in demographics, and it is clearly unconstitutional. that's why we're fighting it. >> reverend barber, you've led the moral mondays movement, but it is spreading. let's take a look at some of the other places that are actually passing similar strict voter i.d. laws. places like arkansas, georgia, indiana, mississippi, tennessee, texas, virginia. you have a senator, kay hagan, who's running for re-election. in 2014, do you think the response to these laws and these changes that are being made that seem to target african-american voters, will this increase black tu turnout or decrease it? >> it's going to increase turnout period because the
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preponderance of the evidence is showing this general assembly and this governor are extremists. they have attacked the poor. they've attacked people who need an earned income tax credit. they've attacked the unemployment. they've attacked the sick. they've attacked teachers. they've attacked public education. and they've attacked the fundamental foundation of our democracy, which is voting. remember, one of the senators said after the shelby decision, now that the headache has been removed. so they believe that they have an opportunity to push us backward. but people are turning out. 80,000 people showed up in february to one of our major mass marches in raleigh. we're organizing across the board. you're going to see an increase in turnout of all people, republicans and democrats, who are tired of this extremism, who are tired of politicians wanting to take us backwards because we're trying to go forward together and we're determined not to take one step back. >> all right. we'll be certainly following this case and your progress. thank you so much, reverend
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william barber. appreciate it. >> thank you so much. take care. >> all right. and now, a reid alert on pope francis, who met privately and held mass earlier today with six victims of catholic clergy sexual abuse. the pope begged for forgiveness from the victims on behalf of church leaders and said the church must, quote, weep and make reparation. although the pontiff has promised greater oversight and accountability, critics say francis himself has been slow to act and had a spotty record of dealing with sexual abuse cases as an archbishop in argentina. we'll be right back. ...is jane. her long day on set starts with shoulder pain... ...and a choice take 6 tylenol in a day which is 2 aleve for... ...all day relief. hmm. [bell ring] "roll sound!" "action!" hey pal? you ready? can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! op) too late. i was gone for five minutes!
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more than 60 nigerian women and girls who were abducted in mid-june, not the original girls, have managed to escape the kidnappers. still, more than 200 girls who were kidnapped in april remain missing. florida congresswoman frooed ree can wilson is among those keeping the bring back our girls hash tag alive by tweeting to it every monday. this morning, she tweeted, we are not going away, we will not be silenced, today is the day to bring back our girls. congresswoman wilson announced the twitter campaign, something she calls a twitter storm, with several other lawmakers a few weeks ago. and switching gears. here are two different stories that show no love on this monday. we begin in france where tour de france stage two winner claimed his victory flowers but got turned away from a victory kiss. watch as he kisses the first lady. the second lady gives him a big, oh, no. instead, she gave him a stuffed lion, which he promptly smooched instead. and you're still loving tim howard, even if he's not showing
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a fan a particular kind of love. check out this video from when howard arrived at l.a.x. last week. an overly eager fan tried to go in for a bro hug. and howard blocks the hug. speaking of showing no love, this one got "the reid report" team talking. which would you rather have, a big paycheck or nice co-workers? according to a new study by the association of accounting technicians, getting along with your colleagues is more important to most people than a big salary. 80% of folks surveyed said they would turn down a big paycheck if it meant working with people in an environment they didn't like. so which would you rather? tweet us using the hash tag #payorpal. tell us which you'd rather have. by the way, most "the reid report" team members said they'd rather have more money. we already love each other. you can join the conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and msnbc.com. keep telling us what's important to you. now this news, the tsa is changing its security measures
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provide birth control access to thousands and thousands of women who are about to lose coverage or who never had it because their employers' religious objections. and time is of the essence. as "the new york times" report, legal and health care experts expect a rush to court involving scores of employers seeking to take advantage of the two decisions already. about 100 cases are pending. these cases are not about the undue financial burden imposed under a penalty by the aca as hobby lobby claimed. we're talking about a long list of nonprofits, religious oriented trying to opt out. all they have to do is fill out this document. the groups say even signing on this line makes them complicit with an immoral act. and last week, the court issued a temporary emergency injunction allowing wheaton college to skip the form altogether. never heard of wheaton college? perhaps this other name will ring a bell. according to the associated press, in its term that begins in october, a challenge from the
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university of notre dame probably will be the first case to reach the court. so the questions are, what can and will the white house do? and how will the issue of women's access to health care play out at the ballot box 100 days from now? we have a democratic strategist and mark murray is the senior political editor for nbc news. they all join us. thank you all for being here. i want to start with what actually happened first. you were tweeting about this over the weekend. i was all on your timeline because it was really shocking. you first have sam alito write the hobby lobby decision and say, no worries, it's just about these three different things hobby lobby doesn't want to cover. then they sort of dropped the bomb, i guess you could say. monday, the 30th, you have the hobby lobby decision saying some corporations can restrict birth control coverage. the next day, tuesday, the decision clarification. oh, no, this applies to all birth control, not just the morning after pill and iuds. on thursday, two days after that, you get the wheaton
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college emergency injunction saying these nonprofits don't even have to fill out the form. how devastating was this and how much of a bait and switch? >> it is certainly a bait and switch. you can see that in justice sotomayor's dissent, which she says undermines confidence in this institution. you have what a is series of moving goalposts. first what they said was when this regulation first came out in the beginning of 2012 that religious organizations were being forced to violate their views. then private corporations said, i don't want to have to pay for this. then they said, i don't want to have to pay for quote/unquote abortion-causing contraception, which is not fact. it is not scientifically the case that this is abortion. what it allowed them to do is say this is about abortion, not birth control. step back behind them, and there are employers that object to all forms of birth control. step back behind them, and there are nonprofit employers who were given accommodation who now say that signing a piece of paper,
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not paying for it, that cost is being incurred by the insurer itself. that just signing that form implicates them in an immoral act. if so, what on earth is going to satisfy them short of nobody getting contraception? >> right, because now you set up a situation where these individual companies, if they can't even fill out the form, have to find some other ad hoc way of letting the administration, of letting the health and human services department know, hey, we don't want to cover any contraception or these particular kinds of contraception or whatever. so you're just going to have to mish-mosh of paperwork flying at the administration and no real plan. the other issue "the national journal" brings up is that the decision may affect millions of women who suffer from a variety of medical conditions. these women depend on the pill to regulate their hormones and do everything from ease pain to reduce the risk of cancer. it's also been shown to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.
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i know people who have used it because of endometriosis. this is beyond sex and birth control. >> exactly. this is a women's health issue. i don't know how many times we have to say this. seconda secondarily, it's a workers' issue. women are already dealing with the fact that they make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, as we all know. if you look at black women and hispanic women, that number becomes even lower. and now you're asking them to pay for something that they use for health care purposes, and that's how we need to talk about it. every single time we talk about it, it needs to be talked about in the context of women's health and workers' rights. and workers are already being lambasted in this country. >> if i could just interrupt for one second, there are people who use birth control for all kinds of reasons, and preventing pregnancy is also a legitimate reason. the government said it had two reasons. public health, because if women have 12 kids or they're pregnant all the time, that is not good for public health. women being able to control their destiny is the second one.
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they said gender equality, access to contraception is crucial to gender equality. >> mark, now you have an issue for the administration as well. they now have to figure out how to deal with this from an administrative point of view. the health and human services department will now get various forms of objections, and they're trying to figure out how to respond. so "the new york times" is reporting that one of the proposals the white house is considering would be to put companies insurers on health plan administrator -- or put health plan administrators on the spot. another plan would give the administration itself a larger role in offering cost-free birth control coverage, although that option seems unrealistic. and the white house is under pressure to figure out what to do. obviously women are such a key constituency. what are you hearing, mark, about what the administration plans to do? >> it is a tricky situation. one thing worth noting is the wheaton decision was a temporary
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stay, a temporary injunction. so when you chat with administration folks, they say this matter isn't completely, 100% settled. but as "the new york times" ended up writing, there are two options. one is that the hhs and obama administration just kind of takes control, administers the benefit more than we've seen in the past. the other is put the burden and onus on insurance companies. it isn't an easy situation at all. then when you go to the original hobby lobby decision, what is a closely held corporation, and how do you end up wading through all the future lawsuits that we're going to see after the hobby lobby decision? so certainly for those who are working the administration, they're trying to do the rule making and all the laws and carrying them out, this is not an easy task for them at all. >> and mark, wouldn't this put theoretically also involve the potential need for an appropriation from congress? because if there's additional cost required for the administration to go ahead and provide the coverage or reimburse insurance companies, we're talking about money, then
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we're back at congress again. >> the obama administration would love congress to be able to come in here, help, whether it's from the money situation, whether it's carving owl these very explicit opt-outs for closely held corporations or whatever. you and i know the reality of congress and getting anything done and whether it's appropriations or anything related to the affordable care act will be a very difficult task for this administration. so in concept, getting congress to work with the administration would be great on paper. in practice, it's going to be much more difficult. >> yeah, absolutely. mark, tara, erin, hang on for a minute. stay with us. when we return, we're going to talk about the politics, the political blowback that we're already beginning to see as a result of this ruling and why republicans might want to put that champagne back on ice.
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what do you think is going to happen this fall? what's your prediction? >> i think republicans will
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become more powerful. >> while i love my president and i'm so proud he's in office, we need people in congress to help him. and we need people in our legislature that can help her. >> back with me, democratic strategist tara dowdell, msnbc.com's erin carmone, and mark murray. the thing i think is confounding is you have people saying, why are these women that you talk to complaining? nobody is restricting them from getting birth control. they can still get it. they just have to buy it. >> the most effective forms of birth control are also the most expensive. there is a wealth of data out there. that's, in fact, the same data the government looked at when they created this regulation. it shows, for example, there was a study that showed the unintended pregnancy rate and abortion rate declined dramatically when you make it easy for people who want iuds to get them for free. if you think unintended pregnancy is a problem, if you
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think the abortion rate is a problem, making it easier for people to get contraception when even the smallest financial burdens, then why aren't you 100% behind this? >> and they're still covering viagra. let's talk about the politics. this issue has really set women off. i was at the essence festival over the weekend. besides voting, the single issue that women, and it's predominantly women attending, besides voting, the single issue women wanted to talk about most and make sure we talked about on this show the most was this. the idea that the supreme court is restricting women's rights. unmarried women, which is a prime target for democrats to get out and vote in november, already compose 23% of voters. that's as of 2012. 67% of them in 2012 voted for barack obama over mitt romney. is this an issue that is going to turn out to be actually ironically a boon for democrats? >> i think this issue can 100%
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be a boon for democrats, but we have to keep hammering it home. we have to keep the heat on and make sure people continue to understand how devastating this is. i want to throw out a statistic about workers. in the past 35 years, ceos made 875% increase in wages. workers had a 5% increase in wages. we're not talking about buying aspirin. birth control is expensive, particularly if you don't make a lot of money. it is also a benefit that your employer gives you. we don't tell you what to do with your bonuses. they should not be telling you what to do with your health care. so that's how we need to be talking about it. and we have to keep pushing these issues. this is what happens when you put republicans in charge. you lose control. you lose ground. >> and mark, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the republican reaction to the hobby lobby decision. initially a lot of elation on the right. it is, indeed, a big win for the religious right. let's listen to our colleague chuck todd on "meet the press" this sunday talking about why that might be a bit premature. >> let's go to the raw politics of this.
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normally it used to be social conservative movement used to quietly hope for losses on the supreme court because it gave them a political reason for existing. it gave them something to campaign for. it gave them somebody to beat up. what was fascinating post hobby lobby is how frankly excited democratic campaigns were acting. like, we have something to run on here on the left. the swing vote in these midterm elections is women. it is white women of basically 40 to 55. >> mark, democrats running a woman candidate against mitch mcconnell in kentucky. you have kay hagan in north carolina. a lot of women on the ballot. is this going to wind up being the issue the democrats push to the front? >> we still have some time to go, but it is one chuck just mentioned that they are excited about. one of the big reasons why is that contraception has just been a loser for republicans. pretty much since the contraception debate started to occur in 2012. you look how president obama was able to use contraception as an issue, hitting mitt romney in states like virginia and
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colorado in that 2012 presidential election. also look at the 2013 gubernatorial race in virginia. terry mcauliffe was able to win. a lot of ads focused on contraception and how his opponent, ken cuccinelli, was opposed. you see the more the debate is about contraception, not about an abortion. remember, abortion sometimes has been a 50/50 issue in american politics depending on how you ask the question in polls. that's been a big stand-still debate. but republicans have not been able to crack the code when the debate is purely about contraception, and democrats are very delighted about that. >> not least of which because the language that gets used becomes anti-woman. not even sort of. >> i think they often open their mouths and make it sound like this is about women getting away with something, about consequence-free sex. we had the famous 2012 legitimate rape phrase. what you're seeing on the part of republicans is they're really trying to take that 50/50 abortion debate that mark
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mentioned and try to sort of inflict it on obamacare and say, oh, we're being forced to cover abortion-inducing drugs. i think, you know, the american people are able to look at this and say, the morning after pill, the iud, these are not abortion. these are part of earned benefits. these are low-income employees being pitted against billionaires. >> also, there's a demographic issue. we just put up the chart, i would love to put them back up again, that shows how much more women are unmarried women. unmarried women are a growing demographic whereas married women, that black line at the top, are actually declining. so unmarried women are actually a growing force populationwise. are they also a growing electoral force? >> i think they can be. they've shown they've been in the past. not always in midterms, the way we'd like them to be. they absolutely can be. the thing is insulting them, which is what republicans do. if you're unmarried, somehow you're immoral. it's not that you went on to law school, working your way on the partner track. it's because you're immoral. when you walk to women that way, guess what?
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they don't support you when you insult them. so i think it's important for democrats to -- we also have to be careful. we can't just rely on people to say, oh, republicans are crazy, they're insulting women. we have to be better. >> mark, last word to you. i want to find out about republican women. we haven't really heard from a lot of republican women. do we have women lawmakers on capitol hill or other female political leaders on the republican side weighing in on this issue? if so, what are they saying? >> not that much other than the standard republican response that this was a victory for religious liberty. joy, one thing worth noting, the big terrain, the big battles that are going to occurring in the 2014 midterm races on the senate side are going to be in conservative states like arkansas, louisiana, north carolina. the republican operatives i speak with think that in those states the religious liberty argument is one that resonates more than in other states, maybe like a virginia, like colorado. so that's important to note. but there are some, you know, female candidates who are going
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to be running on the republican side in some of these senate and gubernatorial races this year. they're hoping that their female candidates help them a lot, but as chuck mentioned in that clip you just played, women are going to perhaps be the deciding voters and in a lot of cases the deciding candidates. >> i can tell you, anecdotal evidence from essence fest is women are hot on this issue. they are not amused. we'll see if that continues and plays out at the ballot box. thank you, all. coming up, we reid between the lines on separating friend from foe. sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this parade honoring america's troops. which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years. aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. right, but i don't look like that.
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remember back in january of 1998 when then-first lady hillary clinton said this? >> the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy
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that has been conspireing against my husband since the day he announced for president. >> when hillary clinton said that on the "today" show, she was derided by some as just making excuses for her husband, who at the time was being relentlessly pursued by special prosecutor ken star on everything from the failed land deal called white water to his affair with white house intern monica lewinsky. turns out that while the conspiracy may not have been vast, its existence was documented in "the hunting of the president." it included the arkansas project at the conservative american spectator, which launched a series of investigations into clinton's sex life while he was governor of arkansas, including the troopergate allegations of state troopers shuttling women to clinton, written by david brock, who now runs media matters, and who first introduced paula jones to the world. it was her lawsuit that ultimately brought us monica lewinsky. there was the western journalism center, a conservative nonprofit
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founded by joseph farrah, who now publishes the right-wing site world knit daily. and investigations into the suicide of clinton family friend and white house aide vince foster, written by christopher ruddy, who now runs the conservative site news mags. the funder was richard mellon scafe, billionaire philanthropist. he died on the fourth of july, a day after his 82nd birthday. as eulogized by "the washington post," he threw his financial support behind conservative newspapers and magazines, including the american spectator and the pittsburgh tribune review. through those organizations, his family based funding entitieent he championed smaller government, low taxes, and a strong national defense. he was friends with j. edgar
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hoover when they were young men. he was a key financial backer of barry goldwater, ronald reagan, newt gingrich, and more recently the tea party group freedom works. he was also an alcoholic with two failed marriages and a professed belief in open marriage, when he acknowledged in a 2008 interview with "vanity fair," in which he also described a pleasant lunch he'd recently had with bill clinton. he told the magazine, philandering is something bill clinton and i have in common, adding, i never met such a charismatic man in my whole life. clinton reportedly gave him an autographed copy of his book, and he made a $100,000 donation to the clinton global initiative. that summer, his paper's editorial board endorsed hillary clinton for president in the primary. the clintons and scafe in the end became friends, which goes to show you there's nothing in this world so persistent as irony. that wraps things up for "the reid report." be sure to visit us online.
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"the cycle" is up next. hey, cyclists. happy monday. >> hey, joy. happy monday to you. >> what's going on today? >> we're going to talk about john boehner a little. you might have heard he's suing the president. we have video of him grilling up on the fourth. but yeah, he's suing the president. there's no concrete legal theory behind what he's doing, and it seems like more political theater. it's taxpayer funded, of course. we're going to dig into that with perry bacon. >> sounds good. you grill, sue the president. it's summer. >> straight bacon. no big whoop. >> "the cycle" comes up next. is. setting up the perfect wedding day begins with arthritis pain and two pills. afternoon arrives and feeling good, but her knee pain returns... that's two more pills. the evening's event brings laughter, joy, and more pain... when jamie says... what's that like six pills today? yeah... i can take 2 aleve for all day relief. really, and... and that's it. this is kathleen... for my arthritis pain, i now choose aleve.
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cannabis and chaos in washington. hours before the first legal marijuana shops open for business, there's already a pot shortage. got to get that fixed. and congress returns to d.c. from the fourth of july holiday as president obama declares his independence from republicans. speaker john boehner is turning up the heat on president obama over executive power, and that's john boehner turning up the heat as he grills on independence day. the meat is looking good there, john. he posted that video on the instagram, but the speaker of the house says he won't back down on the lawsuit accusing the president of using executive action to change federal law instead of executing it. speaker boehner writes, quote, what's disappointing is the president's flippant dismissal of the constitution we're both sworn to defend. in my view, the president has
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not faithfully executed the laws when it comes to a range of issues, including his health care law, energy regulations, foreign policy, and education. the speaker still has yet to detail a specific action the lawsuit will target, but that's not stopping him from seeking authorization from the house to sue. as for the president, the white house refuses to be consumed by this. our friend perry bacon is senior political reporter for nbc news, and of course he's been writing about all of this. why the president is, quote, embracing a fight with congress. perry, this cis much ado about absolutely nothing. this president has really not done that many executive orders. there's him versus other presidents for first terms. even if to you extend it out to six and eight years, he's behind everybody except ford and the first bush, who of course, are one termers. even jfk, who only had three-some years had more executive orders than the president's had