outbreak is still spreading in africa. nigeria is dealing with multiple cases, including another doctor who was helping to treat an infected patient. that country is now the fourth african nation to report the outbreak. staggering new numbers this hour. more than 1600 people have been infected, nearly 900 are dead. it's the word ebola outbreak in history. a second sick american is due to be flown to atlanta tomorrow. nancy writebol was assisting dr. kent brantly in liberia. dr. brantly arrived at emory saturday walking out of the ambulance. what a great image there. both have received an experim t experimental treatment since there's no vaccine and no cure for ebola. as the outbreak grows, experts say there's an extremely low chance of an outbreak here in the united states. emory is only one of four facilities in the u.s.

specifically designed to hand this will sort of infectious outbreak. that's why sars patients were treated. unlike sars, ebola's not airborne. it can only be transferred human to human, through contact with an infected patient's blood and body fluids. so casual contact is highly unlikely to transfer the virus. even still, the u.s. has a travel warning for americans heading to the infected nations, but zero restrictions against people traveling here from the outbreak countries. this week at the white house, president obama is meeting with leaders of african nations, heads of state from liberia and sierra leone are not attending. nbc's sarah dallof is outside emory hospital. how is dr. brantly's condition? >> good afternoon. there has been cautiously optimistic news in the last 24 hours. samaritan's purse, the aid

organization which he works for, has confirmed he did receive a dose of that experimental serum before he left africa. nbc news has learned he has since received a second dose here in atlanta. his wife has been able to meet with him through a glass window in that special containment unit. she says that he is in good spirits, happy to be back in the u.s., and he asked for prayers to be continued for that second patient, nancy writebol. as for her, she is reportedly in stable but serious condition. her son saying she is still suffering but they are anxiously awaiting her return to the u.s. so she can be treated alongside dr. brantly here. we are told she has also received two doses of this experimental medication. she's expected here tomorrow midday. her arrival is going to closely mimic the arrival of dr. brantly here over the weekend. it will be a landing at dobbins air force base, and then a law enforcement escort here to the

hospital. then straight up to that containment unit. meanwhile, four patients in the u.s. have shown symptoms that were concerning enough to doctors that they tested them for ebola. three of those tests have come back. they were negative. we're still waiting on a fourth. back to you. >> thank you very much. here at the table is an infectious disease doctor here in new york city. emory has that facility that's prepared to take care of these people, to quarantine and not let the virus to get out. so what is the likelihood of an outbreak happening here in america? >> it's still unlikely. we believe that it's possible that it can come to the u.s., obviously, because of the world we live in and our air travel. but it is unlikely for it to set off like wildfire the way that

it is being described. so that seems a little less likely. >> so patrick sawyer, unfortunately s an american that has passed away from ebola. originally he planned to come back to minnesota to visit his family before he got sick. it makes you think about the possibility of people getting on a flight without knowing they're actually infected, especially given the fact there is no ban on flights from these nations to the united states. there are warnings out there, but there's no ban. how concerned should we be about this actually happening? >> right. there is no ban probably because of the way it's transmitted because it is not airborne. so unless you're really going to be in close contact with body fluids of an infected person, the risk of transmission is less. so perhaps even just having a fever, being on a flight may not be the same as if you have a fever from an infectious organism that's airborne and can be worse. >> but there can be a few weeks between the time you know you have it, right? >> absolutely. the period of incubation is eight to ten days. it could be up to 21.

so three weeks can lapse by without you having any symptoms. >> and doctor, we just heard from sarah about this experimental serum that both nancy writebol and dr. brantly have received two doses of. both of them reportedly having marked improvements. does it show promise for the future? what is this serum we're talking about here? >> the serum is an experimental antibody. it's an experimental drug. they seem to at least in dr. brantly's response seems to be temporarily associated with receiving the serum. i think a lot of studies will still need to determine whether it really was due to the serum or just due to the overall care that he has received throughout. sometimes giving a patient iv fluids or just supportive care in general makes them better. i don't think we really know how much of it is serum and supportive care. certainly there seems to be a good response to this experimental drug. so more will have to be studied. >> as americans look at this

situation, we're seeing more reporting about the hopes of some kind of vaccine. "the new york times" saying it's possible. many doubts persist. they say a lot of experts say ebola is something of a survivor virus. help us understand what that means and how the vaccine trade works. because another point that's been raised is there wouldn't be enough market to make this financially viable. >> that's always a concern. all viruses are survivor viruses, which is why vaccines are so difficult to create. but i don't think there has ever been a need as much as now. remember, this is history in the making. this is the biggest ebola outbreak in the world. certainly this is the first case in the u.s. i think definitely we will start to see funding and interest in research in this field. >> doctor, this is the worst outbreak we have ever had of ebola. why has it been so difficult to contain its spread there in west

africa? >> i don't know the answer to that, but part of it might be just or world is changing, and we are traveling more. and it really is the first time it has reached out to an urban setting. i think that has also propagated. we don't have any reason to suspect that it is a different or evolved virus or a different ebola virus that's more virulent. it just seems to be that it took off this time around for some particular reason. >> partly because of the way some of the folks in africa are dealing with their dead? >> that's certainly education of body fluids and that kind of management and infection control definitely would make a big difference. >> so bottom line here for folks that are watching this that might be concerned, you're saying there's really no reason to fear at all about folks coming back to the united states to be treated for this? >> the way that the first two cases have been brought in is the most careful way that you can possibly do it. and they have been brought into a bsl-4, a bio safety level four

facility, with all of the utmost care. it would be unusual that something in this setting is propagating out into the rest of the community. >> doctor, thank you very much for that. straight ahead, four weeks into the conflict, and the death toll is still growing in the middle east. the latest developments from the region. and later, ebola fears loom over the big africa summit in the nation's capital. why the president is intent on forging ahead with that meeting. it's got a lot to do with another world super power. first, former presidential assistant and white house press secretary james brady has died after battling a series of health issues. brady was critically shot during the 1981 assassination attempt on president reagan, leaving him partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. jim and his wife sarah founded the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. the 1993 brady law enacted the first gun buy background checks. he received the nation's highest civilian award in 1996, the

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we are back now covering brand new developments out of the mideast where night has fallen and so has the latest cease-fire. here's what we're hearing from both sides of this conflict right now. israel is saying hamas fired four rockets from gaza during what was supposed to be a humanitarian truce. meantime, the palestinians say an 8-year-old girl was killed as a result of an israeli air strike on a refugee camp. but it's israel tonight that is

under the toughest pressure globally to put an end to all of the civilian deaths. that's because perhaps most visibly ten people were killed at a u.n. school in gaza housing nearly 3,000 palestinians. it was israeli shelling that struck near the school. while? jerusalem this morning, a person drove a construction vehicle into a bus. that killed one person and injured several more as israeli police shot and killed the suspect in this incident. it's not necessarily related to these violent past couple of weeks. but it certainly isn't helping to calm an already tense atmosphere. nbc's jim maceda joins us from tel aviv. what's the latest? >> hi, krystal. well, that seven-hour unilateral cease-fire by israel did have its claims that both sides breached the pause, as you mentioned in your lead. overall, i have to say the level of violence, despite that bizarre bulldozer attack on the

empty bus in jouerusalem, the level of violence did drop substantially today until the pause ran out and israel recommenced its attacks on gaza tonight. palestinians claim that an israeli air strike hit a building killing two and wounding 16. the pause may have been well timed. as we're learning from israeli sources tonight that an egyptian plan for an unconditional 72-hour cease-fire has been accepted by the palestinian factions who have been negotiate in cairo now for the past couple of days. the sources are also saying that the israeli government has accepted the cease-fire plan as well. but krystal, with the track record for aborted or failed cease-fires here, no one should probably get too overexcited yet. >> all right. potentially encouraging news there. jim, thank you so much. and let's turn now to collin

lim lynch, who covers the united nations for "foreign policy" magazine. thank you so much. you have been writing recently about how much hamas' capture of that israeli soldier has complicated the process for a longer cease-fire. >> now the calculations have been changed again because it's turned out he was -- he had been killed in the operation. it's not clear how exactly he was killed, but now this puts the israelis in a position where they no longer have to negotiate for the release of one of their own. the israeli government, as soon as that operation was over, the response to that capture, prime minister netanyahu was saying we're not going to negotiate a cease-fire with these guys, we can't trust them, and we're not sending -- by the way, we're not going to send one of our officials to cairo to engage in talks on a cease-fire. if jim maceda is right and they're moving back in that direction, that would be another interesting shift. but there's a lot of confusing signals coming out of the

region. >> krystal mentioned the united nations school deaths that have been happening over and over. it's really hurting israeli's cause in a lot of people's mind. jen psaki at the state department said the united states is appalled by today's disgraceful shelling outside a u.n. school. this relates to me to one of many stories that we're seeing out there. folks who are jewish, who are israeli, who say this is really hurting their feelings about israel. a rabbi writing, israel has broken my heart. i'm a rabbi in mourning for a judaism being murdered. >> you had some of the strongest language i've seen from a u.s. official criticizing israeli conduct and raising concerns in

the need for investigation. what's interesting was when i was on this show last week, on friday, israeli was in a stronger diplomatic position. hamas had broken the cease-fire. everybody was condemning hamas. now that they have resumed the military operations and you have a horrific accident like this, it's kind of changed the conversation back to looking at israel's conduct. >> although, i think we have to be careful to differentiate in what is an international geopolitical contest how much of this only relates to military action on the ground and how much relates to other geopolitical agendas. a lot of countries focus on these civilian casualties are not as critical or outspoken when assad murders many more civilians. in the case of egypt, we've seen a big shift, friendlier towards israel, which has everything to do with the muslim brotherhood being pushed to the side. how do you differentiate? doesn't it almost seem more significant for israel that a long-standing ally like the u.s. feels moved to say something

about these casualties than some of the other players, the u.n. being notoriously critical of israel? >> yeah, what's kind of interesting is you find the united states speaking out quite harshly. you find israel allied, quietly allied with a number of governments like egypt, like the saudis, countries that have been traditionally critical of israel but see hamas as a threat to them. o all of the geopolitical positioning has shifted in this conflict. the fact this comes from the united states, you know, i think is going to be very difficult for the israelis to swallow. the americans don't talk like that to the israelis. >> and to some degree, the threat of the arab spring has pushed these autocrats in other countries to be more worried about militant islam. >> right, exactly. israel has tried to create a narrative around this conflict as, you know, you have to stop thinking about this just as this

question of the ongoing dispute between israel and the palestinians. but this is a much broader global conflict, and hamas is, you know, kind of more akin to other islamist groups like isis, like groups we see stretching from nigeria through mali, across throughout the middle east and that it's part of a broader islamist movement. that's a threat to all of us. i think they've had a hard time maintaining that narrative because of the casualties that we've seen. >> so there's a new poll out, a new nbc poll that gives us a sense of where americans fall in terms of who they sympathize with in this conflict. it shows that 43% sympathize more with israel. that's compared to just 14% who sympathize towards palestinians. why do you think that's the case, and how much of it is because people have a hard time differentiating hamas with the palestinians? >> yeah, i think part of it is that hamas is seen rightly as an islamist organization that

doesn't accept israel's existence that wants to wipe them off the map. that's a very powerful narrative. also, the fact that the tactics that hamas and islamic jihad have used are sort of indefensible. they're firing rockets constantly against civilian populations. they're engaging -- they're operating their military strikes from heavily densely populated areas. for hamas, if there is an israeli that dies, it plays to their advantage, but if there's a palestinian that dies, it plays to their advantage politically. so i think it's really -- it's a very, you know, difficult and complicated moral question. i think maybe, you know, it's partly that but also our political leadership in the country. certainly congress is not very conflicted about this and has been quite supportive of the israelis throughout. i think the national political debate is not, you know, that nuanced. >> it's one area where we tend to get bipartisan agreement.

collin lynch, thank you so much. up next, we're watching the stock market after one of the worst weeks on the street in two years. plus, one of hollywood's most controversial geniuses immortalized on film, but would he approve? we'll ask the woman he loved the best. find yourself. in an accomodation where you get to do whatever it is that you love to do! ♪ booking.com booking.yeah! nature valley crunchy granola bars give you energy from 1/3 of your daily whole grains, so 1/3 of this commercial is dedicated to what you could do with all that energy. energy for getting dizzy at the beach.

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time now to get you in the news cycle. big news today out of alabama, where a federal judge has ruled in favor of abortion rights advocates. that judge found state lawmakers were out of line when they determined doctors at abortion clinics needed to have hospital admitting privileges. it was a 127-page decision and a federal appeals court ruled similarly in mississippi last week. there is a trial that began in texas today as well on the same question. clearly a busy judicial time on this issue.

the man who videotaped that deadly chokehold arrest of a man in new york city has himself been arrested. the 22-year-old was arrested over the weekend on a gun charge unrelated to the eric garner incident. this is orta during an interview with msnbc's tamron hall. garner's family is urging criminal action against the arresting officer after the medical examiner determined he was strangled, which has been categorized as a homicide. and a new week is of course under way on wall street, mostly off to a positive start. the dow is up at this hour. the s&p also up, rebounding from what was its worst week in two years. we'll keep you posted. all right. let's turn now to front-page politics. even though congress has escaped from the beltway, they cannot escape the crisis at the border. house members left friday after passing two immigration bills, one with about a quarter of the funding requested by the white house to deal with the influx of

tens of thousands of kids from central america and a second bill essentially paralyzing the obama administration from granting stays to unaccompanied children who are already here through the so-called daca act. both bills are nonstarters in the senate and a certain doa if they even make it to the president's desk. you can take his word for it. >> house republicans, as we speak, are trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable versions of a bill that they already know is going nowhere, that can't pass the senate, and if it were to pass the senate i would veto. they know it. >> joining us at the table now is the editor of futureofcapitalism.com. also, doug thornell. thank you both for being here. >> great to be with you. >> ira, i'm going to start with you. you're a self-proclaimed

optimist. you recognize there is bipartisan support for immigration reform. after what we saw at the end of last week when the house, for example, could not even pass a bill until friday that ultimately didn't go anywhere, how optimistic are you we're going to get anywhere in thefection two years when it comes to immigration? >> well, the republicans know they have to do this for political reasons. after the last election, they saw the hispanic vote going overwhelmingly to obama, except they're not eager to do it. it's kind of like going to the dentist for that. >> and you have to go to the dentist. you got to do it. >> it's true. and the leadership wants it. speaker boehner wants to do it. but it's like so many other issues in washington. whether it's tax reform, climate change, it's hard to get stuff through this system of checks and balances that the constitution set up. >> doug, i'm not sure if i agree with ira there, that they know they have to do it. because republicans are constantly in attack mode on

immigration. they voted to deport dreamers, deport the border kids as fast as humanly possible. militarize the border. they killed kpre hence i have immigration reform. seems whenever we talk about immigration, the republicans' position is maximum mill tarization of the border and maximum deportation as fast as humanly possible. what is the continued value in that stance? >> i'm not really quite sure. it seems like it's ultimately party suicide in general elections. you know, i'm not entirely sure that the majority of the party in the house or the senate wants to do anything on comprehensive immigration reform. you have so many house republicans who this is really not an issue for them back home, and so they have to figure out, you know, how to turn this into an issue for them to win in primaries. so i think that, you know, they recognize at the national level it's a big issue for them. what they haven't been able to figure out and what they haven't been able to arm their members at the house level is a message that works on comprehensive

immigration reform in their districts. it's not enough to say, well, this is good national politics because so many of these folks have to deal with getting through primaries in districts where there are 80%, 85%, 90% of the population is not hispanic. >> that's right. and ira, you say it's hard to get this done, it's hard to get things passed through our system of checks and balances. lord knows that's the case. but in fact, you have a majority in the house that if you brought the senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill to the floor, it would pass. is there a point at which john boehner says, you know what, i'm dad and you have to go to the dentist kids. it's happening. >> you know, i think there's about a 50/50 chance. i think it's more likely to happen after the election, particularly if the republicans then control the senate. and then they might chip off a piece at a time. do the high-tech visas with the backing of the silicon valley venture capitalists.

do some border security measures that would force democrats to go on the record voting against border security, which many of them are reluctant to do. >> but how do you explain the fact they're actively going backwards? they just voted to deport kids, the dreamers that everyone supports essentially. >> obama deported more immigrants than any other president. i would go back to -- >> but you're distracting from the question. >> her question is about what are they doing for the 11 million folks who are living here in the shadows? >> i think they should do more. i think more should have been done back during the first two years of the obama administration when the democrats controlled both the house and the senate and instead we got obamacare and -- >> but you're distracting from my question, which is why have republicans moved backwards on this particular issue? >> you know, i don't think they have moved backwards. look, george w. bush -- >> they just voted to deport the

dreamers. that's backwards. >> -- said, well, obama's been deporting -- >> i didn't ask you about obama. i asked you about the republicans. >> look, at some point the president is the president and he's got to take some leadership here. >> so he'll do an executive action at the end of the summer and take leadership. >> excuse me, guys. he has taken leadership. there was a bill. there was a bill that passed the sthath. a lot of that had to do with the president's leadership. and as far as when we controlled both chambers, we passed a dreamer's bill that republicans blocked in the senate. that's why the president took the executive action that he did. and the republicans are going backwards. i mean, "the wall street journal," which is no liberal publication, called the republicans who were leading this effort the deportation caucus. you know, you had david brooks, who called what happened over the end of last week the palinization of the party. so they're losing their allies on this. that's a big, big problem. >> and so ira, on that point, it

seems like your answers or what some would call nonanswers here, go to a republican problem, right, which is if every time we talk about what do we do about these people, right, these people are in the country that krystal is raising, these dreamers who used to have more republican support, who used to have people like rick perry saying, if you have a heart, you have to think about their well being as a policy matter, right? not just as a political matter. and the republican or conservative answer that you've given today and to some degree many republicans have given is, well, let's talk more about what obama used to do, has done, or hasn't done. what happens on the expiration date on that? whether you like it or not, barack obama will eventually cease to be president. and the republican party will still have a policy and demographic challenge here. >> yeah, well, so somebody else will be president and they can choose to lead on this issue and make it the top priority instead of the third or fourth priority. if they're a democrat, they're going to have to bring along labor, which nobody is talking

about. the afl/cio says it's in favor of immigration reform, but any time you get down to the details, they're complaining these immigrants are going to compete with low-skilled american workers. and that's a real concern for a lot of their membership. >> there was wide support. the faith community supported the senate bill. the only people blocking the senate bill right now -- and i should add, the senate bill had about $37 billion, $38 billion in border money. so the only people blocking this are house republicans. because it would pass if there was a vote on that bill. there are enough house republicans, a small number, but enough to pass that bill. >> well, and you're talking also about a small number in the house that might be moving backward. but you've written a lot about big-name republicans who do support immigration reform. those are the names -- those are the people we need to hear more from. ira, thank you so much for being here. doug, very good debate. up ahead, ari offers a glimmer

of hope in these depressing political times. up next, the historic gathering of african leaders in washington. you may be surprised by which president has done the most for relationship there is, coming up. , coming up., coming up. , co. . . . ♪ ♪ ♪

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be on the table. todd moss is senior fellow at the center for global development, a fon profit that works on economic opportunity in poorer nations. he also wrote a new book "the golden hour." good day to you. >> good day. thank you. >> let's start with the fact that while people in policy circles often say we need to help africa, serve africa, and that's certainly well intentioned, the big point today, and we could put some of these stats on the screen, is that there are all sorts of ways the u.s. benefits by selling to africa and selling to a lot of these growing economies. huge jumps since about a decade ago. 250% higher. talk to us about that aspect, what americans might get out of these greater trade deals. >> well, i think we're seeing african economies after a long period of growing very slowly, they're now really kicking into high gear. we're seeing even economies like ethiopia growing at 10% a year for more than a decade. what's happening is that this is

creating huge new investment opportunities for american companies, and in particular we're seeing as incomes grow in africa, we're seeing families make that once in a lifetime transition to buying the first refrigerator in the family, the first motorcycle, the first car. so there's just huge new opportunities in africa for american businesses. >> i think china plays a big role, too, as we focus more on our relationship with africa, given that china and africa, their relationship when it comes to trade has doubled what our relationship is with africa. but what's surprising about this, and you've written as well, is that we've actually taken a backseat when it comes to africa and trade deals and everetts we're putting ft. worth. you right, both presidents clinton and george w. bush nudged the policy in the right direction. much of that momentum was lost during president obama's first term. that surprises me because you would think given his family history and all he would put more of an effort towards that. >> i think a lot of people were

surprised. there were very high expectations among the foreign policy community here in the u.s. and particularly among leaders in africa that obama was going to take the u.s./africa relationship to the next level. we really didn't see any of that in the first term. i think that's one of the reasons that he's asked more than 40 leaders to come to washington this week to try to reset relations on a more positive path. and i wouldn't want to overstate the role of china. yes, china is growing fast. china consumes a lot of commodities from africa. there's a lot of chinese investment going into africa. that's actually positive for the united states because it's helping to foster those markets to grow even faster. and the opportunities in africa are so great that there's plenty of opportunity for both the u.s., the chinese, and the europeans and other players that are looking at those markets. >> it's now six years into his presidency. why has there not been more focus on africa? do you have any idea? >> you know, it's a little bit of a puzzle.

i know the white house would say they had the final crisis and the middle east crisis. that's always been the case. i think we saw with both presidents bill clinton and george w. bush that they were able to elevate african relations within u.s. foreign policy because they saw that africa was becoming more important, that the opportunities were growing. frankly, we are still a little bit behind. we're still living with a 10, 15-year-old playbook right now unfortunately. >> todd, africa's future seems bright in that its population is set to double by 2050. a lot of those folks will be young. it will be one of the youngest continents in the world. so there are great -- there is great potential in africa's future, but it's got to get more than 1% of american investment. what does africa need to do to get american business to want to invest in it even more? >> well, i think in africa they've taken some pretty big

leaps forward in reducing things like red tape and corruption. i know people think africa is synonymous with corruption. but the improvements over the last ten years have been quite significant. with we look at the data on what's holding back the private sector in africa, the number one answer in almost every country is the cost and reliability of electricity. african countries -- every single country, including south africa, has a huge shortage of electricity. that's also one of the reasons that the white house has made the power africa initiative the signature issue for the second term of the obama administration. >> well, another risk and challenge for africa is actually climate change. the executive director of the u.n. environment program said africa is the continent with the least responsibility for climate change. yet, as perversely the continent with the most at risk if

greenhouse gases are not cut. that's also another problem that's likely on the agenda here. >> sure. i know that a lot of african countries are worried about changing rainfall patterns, a lot of agriculture in africa is still rain fed. i think it's important not to conflate these two issues. africa is producing almost no global emissions that may contribute -- that contribute to climate change. what we want to be very careful is as the u.s. starts to invest in power generation and power distribution in subsaharan africa, that we're not trying to keep the africans from developing their own fossil fuel industries just like we did. we developed -- we get two-thirds of our power in the united states from fossil fuels. it's the height of hypocrisy for us to tell the africans they shouldn't develop their own oil and natural gas resources to deliver electricity to their own people. we have over 3,000 power plants

in the united states that burn coal or natural gas. ghana has two. they'd like to build maybe two more. >> a fair geopolitical point, todd. thanks for spending time with us. up next, abby often asks, what is "mash"? >> and what is "nashville"? >> what is it? tell me. >> we're going to take you inside the mind of the man who made "mash." >> hollywood has always maintained its objectivity, which is greed and trying to get rid of all the artists. the rain, the mud -- babam! it's there. the outside comes in. it's kinda nasty so you start the towel-mop shuffle. where are you sun?! [ doorbell rings ] oh, wow, it's a swiffer wetjet. this puts my towel mopping to shame. whoa!

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claim rateguard from allstate. your home protects you, protect it back. ♪ suicide is painless it brings on many changes ♪ "m.a.s.h." was the first major triumph of one of the country's great film makers, robert altman, who directed 39 movies, including my favorite "the player" which opens with a mind-blowing eight-minute shot in which you're brought into the chaos that is hollywood. altman was a hollywood director who skewered the town and its style with his casual, naturalistic observation of films. he passed away in 2006. a loving doc about his life and career arrives this wednesday at

8:00 p.m. eastern. it's called "altman." we're honored to have his wife of 47 years, katherine. who drove bob to make the sort of movies that he did, these sort of maverick gesture that his film making was? >> his own independent nature. that's what you saw. that's what you received from all of his various work. i mean, i think there was a thread that went through all of them that identified him, but they're all such different subjects. >> to put all his films together, it's an amazing film library. bob, what was it like -- you've been directed by all the greats. what was it like to be directed by robert altman? >> a huge pleasure. i think one of the things about robert that was so fascinating was to really get to work with him, which i did. i knew him over the years. i really got to know him doing that movie. the only thing that surprised me, i knew he loved directing,

but being on a set with him for ten weeks, i had no idea how joyous it was for him. the where no matter how late it was -- he was always including you and always a party and sustained and real because nothing he did was ever not real. >> also an innovator in his craft. sound was a perfect example. he really changed the way we hear conversations, now it's all we know. >> the way we hear conversations in movies, what he really did, the great kind of innovation, it wasn't just to be stylish and tricky, never going to go out of fashion. he found a way to portray on film the real conversation really sounds. that's what we're doing here and you couldn't do that until he did it and got punished several times foredoing it and didn't care. >> that is amazing and to have the kind of courage to say this is how it should be and i don't care what everybody else thinks. this is how we're doing it. there's a moment in the film

where your son says essentially that movies took priority over family. i wanted to ask if you agreed with that and what you want people to know about who robert was as a person? >> okay. >> glad i asked. >> i'm not. i'm glad to clarify it. number one, he wishes he never read it that way and hadn't done that line. because the feedback has gotten way out of whack. no, i don't agree with it and neither does steven really. he was trying to express himself in such a way that kind of came out backwards. bob is -- i don't mean to take -- and i won't, the credit for it, but his whole foundation was family. we were on every location. i made home after home after home. the entire career other than m.a.s.h., which lit up everything for us, other than that it seems to me there were

only two films we ever made in california which maintained residence, a player and shortcuts, all of the rest of them were on location looking back. continuously making home and finding schools and doing things. it was always home number one, stevie altman, number one. >> the family was part of the picture. your son wrote that famous score for m.a.s.h. that nobody can forget that song. >> steven was a production designer for many movies. >> and grandchild played popeye's son, amazing story and documentary. thank you so much, katherine. great to meet you, bob. thanks very much for your work. up next, ari finds reason for hope in congress. that can't be right. completely unbelievabowl... totally delectabowl. real silky smooth or creamy broths. everything she's been waiting for. carefully crafted with real seafood,

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the x-1 entertainment operating system. only from xfinity. it's been a rough start for new gop leadership in the house which they proved on thursday and friday they won't good at even passing symbolic legislation with no chance of becoming law, just like the congress isn't good at passing bills based on compromise. they initially revolted over a border plan because it had some of what president obama wanted. not all bipartisanship requires a split the difference compromise where you meet in the middle. sometimes is requires the rank and file to be bold and stand up to their leadership. >> you can't escape the facts that three out of four people in prison are black or brown. the war on drugs is taking people who make youthful mistakes and punishing them for a lifetime. if we can get them back into

voting as well as work,ing, they are much less likely to get in trouble. >> it does not benefit to lockup drug offenders and others the way we do. we have more african-americans in this country now under criminal supervision than all of the slaves in 1850. so this system is broken. you don't need to be black or white or call it trasracially i you have to do something about. >> that was rand paul and corey booker pushing the bill to reform the war on drugs. the proposal doesn't meet in the middle of the two positions on crime. it tears them down. booker is rejecting president clinton's crackdown on drug offenders in the '96 welfare act and more broadly breaking with a whole generation of democrats who prioritize being tough on crime over the harder task of applying prison and rehab policies together. paul is rejecting a orthodoxy that isolated the most low level drug offendsers harshly

punishing them in jail and again when they get out, barring them from decent jobs and voting both and much of a shot at the law abiding life. some say that's the way to get tough on crime. these senators insist it will make us less safe. >> particularly if you don't want them back in the cycle of drugs and crimes and want them employed, not to punish them forever with maybe they did wrong when they were a kid. >> by trapping people without options we often end up making our communities less safe. >> it turns out that's often true. stutddyes show states which have reformed laws to give nonviolent offenders less jail time often have lower crime rates. by citing with that science, paul is rejecting the crime policies of a gop hero, ronald reagan. paul has introduced other bills to reduce mandatory minimums and end the crack cocaine disparity which rolls back parts of a 1986 law that reagan signed.

if you're wondering, the '86 law was overwhelmingly supported by democrats as well. that's why reform isn't about watering down middle position between the parties. it's about reversing both of them. that legislative approach came up briefly before our interview last week. i asked both senators what items they wanted in a bill but had to cut to reach an agreement. i wrongly thought that might be an interesting question. they said there weren't any. paul had reforms to help exoffenders get job and booker posed a ban on solitary confinement for children and put it together. people say we need more bipartisanship in d.c., no one knows what that means. what we really need is more principled leadership, leadership that doesn't bring the parties together ash trarly but takes the premise of the past and throws them out the window. that does it for us.

you can e-mail me, i take questions and comments and criticism. you can connect with the cycle at facebook. "now" with alex wagner starts now. >> president obama gets the best birthday gift he could ask for, congressional vacation. it's monday, august 4th and this is "now." >> what do the republicans in washington, d.c. stand for? >> exactly. >> the white house saying the president will soon use his executive power to move on immigration. >> the president is not going to sit around waiting for congressional republicans to act. >> the possibility is some republican lawmakers floating impeachment. >> i think congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the constitution, that includes the i-word. >> if i were the dnc, i would pay for steve king to go all over america. >> democrats have