just another way we put members first, because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. nationwide is on your side. up, down, left and right. hillary clinton has got no problems on her left in our new iowa, new hampshire stwingts teen polls. chris christie still has problems on the right and in the middle and rand paul's upward rise is about more than just the right. meantime for 2014, top republican women in the senate try to counter the democrats' craving for a gender divide to drive the midterm messmessage. today we'll talk to the former

republican lawmaker who started it all and has become a political punch line for democrats, todd akin. and don't miss a special tdr 50 look at an issue that has perplexed presidents for decades, the reality of roswell, a never-ending cache of questions. and an extraterrestrial engine for a sleepy southwest town. good morning, it's thursday, july 17th, 2014. it's "the daily rundown." we're not just your 2014 campaign headquarters, but also your 2016. let's get to our first read of the morning. our brand new nbc news/marist presidential polls in iowa and new hampshire. new jersey governor chris christie warned americans yesterday to watch out for republican hopefuls running early presidential campaigns. he did so at an investors conference hosted by cnbc yesterday. >> the fact is that you should beware of people, in my opinion,

who are overanxious to make that decision before they need to. that would, it seem, indicate to me ambition before wisdom. >> so naturally where's chris christie today? he's in iowa. he will hold four events in iowa. the thinly veiled explanation for the visit, christie is raising money for five-term governor terry branstad. but remember branstad is among the ten safest incumbents running for re-election in the country. miraculously christie's fitting in meet and greets where his staff made it clear he plans to take questions from reporters who are not interested in the branstad race, by the way. christie is hardly alone. in the next few weeks, at least seven republicans will be visiting iowa. texas governor rick perry will court iowa conservatives this weekend. he headlines two republican

dinners and meets with veterans and emergency responders. on august 4th, it's rand paul who will raise money in the hawk wa state. he'll do so for congressman steve king before speaking at a republican party event the follow two days. on the 9th, perry along with ted cruz, bobby jindal, mike huckabee and rick santorum will all be in ames for the evangelical family leadership summit. of course the 2016 action isn't all on the republican side. today in detroit vice president joe biden will speak for the first time in front of the largest gathering of progressive and liberal activists in the country, called net roots nation. if there's any chance for a democrat not named hillary to somehow emerge as a serious challenger, they'd need to become by becoming the darling of this crowd here on the left. unfortunately for biden, the message from our polls is pretty crystal clear. there's just no craving for an alternative to hillary clinton. iowa democrats helped end hillary clinton's first presidential campaign but she is

crushing biden among just these same voters. she's ahead of him by 50, 5-0, points, 70 to 20. in new hampshire her lead is 56 points, 74-18. her favorable rating among iowa democrats is 89%. among new hampshire democrats, it's 94%. that is unheard of for anybody at this point in time. a second big takeaway from our poll as christie heads to iowa, a sizeable number of republican voters still dislike him. christie has always had trouble with conservatives. this week a group is spending $75,000 on a website to coincide with christie's trip and it's all about slamming christie for his judicial picks. >> one christie appointee, the chief justice, is a democrat, so liberal he was mentioned as a potential barack obama nominee to the u.s. supreme court. christie even endorsed obama's liberal supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. >> you saw how they show

christie with obama in new jersey. as you know, many conservatives still haven't forgiven christie for that public embrace of president obama after hurricane sandy which of course was right before election day in 2012. all of this is reflected in our numbers. 33% of republicans in iowa and 31% of republican voters in new hampshire view christie unfavorably. he is by far the most unpopular republican that we tested in either state and it's not even close. the next most unpopular republican that we tested among republicans is ted cruz. now, christie's path to the nomination has always been his crossover appeal, his ability to argue that he can win some democrats and independents. but that's where this ongoing bridge mess in his state has dragged him down with those middle of the road voters. he's actually now eight points under water among independents in iowa. remember iowa is a swing state in presidential elections, barely even among independents in new hampshire who a year ago looked like the perfect

constituency for any presidential candidacy for christie. the bridge story shows no signs from going away. just about an hour from now, christie's incoming chief of staff is scheduled to testify under subpoena on the bridge mess before a joint legislative committee. yesterday, by the way, christie again denied any wrongdoing. >> someone went rogue on my watch. now listen, i'm accountable for that, and if you haven't watched what's been going on the last six months, i think there's been a decent amount of accountability thrown my way and that i've accepted. >> given christie's erosion in the middle and the fact that he's so deep in the hole with his own party, it's tough to see that path to the nomination. but there is a republican front runner in our poll and his name is not chris christie, it's also not jeb bush. that's the third big takeaway. it's kentucky senator rand paul and the rising of rand paul. he has a 66% favorable rating among republicans in iowa, a whopping 71% favorable rating in

new hampshire. those are the highest positive ratings for any republican that we've tested in either state. and paul does very well against hillary clinton. in fact he does better against her than any other republican who, of course, right now clinton herself is a walk for the nomination at this point. when matched up in a general, paul and clinton are tied at 45 in iowa and clinton leads paul by just three points in new hampshire. he performs better than christie, who is down by a point to clinton in iowa and five in new hampshire and he does better than jeb bush against clinton who trails clinton by four in i with and by five in new hampshire. i want to go to lee, our partner in the marist poll. lee, how are you, sir? >> good morning, chuck. >> one thing we ought to remind folks. we did also match up some primary numbers both in iowa and new hampshire. and the real leader is an invisible face, mr. or mrs. undecided. >> yeah, yeah. this is a very messy picture on the republican side.

we're seeing the patterns you identified. rand paul doing really well, chris christie not so well. but voters -- no one is breaking out of the pack on the republican side and they're unified only in their opposition to hillary clinton at this point. >> the other part of this, we did some second choice numbers as well. i thought it was interesting, particularly in new hampshire, that's where you sort of see the repairing of sorts of marco rubio. that he has -- >> yes. >> -- improved his standing over the last year among conservatives. >> yeah. it's hard at this point to see big patterns, but there's no doubt when you get the second choice numbers, when you drill down, marco rubio then bubbles up a little bit. but let's look at the big picture on these republicans. if you have double digits right now, you're doing really well and that may be 10, 11 or 12 points, so you've got a big undecided and you don't have anybody who's breaking from the pack. it's a really crowded field and the entry fee to this race is

pretty low, so you've got a lot of folks trying it out. >> it is, but i have to say i keep coming back to people like paul ryan, jeb bush and chris christie. and i think those numbers are actually really poor when you think about how well known they are. >> sure. >> when you go to a rand paul who really hasn't been around the national stage and he's the guy. so to me all numbers aren't equal when you look at it in that way. >> absolutely. and you look at rand paul, less well known than these others and the most popular among republicans at this point. that gives a big wake-up call to some of these other folks who are well known who i might say surprisingly aren't doing well. a jeb bush, a chris christie. christie is suffering, as you correctly identified, from the bridge scandal when it comes to the general electorate, but you've got to go back to hurricane sandy when he did the -- it's wonderful, he's marvelous with barack obama right before the presidential election and that did not sit

well and still doesn't with the republican core. >> obviously let's go quickly to hillary clinton. >> sure. >> those -- i'm still just sort of shell shocked. 94% favorable rating among new hampshire democrats, almost at 90 for iowa. there is -- i look at these numbers. there doesn't appear to be any opening for anybody to challenge her if you take them at face value right now. >> hillary is benefiting from a huge gender gap when it comes to the general election, but when it comes to the democrats, she's just getting everybody. so, you know, the issue for hillary clinton is that the democrats are really ready for hillary, but the rest of the country not so. so when you look at iowa and new hampshire, states that barack obama carried both times, well, she's below 50 and running even with someone like rand paul who, as you say, is largely unknown nationally at this point. not a good sign for hillary clinton. >> well, and given that president obama's numbers are below 40%, you wonders how much is he actually right now a drag

on her at this point in time when we're doing these snapshots, lee, our partner our marist, always a pleasure, sir, thank you. >> thank you, chuck. much more on the 2016 battleground next, including christie's push into iowa by the pitched progressive and who's really winning this perry/paul brawl. and later todd akin, two years after his shocking comment on rape and abortion, he's decided to write a book, release it now just in time for the midterm elections. todd akin will join me live. i'll ask him why he's doing this to his party right now. first a look ahead at today's planner. the president heads to delaware to talk infrastructure. will he -- and then he'll go to manhattan for some fund-raisers. when you goes to delaware, will he explain to the public why it's the single most expensive 30 miles you travel by toll in the world. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. avo: waves don't care what age you are.

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look, we're not just using our polls to make this a 2016 bonanza day, it's the candidates themselves that are all over the place on the 2016 front. governor christie will be in iowa today, but he's not escaping the issues that he's still dealing with back home. >> when something like this happens, the first thing is they want to put you in cuffs and send you away. he had to have known. it's become clear now in six months he didn't know. then they go, okay, well geez, if we stay to that equation then we lose, so let's shift it to, all right, he didn't know but he created an atmosphere where this type of thing was permissible. bull. i didn't. >> christie is fascinating that he will talk about the devil's advocate message himself. as our poll demonstrates, not

only has the bridge mess wrecked christie's crossover appeal, many conservatives still aren't fans and donors are still questioning whether he's the guy to unite a fractured republican party. >> populists say international trade is bad for the country. populists say don't think about cutting social security. business republicans say of course you have to do that. immigration, populists say it's bad. how do you knit those together? >> carefully. >> on the democratic side, hillary clinton may be banking $275,000 a speech, but it's vice president biden who will be speaking today. he conceded to an audience of young progressives that hope and change hasn't come as easily as he and the president promised. >> look, folks, this is within our power to change. everybody says because we tried in '08 and it didn't happen,

it's not possible. wrong. we've gone through these periods before. we've gone through these periods. >> bidenism there. joining me now susan paige, jamal simmons and sara fagan who's also a cnbc contributor. let's start with christie here. the man is a fun politician to watch get interviewed, that is for sure. but is he a plausible presidential nominee? >> he comes across as authentic, he says what he thinks. he's not from washington, that's all positive. he is, however, fundamentally out of step with the republican party of today and especially the republicans who nominate their presidential candidates. i don't think the bridge scandal rules him out but i think the reality of the positions he takes as a political figure in new jersey makes it very hard to see him as the nominee. >> i actually looked at that poll and thought he was doing better in iowa than i would have thought he would be doing at this point.

>> did you have his expectations below sea level? >> look, there's ten candidates in your poll and he's hanging right in there with everyone else. these points are a few points apart from each other at the top and there's the big undecided that you pointed out. so he's in fine shape. >> those unfavorable numbers you can't ignore. it's nearly double -- among republicans his unfavorable rating is nearly double against the most -- second most unfavorable. it's not like it's barely there. that seems to be an issue. >> he has a long time to repair his image. it is very early. we haven't even gotten through 2014. i don't think he's sitting in as bad a shape as the two of you seem to think he is. >> when you look at the republican field as a democrat, do you think -- do you still fear christie? do you still fear jeb bush when you look at these numbers? or as a democrat are you going to start fearing rand paul? >> i think it's very hard to see jeb bush or chris christie get out of the republican primary. if they do, i think they're very

formidable general election candidates. i do believe what you end up with in the general election is not so much the every policy that is on the table, it's -- you know, it's the song, it's not necessarily the lyrics. so people want to get a feeling for each one of these people. i think after barack obama, there will be a certain desire to see someone who can kind of go into washington and make things work and bang heads together. i think hillary clinton is that person on the democratic side. people think she's tough enough to make the system work. i think that jeb bush or chris christie might be that person on the republican side. >> i want to go back to you because you tried to combine, okay, i'm going to put all of the establishment republicans here and all of the populist or tea party republicans in this category. do you see it as a neck-in-neck race? >> i think it is a neck-in-neck race but the mainstream republican candidate leads both in iowa and new hampshire. >> so paul may lead individual ye but out of the all the other populist numbers -- >> assume paul ryan or some of

these other folks don't run or become successful, the jeb bush or the chris christie will come out on top. >> i want to go back to this paul question here because i've had this sort of -- is he the front runner, pole position. i think pole position is probably the proper way to describe it. but he has had the best year. you look at jeb, scott walker, christie, line them all up. who's had the best year organizationally, popularitywise and who's connecting with the constituency of today? >> and would we have said that two years ago? think about the rise of rand paul and i think you do have to take him seriously. i think the idea that you compare him to his father is wrong. he's a much more serious contender. the way in which he's like chris christie, he comes across as an authentic person. you ask him a question and he answers it. >> and he'll have an unusual stance. >> and go to unusual places. he's doing deals with cory booker. >> there's little definition on this man right now. as bombs are dropping in the gaza strip, let me just tell you as a republican, rand paul will

not be our nominee. >> and that's 2015. that's what's going to be interesting, cheneys, mccains, the hawkish wing of the party could come down on him hard like a ton of bricks. >> if cheney comes down on him hard, that is bad for him? >> i don't think what cheney does is relevant. i think that the core of the republican party still believes in a strong national defense and american exceptionalism and they are not going to align behind rand paul as their nominee. >> so rand paul lining up to be the howard dean of the republican party. >> that's mark murray's theory, my partner at the political unit. that's what he views it as. the way the establishment piled on dean and destroyed him, but dean wasn't strong enough to withstand it, paul might be. >> you know what strikes me about these polls, it's as though the parties have switched personalities. the republicans usually have a favorite. no favorite this time. the democrats, where is the path for anyone to challenge hillary clinton. >> it's not there. >> better than 90% -- more than 90% of democrats in both these

states have a favorable opinion of her. where's the opening? >> and your home city, detroit, michigan, net roots nation will be there. eight years ago net roots nation booed hillary clinton. it was clear there was a path for somebody to her left. joe biden is going to find out today, they'll be polite, but it ain't going to be. >> right. and you hear about the bernie sanders of the world who are trying to pull something together so they can have a voice to push issues. other than an issue-based campaign i think it's very tough to see somebody take a real run at her. >> but the speech stuff, i don't get it. i don't think -- >> no. >> it feels like she's making -- it doesn't feel like somebody is minding the 2016 store for her. >> she's been clumsy throughout her political career when it comes to the campaign. she seems to do well in office but poor on the campaign trail. but here's the thing that i look at the general election race this way, which is, you know, she's going to get a minimum of 47 1/2, 48% of the vote and a maximum of 51.

>> i think the first time the max is higher because of women. >> perhaps. call it 52. this is all irrelevant right now. >> in american politics today, 51% in a presidential race is a landslide. >> that's correct. >> on that note, susan page, sara fagen, jamal simmons, thank you very much. unconfirmed talk of another cease-fire. we'll go live to gaza. and later the extraterrestrial rumor that say put roswell, new mexico, on the map and the never-ending questions that face presidents all the time whenever they visit new mexico. it's a pretty fun little thing we're doing on our tdr 50. but first our trivia today, new mexico has incorrectly picked two presidential elections since it became a state in 1912. how about that? what were the two times? the first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shoutout. sara fagen knows one.

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expedia. find yours. well, we've heard this before, maybe it will stick this time. there's a word that israel and hamas have made a deal to end this current round of intense fighting that started ten days ago. egypt has been trying to mediate the talks, as they always do. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in gaza. richard, you tweeted a whole bunch of questions you have about this supposed deal that maybe feels very tenuous. you seem to be a little skeptical. what do you know? >> reporter: well, we've been working on this all morning and we must have spoken to a half dozen officials on this on both sides, on the israeli side and the palestinian side. we're getting mixed reports. initially we were told that there was a deal, that it was going to happen and it was going to happen tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.

and that it's all wrapped up. then palestinian officials came out and said not so fast. we haven't agreed to this. a spokesman for hamas here in gaza said this is an attempt by the israelis to impose a deal and we haven't accepted this. then just a short while ago, we're getting assurances from the israelis that, look, it's not done yet but it is effectively a done deal and we are heading towards a truce. a lot can happen between now and tomorrow morning if in fact the deal does hold until then. generally as you've seen in the past when there are these conflicts between the gaza strip or hamas and israel, the last 12 hours or so are often really violent. it's the last licks before a truce goes into place. usually the israelis want to eliminate whatever targets they have got on their list before a truce goes into place. so a lot of things could go wrong between now and then. so we're hearing some official

denials, but we're getting reassurances that a deal seems to be in the making. >> okay. richard, what is the -- what's the carrot for hamas on this one that was missing. hamas rejected the other deal because my understanding it wasn't like the other deals that they had agreed to in the past. they didn't get anything in return, whether it's ease with which getting rid of restrictions at border crossings, things like that. so what's the new carrot? >> reporter: to be honest, what we're hearing is they're going to get nothing, that both sides gets nothing. this is a reset in place, that unlike previous wars, hamas didn't really want this one. doesn't have the same friends in the region that it used to have. hamas doesn't have egypt behind it after it lost the muslim brotherhood ally in egypt. now there is general assisi.

it's lost searia, it's lost iran. iran worried about the situation in iraq. so this war wasn't positioned for hamas geographically the same way other conflicts had been. israel was reluctant to get involved in this as well so we might be seeing a cease-fire coming with no side making any significant gains. >> and there's also the issue of abbas and hamas not seeing eye to eye on this as well. richard engle in gaza this morning. i hear the call to prayer behind you. thanks very much. backlash from the supreme court's hobby lobby decision still reverberating through washington. details on how the democrats are trying to score points with women voters. plus, it's the former republican lawmaker that's called himself the point man in the fictitious war on women. i'll ask todd akin about that and much more in just three minutes.

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it's pretty clear democrats believe they need women on their side if they're going to hold on to the senate and have any shot at picking up seats in the house this fall and they're doing everything they can to try to create that wedge issue. that's the backdrop to a new fight over the supreme court's hobby lobby ruling which lets some companies opt out of contraceptive coverage on religious grounds. upset of what they called an attack on women's rights, harry reid and senate democrats tried to undermine the ruling with a bill they called my not my boss's business act, but the bill couldn't even get through the senate, falling four votes shy of breaking a filibuster. just three republicans supported it. but that played directly into the hands of democrats who didn't waste adding the vote to a long list of grievances. >> we've seen this kind of attack on women from republicans time and time again. we've seen it in states that are threatening to subject women to

invasive and degrading ultrasounds, in the targeting of planned parenthood, in outrageous statements about legitimate rape and on capitol hill and in state houses across america. and in courtrooms at all levels. >> earlier in the day, texas senator ted cruz said the bill wasn't about women's rights at all, it was about trying to exploit the gender gap for partisan purposes. >> i recognize scaring women by suggesting someone is coming after your birth control may be good politics. it's false, even "the washington post" has said it's false and a lie. but election year politics should not trump religious liberty. >> nebraska republican senator deb fisher and kelly ayotte wrote an op-ed. the not my boss's business campaign falsely suggests that under the ruling employers can deny employees access to birth

control. that's flat-out false. nothing in the hobby lobby ruling stops a woman from getting or filling a prescription for any form of contraception. >> we've seen misrepresentation of the case, i think to divide the american people, and i find these scare tactics very disappointing. >> but there's no question that the gender gap is helping democrats and we're seeing the evidence in our latest polls. colorado senator mark udall is leading the challenger. jeanne shaheen is winning the female vote by 25 points. gary peters has a 13-edge among women despite the fact that his challenger is a woman and she launched an ad designed specifically to try to blunt this issue of the, quote unquote, war on women. >> i'm terri lynn land. congressman gary peters and his buddies want you to believe i'm waging a war on women. really? think about that for a moment.

i'm terri lynn land and i approve this message because as a woman i might know a little bit more about women than gary peters. >> i'm not sure how well that ad is playing. republicans aren't done pushing back on this issue. in april they launched the 14 for 14 initiative designed to recruit female volunteers. our latest poll found 46% of women identify as democrats to just 34% of women identifying at republican. a difference of 12 points. republicans have the edge among men by just 4 points. of course this debate has been going on for years and really heated up during the 2012 cycle. you heard senator murray refer to comments about, quote, legitimate rape. that was of course a reference to my next guest who found himself at the heart of this fight after his remarks during his 2012 senate campaign. former missouri congressman todd akin joins me now. congressman, good morning to you, sir. >> chuck, it's a pleasure to join you. >> you've got the new book called "firing back."

you seem to be upset at a lot of people, including yourself, for apologizing for making the comment for legitimate rape. you believe you owe nobody an apology for anything you said in 2012. >> well, here, let me just try to give you an explanation. legitimate rape is a law enforcement term and its abbreviation for legitimate case of rape. do you know anybody that thinks rape is legitimate? that doesn't even make sense. i know no conservatives who think rape -- >> so why did you use the term? >> well, because of the fact that it's an abbreviation, as i said. legitimate rape means legitimate case of rape. if i had been choosing my words better, i should have said legitimate case of rape and i have acknowledged that it was a poor choice of words. >> i guess i'm -- i still don't understand legitimate case of rape. i mean there are plenty of women that are going to be listening and saying rape is rape. why add a moniker to it?

>> well, and this, as i said, it's a law enforcement term. a woman calls a police station. the police investigate. she says i've been raped. they investigate that. so before any of the facts are in, they call it a legitimate case of rape. that's what they call it. but they use the word just legitimate rape. but the thing that strikes me as odd is this is something that was intentionally misunderstood and twisted for political purposes. because it doesn't make any sense to say a conservative is saying that rape is legitimate. i mean that doesn't even add up. and so -- but this is something that's done all the time in politics to destroy somebody's character. you make fun of them. and of course right after that sunday interview, monday morning, very odd timing, obama walks into a press conference, which he never does, and takes a question about todd akin. so that's kind of what's going on. that's a part of it. >> well, there's no doubt politics played into it.

and the other question, you're very upset at republican elites that you believe were trying to drive you out of the race. they were very public about their attempts to try to get you to quit. they believed what you said was wrong. i know you want to be mad at the media and be mad at the president, but it's republicans that threw you under the bus. >> that's true. and the book "firing back" has got several different themes. the first one, because that's where you started, the legitimate rape comment, that was taken to all kinds of absurd extremes having things that i never said, in fact they were the exact opposite of what i said. and so -- but my pointi is kind of interesting. so i misspoke some words. it was intentionally taken out of context. it's made into this great big deal so i'm sort of the villain of the whole world. the point i'd like to make is go two weeks later. you've got the democrat national convention, keynote speaker, bill clinton, and even setting

aside this sworn testimony under oath of broderick, who claimed under oath that bill clinton raped her, you still have countless other examples of bill clinton being involved in assault on women or indecent behavior with women and he gets an applause. now it seems like to me it's a democrat war on women. now spin forward a little bit to the last month or two, we get to hillary clinton. turns out she's representing a guy who's a rapist. she knows he's a rapist. he raped a 12-year-old girl. she uses her influence -- >> wait a minute. look, i understand you want to -- i've heard conservatives beat up on bill clinton and democrats before on this and i've heard this. this is still about you. this is still about you classifying rape in this odd way. i guess let me go back and ask you this. should abortion be legal for somebody who has been raped?

>> well, that gets to the heart of the question on that interview two years ago. and so here's the question. should the child conceived in rape have the same right to life as a child conceived in love. that's the question. i'll say it again. should a child conceived in rape have the same right to life as a child conceived in love. i had a number of people on my campaign that were children that had grown up that had been conceived in rape. they were helping me on the campaign. >> which, by the way, also undermines your argument that somehow the woman's body shuts down. so you believe that's -- you now don't believe that anymore, is that correct? >> first of all, what my comment was, was the effect of stress. i never said that a woman can't get pregnant who's raped. i never said that. now, the media lied about that i said that, but i never said it.

that's what i'm talking about, all kinds of absurd tees. but i was simply talking about the fact that stress affects the statistics of people becoming pregnant -- >> but you didn't say that. let me read the exact quote. if it's legitimate rape the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down which the head of the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists said while chronic stress -- may decrease a woman's ability to conceive, there is no scientific evidence that adrenaline, experiencing an acute stress situation has an impact on ovulation. so do you now believe what the american college of obstetricians says? >> well, look, first of all, i'm not presenting myself as a doctor. there have been six recent studies and we can provide you with a footnote for those that say that stress plays -- has an effect on pregnancy. but again, that's really an ancillary question to the final question, which is a child conceived in rape, do they have

the same right to life as a child conceived in love. that was the heart of the interview question two years ago. >> and you didn't answer -- so i guess my question to you simply is, do you believe there's ever an instance that abortion should be legal? >> ever an instance that abortion should be legal? i think that what doctors should do is to try to save life, okay. and as i -- earlier in that interview i made it clear there's a thing that i believe that's called a tubal pregnancy where the child has no chance to live and the child will kill the mother if the child grows there. i believe that what you do is optimize life. you save the mother's life. your objective is not to kill the child, your objective is to save the mother's life. if you'd call that an exception, then that would be an exception. but the point is, you try to optimize life because i believe that little children are special. >> let me ask you this final question. you're doing this, your book is out now. your book is out in an election year. you have a whole bunch of republicans that wish you would go away, that believe you're a

symbol of their problems with the gender gap that i just outlined. why do this now and make yourself a new issue in 2014 for fellow republicans? >> well, chuck, you know the question is, is all of us, and certainly this is what i did, i was in elected office for 24 years. i was re-elected many, many times in missouri. and it's always been my interest to try to promote truth, promote the good ideas that bring the best out in people. and so what my book is, i'm talking about that. and one of the things going on in the republican party, and it's the party bosses because i have great respect for a lot of the grassroots party people and many of my colleagues in congress. but here's the problem. you've got karl rove and certain people in the senator leadership, they don't believe anymore in the process of what we call a primary election. they think that the people in primaries in various states are too stupid to pick the right person, so they're putting a tremendous amount of republican money into a primary which is a

bad idea because, one, you're wasting money. two, you're antagonizing half the republicans in the state and that's what i've been critical of. >> sounds like you're running for office again. when? >> no, i'm just taking one thing at a time. i'm very thankful for the 24 years of public service. i've written a book. the reason i wrote it is not to get even with anybody, but to try to present good ideas. and i think people find it interesting because there's a lot of human interest stories, fascinating account of september 11th and other things. >> todd akin, former missouri republican congressman, the 2012 nominee for the u.s. senate from missouri. thanks for coming on and sharing your views, sir. >> it's a pleasure, chuck. best wishes to your wonderful audien audience. >> thank you very much. coming up, new mexico senator martin hinrich on his push to secure the border. first our soup of the day comes from maria's new mexican kitchen in santa fe. today they're serving up chicken stew, which of course is not a soup. we'll be right back. starts with back pain...

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bluk. congress is only eight days before the summer recess to deal with the massive influx of immigrant children on the u.s. border. even leaders like nancy pelosi are able to bolt on it. i'm joined now by one of the -- senator heimrick, let me get to this question. can this bill pass that would give some money to everybody

involved here on an emergency basis. >> i think the challenge with the cornyn approach is that many are aware that it would short circuit some of the process laws potentially sending people in the sex trafficking industry right back into a very dangerous situation. >> explain where you got your data and explain it, if you don't mind. >> all of the data that we have seen as shown as outflux of

refugees, particularly from honduras, from guatemala, from elsalvador, they are fleeing everywhere, they're going to mexico, they're going to the united states, they're going to belize and costa rica. >> what do you believe that says about this issue that if there's a refugee crisis in costa rica, if they're dealing with it in a similar situation as the united states is, then this tells you that this is not about the 2012 dreamer law or the 2008 law? >> that's exactly right, it's not about deferred action that the president put forward, we were already seeing these numbers surge before that happened. we need to work with law enforcement in central america, and those countries, to really hit hard the organized crime organizations that are driving this crisis. if we don't do that, we're not

going to get ahead of the problem. >> do you believe a majority of these children are going to get deported back to their home countries? >> the numbers that i have seen so far, suggest that a majority of these children will not qualify for asylum. i've been working hard to make sure that we have due process, but that we also have the resources to make sure that we continue to secure or border. >> martin heinrick, thank you for coming on this morning. folks tune in on friday. coming up next, jose diaz-balart. i'm meteorologist bill karins and our travel troubles today takes us to texas and oklahoma, that's where widespread flooding is possible

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