sidewalk to discuss the issues of the day. seems like there's a buffer zone around the supreme court one that keeps it away from reality. that does it for "the cycle." "now with alex wagner" starts right now. >> welcome back, congress. the border battle awaits. it's monday, july 7th, and this is "now." >> congress returns to a border crisis. >> thousands of undocumented immigrants find themselves in the middle of a raging debate. >> what do you do when the immigrants are children? >> we are a country that hopefully does the right thing. >> i want to tell the president don't turn your back on these kids. >> the problem turns on the very definition of asylum. >> it's fairly hard to deport the children immediately. >> the one hand, they say he doesn't follow the law that he's an emperor. >> the law states these kids have to stay until they get their immigration hearing. >> when it comes to unaccompanied minor he should

forget about the loss. >> we need to find out who's bringing the children, making the money. >> are these folks going to get deported or not? history says most of them won't. >> it's becoming uglier. >> the republican platform specifically says no to amnesty. >> see how you can effectively win the presidency in 2016 if you adopt self-deportation as the republican view toward immigration. the fourth of july weekend may be over but there is no stopping the fireworks over immigration. lawmakers return from their holiday recess today to face a mounting political battle as immigrant families and advocates marched to the white house and turned their frustrations over the border crisis towards the president. >> i want to tell the president to don't turn your back on the kids. they need your help. >> mr. president, we have suffered for many years through your subpar immigration. today, we don't have high

expectations, but we have reasonable expectations. don't disappoint us, mr. president. >> whether the president's actions will disappoint or simply be rebuffed by congress once again, remains to be seen. tomorrow the white house will detail a formal request for $2 billion to deal with the surge of uncompanied immigrant children, many fleeing poverty and violence in central america. the request comes as new reports on deportation data are sure to fuel more debate over the administration's handling of the crisis. immigration and customs enforcement data released shows the numbers of minors deported steadily falling under president obama. it's true, president obama is to blame for giving those border kids a pass. it is not exactly true. the drop in dough poretation of minors begins in 2008, the year a man named president george w. bush signed the trafficking victims protection reauthorization act which put in place additional protections for

unaccompanied children. white house spokesman josh earnest said today the numbers are evidence that contrary to its critics the administration is doing its job. >> there's some suggestions from our opponents that the problem here is the president's not enforcing the law. the fact is, the president is enforcing the law. and what we are seeking is greater authority to more effectively enforce that law, that would allow the administration to act more quickly in some cases to return children from the country where they originated. >> it is precisely that request to make deportations quicker and more efficient that may not go over so well with those who march to the white house today, pleading for the president's mercy. joining me now is democratic congressman from arizona's third congressional district and the co-chair of the congressional progressive caucus raul grava. plett me start with the controversy of the day, as it pertains to this crisis, whether the president should go to the border when he is in texas this week. do you think he should?

or do you not think it's an issue? >> i think it's been made into an issue, but, you know, i think in the long term and this issue is not going to go away tomorrow while he's in austin and dallas, it's going to be with us that the border lands deserve a presidential visit. it's a complex issue. we're talking about economics, we're talking cultural issue, we're talking high degrees of poverty on this side of the border, and so i think a visit by the president is reaffirming that the border lands along the southwest border are vital and important to the station. so i think a visit would be important and very symbolic. >> what do you make of the white house's suggestive policy at this point or the suggestions from josh earnest that the administration would like to make it easier to deport these children? is that a good idea? >> no, i don't think it is. i think we -- i think the fight when we get back and beginning on tuesday, is going to be over

changing that 2008 bush law, that caveat in that law which extended custodial care to the children from specific countries, salvador and guatemala, and the effort by republicans and democrats to undo that piece of it, to give that legislative authority then to the president to deport those children without the process of review, without the process of asylum, without the process of refugee status. so to me, that -- the law was created because of a humanitarian crisis, that crisis continues, and to lessen it, get rid of it, expedite it, deportations is not the answer to me. >> my question is, what happens to the $2 billion the white house is requesting from congress? a lot of folks say that's not going to come without strings attached and one may, in fact, be the rollback of those provision in the 2008 bush era

law? >> no. there's no question that the majority in the house of representatives are going to have significant strings. they're going to have issues dealing with more and more enforcement. they're going to try to turn the package, which is -- deals also with humanitarian relief and aid to those countries, into something that is purely an enforcement issue. i think that's going to be the debate in front of congress. it is about children. i think that should move some people to consider due diligence in the law to make sure that we are protecting and providing custodial support for these children until we understand what their status is. to make a blanket judgment that every child should not fear for their life, should not fear the violence in their country, i think is a slap in the face of due process and more importantly, the diligence that needs to be done with children. >> congressman raul, it is great to see you. thank you for taking the time

today. >> no problem. thank you so much. with me now is washington bureau chief for buzzfeed, john stanton. john, thanks for joining me. you heard the congressman critical of the white house position, also saying it's -- it's time for the president to visit the border. i'm shocked at how quickly this has turned from an issue that's bad tore republicans and democrats, to one that seems to be heading in the direction of being really worse for the administration than anyone else. given the fact that the solution to this lies with the republican party and specifically the house republican caucus? >> yeah. i mean i think that, you know, the policy end, getting things through congress quickly will be at least some sort of a band-aid on this thing, start stemming the tide of migrants coming through. the problem the administration has, they did see some of this coming. they passed this law in 2008 because they saw congress and the bush administration saw this as an issue. >> wasn't that law more for trafficking and not sort of unaccompanied minors fleeing

violence? >> trafficking of children. they had seen it coming. they may not have realized the reasons behind it, but people saw it coming. if you talk to folks on the border, activists over the last two or three years, they've seen the steady increase of kids coming across the border. the administration found itself caught in a bit of a bind politically. they couldn't really go to the congress and say look, we think there's going to be this big influx of immigrants, we're going to need a lot of money, facilities and support to deal with it and they seemed to have tried to just hide that problem and try to shuffle things around as best they could. suddenly it exploded in the last two months and they have this big mess on their hanss. >> what -- the rnc is fund-raising today in an e-mail blast, rnc spokesperson izzy santa writes honestly the president's action is fitting. after all he did promise immigration reform within his first year in office and didn't do anything. this is an amazing line coming from the rnc. house republicans standing in the way of immigration reform.

that is a line that could have been said by immigration advocates. the president who has been criticized as the deporter in chief is advocating a strategy to increase the number of deportations. you've reported on this. tell us how easy or hard it is for the children to get asylum in the united states once they cross the border? >> because of the 2008 law in particular, a lot of these kids will qualify on the front end for an asylum hearing. a lot could in theory get asylum if they don't have parents that they can be returned to or if they can prove in some way that by being returned, it puts them in greater risk of being trafficked again or of dying. the problem is that when you are in a deportation holding facility or any kind of place on the border, you don't have a lawyer, you can't get the documentation, proving an asylum case is extraordinarily difficult under u.s. law. and even when you can begin to prove that, in a lot of case, judges are unsympathetic. in el paso, for instance, between 2007 and 2012, the

judges there denied 87% of the asylum claims. >> which is a staggering number, 87% denial. >> much higher than the national rate. the national rate about 51%. they are facing a system that is difficult to navigate if you're an adult, adult with a legal education. >> a child with legal representation. >> they have no idea what they're dealing with. they probably have little conception of what u.s. immigration would look like. they're being forced in the situation where they have to try to prove this and then they're going to have to then prove if you send me back to honduras or el salvador, i will be put in greater danger than if i say. that is a high bar. most of the lawyers i've talked to certainly think the vast majority of these kids will get sent home. >> if you talk about like proving that case, the resources at the border are nonexistent. more lawyers were sent down several weeks ago. in terms of providing representation and the folks to help, you know, a migrant child and/or his or her mother to help them prove this case, to get the

paperwork, to get evidence if you will, there's no one there. >> no. and lawyers that were sent down were not sent to help them. they were sent to help process the cases on the government's behalf. there are few non-profit organizations that work along the border. there are a lot of sketchy lawyers that, you know, milk people of money and they sort of make all these promises that won't actually ever come true. you know, it's asylum cases are tricky pieces of law, done very much on a case-by-case basis and most asylum attorneys won't get involved unless they see a way to make some kind of money out of it frankly. >> if you're looking at the situation, before we let you go, the congressman is espousing a point of view not heard a lot in this debate about what's happening at the border which is we shouldn't necessarily deport these kids. a lot are coming from really bad situations. the narrative on the democratic side of the aisle is we've got to do something about it, we need more resources and handled appropriately but the sort of conventional wisdom because

we're going to return them back to guatemala, honduras and el salvad salvador. do you think that's the case? >> i don't see the democrats stepping out and becoming champions of keeping them here. there are some like the congressman but doesn't look politically like it's a feasible thing right now. >> you are doing awesome reporting on this issue and know more about the border. buzzfeed's john stanton, thanks for your time. after the break as violence escalates in jerusalem the crisis between israelis and palestinians spreads new fears of the next intifada. the latest next on "now." avo: waves don't care what age you are. take them on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day men's 50+. a complete multivitamin with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. age? who cares.

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fears of a new intifada in israel are edging closer to reality. three days after the funeral of a 16-year-old palestinian boy, mohammad abu khdeir reportedly beaten and burned alive, and one week after three israeli teenagers were buried after found dead in a jerusalem forest the violent clashes and retaliation continue. last night in east jerusalem street clashes broke out between israeli forces and young palestinian protesters and early this morning israeli air strikes killed seven hamas fighters in gaza. hamas is vowing to avenge their deaths warning on their website the zionist enemy will pay a heavy price. already, hamas is claiming responsibility for firing 60 rockets into southern israel earlier today. this weekend, a brutal video showing israeli fors beating and detaining ab but khdeir's

15-year-old cousin went viral. ayman mohyeldin spoke to him yesterday after his release. >> reporter: brutally beaten on thursday when police took him during clashes. back home, he showed me his bruises. >> they started stepping on my back and beating me from behind. and here's when they were punching me and kicking. >> what happened to your wrist right here. >> these are from the handcuffs with when they took me to jail. >> the state department said officials were profoundly troubled by the incident. hours ago according to the associated press three of the six israeli suspects arrested for the killing of mohammad abu khedare confested to the crimes and have not been identified. joining me senior fellow on u.s. national security policy in the middle east and south asia at the center for american progress brian cuetulllus. thanks for joining me. especially in light of hamas' statement and their actions today, how concerned are you

this escalating considerably? >> very concerned. this is starting to look like the situation back in 2012, at the end of 2012, when secretary clinton when to egypt and israel to broker a cease-fire. this is a similar sort of situation. it's not quite there yet, but with these rockets being launched and hamas taking credit for it, that's a very dangerous situation. >> what of the israeli government? there are convicting ideas about how much responsibility they bear here? vox.com has a headline that says former security chief blame the israeli government, not the palestinians, for the crisis. >> anything with israelis and palestinians there's ten sides to every story that comes out of there. the situation inside of israel is you've got a center right government that itself is divided. prime minister netanyahu's foreign minister said he's going to leave the coalition government, pull his party out of that coalition. so there are people saying that the prime minister of israel is not acting strongly enough. there are -- >> are they going to sue him like our -- i'm kidding. trying to make a parallel to our government.

>> they might press him because if you look at the recent polls inside of israel, there's been a rise on some part of the right wing and there's also been a rise in the left. there's been this fracturing. israel itself is divided and what we've seen right now is a lot of restraint believe it or not when it comes to gaza compared to what israel did in 2008 and 2012, similar situations. let's see what happens, though, in the next day or so. >> oh, yeah. let's see is an important part of this. the fact that there is a u.s. citizen mired in this situation, do you think that changes the administration's calculus? >> well look, i think the specific incident, we need clear answers. americans want to know how this young man was beaten up and quite clearly you see the photos there, it's awful and the video looks terrible too. the israeli authorities claim that he was resisting arrest and he was involved in some violent acts. we don't know yet the exact facts of the case but we need to get to the bottom of this. but these incidents unfortunately happen quite a lot in this area. the bigger policy issue in my

view is whether the united states can help deescalate the tensions in the region. >> well and that is the question, right. kerry made the nobel efforts to broker a broader peace and seem i won't say failed, because it's an ongoing process, but how do you grade the administration's efforts thus far in this region in particular. >> overall it's an incomplete. the region is in turmoil. much of the blame on the shoulders of the leaders of the region. what's interesting on the israeli/palestinian front the leader of the palestinian authority, mahmoud abbas, the territories he controls, the last few days have been actually relatively quiet. >> calm. >> calm. and that's interesting. he's much more of a pragmatist than some of the other leaders in the region but quite often he's not spup ported the way he could be. >> it is as they say a fluid situation. thank you for sharing your time and thoughts. great to see you from the center for american progress. coming up, escape from boko har haram. reports about the whereabouts of

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enjoy the relief. it has been nearly two months since the kidnapping of nearly 300 nigerian school girls by the islamist group boko ha m haram. two months since the world was outraged and rallied around the call to bring back our girls. although the international attention may have faded, those girls have still not been brought back. they are still at the mercy of boko haram a group that would rather enslave girls than have them in school. the girls are not the only ones. one month after those hundreds of school girls were kidnapped the world wasn't paying as much attention but another 68 women and girls were abducted in a town in northeastern nigeria and today there are reports that most of these girls have escaped from their captors. nbc news is unable to independently confirm these reports, but according to the bbc, more than 60 women and

girls managed to escape from boko haram. several of these women have arrived at a nearby hospital. one local resident described them as very distressed and very lean, noting they have gone through a very terrible ordeal. just ahead, are north carolina voter id laws the new jim crow? some north carolinians think so. al sharpton joins me to talk abe the future of voter suppression. that's coming up next. ] this is, cameron, zach, and clementine. we have a serious hairball issue. we clean it up, turn around, and there it is again. it's scary. little bit in my eye. [ michelle ] underneath the kitchen table, underneath my work desk, we've got enough to knit a sweater. [ doorbell rings ] zach, what is that? the swiffer sweeper. the swiffer dusters. it's some sort of magic cloth that sucks in all the dog hair. it's quick and easy. pretty amazing that it picked it all up. i would totally take on another dog. [ kevin ] really? ♪

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today the winston-salem, the justice department and civil rights group including the naacp and the aclu began arguments in federal court challenging north carolina's voter id law. at issue whether the law should be put on hold until after this year's midterm elections. next summer the constitutionality of the law is expected to be argued in a full

trial. north carolina has one of the most controversial id laws in the nation. the voter information verification act was signed into law by republican governor pat mccrory at the time governor mccrory hailed it as a popular law, but, in fact, a better description would have been the worst voter suppression effort in the country. an argument reiterated today by those challenging the law. >> this bill is about identifying certain categories of voters, that's what this is about. identifying certain populations and then conjuring up a political scheme to try to suppress the vote. >> the law requires voters to present a photo id at polls starting in 2016 and eliminated same day voter registration, reduced the number of early voting days from 17 to 10 and there is no longer preregistration available for 16 and 17-year-olds. that last provision has opened up a whole new front in the voting right debate. joining the lawyers who argue

that the law adversely affects minorities and the poor will be ones representing seven college students who argue the law violates the 26th amendment of the u.s. consti tution. that amendment declares that right to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the united states or any state on account of age. the hearing, which could have major implications for the fate of voter suppression efforts across the country, is expected to last up to four or five days. joining me now is the host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network the reverend al sharpton. it is always good to see you. especially on such an important day. i guess i -- just to start with north carolina, what do you think makes this hearing different? i feel like there are voter suppression efforts across the country, judges have taken up the issue, but this one really feels like it has a different kind of momentum. would you agree with that? >> i think it has a different kind of momentum because north

carolina has been particularly egregious in the laws that it set up that led to in my judgment the suppression of the vote. i mean, almost from the beginning i've been involved with others in the civil rights community, talking about the impact of these laws being changed and we had to in 2012 get people to come out and vote and stand in huge lines to show we would overcome where the impediments are. north carolina, by far, had some of the most egregious laws put in place. i think those of us that encourage the justice department and others to come in, are certainly watching this because if you can get some kind of judicial relief in north carolina, it would stand to reason that it would be easier in other parts of the country. >> yeah. rev, the william barber, the president of the north carolina naacp said yesterday this is the

worst voter suppression law we have seen since the days of jim crow. it is a full on assault on the voting rights of minorities. what is powerful in terms of that comparison to jim crow is the increasingly broad coalition we're seeing. the entrance of students into this debate. civil rights groups. this is becoming -- there was a lot of talk, republicans kept saying this is about voter fraud. this is very clearly a civil rights issue and as -- go ahead. >> it is definitely a civil rights issue, and three or four years ago, when we started talking about that, the naacp, aclu, people said that it was just something that was normal about being able to identify voters. but let's be real clear, alex, we always had the ability to identify voters. we always use id. why do we need a special government id now? and as you see the students come

in, new york, times did a front page story over it, they're raising an element beyond what we raised about race and seniors, they're saying as young people, they're being discriminated against. we're dealing with the north carolina the ability of 16 and 17-year-olds preparing to vote, dealing with the fact that a lot of young people don't buy cars. they have no reason to have a driver's license. or many have an out of state driver's license, which in north carolina is not allowable. or many go to state universitieses and even with their state college card can't vote. so to have the element of the young or the age debate, to have the race debate, and to have other debates, only in my judgment gives a -- what they would call preponder rance of the evidence to the court on why this ought to be stopped until it's argued next year. >> it also gives a preponderance of evidence as to why one should

maybe vote democrat in the election, right? there is a whole line of thinking that, you know, as these issues come to the fore and republicans are forced to say where they stand on issues like contraception or voting rights, it is very, very bad for the republican party and very clearly shows a difference between the two parties. i mean, you talk about young people. this is a whole generation of young people who are effectively being denied the right to preregister to vote by the republican party. >> and let us remember that in north carolina, the demographic that the president won, president obama won, was the college aged demographic. it might have something to do with why republicans are targeting and stopping that age group from voting. >> you know, rev, before we let you go, because you are a busy man, i wonder if behind closed doors, and you're in the many conversations you've had around this issue, whether you get a sense from moderate republicans,

perhaps, that they are really on the wrong side of history here. i mean when you look at the facts, one sense is that there must be some moral compass that is spinning in certain corners of the republican party because they know what they are doing is underhanded and wrong? >> i get a sense, i can't say any of them have verbalized it, but i get a sense they know it's wrong and they know it is not even politically wise because, as we saw in some states, what happened with bishop curry and operation eliminate in florida, they're energizing a vote to come out. >> yeah. >> they are actually, in many ways, giving people that may have -- not had the energy and not have the passion to vote, a reason to say, i'm not going to let them do this to me. you know, you said jim crow. i say it's james crow jr., es zire. it's a modern version of what jim crow did. they're trying to, in many ways,

sanitize it and make it look better. but i don't care how you try and polish it up, it is the same voter suppression scheme and it must be resisted. >> nothing rocks the vote like trying to block the vote. reverend al sharpton, thank you, as always, for your time and thoughts. it's great to see you. >> good to see you. >> do not forget to catch rev tonight and every week day night on "politics nation" 6:00 p.m. eastern right here, of course, on msnbc. coming up, some republicans, some republicans, this is a hard sentence to read, actually miss george w. bush. and it is not because of his paintings. details on that are straight ahead. [ female announcer ] there's a gap out there. that's keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. at humana, we believe if healthcare changes, if it becomes simpler... if frustration and paperwork decrease...

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hillary has been to this rodeo a bunch of times. she is in public service because she cares about the same folks that i talk to here today. as soon as you jump back into the spotlight in a more explicitly political way, you're

going to be like this. >> that was president obama last week defending his former secretary of state and one-time rival hillary clinton. how is hillary clinton returning the favor? she's not. really. here's the former secretary in aspen last week giving her views on the nation's health care law. >> there wasn't anything else that could pass. it was cobbled together. everybody who worked on it would tell you it's cobbled together. here she is weighing on the economic recovery three days before unemployment fell to its lowest level since 2008. >> so many americans are really, really nervous. they don't think the economy has recovered in a way that has helped them or their families. >> then the former secretary's not so subtle dig last month at the president's leadership skills. >> some people can paint a beautiful vision and thankfully we can all learn from that, but then can you, with the tenacity, the persistence, the -- getting

knocked down, getting back up, resilience, can you lead us there? >> for all the everything's great, move along, nothing to see here attitude, the appointments and the public good vibes and the convention speeches and the joint interviews, underneath it all, hillary clinton and barack obama are still pretty different people with pretty different ideas about governance. as "the wall street journal" reports in tone and substance the presumed presidential candidate has made clear in recent public appearances that she wouldn't be running for a de facto third obama term in the white house. the strategy could help miss clinton tackle one of her biggest challenges, if she decides to run, how to separate herself from mr. obama without alienating democrats and obama supporters. joining me now is political editor and white house correspondent at "the huffington post" sam stein and senior reporter at the republic. let me start with you then,

being a man of such great import in the publishing world, is this -- is this truly a fundamental difference? is there some like truly between these two leaders or is this clintonen political calculus given the president's approval ratings and not wanting to be anchored to a guy not doing so well in the public imagination? >> look as that journalist pointed out always some attempt to distance yourself from the incumbent even if his poll numbers were unusually high for a second term president she would want to put distance between herself and the incumbent if only to provide a rationale for her candidacy. that's just inevitable, that's just the nature of these things. you know, that said, her -- she does have a challenge and she does have, you know, a different way of viewing these things, and, you know, in my own conversations with democrats, i spent a few weeks talking to a

bunch of captains for obama in iowa in 2008 and actually the hillary way of doing things of being a little more pragmatic and a little less kind of pie in the sky, at least in terms of the rhetoric, it did hold some appeal. i think there was disillusionment all the promise of change and all the promise of reforming the system in washington and the way politics was done, it clearly wasn't fulfilled and i think people got a little frustrated with that. to the extent that hillary can cast her lot with that approach, a little more pragmatic, a little more rolling your sleeves up and getting your hands dirty, i think that has some appeal among democrats. >> sam, i'm surprised at how explicit it is. the fact that hillary clinton said i mean some people can paint a beautiful vision and then to paraphrase her, basically says, can you deliver on that? it's not sarah palin's hopey changey thing, but it's not -- i mean it's pretty critical of this administration. she's not referring to john mccain painting a beautiful

vision and her comments on the affordable care act where she says it was cobbled together, i was surprised she was that upfront in her criticism. >> the affordable care comments have the virtue of being true but the president could never say that publicly because it would diminish his health care law. everyone recognizes this. the difference between hillary clinton and barack obama has always been sort of one of tone and approach and not substance. i remember in the 2008 primary, they had a real difficult time figuring out where they disagreed on anything other than foreign policy and iraq war vote and came down to the individual mandate, she was for it, and he was against it. she's always said she's more of a pragmatist when it comes to cobbling coalitions with regard to governance and he's more of a visionary. that's why that quote doesn't surprise me. that was the difference we saw in 2008. it's the one area where a democrat can say look the president failed to get congress to move in part because she didn't get his finger nails dirty and use the elbow grease.

>> were you surprised about her assessment of the economy? >> not at all. the people around hillary clinton, the pollsters, advisors, have said the toughest thing to do is talk about an improving economy when people feel like they're being left behind and she's trying to do it in a way not sultsing to the information, progress is being made but more needs to happen. the white house is trying to do that from a different vantage point than someone outside the administration. >> it's not mission accomplished, obviously. but when the clintons get involved in the economic discussion and you've pointed this out in a piece on the nome republic website today, you make the point that i mean hillary, sort of -- it's a bifurcated stream. you can talk about the plutocracy and the incredible concentration of wealth at the top of the american economy and/or the struggle of working and middle-class americans and the clintons have opted for the latter than the former because it's a lot more comfortable. it's friendlier territory for them. how difficult do you think that

needle will be to thread in the coming years? >> a little difficult. yeah. i mean they're clearly two separate issues jumbled together under the rubric of inequality. one the plutocracy phenomenon, the pulling away of the ultrarich from everybody else and the other the middle class stagnation issue, a perennial theme there in the '90s, president clinton got high marks in dealing with it. i think her strategy is to keep those issued jumbled together. she wants basically credibility on everything that goes into the rubric of inequality, but only wants to talk about that latter thing, the economic stagnation. the obvious reason you have to raise money to run for president, raise a lot of money from a lot of rich people and those rich people don't want you going around the country talking about plutocracy and what it's doing to our country. i think she's going to try to muddle those two together. it remains to be seen whether the democratic base will allow her. she's going to get pressure from progressives even if there's no challenger like an elizabeth

warren type figure. she will get pressure from progressives to state where she stands on the mu tocracy issues. that's her strategy. unclear whether she's going to pull it off. she's going to have to say what she's going to do about the plutocracy thing and has room to do it. these people on wall street are not stupid. they understand the pressure in the party and country. i think they would give her space. she should do it rather than later. >> she is sort of a biographical problem here. >> yes. her husband repealed glass steagall. >> there's that element of it, the clinton administration's policies, there's the fact that bill clinton has raised copious amounts of money from wall street for his foundation and then keep in mind, she's had these difficulties answering questions. but one of the key moments from the 2012 campaign was bill clinton kind of defending mitt romney on the bain capital stuff and blew up in his face. there's always been this difficulty that the clintons have when talking about -- i think some has to it with his

own policies and world view, the fact that they're from new york, these things will be thrown back at her when she does talk about plutocracy and income inequality. >> nome, i have to address the rich absurdity of edward klein's piece in the "new york post," which i excerpted. i can't even describe -- rich absurdity the phrase that came to mind. quoted an anonymous white house official, obamas believe that speaking of a warren challenge to hillary clinton, the obamas believe warren seems things from the same ideological point of view as they do. she is a committed progressive who like obamas want to transform america into a european style democratic socialist state. unname white house official not quoted saying warren like obama is a muslim. i'm kidding. the notion, though, that somehow this administration would like to see a candidate to the left of hillary, to perhaps validate its world view and its -- i

guess we're ascribing a progressive bent to this white house although probably beg to differ, do you think there's any kernel of truth there? >> no, i don't. i think that the sort of pragmatic white house view is hillary is where it's at. if for no other reason they think she can win and that she can kind of consolidate the obama legacy. they realize if a democrat isn't in the white house following obama, the affordable care act is very much a kind of up in the air proposition and they think hillary can get the job done. i think they're pretty much invested in this hillary campaign as much as anybody else in the democratic party at this point. >> let me ask you that, sam. how much do you think there is a real concern? a republican president would go in there and try to repeal the affordable care act in 2016? >> i mean from the people i talk to, they seem fairly satisfied that by 2016, we will all be embedded enough no one will be crazy enough to take away entitlement or subsidies to

purchase health care, the headlines republicans would bring upon themselves would be radically bad for them. you know, if anything's been proven over the past year or two, house republicans are willing to go to great extremes to placate their base. i wouldn't rule out the possibility of someone running in 2016 on the republican side with the promise when they get into the white house, they will repeal the affordable care act or defund the whole thing. one last thing on ed klein's book. i read it today. >> you're still standing. >> it's beautiful. >> your brain hasn't turned -- >> the passages are beautiful, anonymous quotes are beautiful. >> what do you mean beautiful? >> they're hilarious, wonderful, it's a fictional -- i think it's a fick shannal -- >> sat irsatire. >> i would recommend going out and buying it. it's not the worst $15 you could spend. >> sam stein making dubious book recommendations. thank you. sam and nome, for your time. >> thanks for having us.

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the good old days of economic malfeasance, waterboarding, nonexistent exit strategies, environmental malpractice and the shadow administration of dick cheney. perhaps pining for the republican xwoess of the recent past, amnesia a little more towards the frontal lobe. fear not, for $5 the national republican senatorial committee is peddling a romney was here bumper sticker with your name on it. what better way to commemorate the 47% self-deportation, trickle down economic policy, binders full of women, and $10,000 bets. one might think that for republicans looking back may not be the best idea. then again, given the current direction of the party, maybe that is actually the best way to go. that's all for now. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is coming up next. good evening. welcome to "the ed show."

i am ari melber in for ed. let's get to work. >> it's been a violent fourth of july weekend in chicago. >> tragic weekend in chicago. >> more than 60 people have been shot, nine died. >> isis presents a direct threat to the homeland and syria now iraq. >> chicago has had a devastating record of violence in recent years. >> the police have had their hands full this weekend. >> it's not like a hurricane or earthquake. this didn't have to happen. >> the white house on down to the city there should be a response. >> mayor ram emanuel declined to address the violence this weekend. >> what do we do? how do we stop this? >> they feel abandoned. >> the victims range from teens to a 60-year-old woman. >> if we get down to 1,000 troops by 2017 it will haunt us far worse than iraq iraq. >> hundreds of