how do you stay sober. i know it worked for me, but i'm not going to say that nothing else works. >> i want to play this interview, he was co-producer of "parks and rec" and he was on your show talking about that demon. harris whittles died of a harris whittles died of a overdose nap is a really good

>> great to see marc there as well. my old colleague. thank you at home, the last time the republican party won an election with someone not named bush on the ticket was 1962. look at every election since then. these are all of the republican presidential election victories since 1972 and every single one of them there has been someone named bush on the ballot as president or vice president. it is not foolproof. poppy bush did not win, but you have to go back to nixon in '62

to find a winning republican presidential ticket that did not have someone from that one family to win in the number one or the number two spot. on the one hand that bodes well for the william party deciding to put jeb bush on the ballot. on the other hand, governor bush says it might be a little creepy to vote for someone as president that not only was his father president but his brother was too, and not that long ago. so it was sort of the unofficial jeb bush for president campaign launch that he may consider

running for president and if he does so he will do so as his own man. >> i have also been fortunate to have a father and a brother who help's shape american's foreign policy from the oval office. i recognize that as a result my views will be held in comparison to theirs. i love my brother, my dad, my mother as well, hope that is okay, and i admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make. but i'm my own man. >> i am my own man, that was last month. since then he has put himself on pace to raise more money more quickly than anyone who has been run for president, ever, republican entirely by tapping the network of donors and contacts his father and brother used to win the white house and stay in the white house. shortly after the speech, jeb

bush also tapped his mom to raise funds for a super pac. a fundraising effort on his behalf. now tomorrow, the dallas morning news reports that former president, george w. bush, will be headlining a $100,000 per couple fundraiser. first of all there is ted cruz, right, who has shaken up the presidential race by skipping the exploratory self reflective i'm thinking about running for president time and just jumping right in. justing right in first, and just saying directly that he is running. if there was any illusions that early leap might help ted cruz lock up the base where he was so popular, governor bush hauling

out his brother, the former president, and first lady, to race fun tomorrow night to dallas for jeb, that should put those ted cruz questions to rest. texas was supposed to be the domain of ted cruz. and in florida he was supposed to be competing with marco rubio. he is all but monopolizing the republican race so far. he is stealing everybody's lunch money even in their hometowns. because of that, even republican voters hate jeb bush by the magnitude of his money. we may be on the path of the republican party once again putting someone named bush on the presidential ballot. it worked well so far.

it is the only thing that has worked for the republican party for the last 43 years so why not? but george w. bush and his brother, it is also interesting at another level, up until now, the big question would be how he would distance himself not just from the dynasty concerns about being the son and brother of past presidents, but how he would distance himself from the deeply up popular presidency of his brother, george. we now know the answer, he won't. he will not be hiding that light under any bushel. they're just going to run him as our nation's opportunity for a fourth term of the bush family presidency. we should have known when he listed policy sages that would be advising him. of the 21 people he named, 19 of the 21 worked in the

administration of his father, brother, or both. 19 of the 21. but if we did not know then, we know now now that he is trotting his brother out openly on the campaign trail. and tonight, former vice president dick cheney is out there too. he is the keynote speaker tonight at the national republican party's biggest fundraiser of the year. it raises millions of dollars for republican congressional candidates. the republican party's biggest such gig of the year. the man they chose to give their keynote this year, tonight, is former vice president dick cheney. and this follows several high profile meetings with him. dick cheney is also having a big round of press in the

conservative media. you might have heard about him doing that giantly long new interview with "playboy" magazine. that was not conducted by a "playboy" correspondent, but it was actually done by a fox news reporter. his interview with dick cheney being discussed on fox news by another fox news reporter, and after they discuss the content of that interview, they turn to someone for the analysis of that interrue to carl rove who was the top political strategist for the bush-cheney administration. for a long time i looked forward

to missing dick cheney and george w. bush. maybe some day i will, but we cannot miss you if you don't leave. the fact that they're back and being sort of normalized, it is salient and a little spooky as the republican party starts their new round of presidential politicking. most of them look back on the bush-cheney years like this. but they are main streaming it. they're back. and that is good to know in terms of understanding our national politics. it is also hard to avoid thinking about in terms of policy. especially on days like today when it gets so painfully clear that on policy, neither of the wars that they started in the bush-cheney administration are

over, and both of them acute will are not only not over, but they're getting pretty clear and hard to explain. today in iraq, for example, u.s. airpower, u.s. pilots have started participating directly in the fight against isis in tikrit. that fight on the ground has been a relatively small number of iraq troops, and a large number commanded by a general from iran's revolutionary regard. on the ground it is iran. in the air, it is us. american pilots supplying surveillance flights to help iran in it's battle against isis on and ground. us and iran, really? so is the iraq war, this great strategic gift to iran, has now resulted in the united states

and iran fighting on the same side in saddam hussein's hometown. the only war that we're fighting that congress likes to talk about less, is the one that we are fighting still in afghanistan but we basically refuse to talk about as a political matter. and that war took a dramatic turn today. it is a little inexplicable. and this dramatic turn happened today on the occasion of what happened to be a really remarkable, and at times a very moving visit by the new president of afghanistan to the united states. this is the afghan official that is the equivalent of their vice president, along with ash carter, the four of them laying a wreath at the too many of the unknowns.

a very somber and moving ceremony including the playing of "taps." and honoring the service in afghanistan has been the theme. he worked as a u.s. college professor, he worked as a word bank official. he had a home in bethezda. this is his first visit as president of afghanistan. what he has come back to over and over again since he has been here this week is striking. he keeps coming back to how thankful and appreciative he is for the sacrifice of american troops and their families for the 13 plus years of war americans have fought in his country.

i think his remarks have been moving in part because of the way he has gone out of his way to not just say it in platitudes, and talk about it as a country to country relationship, but the way he addressed it directly to troops, and the way he said thank you. >> we hope to welcome you to afghanistan as tourists, as civilians. revisiting with your loved ones. the peaks, the deserts, the valleys. the hoping of people that your loved ones touched so dearly. come back to us in some years and at that moment millions of us will be able to say thank you to each one of you personally.

shake your hands, and invite you to our homes. i would like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the 2215 american servicemen and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice. more than 22,000 american soldiers have been wounded in action, civilians, numerous contractors. you stood shoulder to shoulder with us, and i would like to stay thank you. i would also like to thank the american taxpayer for his and her hard earned dollars that have enabled us. >> taxpayers. when is the last time that you, as a taxpayer, were thanked for paying for the war in afghanistan.

we do not talk about that as a country. it is remarkable to see a national leader thank the people of the united states for sacrificing over a trillion dollars in addition to what service members and their families have sacrificed from their own lives. we never talk about the war at all in this country. let alone the in fact it is being fought in our name and with our money. to the point where the republican budgets unveiled on capitol hill this week propose going back to the bush-cheney budgeting ex -- system putting it as emergency money every year. but thanking us for 13 years of fighting, and thanking every taxpayer for the trillion tax dollars spent there. you can hear washington saying we don't talk about the in fact

this cost anything. but here he is, saying thank you, and being so publicly appreciative for what the united states has done in afghanistan. and the reason he is doing that is because he wants more of it. today president obama said yes. today at this joint press conference. he announced a dramatic change in u.s. policy. this had previously been the plan for the end of the u.s. troop presence in afghanistan after more than 13 1/2 years. 2015, 2016, 2017. that blue dot is where we are now, what the president previously said would happen was a plan to go down by the end of this year to about half that number, about 5500, down to a residual force of about 1,000

troops by the time he leaves office in the end of 2016 and the new president is sworn in to start 2017. that had been the plan. today he announced that he plans on keeping that same end date the same, but we're no going to make that said gradual decline. instead we're going to keep 10,000 troops, what we have there now, we're going to keep them there for the rest of the year. that means the decline to that end stlat be -- end will be a more rapid decent. it is clear they want more american troops there if toblting with but the end game now makes less sense. if you're worried about what happens in afghanistan as the

number of foreign troops decline, that decline will be more severe, more drastic, faster, more shocking to the system and it will happen over a shorter period of time. instead of going for 10,000 to 5,000, to 1,000, it is going from 10,000 to 1,000 in the course of a year. if you are worried that it will shock afghanistan and they won't be able to handle it, well that is more shocking. president obama says we're going down to that same end point. we're going down to 1,000 troops. you know what will happen in 2016, in december 2016, he will be a lame duck president. someone new will be elected, either a republican president, jeb bush, or it will be hillary clinton. likely.

either way you think they're going to be happy with this withdrawal plan? this dramatic withdrawal plan down to 1,000? you think they will let that stand? the afghanistan war is around 13 1/2 years long. it is nice to see discussion in washington about what that sacrifice has meant. even if it had to come from a foreign leader who was saying it in part because he was asking for more. if you ever had suspicions that a war only got to be 13 years long because washington didn't know how to end it, today those suspicions became policy if is already america's longest war. we'll tell you right now that today, more than ever, there is no end in sight. red. i knew i should've bought bounty.

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we try really hard on this show to have both perspectives, particularly people from political parties. there is another party that doesn't like to talk to me for any reason. tonight a small antedote for that problem. we have a real live elected republican official that happens to be at the center of making sure that something of really vital national importance gets fixed.

yesterday during the white house science fair, one of the journalists uncovered all of president obama's interaction with the kids, he works for tv asia. in the science fair, he suddenly collapsed at the white house. he has a a heart attack while he was covering the president at

this event and the science fair. because it happened inside the white house, the first responders were uniformed secret service agents. they're trained in life saving techniques. medics were on hand to help, and they called in dc fire and ambulance. it was very scarey and very serious. they started an iv line, they ultimately got the journalist into a ambulance. he was taken to a hospital and he remains hospitalized tonight. no one wants anything like that to happen to them under any circumstances. if it happens to you, you could do worse than to have it happen in front of secret service agents that immediately leapt to your age. also the secret service was called for help after the university of maryland got a threatening phone call regarding president obama's niece. she is a student athlete that is a forward on the princeton women's varsity basketball team

who was playing in the ncaa tournament ainst maryland. they notified the secret service saying they got a threat concerning the president's niece and that game. security was upped at the game and there was also two supreme court justices at that game. they are both princeton alums and both of them were there at the same game last night. everything ended up going okay, except that princeton lost. but imagine if you're the secret service, and that was all just in a day's work yesterday. they have responsibilities that are hard to overstate in terms of the high stakes and the main guy they protect, and the threats they handle on any given day. all of which makes it all more worrying when they get things wrong. this is footage from three weeks ago. this shows a person dropping off

a suspicious package outside of the security gate of the white house. secret service agents put occupy a temporary barricade while they investigate. this is the part that made news, recently. two senior secret service agents drive up to the scene, they turn on their flashing lights, and they bump the barricade. they believe those agents had been drinking. it's been reported they wanted to arrest the agents at the scene, but the person in charge said not to arrest and report them. so they were driving potentially right through the crime scene. the dc police videotape was released today by the oversight committee as they questioned secret service director joseph

clancy on his agency's handling of the event. it was nonpartisan and it was very heated. >> i believe when the chain of command is broken there is no command. it is like a body without a head. and when there is no command, there is vulnerability. again, that vulnerability goes to the safety of the president of the united states of america. >> it takes 27 minutes to secure the scene. 27 minutes. what if that was a real bomb? what if it was a real bomb? >> mr. chairman, i have been at the white house complex when we have secured zones, and it happens very rapidly from my -- >> but this didn't, and this is

the most recent example. why didn't it happen? who are you holding accountable? >> we're going to wait -- >> that's the problem, you're going to wait. we're going to wait. that's the problem. the chairman of that committee, joins us next. to show you their rates and their competitors' rates but that's precisely what we do. going up! nope, coming down. and if you switch to progressive today you could save an average of over 500 bucks. stop it. so call me today at the number below. or is it above? dismount! oh, and he sticks the landing!

now with the xfinity tv go app, you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. it takes 27 minutes to secure the scene. 27 minutes. what if it was a real bomb? what if it was a real bomb?

>> joining us now is congressman jason chaffetz, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> i have been watching the secret service story unfold. the congressional oversight part of it is interesting both because it seems very bipartisan and passionate, but because it seems like it might be the way we actually find out what is going on with the secret service. do you feel like there is something going on with that agency that we are yet to understand? >> yes, we have had too many incidents. there is a lack of leadership. when you do the very basics, it is not a partisan issue. i made no secret about being a mitt romney supporter, but barack obama is our president of the united states and i don't want anything to happen, not on my watch, not on elijah cummings

watch. >> in terms of the leadership concerns that you're expressing there, do you feel like director clancy is himself the problem. he was brought in to clean up the agency. do you feel like he was the wrong guy to pick. what is your perspective on him sf. >> they have a deep seeded cultural problem. they brought in four independent people that unanimously came back and said we need a transformative figure from the outside. the president decided not to follow that recommendation. i can't blame everything for him, but this is a pivotal moment. how is he going to deal with this crisis when they're not able to detain somebody who drops off a would-be bomb. you two senior people drive through two crime scenes. when they're not able to secure that area for 27 minutes when

they don't even call the metro police department for 11 minutes. they don't send a bolo for 30 minutes. >> what do you imagine will be the solution here? obviously you're indicating you may have concerned with the top level leadership. you may want a change in the top-level leadership, presumably that can't be all if the problems have been this deep, this widespread, particularly when there is a few senior leadership ranks among themselves. >> we have thousands of secret service officers and agents in the uniform division and as agents. they need the confidence they will get a workable schedule. they're overworked, under trained. we don't have enough agents and officers and they have to know that senior leadership has their back and they will treat senior management the way the they rank and file. until we gain that confidence we will continue to have these

struggles. >> the uniform division, and the difference between the agents and the moral issues around there, one of the things the narrative keeps coming around to is stopping levels, how well they're trained, how well they're equipped. if the solution is significantly more money, do you think the fiscal conservatives in the house would be willing to steer more resources to that agency if that has to be part of the solution. >> the average training time overthe court of the year is 25 minutes. 25 minutes they train girl scouts how to sell cookies longer than that. i support the idea they need to build a mock white house that will be an $8 million expenditure. right now they're going on a ball field with spray paint and trying to teach the officers.

that is not acceptable. we have to spend money to do this if will take resources. we can figure out where to cut somewhere else, but protecting the president of the united states and his family, we can never ever ever let anything happen to them. >> congressman jason chaffetz, it is really hard for me to get republicans to come on this show to talk to me even about nonpartisan things, so extra thanks. >> invite me back, you have always been good to me. >> it's good to get that perspective, when i see both sides yelling with the sane veins bulging from their necks, and so hot under the collar about it, it is so nice to see the outrage about the need to fix the secret service. it is a scarey situation, but the solution is going to be coming, i tell you.

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a quick note to our friends at the fox news channel, no means no, seriously.

>> would you entertain the party coming to you and saying governor, we're at a draw here. >> first, that's not going to happen, two, i'm not an entertainer. >> you're saying never never never never never? >> it's just not going to happen, i'm sorry, kneel. >> never? >> it's not going to happen. >> never never never never never? like never never never never never never? never? republicans are yearning for another mitt romney candidacy. is that just mitt romney love? does it suggest dissatisfaction about the candidates they already have this time of year? for one of the candidates that found himself in the top tier in year, life in the spotlight has gotten harder because of a bombshell new report. please stay with us.

if you live anywhere in the upper midwest, and you have turned on your television, you have heard this ear worm. ♪ save big money at menards ♪ it is a giant home improvement store chain. he is the 142 richest man in the world. he is also the richest man in the state of wisconsin. and he is well known not just being the richest man in the state, and not their hardware stores and their jingle, but for his battles with the state's environmental cops. ten years ago they said they had more problems with john menard and his company than with any other wisconsin company.

they cited him and his academy, menards, 13 times. over three decades for ignoring or violating problems. he was caught on video dumping arsenic-laden hazardous waste ashes from one of his lumber plants. he would bag up the waste, put it home to his house and putting it in his trash at home. it would just go to the landfill. john menard ended up paying a $1.7 million fine for that which at the time was a record in wisconsin, so that is john menard junior. here is what was just reported about him and his brand new starring role in american national politics.

in 2012, a wisconsin governor, scott walker, was involved in a bitter recall election. he donated $1.5 million dollars that promised they would keep their donors anonymous. they would accept donations from anyone, any corporation, and they would keep them secret forever. he reportedly gave $1.5 million to support scott walker secretly. since then, since scott walker won that recall election, things have gone pretty well for john menard junior. they have been awarded over $1.5 million in tax breaks. they have sharply scaled back the environmental repercussions that have plagued him more than any other company in the state

for years. to be clear, there was no bribely investigation here. he is not being investigating for anything. a spokesperson gave us a explanation about how he was treated by the scott walker administration could be explained by normal politics, nothing scandalous at all. but the fact that he tried to secretly give $1.5 million, and subsequently he received very favorable treatment from scott walker. and those things may not be connected at all in any way that is criminal and stinky. we were never supposed to know about the donations in the first place. part of the reason we may know about them now is because of the trailing ends of an ongoing criminal investigation into scott walkers donation. the case will be heard before the state supreme court next month, and governor walker and

his campaign team have successfully argued this investigation, the other hometown investigations, they should just be seen as wisconsin issues that will be of no interest to the nation, certainly not the press core. and that works when you're just the governor of wisconsin. and the national process only mildly interested in you at a distance. when you're a top tier presidential contender, reporters look at everything trailing behind you as you try to become president. because the investigations are still trailing him, the story of scott walker will be way more interesting in coming months. joining me is michael istakof. thank you for being here.

>> great to be back on the show. >> let me ask you first if i summarized that in a way that -- did i miss anything important or are those the right basics. >> i think you got it, just a couple points worth emphasizing here. some of what has come in this probe is that scott walker was personally involved in raising money for the wisconsin club for growth. there are e-mails in which this is -- his aids refer to the governor as a wisconsin club for growth as your 501c4. that we should steer donations through this group to have correct messages to defend the governor's record in advertisements. there has been a lot of attention in wisconsin in the

last year about some of the huge donations that walker himself raised from the likes of donald trump, or singer, the hedge fund billionaire, but what stands out in this matter is this is a guy, menard, who is the richest man who had extensive business before the state government. he was making what appears to be the largest single donation to the group that scott walker was trying to raise money for and the public knew nothing about it. i think that is the part of the story that is getting a lot of attention. why wasn't this disclosed? had the public known about these donations, would scott walker have been forced to answer questions when he ran for reelection? would the wisconsin press have been pressing him for

information about his meetings he might have had with john menard? whatever he knew about these donations? whether he solicited them. there are e-mails in which this is -- his aides refer to the governor as this wisconsin club for growth as your 501 c-4. that they should steer donations through this group to ensure correct messaging to defend the >> presumably if the investigation is allowed to continue and charges are

brought, then yes, we could learn lots more. the question that this story raises is, what else is there in the files? what else have prosecutors obtained about who was funneling donations to this group and what role walker himself played in raising that money. it's unclear whether the investigation is going to go forward. the wisconsin supreme court is going to be hearing arguments on this next month. some of its members have received support from some of the same people who were backing scott walker. so we'll see. but i think if nothing else, there will be a lot more attention on those oral arguments before the court. >> michael isikoff, correspondent for yahoo news, great to see you, mike. miss you here in the building, but you're doing great work for yahoo. much more ahead tonight. please stay with us. and now angie's list... is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule... ...services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into

finished projects with our angies list app. visit angieslist.com today. now with the xfinity tv go app, you can watch live tv anytime. it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more.

it is 2:53 a.m. in france right now. this is the sight of the question of the airbus a-320 that was flying this morning from barcelona to dusseldorf with 144 passengers and six crew members on board. that plane crashed in the french alps. all 150 on board are presumed to be dead. amazingly, authorities have already been able to locate the cockpit voice recorder, which is going to be key to what happens next in terms of finding out what happened to cause this crash.

the most unusual thing being reported thus far is the circumstances of its descent. the plane took off about 10:00 a.m. local time. 27 minutes after takeoff, it reached a cruising altitude of 38,000 feet. at 10:31, it started an eight-minute long descent. then lost control with french radar. it is unclear why the plane started that descent. what makes this even weirder is that while the plane was descending, it didn't deviate from its course at all, even as it lost altitude. that is unusual for a plane in distress. it kept on its planned trajectory while dropping 4,000 feet per minute for eight straight minutes. plane crashes themselves are rare. plane crashes like this from a cruising altitude without explanation, this type of crash

is almost unheard of. the latest we know of is that the black box was found today in this debris was flown to paris. plans's flight safety agency will be analyzing the contents of the box tomorrow. but this is a strange, strange story. plane crashes are rare, but this is a very rare type of plane crash. we'll bring you more as we learn more and lawrence o'donnell will have a lot more at the top of the hour. we'll be right back.

this is not the best new thing in the world but it does have a happy ending. early this morning in london in suffolk, residents woke up to an informational flyer telling them that a 1,000 pound world war ii era bomb had been found in the neighborhood and, if the bomb explodes, buildings in the 200

meter zone will be significantly damaged and those close to the bomb will be destroyed. remaining in your home is placing your life at significant risk. also, good morning. by 8:00 a.m., 1200 homes and businesses were emptied out. 1200. so officials could secure the construction site where this bomb had been found. this bomb had been found lying on its side, seemingly untouched since the nazis dropped it there about 70 years ago, freaking nazis! a military bomb squad from the defense was called in. happily, it did not go off and they were able to dig it off. military experts extracted it and trucked it out of london for detonation. this afternoon, residents received an apology from the police. the cops have officially apologized that their warning flyer was "a bit blunt."

considering that there was an undetonated 1,000 pound nazi bomb in the neighborhood, i declare that the cops can be excused for bluntness. good morning. right now on "first look," breaking details coming in to nbc news on that black box from the downed germanwings plane crash that claimed 150 lives. two passengers aboard a bus who narrowly escaped as the motor coach is swallowed up by a massive crater and washed away in rushing water. and to a 10-year-old world record holder with a drive to win unlike any other. good morning, i'm angie goff. moments ago search efforts resumed in southern france for bodies an debris from a passenger jet that crashed in the alps yesterday. police officials tell nbc news there are 100 national police and 150 firefighters involved. nbc's bill neely brings us