american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here. good evening. rachel is off tonight, this afternoon. this is what every political journalist in america was doing. they were looking at this screen, the screen you're looking at right there on the state department's official website. and they were waiting and they were waiting some more because at 12:30 the state department posted the first batch of secretary of state hillary clinton's e-mails. every single member of the political press went there at the same time and the website had a little trouble loading. so they had to wait for a long time. but eventually, there they were. 296 e-mails, 850 pages. all the e-mails that had been handed over to the congressional committee investigating the attack on the u.s. consulate in

benghazi libya. and everyone dug in to see what they could find. and if anyone was hoping to find some explosive new piece of information, well, on that front, they were probably disappointed. but that is not to say that there was nothing interesting in these e-mails. we see, for instance, some of the e-mail traffic that took place the night of the benghazi attack. this after secretary clinton was informed of the death of the u.s. ambassador, chris stephens, and others. secretary conferred about whether to -- about his death. quote, we recovered both bodies overnight. there are the e-mails from long time clinton confidant sydney blumenthal. the night after the attack, he wrote clinton saying the attacks grew out of an angry protest against an offensive internet video. but the following day, after he sent that e-mail, blumenthal e-mailed that, in fact, the

attack had been premeditated and only used the protests for cover. this is an analysis that has since come to be accepted as closer to the truth. then there are other redactions. some of them are puzzling. for instance, here is a portion of a public speech that bill clinton gave in september 2012. the entire speech. as you can see, that entire speech has been redacted. now, you can pop over to the senator's website. you can actually see her delivering the speech through their website. but the redaction is getting the most attention today is this one. it was made today by the fbi which decided that these five lines containing, they say, 23 words are now to be considered classified. because all of this e-mail traffic is from hillary clinton's private e-mail on her private e-mail server, that has set off some alarm bells for some people. at a campaign event today, andrea mitchell got something that is a rare opportunity these days. she got a chance to ask hillary clinton a question.

>> i'm aware that the fbi has asked that a portion of one e-mail be held back. that happens in the process of freedom of information act responses. but that doesn't change the fact that all of the information in the e-mails was handled appropriately. >> but it was a private server, though. do you have some concern that it was on a private server, though? >> no. >> hillary clinton saying she is not concerned. but should she be? we're going to talk about the politics of all this in just a moment. but first, joining us now is "new york times" reporter michael schmidt whose paper obtained and released some of these e-mails before they were released today. let me start with what you see is the headline, this looks like it's going to be the first of a series of rolling releases of clinton e-mails by the state department. what, to you, is the big headline that we've learned from all of this?

>> as you pointed out, the benghazi e-mail two days after sid blumenthal is giving his intelligent account to the secretary of state is significant because it contradicts what the white house was saying at the time. the white house was saying it wasn't a preplanned attack and such. at the end of the day, i'm not sure where that's going to go. the fbi question is interesting. she also had what is called sensitive and unclassified information on the account. this included the whereabouts of stephens in 2011 when the security in eastern benghazi and benghazi in eastern libya was deteriorated. she had some other very sensitive stuff of conversations the president was having with foreign leaders. so, indeed, there was not classified stuff. there was a little bit, i guess as we learned today from the fbi, that there was. but there was stuff that was important. and if anyone, if any foreign government or anyone was on that server, they would have seen it. >> let me ask you about this.

i'm having trouble understanding what the sort of standard is here, what the procedure is for redactions. we gave you -- there's that puzzling case here of the speech that's suddenly redacted, a speech you can go look at right now if you want to. buts there's this whole issue of sydney blumenthal. so in your reporting, you had sydney blumenthal's name on them. in these releases today from the state department, sydney blumenthal's name redacted. we saw your reporting and said that must be sydney blumenthal. the but the state department said no, we consider that redacted. what is going on here? >> well, the funny thing is what you can now do, the ones that we have that aren't redacted, you can kind of line them up. there's the stuff like the head of the national counterterrorism center was e-mailing with cheryl mills, one of hillary clinton's deputies. his name is redacted in one of the e-mails. why would the name of a public official have to be redacted? why, as you were pointing out on

the speeches, would that have to be redacted? it doesn't make any sense. and the state department not only didn't do a good job of rolling these things out, it was difficult to access them on the website. but they didn't really explain a lot of these things either. they just kind of dumping them. >> so now you said just a minute ago, some of the information in these e-mails that hillary clinton is sending from her private server were, at the time she sent them, considered sensitive, but not classified. but if you listen to a lot of republicans today, they are saying that the big screaming headline from all of this is that hillary clinton was passing on classified information through her private e-mail server. can you explain exactly why they would say that? and is that true? >> well, i'm not -- i'm not sure about the passing on. what she was doing, she was taking these intelligence reports from sydney blumenthal, things that he was developing on his own, things that he had a

direct pipeline to the secretary of state. she was sending them on to her close foreign policy adviser and saying get this around. and on that benghazi account of what happened, she sent it to him and said get this around asap. on one occasion, she even wanted information passed on to the white house about blumenthal was sending her about a possible way mitt romney and the republicans could attack obama. that's kind of funny because what the obama white house didn't want, they didn't want blumenthal at the state department but in the end, he was passing on advice to them. >> it's an explosive charge, if it's true, this idea that there is classified information contained in these meals from her private server. it's only, if i'm understanding this right, it's only after the fact being deemed classified. >> correct. it was just in the past 24 hours that the fbi made this information classified. what i was told is that for some reason, it wasn't made classified back in 2012. it really should have been. the person i spoke to said.

but it wasn't. but as the fbi got a chance to take a look at these e-mails again to make sure there was nothing on there that was sensitive or classified, they saw this, they realized it should have been classified. they classified it and then they had it redacted. >> michael schmidt from the "new york times," he appreciate you taking the time tonight. thank you. so we've been talking about the substance of hillary clinton's e-mails, what was released today, what was in them, what isn't, why it's in there. but what about they also these e-mails and how they're being used, how they're being used politically. these are things that can be very, very different especially in the court of public opinion. we mentioned this just a minute ago, that one e-mail in which five lines were classified today by the fbi, and this headline sounds very troubling, at least at first glance. clinton got now classified benghazi info on private e-mail. but that one word there, that word "now" is key because that information was not classified when hillary clinton as secretary of state received it.

but it is very easy to drop in that tiny word which is just what house speaker john boehner did today, blasting out this image on twitter, quote, she had classified info about benghazi on her private e-mail. senator cornan also sweeting about it saying, quote, what's clear is that hillary clinton consistently played fast and loose with the rules in the interest of her own political gain. every new revelation is a constant reminder that hillary clinton can't be trusted. even beyond the specific accusation around classified information, conservatives and republicans are just clearly chomping on the bit to use these e-mails in some politically salient way. marie hart took some time to note the visitors. just to remind people in the spirit of cooperation, we have consistently engaged with and been responsive to the select

committee since the select committee's formation less than a year ago, the department has provided seven briefings. witnesses at each of the committee's three hearings, 21 witness interviews since february and reside over 45,000 pages of documents to the committee, as well. now that the front row has filled out including with two fox reporters, i'm happy to start the briefing now. >> and sure enough, later in the day, there was fox news with its story slamming hillary clinton. internal e-mails show clinton got internal e-mail on planned benghazi hit. so conservatives are excited about these e-mails is anybody else? is there political hay to be made from them? joining us now from the north lawn of the white house, casey, thank you for joining us. i'm just curious, when we look at these statements coming out from john boehner, john corbin

reince priebus, i wonder who is their audience for this? is this playing to their base to sort of get their base riled up, stoked up a bit? do they believe there's an opening with undecided voters, with swing voters, to even undermine hillary clinton among democrats? who are they looking at and saying, this is going to matter to them? >> i think it's a combination of those two things, steve. i think first of all, benghazi as an issue with the republican base, it lights them up. that's why you hear republicans talking about this so much, so often. you listen to lindsey graham talking about benghazi, it really hits home with them. but i also think particularly that statement from reince priebus hits on the overall idea, that the clintons play fast and loose with the rules is what he said in a way that's not -- you know they hold themselves to a different standard than they would hold other americans. and i think that particular idea

is the one that could ultimately undermine hillary clinton over the course of the next year and a half as she campaigns for president. you know, i think that they have this fine line to walk because, at a certain point, because they are beating up on hillary clinton because that's what they like to do. but it does turn off independents who would say, you know what? you're just beating up on hillary clinton because that's what you like to do. but i think there is this -- you know, people remember the late '90s when they weren't really sure what they were getting with the clintons and i think there is some resistance to going back to that. and if republicans can sell it that way, it might hurt her. >> that's interesting that you say that. on the literal issue of e-mails, this whole e-mail story, this was a poll from a few months ago, i think this is from march saying 17% of people, a very small number, say they were following this closely. there was an ap poll that said 20% were paying close attention. so not a lot of people paying close attention. on the other hand, there was a poll from last month that asked the question, do you think hillary clinton is honest and trustworthy? look at that. 54% saying no. kasie, i wonder how you interpret that number because obviously on the surface that's

a bad number for any position. i guess some of the clinton crowd would say, look that number was just as high for bill clinton and he got re-elected in 1996. >> well, that is the question. can you be considered untrustworthy and still be somebody who people want to see in the white house? and i think, steve, we also have to take a step back and remember that while i do think, as we were discussing, that that is a risk tease built into this for her. if those numbers drive far enough up, it becomes a defining character issue. it certainly could hurt her. but she still has to come up against an opponent who is capable of beating her. and i think we're a long way from this republican field showing the kind of strength that regardless at this point of how high that untrustworthy number goes, you can take her on legitimately. you pay as close attention to this as i do and we're seeing a lot of scrambling around and all of these candidates struggling to become essentially big enough to stand up to her. and i think they're going to have to prove that before that polling gets to be the main question.

>> i wonder how her campaign is thinking about this, too. the issue of the e-mails, for instance, the issue of the e-mails, the issue of dealing with this benghazi committee in the house, but also the issue of dealing with the press, the fact that she did take time today, five, ten minutes, i think. but for her, let's face it, that's a lot of time in these last few months. to take questions from the press up there in new hampshire, that's a significant departure of what she's been doing. do we read anything boo that about her campaign looking at the approach to the media any differently or do they go back to sort of silence for the next month now? >> it is certainly a significant increase in the number of questions we heard hillary clinton take since she did announce that she was running. look, i think they clearly have made some major adjustments in their strategy from 2008. you just look at the kinds of people they've hired, many of who have good relationships with the press. you look at how they handled the rollout of that schweitzer book.

they had that detailed response. i think you're getting an adjusted response as to whether i don't know how much is from the press and her opponents. because it was becoming very quickly a talking point on the republican side. and it was something that they were all using to define themselves in opposition to her. and most notably, jeb bush who is telling donors this behind closed doors that him taking questions from the press, being accessible to voters is a contrast with hillary that people ultimately will see. and i think it plays into that wider narrative of this idea that they are keeping secrets. if you combine those, it's dangerous. i don't know that this is necessarily about the media. oftentimes reporters like to make things about reporters. i think it might also be about her opponents. as you point out, it's definitely a shift. >> i'll make a prediction. you'll still be hearing that line from republicans tomorrow

and a week from now or a month from now. anyway, kasie hunt on the north lawn of the white house thank you for taking the time with us. appreciate it. >> thanks, steve. and much more ahead tonight, including a 2012 republican front-runner crying foul over the fox news plan to limit the number of candidates who get to debate. and report from ireland has voters there decide whether that country should become the first in the world to vote to legalize gay marriage. stay with us. hareab le data. yeah, 10 gigantic gigs. for $80 a month. and $15 per line. more data than ever. for more of what you want. on the network that's #1 in speed, call, data, and reliability. so you never have to settle. $80 a month. for 10 gigs. and $15 per line. stop by or visit us online. and save without settling. only on verizon. ♪ where do you get this kind of confidence? at your ford dealer... that's where! our expert trained technicians... state of the art technology

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we have a big show still ahead tonight. there is a new development in the fight for the 2016 republican presidential nomination, a development that could have a big impact on who gets to debate and who becomes the nominee. also today, some pretty stunning images out of california in the wake of that disastrous oil spill out there. plus, a lot of people flew to ireland today and not because it's tourist season. we've got a report from dublin in just a minute and new questions for the guy who may soon be leading u.s. armed forces all around the world. lots to get to tonight.

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if you have play dates at your house. be ready to clean up the mess. the kids have fun, but it's pretty gross. (doorbell) what's that? it's a swiffer wetjet. i can just grab this and just go right to the mess. that comes from my floor? now that's disgusting. i want friends over! you want friends over? by 12:00 noon eastern, we'll snow if ireland has made history as the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage by a nation wide popular vote. heading into the referendum, the news looks very promising for those who support marriage equality. polls released on sunday showed that 69% of the voters in ireland were expected to vote yes on this referendum. as is the case with any election, turnout is key, especially in a country known as being historically conservative. more than 80% of the population identify themselves as catholic.

we can tell you as it turned out voter turnout does appear to be through the roof. multiple sources telling nbc news more people voted in this referendum than in any other referendum in the last three decades. in fact, this could be the largest turnout in history. in the last few weeks alone, more than 60,000 people have registered to vote. and what is probably most encouraging for gay marriage supporters is one of the groups that seems to be turning out in big numbers is young voters. young voters were noted across the country with queues reaching outside the door at several polling stations during rush hour periods. and they weren't just coming from local towns or villages. voting is only allowed in ireland, so people travel from around the world to make their voices heard. this week, they returned home in droves to cast their ballots in person. like many others, these people traveled by boat from the uk. this woman, she returned home to ireland from sweden. not to be outdone, we have another voter from abu dhabi.

and this gentleman who came more than 10,000 miles to vote, came from australia. on social media, people are tweeting about their return from san francisco, to germany, from thailand, even kenya, all to be a part of history in a country where just two decades ago homosexuality was a crime. now we'll wait to see if history has been made. we should know in just a few hours. joining us now, chief correspondent in ireland, he joins us by skype. from dublin, port, thank you for taking some time. it's interesting to watch an election in ireland because it's different in the united states in that as soon as the polls close in the united states, we get a wave of exit polls, we have all sorts of numbers and projections coming in right away. a little different in ireland. the polls are closed. we still don't know. what's the process? when do we find out? >> yeah. so the polls closed two hours ago in ireland.

so we go to bed, we get up and there will be initial indications into the count. i think the key take away tonight is, like you pointed out, the turnout was very high. 60%, which will be one of the highest in recent referendums and the key again is the turnout in urban areas, a big turnout among young people. in fact, a prominent note, no campaigner -- few members of parliament backing a no vote told reuters tonight the high turnout among young voters would tend to favor the yes vote. as it stands, there's a pretty good chance ireland will be the first country to lead same-sex marriage in a referendum. >> so we say in the introduction, 20 years ago in ireland homosexuality was considered a crime. now you're in a situation there where it may be the case where voters are legalizing gay

marriage marriage. we talked about how quickly additives have changed on gay marriage. can you talk about that transformation in ireland, a very catholic country, certainly in the united states we look at and we think of it as a culturally conservative country. what's that transformation been like in terms of public opinion there? >> yeah. the change in society in ireland in the last 20 years, like you pointed out, homosexuality was going to criminalize in 1993, we had only voted by referendum to legalize divorce in 1995. one thing that's happened is the catholic church has had previous control over our -- most notably in the last decade or two, quite a number of clerical abuse and stories from society have moved along quite quickly. and i think whatever the results tomorrow, there's been quite a very mature, very engaged -- in this issue which i think would

have been possible ten years ago. >> and curious, all these people coming from around the world to vote in ireland, how did this work in terms of the rules? who is eligible who does not live in ireland right now to come in and vote? >> so you're eligible if you have only left the country within the last 18 months and you intend to return. and within that cohort, it would be a number of young immigrants who left the country to find work. unemployment is still quite high in ireland following the financial crisis. so those people are eligible to vote. some people, their names might not have fallen off the register which i think strictly speaking they shouldn't come home to vote, but their names are still there. as you see on social media today, people have come back from all over the world. it's really taken over on twitter and it may have an impact tomorrow. >> all right. our chief correspondent there in ireland. we will wait and see what the result is, how long with the rest of the world. thanks for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you.

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this video was shot last night at sea world in san diego, california. the workers in this video are examining and cleaning a baby sea lion covered in crude oil who was rescued this week in the waters off refugio state beach near santa barbara.

today, staff members of the international bird rescue group helped clean six pelicans who were drenched in the stuff. officials have been reluctant to give the full number of animals that have been hurt or killed by the spill. but the pictures we've seen over the past few days show just how much of an impact tuesday's giant oil spill had on the wildlife off the coast of santa barbara county. cleanup operations continue today along the beach. officials say they upped the number of workers to clean up the spill to around 700. they've been using shovels and plastic bags as well as 7,000 feet of boom to collect 10,000 gallons of oily water mixture. officials today reiterating it could take weeks or months even to fully clean up the land around the ruptured pipeline and the beaches. as rachel noted on the show last night, a number of local volunteers have decided they don't want to wait that long and they've decided to take matters

into their own hands. despite pleas from authorities to stay away from the toxic oil. but as both the unofficial and official cleanup operations are playing out, the other big thing that's going on is the investigation into how and why this happened in the first place. on that front, today, the california attorney general's office said that they are, quote, working closely with state and federal partners on an investigation of this conduct to ensure we hold responsible parties accountable. meanwhile, the federal agencies in charge of overseeing the pipeline that caused this spill issued what they call a corrective action to the order to the on ray poorperator of that pipeline. the pipeline told the country that owns that pipeline that not only does the pipeline need to be drained immediately, they also need to physically send the ruptured section of the pipe out for testing and conduct what is called a root analysis of the spill and involve a third party

outside to review the results of previous pipeline inspections. but as of tonight, it is still a mystery as to what caused the pipeline leak in the first place. local papers have been digging into the safety report of plains all american looking for clues. the "l.a. times" reporting that since 2006, the pipeline company has received 175 safety and maintenance infractions, including pump failure, equipment malfunction, pipeline corrosion and operator error. the company has had to pay over $23 million in property damage over the last nine years. last week, the head of the santa barbara county energy division said that he was curious as to why the pipeline leak didn't trigger an automatic shutoff of the pipeline. the system that isequired for

pipelines under the county jurisdiction. the reason that automatic shutdown didn't kick is because it didn't exist. the partnership line that ruptured and released an estimated 500,000 gallons of oil on tuesday is the only pipeline not equipped with an automatic shutoff system in santa barbara county. it has to be shut off manually which means someone has to notice something is wrong and shut off the pipeline themselves. the fact that the pipeline didn't have an automatic feature comes as a shock, quote, i just found out, he said. we had no regulatory authority. the story is not going away anytime soon. there will surely be more updates in the days and weeks to come as we learn more. until then, enjoy the view. ♪ if you're looking for a car that

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as you know your ex-wife gave an interview to abc news and another to "the washington post" post"" and this story has now gone viral. in it, she says you came to her in 1999, at a time when you were having an affair. she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that?

>> no, but i will. i think the destructive vicious negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. >> that is arguably the most memorable moment from the republican debate leading up to the 2012 election. and definitely the most memorable moment from newt gingrich's presidential campaign. his debate performances in south carolina provided a gigantic bump for him. nbc's polling show gingrich surging to second behind mitt romney cutting the lead in half and helped to power him to a win

in the first in the south carolina primary. when you're the front-runner, national presidential debates are your chance to lay out your platform and to look presidential. but when you're a lesser known candidate, it's a big deal just to get your face seen by a large number of voters. the wider the field, the more important that exposure becomes. so in a year where the potential candidate spool currently hovering around 20 on the republican side, you can understand why that real estate, why a place on that debate stage is so important. because in all likelihood, we are not going to see a stage with 15 or 20 candidates on it. so how do you decide? fox news this week announced its criteria for debate selection. they're going to use the top ten candidates according to an average of the most recent fox approved public opinion polls. a decision that has caused rick santorum to lash out saying, if you're a united states senator and you're a governor, if you're a woman who ran a fortune 500 company and you're running a legitimate campaign for president, then you should have a right to be on the stage with anybody else. the idea that a national poll has any relationship to the

viability of a candidate, ask rudy giuliani that, ask phil graham that. strong words from rick santorum, but he's right. he knows from experience. he was polling in the single digits before he broke through and won the iowa caucuses at the start of last cycle. sure, the difference between first in the polls and fifth in the polls may be significant, but the difference between eighth place and 14th place in this current field is minuscule. right now, according to the last five polls at nbc news recognizes, sanatorium falls outside of the top ten. he's even behind donald trump. let's take a look at the real politics average as an example. here, sanatorium would be tenth at 2.3%. he's 0.1% behind rick perry for ninth place. 0.3% ahead of john kasich, who would be out under this criteria. after kasich, it's carly fiorina, governor bobby jindal, lindsey graham all tied at 1.3%. all of them one point from

getting into the debate, one point. that difference between being out and being in, so infinitessimal, all they would need is a one-point bump in a couple of fox approved polls and then they would get a seat at the table on that stage. that could lead to a lot of candidates desperately doing whatever they can to get that one-point bounce, one. outrageous comment maybe about bombing iran or about saudi arabia or president obama bbl a social ist socialist, being a socialist. anything that could get them some attention. they would draw a lot of criticism on the one hand, but also, it could get them that 1% bounce they need to get on the debate stage. joining us now is robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post." robert, thank you for taking a few minutes with us tonight. let me ask you first about rick santorum's criticism here. depending on which polls you

throw in right now, sanatorium, maybe he would buy in it or out of it. maybe he would be on that cut line for this crucial debate. is his criticism having any impact? is fox maybe getting cold feet about this criteria at all? >> it's fascinating to watch because the party wanted more control this time around. they wanted to make sure the debate weren't as sprawling of a process. but it may be just that. it could be a mess. sanatorium and other conservative contenders, if they're not going to find a way on to that official stage, look for a lot of these groups to try and invite the candidates to speak elsewhere. there's going to be pressure for top tier contenders to not participate. is it fair for someone who is right on the cuff to be left out? >> it's an interesting dilemma. i feel some sympathy for the organizers, whether it's fox or anybody else trying to put one of these things on. because the logistics of having 15 or 16 candidates on the debate stage and trying to have anything intelligible or coming out of it seems impossible.

so if it seems like there's 10 candidates that seem like the worst possible solution except for all the others. and there should be a lot of pressure on the media organizations who are hosting these debates because everyone is coming up with their own rules. rooips reince priebus, the rnc chairman, is not really having a firm hand when it comes to setting the terms of the debate. cnn could have two tiers, nbc could do three. no one really knows exactly how it's going unfold. >> so what happens, though, if we're -- let's try to play this out. we're getting close to the first fox debate that is going to be in cleveland. a group of seven, eight candidates who are all, as we say, the difference between being at 3% or 2% in the polls is the difference between getting in this debate and getting shut out. is that going to put sort of an incentive, a premium on doing something outlandish, something outrageous just to get attention and just to make sure you're on stage? >> it's going to be in a spectacle perhaps unlike anything we've ever seen. the 2012 experience haunts the

republican party. they want to move beyond it. but now, it's not just about getting to that first debate in chief cleveland, it's about sustaining your candidacy by making sure you're on stage. to do that these days, you talk to every campaign, you have to find a way to go viral and you have to find a way to have that newt gingrich moment. >> that's the thing, you can see from newt gingrich, the potential. if you can get in the debate, if you can have a moment like that, you can zip up from 10% in the polls to winning south carolina. you can have that sort of incredible game. but let me ask you this. from the flip side, so a name out there, you always say in the media, should we take him seriously, donald trump? i wonder if this criteria has been put forward for being in a debate, you have to file as a candidate, do the necessary paperwork, be polling at x percent. do you think this could flush trump out, force his hand earlier than he wanted to show it? >> i've spoken with mr. trump several times over the last few weeks and he assures me that he's very close to getting in. he's said that many times before. but if trump does formally get in, he could self-finance. he says he may have an announcement at trump tower in new york city. if he gets in, that makes it

very difficult for somebody like jeb bush. some of you have a personality that is more low key and you're up there with ben carson, donald trump, carly fiorina, even if you're full of money in your campaign and you're a high profile person, you're not going to have the energy and the buzz. >> we'll await what rick santorum has to say partnership imagine he would have an interesting comment on that. robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post," thanks for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. ahead, how much a $35 million of your tax dollars can buy or in this case how little. please stay with us. at chase, we celebrate small businesses every day through programs like mission main street grants. last years' grant recipients are achieving amazing things. carving a name for myself and creating local jobs. creating more programs for these little bookworms. bringing a taste of louisiana to the world. at chase, we're proud to support our grant recipients

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that e-mail went out this week from the campaign list for herman cain. and you may remember that herman cain enjoyed a brief moment as a front-runner for the 2012 republican presidential nomination. the e-mail for his supporters links to a video that explains president obama and church leaders are covering up a biblical prophesy that vladimir putin is going to attack the united states with an electromagnetic pulse bomb. they're going to invade and 80% of americans are not going to survive. this is going to happy january 2017, but there is something that you can do about it. you can get out your checkbook. >> for just $49, you will get the survive the end days program. you can only get "survive the end days" program here if you click the add to cart button now. i'd hate to be that father who looks in his children's eyes powerless because he had no preparation in place. click the add to cart button and i'll meet you on the other side. >> so there it is for just $49 you can survive the barack

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comcast business. built for business. the idea of wasteful spending by the military has been a national punch line since the days of crazily expensive screwdrivers and toilet seats. but the war in afghanistan in particular has been this neverending font of ever more astonishing stories about we, the u.s. taxpayers have built, that we physically created or

bought or arranged to be procured for this war that are absolutely unneeded. that are in some cases worst than wasteful. for instance, the african training center that melts when it rains. there's a fleet of airplanes we bought for afghanistan for $486 million and ended up sledding into scrap for 6 cents a pound. that's a loss of 99.93% on that investment. and there were the giant incinerators we installed on a u.s. base for $5 million that never incinerated anything because they never worked. so the base torched all its waste in an open air burn pit next to the incinerators. but one of the most expensive of all these was this marine headquarters in helmund province. it's larger than a football field. it has elaborate state of the

artwork spaces for 1500 people. it has a state of the art briefing theater and a military operations center that includes stadium-style tiered seating. it cost $36 million to build and it has never, not once, been used. look, you can see the plastic wrap is still on the chairs. what sets this boondoggle apart, what was particularly inexplicable about it was that the military said no to building it, repeatedly. not one, not two, but three generals on the ground requested that the projects be canceled before construction had even begun. they said, please, don't build this. we don't need it. by the time it's finished, we'll be drawing down from afghanistan, anyway. in fact, construction didn't even begin until troops were about to start heading home from afghanistan. but even as the base emptied out, construction continued for two years until it was 98% complete. and furnished.

despite all those people saying no. so now it's sitting there vacant and ready for someone else to get presumably some new u.s. taxpayer contract to knock it down. it's never been used. now, on the one hand, this is one story among many. on the other hand, though, there is this remarkable implication of the chain of command in this debacle that seems different about this story and it's made worse by the fact that the military, when they realized the special inspector general was likely to start sniffing around the giant fully furnished multi million dollar headquarters that had never been used, the military did its own internal report to determine that everything was fine, that there was nothing wrong in this process and that no one did anything wrong. when the special inspector general did indeed start poking around, the legal adviser to the forces in afghanistan encouraged officials to slow roll the request for information. now, how do we know this? we know this because the legal adviser e-mailed his colleague saying, quote, i wanted to slow roll these a bit more.

whatever it is, it has set this situation apart, the special inspector general who has been tenacious and undaunted in tracking this stuff down decided this is the one he's going to lose his mind over. for the first time, he is recommending disciplinary action for high ranking officials, including the general who overruled his commanders and build the building, anyway. the general who conducted the investigation that determined everything was fine and the legal adviser who interfered with the inspector general's investigation. the pentagon, by the way, did not agree with those recommendations and declined to discipline anybody. but even beyond the magnitude of this screw-up, that alone, that aggression from the inspector general is getting attention. and that means there two things to watch right now. first, this is getting attention from a senator who you do not want to mess with. that is claire mccaskill.

this is what she is to say about these deliberations. quote, this is one of the most outrageous, deliberate and wasteful misuses of the taxpayer dollars in afghanistan we have ever seen. when it was clear this building wouldn't be used and three army official s officials said it wouldn't be used, the army not only built it anyway, but failed to hold any officials accountable after all the facts came to light. so i'll now fully be expecting answers from the army. claire mccaskill is the top ranking democrat on the committee's permanent investigations and she has a history of going after this stuff effectively. keep an eye on that. when claire gets into something, it usually doesn't end well for her adversaries. but the other thing to keep in mind is one of the three officers who the inspector general recommended be disciplined for all this, the legal adviser who wanted to slow

roll the investigation, that colonel is the top legal adviser to the man that president obama has just put forward to be the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. and those confirmation hearings for general joseph dunford are expected to start next month. general dunford is the man who ordered that internal investigation that cleared the military of any wrongdoing. though to be clear, the inspector general does not suggest that dunford did anything wrong. so yes, this is another story among many of jaw dropping waste in america's war zones. bit has the potential to become a much larger political story and to trip up the confirmation hearings for the nominee to be the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. watch this 64,000 square foot empty space. for me, and i love it. 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

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can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive? arlington national cemetery sits across the potomac river

from our nation's capitol. if you ever get a chance to say, it is worth spending some time there. you can visit president kennedy's grave. you can see the eternal flame there, visit the tomb of the unknown soldier and see the hourly changing of the guard or you can just walk among the many rows of graves. there are 270,000 markers in arlington for troops whose final resting place is this place. every year on the thursday before memorial day, a regiment of the u.s. army the old guard they are called goes out and sets one flag in the ground by each and every one of those markers. it takes a thousand soldiers working four hours to finish that task. they call this job flags in. because of this work because of flags in family and friends who visit arlington this weekend for memorial day will find a visible, tangible sign that their loves ones are remembered by their country. we're all making plans for memorial day, it's kind of cool to think of this other planning that's being done on our behalf

for the people at the center of the holiday. that does it for us tonight. rachel will be back next week. i will see you just a few hours from now on my show "up." up next, "weekends with alex witt." a strange weather weekend. snow and hail and flooding in parts of the count industry. but will there be sunshine for memorial day? details ahead. the e-mail trail. hillary clinton responds to the first official release of messages she sent while secretary of state. the big question did anything new surface? and an hour-long slow-speed chase that ended rather abruptly in the most unusual way. and one of the most popular reality shows pulled from the air. new details on the "19 kids and counting" saga. good morning.