really? that worked? american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here. i'm dara brown. breaking news to tell you about in nepal. a magnitude 7.9 earthquake has hid near kathmandu. at least 71 people have been killed. many are being treated for injuries at the main hospital. the 6.6 magnitude aftershock hit an hour after the national quake. they are warning people to stay outdoors to maintain calm because more aftershocks are feared. rescue crews are on the scene. this is an area densely populated with 2.5 million people with poorly constructed homes held on top of each other.

the senior guide says an avalanche has hit the mount everest region and at least 30 people have been injured on the mountain. the quake was felt as far away as pakistan and new delhi, india. again, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit near the capital city of kathmandu. more at the top of the hour. now back to "the rachel maddow show." >> that saturday when the president stood up to deliver his lines, he demonstrated that he had the world's best poker face because what he knew that night and what no one else in that room knew and basically what no one else in the room knew was that as he was standing up to deliver his jokes, he was also in the final stages of authorizing the raid on osama bin laden. when the comic chose to host the dinner that night, seth myers made mention of bin laden in his act and how we still had not found him. watch what happened.

>> did you know every day from 4:00 to 5:00 he hosts a show on c-span? >> the president just laughing right along with that when seth myers delivered that line. he just laughed like it was any other ordinary joke. just one of the routine from seth myers. one of the reasons we were able to identify and snag bin laden after that dinner is because of something called the office of the director of national intelligence. that office was created ten years ago as a result of recommendations by the 9/11 commission. the idea was to streamline to improve information sharing between the intelligence. that intelligent led to the killing in the raid of ben ladin. on the ten-year creation of that

agency, on this day the president took the time to thank the intelligence community for all of their work and for their help in finding and located bin laden. >> part of what makes our job even more challenging is that despite the extraordinary work that's done here and the lives saved on an ongoing basis, a lot of our work still requires that we maintain some, umm -- some things as classified. and we can't always talk about all the challenges. i don't want you or folks across the intelligence community to ever forget the difference that you make every day. because of you we've had the intelligence to take out al qaeda leaders, including osama bin laden. >> the other thing the president addressed today with visible emotion is the news that we learned yesterday of the killing

of an american and also an italian hostage by an american drone strike along pakistan's border with afghanistan this year. and the intended target that day was the al qaeda compound. the administration said yesterday they had no idea the two hostages were hidden inside of that compound. one of the big questions around this story is why it has taken months for the administration to come forward and to report on these two deaths these two innocent deaths. it appears the cia knew something had gone terribly wrong after the strikes said six bodies not four bodies were pulled from the rubble. for weeks before that strike, intelligence feeding back to the cia from drones monitoring the compound have shown four men going in and out of the compound, just four men. so after the strike the cia expected to see four bodies. and then when they saw six, well that's when they knew they had

made a mistake. there are also new reports circulating that the captors of the american hostage, weinstein was his name has privately received $250,000 in ransom for his release. that is a payment that did not actually secure his release. the family of mr. weinstein has been critical of the support they got during his long-term captivity. today they released a statement thanking the italian prime minister in relating their condolences to the italian aide worker who also was killed in that same strike. and today while thanking the intelligence community for all of their work, the president revealed something about how the news of the killing of this american hostage was weighing on him. >> i was asked by somebody, you know, how do you absorb news like that that we received the other day? and i told the truth. it's hard.

but the one thing i wanted everybody to know -- because i know you. because i work with you. because i know the quality of this team. is that we all bleed when -- when we lose an american life. we all grieve when any innocent life is taken. we don't take this work lightly. this self reflection, you know, this willingness to examine ourselves, to make corrections, to do better. that is part of what makes us americans. that is part of what sets us apart from other nations. it is part of what keeps us not only safe but also strong and free. >> one of the interesting things about what the president said today and about his acknowledgment of this error in the need to make and make -- examine and make corrections is that actually when he was the junior senator from illinois,

back when he was running for president in 2007 and 2008, one of the things that he ran on back then, one of the things that essentially made barack obama a viable candidate, among the slew of powerful democrats who also ran with him back then including then senator hillary clinton and one of the things that made him stand out was that he was against the iraq war from the get go. the campaign in 2008 ended up being a referendum on how we do war and how we wanted our country to do war in the future. >> i am proud that i opposed this war from the start. because i thought that it would lead to the disastrous conditions that we've seen on the ground in iraq. >> i think it is much easier for us to have the argument when we have a nominee who says, "i always thought this was a bad idea. this was a bad strategy." i believe i showed the judgment of a commander in chief.

and i think senator clinton was wrong in her judgments on that. >> i opposed going to war in iraq. senator mccain was one of washington's biggest supporters for the war. this is an area where senator cane and i have have a fundamental difference because i think the first question is whether we should have gone into the war in the first place. >> part of what won him the nomination against hillary clinton in 2008 was he was against the war and she was for it. and part of what won barack obama the general election against john mccain. part of what made him president of the united states was that he had been against the war and john mccain had been for it. and then when president obama got into office he had a new way of doing things. yes, he called for winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan and that has sort of happened. or is in the process of happening, at least, but he also had a new way of doing war. a war that didn't include boots on the ground.

covert war, the drone program was moved out of the community and into the intelligence community now run by the cia. it was less transparent. we started using drones in places where we weren't officially at war, places like yemen and pakistan. as a result of that, as a result of the decision of doing that over the last several years, there have been an emerging criticism from republicans, most notably from senator rand paul in kentucky of the path's drone war. two years all paul staged a nearly 13-hour filibuster on the floor of the senate on the topic of drones. he started it at 11:47 in the morning and he continued standing there and talking on the senate floor on his feet until 12:39 a.m. just railing against drones. and then -- well, then he had to stop. >> and i would go for another 12 hours to try to break thurman's record. but i've discovered there are some limits to filibusters. and i'm going to have to take care of one of those in a few minutes here.

>> he would have gone on for another 12 hours but he had to go to the bathroom. so when the news broke yesterday that the american drone strike had killed an american hostage being held by al qaeda, the politician most upset, most outraged, most forceful in stepping forward to condemn the drone program, you might think that would be rand paul. but that's not what happened. instead, dave weigel reporting that when the news broke that the american hostage was killed in the drone strike paul's campaign sent over a statement, which said, quote, it is a tragedy that these americans lost their lives. my prayers and thoughts are with their families. then moments later they sent over a statement clarifying that he was referring to the american hostage, not the only two americans who were members of al qaeda. general response from rand paul was this strike was not the kind of think he had been protesting before. on the're the other side presumptive democratic nominee

hillary clinton has not come out and addressed this head on. she is also not participating in the debate while she campaigns over the nomination for presidency. and the entire field will have to deal with this question because the elections during wartime are elections that are about foreign policy they are about counter terrorism. they are about how we choose to do war. president obama's first and second elections were referendums on the bush wars and what those wars did to our country. and this election in a way will be a referendum on what president obama has done, how he has conducted war. how he's conducted in some cases covert war. and might not be putting boots on the ground but they can never be error-free. where accidents as we found out this week will happen. eugene robinson writes about this in today's "washington post. "quote if all goes as plans there are only terrorists and no civilians in the building or vehicle of war on terrorism.

but war never goes as planned, not even war conducted by repeat control. gene, thanks for being with us. let's talk about this. there is a balancing act i still can't quite figure out when i think about this. one way of looking at this is saying that over the last two years because of the drone program we've had we've taken out an awful lot of bad guys out there. we have put a real dent in al qaeda because of this and have done that while paying a much lower cost in terms of casualties on our side than we normally or used to have been the case. >> that's absolutely the case. that's why this is hard it is a hard issue. it is not really a democratic versus republican issue, it really hasn't been and really shouldn't be. i -- i think that we can't escape the -- what i see as moral questions, as legal questions. this is war by assassination. and i think we ought to figure out what we think about that. we have a law against assassinating foreign leaders. this isn't quite the same thing but i'm not sure the principle is all that different.

maybe we'll decide that this is -- you know, that that is not a moral problem. but i think we ought to talk about it. we're doing this in countries with which we're not at war. international law, there are questions about that. and the president says he has the authorization under the authorization to use military force against al qaeda. but i think that should be debated. >> what do you think though when you poll this question right now, it comes back very popular. >> yeah. sure. >> for the criticism that's been out there for the filibuster from rand paul a couple of years ago. this polls well right now. >> no it does poll well. and why not? because as you said we're not risking american lives. we did not risk american lives to take out that all ka qaeda compound. and that's an important thing. i'm happy that we didn't risk american lives and i'm happy if they got rid of bad al qaeda

people plotting to attack the united states. but we need to talk through these questions. one other question we need to ask is whether drone strikes eliminate more terrorists than they create or vice versa. there are civilian casualties. the administration down plays this initial aspect. human rights organizations have a much higher estimate. there certainly have been hundreds of such casualties in the drone wars. and if you extrapolate from that -- those sort of mushy figure certainly we have em bittered and angered some substantial number of people who probably have been gone on to join this group or join that group or otherwise impede what we're trying to do over there. so, you know, you don't make friends that way. you don't make friends by -- >> the kind of discussion and

debate you are talking about, do you think that is going to result from this? my completely unscientific view of talking to friends and family about this almost everyone i've talked to says this is an indictment of the drone program. it's been this is al qaeda. this is what happened when you are at war with al qaeda. >> yeah i'm not tremendously optimistic there is going to be a broad and deep discussion of these issues. but we'll see. president obama looked really grim yesterday and has talked about how effecting these decisions or executing these decisions are. and i take him at his word. i think he is far sighted enough to look ahead into a world of which drone war proliferates. you know we have the best technology now. we and perhaps the israelis are the only ones who have weaponized drones to this

extent. but other countries can figure how to do it. there are scores of countries now flying drones and to put a missile on it and fire it as a target is not an easy thing to do but there are lots of countries who can figure it out. so fast forward 10, 20 years to a world where russia is flying weaponized drones and china and iran and north korea and who knows who else. imagine -- and it is not hard to imagine -- that the technology becomes more sophisticated that these drones become more smaller, smarter, deadlier that's the way technology works. think about that world. i think we at least aught to consider before we rush down this route, i think we aught to consider whether this technology should be thought of the way we thought of chemical warfare, for example, after the first world war and it was just decided that you know we're two

country that is don't like each other, but as much as i might hate you and you hate me we are not going to cross. i wonder if it is not time to say, let's see where we want to go. because if we don't, that's where we're headed. >> eugene. really appreciate your time. lots more including our chat with senator ted cruz in a very unexpected place. and later, presidential jokes, no cover, no minimum. a lot ahead in the show tonight, so please stay with us.

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next in case 13534, north carolina state board of dental examiners versus the federal trade commission. gentlemen? >> may aplease address the

court? >> that was real audio from a u.s. supreme court hearing last year. the north carolina board for regulating dentists sued the federal government. the case had do with teeth whitening and whether the dentist members of that state board could block people without dental licenses to offer to whiten other people's teeth on the cheap. and the dentists lost that case last year with the court ruling against them. maybe that was for the betterment of the human race. i have no idea. i didn't follow it that closely. what i do know is that the telling of the case with the high court and the lawyers and the stenographers all represented by dogs and a chicken and a duck well, all of that is world changing. we are right now reaching the peak of our first full supreme court season since john oliver gave the world b world of the court in canine form. had the dogs become their mini genre on youtube, which may change the way you get to see two super important cases that are on their way to the court

right now. these cases have huge generational landmark implications for the country. one of our favorite court watchers is going to walk us through them in just a minute. ♪ if you're looking for a car that drives you... ...and takes the wheel right from your very hands... ...this isn't that car. the first and only car with direct adaptive steering. ♪ the 328 horsepower q50 from infiniti. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised?

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take a portion of the farmer's crop in order to regulate supply and price. let's not bore ourselves with the details of that one. suffice to it say the case has spawned a era of terrible pun head lines. next week though the court is finally getting to a pair of big, grand historically important case. these are big cases. both of them. but if there is a sleeper issue it is the one about the way we execute prisoners. death row inmates are challenging the three-drug protocol for lethal injections. this as states across are having trouble securing the drugs used for lethal injections. this as more and more are refusing to sell their products if those products are used for the purpose of execution. just last week oklahoma approved a new execution method, nicetrogen gas, it's completely untested.

and oklahoma and other states are making plans for alternate methods of execution in case the court rules against them. some are throwbacks like the electric chair. and some never used before. the really big case before the supreme court being watched and fought over already in state houses and the campaign trail is the one the justices are going to hear on tuesday. that is the day the court will hear arguments on whether to declare same sex marriage to be legal nationwide. specifically the justices have two questions before them. number one, does the constitution require states to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? and number two, does the constitution require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed outside of that state? the justices have addressed the issue of same sex marriage before most notably two years ago in the windsor case. that's when the court narrowly struck down a portion of the defense marriage act in rule

that the federal government must recognize lawfully wed same sex marriage. but next week's case next week's case is the big one that could make same sex marriage legal across the united states in validating all of the remaining state bans. or it could say that the state bans are okay. and if it did that it would create legal chaos as thousands of same sex couples who got married while state bans were wound up in court would find themselves in matrimonial limbo. would the marriages count or not count? that's one of the many reasons many legal observers think the supreme court is unlikely to uphold the state bans. a big week ahead at the court. a momentous week. and joining us to help sort through it all is kenji, author of "speak now americans on trial." the expectations into the conventional wisdom to the extent that this matters is that

the court at the end of this is going to allow gay marriage across the country, it reached the threshhold legal in so many states. people expect this but let me ask you this legally speaking what is the best argument that can be made in front of the court right now for that not to happen? >> yeah, so you are really putting me on the spot there because i have just written a book about how no such argument exists. i suppose the strongest argument would be that the argument that they keep proffering, which is the channelling function of marriage is to prevent heterosexual couples from reckless procreation. so it is rather trying to guide couples into the right unions. the problems i have are manifold. first, no one thinks bans on same sex marriage were enacted with that reason in mind. and second of all, this is kind of gays are too good for

marriage kind of notion. gays are so responsible in the way they procreate that they are simply too good to need to have their rickety shore up with this institution of marriage. >> let me take another shot and ask you a different one here. it is about the margin. nine votes on this. and i think back to brown versus board of education. and it was so important to earl warren on the court that the ruling basically be unanimous. how important is the margin on this? the difference between this say being say a 5-4 vote or like a 7-2, 8-1, 9-0 vote. how important is that? >> i don't think it's important to get a 9-0 vote. and you are right warren did all of these things where he went into justice jackson's hospital room and emerged mysteriously with his agreement not to write the concurrence and then sat

down with stanley reid and said you are all alone and you have to think about what's best for the country. we all know the story of how he really tries tried to use his skills to get a unanimous court. i don't think that is as important here and here is why. in the case of brown resistance could take the form that it ultimately really did take which is massive foot dragging on the part of the south to integrate schools. and immigration is a very hard and complicated thing to do if people don't want to do it. so in the gay marriage context it is much simpler. once you have five votes the implementation is very easy. all that needs to be done is marriage licenses have to be issued and then recognized across state lines. so the kind of operationalization, to use a terribly $10 to $20 ponderous

word is a lot simpler in this substance than in the desegregation because we're still dealing with the integration today. >> kenji, thanks a lot. sorry for the fastball on the first question there tonight. you handled it well. thanks for your time. >> thanks a lot steve. >> once a year american presidents are confronted with one of the toughest challenges they will ever face -- comedy. that is just ahead. open the box and... (sniffing) new phone smell. jump on a video chat with my friend. he's a real fan boy, so i can't wait to show this off. picture is perfect. i got mine at verizon. i... didn't. it's buffering right out of the box he was impressed. i couldn't be happier. couldn't see him but i could hear him making fun of me. vo: you waited this long for the s6 so why settle for anything less than verizon. start the interview with a firm handshake. firm, but not too firm. make eye contact...smile.

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we are in washington d.c. this week, a town not known for its comedy. but coming up we have a double dose of one of the only intentionally funny things to happen in washington. that story is straight ahead.

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to begin, no one should be judged on a hundred anything. these are writers. if they were judged on the first hundred words in their column it would be a disaster. it's the set up. i believe in that. i feel guilty because i was at your inaugural and i met someone at your inauguration who happens to live near me but i fell in love and i just feel so guilty because i had just a much better first hundred days than you did. [ laughter ] of course i had a lot more cooperation in the house, you know. >> you know proud to be able to say that. you know the first black president. well, that is unless you screw up. and then it is going to be what's up with the half white guy, huh? and whose idea was it to give the queen an ipod? what an awful gift.

what is she going to do download lady gaga? what? what are you going to give the pope, a bluetooth? [ laughter ] you should have given the queen something, you know, like memento of our country. something that says america. you know give her texas. >> the highlight reel from comedians elaine boozer and wanda sykes, each hosting the white house correspondents dinner. boozer back in 1993 with bill clinton's first year and wanda sykes back in 2009. and together these three women with paula poundstone are the only women to ever serve as the host for the dinner. there have been 88 annual dinners.

in the time attended by each of the last 15 presidents. that gets you all the way back to the calvin coolidge time in the roaring '20s. and in all of that time, all of those decades, all of those generations, a woman has been picked to play the role of the host three times. women weren't even actually allowed to attend when john f. kennedy was behest of the helen thomas whom you may remember refused to attend until the dirn was made open to women. in 24 and a half hours the is going to jump from three to four, that is when cecily strong takes the stage in washington tomorrow night. she's played characters on "the awesomes," the upcoming "ghostbusters" remake. and most known for "saturday night life". >> we need bipartisanships. >> like ships that are

bipartisan. you need to grow up seth because there are some people in south africa right now that are like, no. also, i'm sorry, why can't secret santa just be openly gay? tonight was prom night in many parts of the country. so if you're watching this live, sorry, buddy. >> the white house dinner has its list of detractors but like it or not, it's become a major event on the calendar. tomorrow night we'll see what kind of note cecily brings with her. and there is also of course the real star of the night, the president of the united states trying to play comedian. you are really going to get a kick out of it and we're going to have that for you next. feet...tiptoeing. better things than the pain stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist decide

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that was donald trump back in 2011 suggesting that president obama may not have been born in the united states. trump kept at it like that for months and months until finally the president decided he had enough and finally released his birth certificate putting all the mindless speculation to rest once and for all. then after that it was time for the annual white house correspondents' dinner. and donald trump was a guest at the dinner that year in 2011 but it was president obama who had the microphone. >> no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald and that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. like, did we fake the moon landing? what really happened in roswell?

and where are biggy and 2 pac? >> president obama tomorrow night will be giving remarks at the dinner for the seventh time in his presidency. every president since calvin kooinlg coolidge has dropped by once since their time in office but that doesn't mean they always liked it. nixon after one dinner, the reports were more bad manners and vicious than usual. this in the long run is a more conductive policy. and so engrained in our politics right now is no dinner than the president can skip. the one night a year when the president of the united states is forced to play the role of stand-up comedian. >> i know it's getting late dear but it's not often we have so many people who have written about us and broadcast about us. all together in a room like this.

and i thought you might like to say a few nice words to them. how about just a word or two, something friendly even one kind word? >> i'm thinking. i'm thinking. >> i always forward to these dinners. it is just a bunch of media types, hollywood liberals, democrats like joe biden. how come i can't have dinner with the 36% of the people who like me? >> in the next 100 days our bipartisan outreach will be so successful that even john boehner will consider becoming a democrat. after all we have a lot in common. he is a person of color. although not a color that appears in the natural world. [ laughter ] >> they've only got so seven more months to investigate me. so little time so many unanswered questions. [ laughter ]

for example, over the last few months i've lost 10 pounds. where did they go? this is a strange time in the life of any administration. but i think this short film will show that i have come to terms with it. >> well with the vice president and the first lady out on the campaign trail things aren't as exciting as they used to be around here. in fact it is really starting to wind down. >> joe? [ knocking ] anybody home? hello, white house. hold please. hello? white house? >> i wish i could be here more. but i really think bill has everything under control. >> honey, wait, wait. wait! you forgot your lunch!

and joining us now is michael beshash, the white house historian, someone who's attended the correspondents dinner several times. thanks for joining us. it is that time when the president has to play stand up comedian. who was really good at this among the presidents? >> well, they began with a pretty low bar. as you mentioned the first to do this was calvin coolidge and probably the person who changed it was ronald reagan in the 1980s. it was a private dinner more or less and this was not on c-span until 1993. probably the first person who changed it was ronald reagan in the 1980s. because four years before he became president, he did a lot of this kind of speech at hollywood dinners. you give a funny speech and so on, so he was very much in his element and it created expectations for every president after that. >> how does obama, say this is his seventh one. how does he stack up against the

predecessors? >> in sort of the laugh-o-meter? >> yeah. >> i think the one thing that he has in common is most of these people don't like to come to these dinners. it is not just radio but tv correspondents. they make a speech and are expected to be very funny. naturally, most of them are not comedians. not only on c-span but msnbc tomorrow night and all over the place, they feel they have to perform almost to the level of the hired comedians who are there. that takes a lot of time. and barack obama, he's gotten very good at it but this did not necessarily come naturally to him. >> i guess we had it in the intro area you had given us a heads-up about this but nixon. you have to love nixon -- he's always so raw and it's so uncensored. >> it's the gift that keeps on giving to historians. >> and i look at dmontzs, just the absolute contempt for the

press. but is he articulating what they all feel but only nixon will say it? >> nixon took it to another level because on the white house tapes he told henry kissinger the press is the enemy. so to go to the dinners and sit there for three hours, what he was always complaining about was nixon in another memo complaining to his aide bold holdman that he has to sit there while the drunken audience is jeering him as he has to watch over the granting of awards of journalism to reporters trying to tear him apart. it drives him crazy. >> i imagine that probably does drive president obama, president clinton, president reagan whoever, these are reporters who in their day jobs are cross-suitizing the administration scrutinizing the administration. the administration doesn't like it. >> yes, and almost every single one of the presidents, tomorrow night the president will give a speempx funny speech, at the end he'll get serious. then they'll say it's a great thing we are living in a

democracy with free press. and they believe that intellectually but not viscerally. >> it's a tough role for the stand-up comedian. there's pressure on the president, but when the president comes through and you are the professional comedian and being overshadowed in your own game that's a blow for a comedian. too. >> the other thing is how far do you go to criticize the president? stephen colbert was criticized for maybe crossing the line. you think of for instance lyndon johnson gave a speech in 1968, wasn't very funny. i don't remember who the comedian was or what the entertainment was, but i think in those days one would have been terrified to give a speech when the president was there with anything remotely approaching that kind of criticism. >> don changed that a few weeks ago, if you remember that one. >> the crowd created an entire different dementia. >> thanks so much for your time tonight.

appreciate that. and as michael mentioned msnbc is going to have live coverage of the white house correspondents dinner tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern. ahead a change of the top of the justice department and the legacy of asparagus. stay with us. but when i started having back pain my sister had to come help. i don't like asking for help. i took tylenol but i had to take six pills to get through the day. so my daughter brought over some aleve. it's just two pills, all day! and now, i'm back! aleve. two pills. all day strong, all day long. and for a good night's rest, try aleve pm for a better am. in our house, we do just about everything online. and our old internet just wasn't cutting it. so i switched us from u-verse to xfinity. they have the fastest, most reliable internet. which is perfect for me, because i think everything should just work. works? works. works! works? works. works.

so how about this? yesterday on capitol hill we ran into senator ted cruz. ran into him at one of the few places that didn't close at least right away when cruise led the effort to shut down the government in 2013 in a failed effort to defund obamacare. >> i started coming to the house

barbershop when the government was shut down. the house barbershop was private. so they were still open. the senate barbershop was closed down as part of the federal government. so i crossed over here to get a haircut here during the shutdown. shelton does such a good job i kept coming after this. >> and for the record, cruz's barber said the house shop eventually closed down as part of the shutdown but didn't close down until after cruz got his haircut. yesterday i was lucky enough to spend the afternoon at that barbershop. it's a great place full of great stories from both the members of the house and senators who go there for a trim. and from the 78-year-old italian immigrant running it for the last 45 years, he calls it his american dream. watch the full report on my show "up." we are in d.c. all weekend with a lot of great things to look forward to including our trip to the house barbershop on sunday morning. we'll be right back.

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me, it is hard for me to walk away from the people who i love and who represent this institution that i love so much. but it is time. >> attorney general eric holder has held that job for the past six years for the entire duration of the obama presidency so far. in this coming monday eric holder's replacement loretta lynch is going to be sworn in as the new attorney general. this after waiting longer than just about any cabinet nominee in history to get confirmed by the senate. this will make her the first african-american woman to serve in that position. but today was eric holder's last official day on the job. he gave an emotional and moving speech on his way out the door. heavy on praise for all the personnel at the doj. but if you followed the story of eric holder the past six years, then you know that his interactions weren't so warm and fuzzy, namely the parts where you had to sit through hearings with republican members of congress. from the very beginning of

holder's tenure as attorney general, he's been viled by many on the right. the republicans charged him with contempt at one point and republican leaders demanded that he resign. actually republicans had a chance to replace eric holder months ago but they waited until yesterday to go ahead and actually do it to confirm loretta lynch to replace him. that actually became a running joke at the justice department there as people including holder himself wearing the freer i can holder bracelets all but begging the senate to just let him leave already. but today was finally his last day. in honor of that "the rachel maddow" show wants to pay tribute to the tape inspired by eric holder. this was eric holder at one of the congressional hearings where republicans take turns grilling and castigating him. this comes to us from back in 2013 with republican congressman lou gomer working himself into a fury as he confronted holder over the boston marathon

bombings. watch. >> you don't have access to the fbi files. you don't know what the fbi did. you don't know what the fbi's interaction was with the russians. i know what the fbi did. you cannot know what i know. that's all. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. and that is simply the reason -- i did not assert what they did or did not do. i asserted what the -- my point of it -- i cannot have a -- >> regular order. >> he has challenged my character and my integrity. >> the gentleman will respond to that. >> when you attack somebody's integrity and said they made statements that were not true then of course that is raises a point of personal privilege. but the attorney general failed to answer my questions about what was -- >> the gentleman -- >> aspersions on my asparagus. >> that last part what was that

again? >> regular order, mr. chairman. >> aspersions on my asparagus. >> for the record the attorney general never forgot that. and a year later when he was in another completely unrelated congressional hearing with lou gomer, he made sure to bring it up. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. >> unfortunately. the chair recognizes the. >> good luck with your asparagus. >> good-bye general eric holder. and for loretta lynch starting her job on monday. talk about a tough act to follow. >> now i want to do something here. we have these bands that i've been wearing. for the last whatever number of whatevers. i think i can officially take this off now. [ applause ]

i think we can officially say now that eric holder is free. >> up next "weekends with alex witt." breaking news overnight, a devastating and deadly earthquake in nepal. rescue operations are underway with reports of many trapped. a live report ahead. stormy skies. it could be a weekend of potentially dangerous weather in parts of the country. where might the worst hit? the forecast in minutes. and the bruce jenner saga. hear new reaction to what many are calling a powerful and poignant interview about his future. and a new and closer look. how is the white house going to reassess the u.s. drone program. will it slow down the number of