come on the air this friday the senate is preparing to return for a sunday session? what? in order to try to keep the patriot act alive. all signs indicate congress will not get it done before 3:00. key provisions expire on monday. those provisions up for renewal impact both data collection roving wiretaps and how the government tracks potential lone wolves. >> no one has presented a compelling explanation for why the united states and american people should assume the risk associated with taking those tools out of the hands of our law enforcement professionals. >> the white house and fbi and the doj say the ability of the intelligence community to keep us safe will take a substantial hit, critics say they are fear mongering like the bush white house did understood to get the law passed initially. this hour the president and the attorney general meet in the oval office to plot the next move in the provisions are not extended, that includes starting the shutdown at 4:00 p.m. on sunday in order to hit the 12:01

deadline. with t minus three days until key parts expire where is the debate on what the administration insists is a vital tool for national security? luke russert in in washington. you're there, the senate is not. why are they waiting until sunday to take this up again? this is important. >> it's memorial day recess tour'e you can't get in the way of kissing babies and walking in parades. they are coming back a day early on sunday and there's two things to watch for here. number one, it's mitch mcconnell trying to preserve the status quo patriot act, how much is he going to try to do that? remember the house passed something called the usa freedom act which putle bulk data collection in control, essentially before the patriot act and go to fisa court to look at that. that passed with 338 votes and had the blessing of house speaker john boehner and rest of the leadership. mcconnell wanted the old

program. he held it up. however, he also ran into his friend from kentucky rand paul who doesn't support the house passed bill and does not support mcconnell who would like to kill off the nsa patriot act in this case and rand paul is running for president and raising a lot of money off of this issue. from people i've spoken to there's a few things to look at. will mcconnell relent and try to move forward on the house bill? it got 57 votes last time in the senate. it could get to 60 and break the filibuster. in order to move quickly, you would need support of all 100 senators. there's nothing saying rand paul would not try to block that. if he's to use every parliamentary procedural tool paul could block this to thursday which would leave us a four-day period where you have an expiration of thepatriot act, which would make america unsafe. we'll be in unchartered waters

to quote officials. this is really between mitch mcconnell and house passed bill and how far rand paul wants to take it. he's given every indication this is his issue, he may go far on this. he's been passionate about had his entire career guys. >> luke russert, thank you for this. let's bring in shane harris. author of "at war" and of course a friend of the show. what do you think, the pat i don't think act looks it will be gutted? >> looks like it will die at least by expiring. whether they pass the usa freedom act and after this procedural movements by rand paul might get that bill in play. but the sources i've talked to on both sides, both chambers have said, if this expires and the senate doesn't have the momentum to pass the usa freedom act it's not clear the provisions are coming back. it's a steep climb and you would be asking members to

affirmatively vote back into authorities provisions of surveillance which just expired which are unpopular. if you were laying odds these provisions of the patriot act are going to expire zpl let's talk about what they are. we know about -- we've been talking about the section 215, bulk data collection, the really controversial piece. but you've got also pieces that sound important, roving wiretaps allow you to monitor one person's multiple electronic devices and also have so-called lone wolf provision to track someone not connected to a known terror group which also sounds pretty important. how critical are these tools and how often are they actually used by the government? are there other work arounds for the government to get the same information. >> the government calls these tools, they are not frequently used but nice to have. the lone wolf provision has never been used. and the roving wiretaps have been using sparingly.

and there are other authorities and other statutes that would essentially allow the same kinds of collection if you didn't have these authorities. what u.s. officials say is look it's not as if the sky is going to fall if we don't have them but they are not the only tools in the kit. this is why you do see in the past 48 hours some administration officials coming out anonymously saying things you're playing russian roulette with national security. if the tools expire the fbi and nsa and intelligence agencies will not throw up their hands and say can't monitor these communications, they are going to find other ways to do that. >> you've got a lot of people in both parties who think it would be good to let these part of the patriot act expire. let's remember they automatically expire for a region. they were considered in the early takes of 9/11 they were considered so extreme they weren't passed as regular laws. most laws stay on the books forever and don't require this

kind of reauthorization. it was there because they are extreme and as you point out, the roving wiretaps those are used roughly 11 times in 2013. lone wolf never and the 215 is the very part of the law abused by the nsa and only exposed by edward snowden. do you think there's a chance it stays off the books and that's broadly a good thing? >> i think a lot of members would see that as a good thing. the usa freedom act did pass over yellingly in the house. that's not necessarily because members overwhelmingly love the patriot act. there are many people who would like to see these things expire. and if this is how they get there, i think they would count that as a victory. within the 215 section there are other tools that are -- we haven't been talking about as much that is broadly 215, the one that created so much

controversy. if that goes away and these other controversial provisions go away i think there will be some lawmakers declaring that a victory. >> this is symbolic why so many are frustrated with lawmakers. politics continues to get in the way and people are feeling unsettled and isis just recently took over another key city in iraq. you have the administration saying this could be very very dangerous, they have intel we don't have and folks like rand paul, we don't need this at all. how should americans be thinking about this? should we be concerned? >> i think they should not be overly worried and panicked that somehow we're going to start losing the ability to monitor terrorists and people trying to harm us. as i said the fbi and nsa like to have at big suite of tools. if they take these out, they'll find other ways to collect this

information. if there were something clam tous, i think you would see administration officials making frankly much stronger push than they have actually made to try to get this through. they support the usa freedom act but you haven't seen people from the white house going down into marathon meetings with lawmakers. they've got the bill they like. i don't think it's going to pass but the sky is not going to fall if these provisions expire. >> shane harris great having you back on the show. the patriot act initially passed 14 and a half years ago a month after the 9/11 attacks. today brings a major milestone in the nationally recovery from those attacks the observatory on top of one world trade center is now open. it's so powerful to see rebuilding in that area. more than 3 million visitors are expected each year to take in this spectacular view. on a clear day they say you can see forever. nbc's ron allen is up there, 100 floors up. >> it's clear today zsh.

>> ron when we spoke when the national 9/11 memorial museum opened, how does the emotion of today compare to that day? >> this is a whole different thing. there's very little mention here of 9/11. it's in the back of everyone's mind who comes here but this is about the view. take a look. it is spectacular. you can see forever and see about 50 miles is what they say on a clear day. we have a pretty clear day. you can see up to the george washington bridge and say you can see probably into connecticut from here. the other direction south into new jersey down near princeton, it's just spectacular. look down below, you can see how small everything looks, baseball field and cars and pedestrians. it's an unreal feeling to stand here and peer over. there's a place in the observatory where you can stand on what looks like a piece of glass. there are cameras and it makes you have the feeling of looking down between your feet to the ground. there's that. there's also a lot of other

multimedia and high tech video displays and a lot about the history of new york. it's all have positive and uplifting. this is a day of celebration and triumph and another milestone of this particular building and of course the country coming back from all that happened 14 years ago. but mostly it's a place to come and stand and it's a very well done space. it's open. the windows are floor to ceiling. there's three levels of observatory, one is a theater and then the observatory and restaurant and bar area and area for entertainment events. it's magnificent. it's really incredible cost about $32, $26 for kids. you can buy tickets right away. they are expecting hundreds and thousands of people every day. so it's -- it's an amazing thing and it's quite something to stand here and look at that. >> ron allen, what an extraordinary view and extraordinary day. thank you for that report. if you can't make it here to new

york, shift by msnbc has a great piece featuring the magnificent views from that observatory. check it out. next in the storm cycle, texas, preparing for the unimaginable after record flooding another weekend's worth of rain is in the forecast down there. plus, perhaps the only thing more chilling than the crime, the dark knight theater shooter speaks about it in his own words. fifa elections go into overtime and deliver more drama than a tied soccer match. that play by play is ahead and more as "the cycle" rolls on for friday, may 29th. but now you can give them even more when you save with sentry® fiproguard® plus. with sentry® fiproguard® plus, your pet is just as protected against fleas and ticks as with frontline® plus. because sentry® fiproguard® plus has the same active ingredients but costs less than vet prices. and saving money helps you buy... (laughs happily) more tennis balls. sentry® fiproguard® plus

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you know we like to focus on the good news the years long drought in texas is officially over. more flooding the bad news than the state has ever seen. not looking at a break into early next year. sarah dallof is where the waters are still raging. >> reporter: good afternoon. unfortunately we have more bad news to report today. authorities have confirmed the death of a 27th person a man in his mid-40s whose truck was swept down a creek in mesquite texas. the number of missing and unaccounted for is now at 13 that is across oklahoma and here in texas, including here in wimberley. as you can see here behind me the river is still running high

but we've got sunny skies and blue skies right now and crews are taking advantage of this break to cover as much new ground as possible with their search efforts and get a start on cleaning up that debris. in some cases it is high as 20 feet tall and it is this mix of branches and entire trees and we've even furniture and couches and refrigerators packed tightly together by the force of the floodwaters. let me give you an idea what people here have been dealing with. the national weather service in ft. worth says during this month a lone texas has received enough rainfall to cover the entire state 8 inches deep and more bad weather on the way with all of those facts, you can see why people are keeping their eyes nervously on the skies and forecast. back to you. >> great reporting there, thank you for that. breaking news now about indicted former house speaker dennis hastert. tribune company reporters citing

two unnamed federal law enforcement officials reporting that he was paying someone to conceal past sexual misconduct with a male. it's important to note that nbc news has not confirmed the reports as of yet. it has the attention of many people in the nation's capital. nancy pelosi weighed in with thomas roberts in an exclusive interview just last hour. >> it's surprising i think that would be a universal response. and of course it remains to be seen what comes forth now but it's very sad for him and sad really for the congress. when mr. hastert was a speaker, our run for winning the house in '06 was to say we were running against a culture of corruption and cronyism and incompetence. at the time there were many indictments but we had no idea that that would include the speaker of the house. >> nbc senior political reporter

perry bacon jr. is following the latest. this is misconduct unrelated to anything hastert did while he was speaker and while he was in congress. but still, d.c. is talking about this. what are folks there saying? >> this is a huge surprise. the history of dennis hastert becoming speaker was in part because he was very noncontroversial and became speaker after 1998 when newt gingrich decided to resign. the next person in line robert livington opted not to become speaker either because he was involved in a sex scandal and problem with that being the republicans would then trying to impeach bill clinton. hastert was picked mainly because he was not controversial and he was kind of known. we talked about the hastert rule on this show. the idea was hastert's job when he was the house speaker, when bush was president, to make sure every idea that the republicans agreed upon past and nothing would be on the house. he was there for consensus and

let tom delay guide along the caucus. he was an accidental speaker and no one thought much of him in terms of his leadership style but he was very noncontroversial until today. >> he was supposed to stand out for bringing order and peace to his caucus and now with this trial presumably we're going to see, we're going to learn more about another side of him according to federal authorities. that is a big story. the other political story to get you in on here former maryland governor martin o'malley announcing his candidacy for president. he'll join hillary clinton and bernie sanders in what's been a smaller field for democrats than republicans. i want to mention this nancy pelosi in the interview we were showing you last hour with thomas, take a listen. >> she's going to be -- look we have to have an election from you know from maryland we have martin o'malley putting his name forth and bernie sanders put his name forth. who else? i don't know.

it's healthy to have a debate. it's clear right now hillary clinton is way out in front and there's a great deal of excitement about having a woman president as capable as she is. >> at this point there could be as many as 19 candidates on the republican side many of them think with very little shot at winning. why are they running? perry you've been talking about this in a new article, you've got seven reasons why the field is so large and part of the point that comes through in what you write, it's not just the fact that a lot of people want to run for president. you point out structural motivations here. tell us about some of them. >> i would blame two people for this, barack obama and sarah palin. sarah palin, of course she ran for vice president and became very famous from that where she had a book deal and tv show and became very rich. the test for the audience does anyone currently know the name of the governor of alaska? very few did, because she took the candidacy and became much more famous. i mentioned obama because in the

old days you had to have a lot of experience to choose president and usually re-elected or something before. obama showed it's more important to run at the right time than to run with a lot of experience. you'll get rand paul and marco rubio or ted cruz, they just got to congress but they are all criticizing obama but really using obama model. >> sounds more like show business than it does running for president. it's a said state of affairs, perry, i'm sure you saw this article, all over politico about rand paul's money problem, where they say in a presidential campaign defined by sugar daddy donors, rand paul has a real problem. he doesn't seem to have one. it's interesting you think about someone like rand paul he would have the advantage of the grass roots effort around him passed down from his dad. now in a situation where he has tried to campaign these big billionaire donors but nothing has caught fire yet.

doesn't this just speak to how disgusting it's become with money and politics and it's really about these few individuals that can keep candidates going, sometimes long after they are popular among the voters. abby, i disagree not being able to get big donors behind you is a sign that maybe you're not very popular, i would say with the a lot of people in the republican party. scott walker marco rubio, jeb bush have been able to get big donors behind them and that's an indication that rand paul is a serious candidate. may not be in the top tier. i rerecigarette having to say that but president obama was an underdog but able to get people on wall street and wealthy donors behind him in 2008. it happened to be part of the process. if you're not good at getting good donors behind you, you're not going to be president. >> so let's talk about that small but mighty democratic field that is growing by one

tomorrow martin o'malley jumping in the race. as part of my web show we sent out our garproducers to ask people what they know about martin o'malley. let's take a look at that the. >> do you know who martin o'malley? >> host of nickelodeon's guts? >> martin o'malley? >> just remembered. >> he's that guy running for president not hillary. >> he got there. the guy running for president that's not hillary. that sums up his problem in a nutshell, doesn't it perry? >> i know he's announcing on saturday but in reality he's been running for president to about a year now, going to iowa going to new hampshire. what's happened during that time? unknown fact martin o'malley's mom works for bash ka mikulski

for 30 years. mikulski endorsed hillary clinton recently. this gets you to the point of how bad this is. it's not just o'malley having trouble because people love elizabeth warren and like hillary. even people are more passionate right now about bernie sanders than o'malley and that's surprising. if you look at o'malley's record in maryland he has done every liberal thing president obama proposed, really the obama's america in terms of policy but it's not getting o'malley a lot of attention so far. >> all right per are bacon, covering a lot of ground there, thank you very much. inside the mind of movie theater shooter james holmes a psychiatrist who interviewed him back on the stand in court today and playing tape of their sessions together. >>who... is this?! >>hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na >>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm!

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no such thing as a small nuclear bomb, just one of which is the bumper stickers had it can ruin your whole day. "secrets of state" a 20-year veteran of the foreign service who brings his expertise to bear about the dangers of nuclear terrorism. con gratgratulations on your second book. can you talk about how likely it is that we might ever at this point see one state use a nuclear weapon against another? because that's what you're talking about in this novel. >> thanks for having me today. that's absolutely the ultimate nightmare scenario for policy makers. and there are serious people who study these issues and make the point in any given year the risk may be small and you multiply it by x number of years and you can get shockingly close to inevitable. >> eventually inevitable, you're

saying saying? >> i would not say inevitable. it's touch to make predictions, especially about the future as yogiberra said it's a real risk and we all should take very seriously. >> something you know a lot about given your years of experience what makes you want to write a fiction book about it when it sounds similar to what we deal with on a daily basis. >> if you can get close to what's going on in the world and create characters that are sympathetic and readers will relate to and take an ordinary person and put them in extraordinary set of circumstances and that creates tension and that's why people want to read these kind of books and what they want to read commercial fiction and thrillers. >> you've spoken about some of the challenges using contractors for government work. one of the things you said is the key, contractors shouldn't have a government type of responsibility. they should just help out. what do you mean by that?

>> in principle contractors aren't supposed to do functions that are inherently governmental but that has shifted a lot over the years. particularly after 9/11 where you had competing pressures on government to do everything possible to protect the american public in a dangerous world and the other was to stay small and grow smaller to manage the fiscal pressures. and you can't do those two things at the same time. you can't give government more responsibilities and give it less to work with. and so the way to square that circle was contractors and contractors were doing more and more and more as time went on. and it's one thing if the contracts are running the pentagon shuttle bus and it's another thing if they are protecting american diplomats in a war zone. >> as a 20-year veteran of foreign services is it fun to

make diplomats your heroes? do you think americans fundamentally misunderstand what exactly diplomats do on the ground? >> absolutely. that was one of my primary motivations with the first book i wanted to do something to demisty fi my pr americans have a good reason to feel on the basis of the books they read and movies they watch what spies do and soldiers do. but diplomats are more of a mystery and we have an image of being striped pants wearing cookie pushers hanging out -- >> cookie pushers -- >> that's a good term. >> it's not such a great term in my line of work but you know what i mean. like a cookie right, in popular culture we're always getting the shortened of the stick, always cutting unsavory deals with the devil or refusing to understand

the and be sympathetic to an american in trouble overseas. you look at something like pen kingsly character in rules of engagement engagement, ambassador of yemen hiding under a desk and turning on rescuers and testifying against them in court. >> it's funny you say that we've had several diplomatics on the show, mark begins burg we don't think of him as a cookie pusher. >> no one has called my dad a cookie pusher but i'm going to ask him about that. >> let's call him a cookie pusher and see what he says. >> i know he's never pushed a single cookie. >> matthew, palmer congratulations on the book. sepp blatter has been re-elected to a fifth term despite the arrest and indictments and ongoing criminal investigations for corruption at the soccer world's governing body. the 209 member states reee leked the 79-year-old to another four-year term.

only after his challenger a jordanian prince bowed out. he hinted this term might be az last vowing to leave fifa strong for his successor. >> i have said it before i take the responsibility to bring back fifa, we do it. we do it. i'm not perfect. nobody is perfect. but we will do a good job together i'm sure. just stay calm and move as quietly as possible.

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jacob rascon is following that for us. >> this is the heart of the case. we heard from more than 150 first responders and survivors, more than 2,000 pieces of witnesses and prosecutors needing to prove all 166 counts. but right now we're folk using on the mentality of the mass shooter. we're getting into these interviews with the psychiatrist who has told the jury now he believes holmes was mentally ill but legally sane. he goes through and they go through his childhood, whether he was pullbullied. they talk about depression and switched from having homicidal thoughts and of course we saw that notebook as well. we're hearing what he thought about himself that he thought he had schizophrenia and adhd. we have this plan of attack to go through different venues and different theaters and spent months planning this attack. the defense has a real uphill battle here. we talked to many experts about

this, that this favors the prosecution. these videos and this journal, even though the defense will say this is just a whole lot of crazy, it also shows that he had some sense of right and wrong and that is the standard here. that's what the defense has to prove, he didn't know the difference between right and wrong. >> pretty chilling looking at the drawings. thank you so much. turning now to a story of epic victory or tragic defeat depending which side of the debate you're on the parachute into any election and you'll hear all about the war on coal. among coal country republicans more than a few democrats it is an article of faith that the war on coal is real and the obama administration is behind it. it turns out they are right. the war on coal is real but you might be surprised by some of the crusaders who are actually behind it. the new politico report details how beyond coal campaign makes traditional organizing and

former new york city mayor michael bloomberg's money to shut down an average of one coal fired plant every ten days. in the process they've won unplikly allies from business interests who have been convinced the numbers no longer add up for king coal. joining us now is michael grunwald. >> thanks for having me. >> why has this beyond coal campaign been so successful? >> well, i think you got at it. the numbers are changing since 2010 the price of natural gas and wind and solar plummeted and while coal has been forced to pay for its own mess. you hear a lot about carbon regulations but also mercury and soot, ozone regulations coming soon. what the sierra club has done go to these obscure utility commission hearings and environmental quality regulation hearings at the state and local level and making the case that

you have a duty to your rate payers. you've got to choose the cheapest option and that used to be coal and no longer. >> there are some people that would say they wouldn't want to use coal at all any more. do we have the technology in place today if we wanted to totally do away with coal and natural gas? are we aways away from that? >> we're certainly not ready to do away with natural gas. in some of these states you're seeing natural gas which is a fossil fuel but not nearly as dirty as coal replacing coal and in fact although the sierra club has a beyond gas campaign i wrote about how there's -- they at times play footcy with the gas industry. look, nobody is talking about shutting down the entire coal industry tomorrow. but you've already retired more than a third of the nation's coal plants in the last five years? the sierra club's goal is to make it a half in next two

years. and you do see this incredible boom in wind and solar, storage is starting to get cheaper and gas is cheap as well. it's not out of the question. you hear a lot about the coal industry has started this cold in the dark kpab campaign saying that we're going to run out of power without coal. but we had more blackouts before this renewables revolution. >> when you talk about what's cheap, that depends always on how you price it. there are different industries that might have a low price for what they are selling. but inject other costs into the community or environment, et cetera. how has that been factored into the price of coal? >> that's right. that's where i think you see some of these mercury regulations and o zone regulations and ultimately carbon regulations that may require the coal industry to install scrubbers and other pollution controls or essentially adding to the cost of coal. at the same time they are already losing in the marketplace now. i watched a case in oklahoma

fossil fuel state, deep red republican state and there you had groups like walmart and local hospitals and even industrial group that included a koch industry owned the paper mill, they were all pushing for more wind power because wind is cheap. >> let me ask you this the reason the politics in the war on coal are so powerful and bad for democrats is because you're talking about areas that really are hurting economically and coal going downhill is like the final insult to injury. wind and solar might be booming but those folks aren't benefitting from new jobs and that new economy. does the zee sierra club, do offan answer to the job loss? >> they talk about these transition funding, trying to help promote alternative energy and just alternative industries in places like west virginia and kentucky. some of the politicians there

like mitch mcconnell have been really down on the idea president obama put money in his budget for that kind of transition fundsing they don't want to admit defeat and say that coal is losing. but in fact at this point in the united states the solar industry, which didn't really exist five or six years ago, now employs more workers than the coal industry. you're seeing even the political power start to wane. >> thanks for having me. >> up next you want to live to 100? you may want to move to sardinia or watch the next segment. >> second yes. >> ♪ every auto insurance policy has a number. but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation have earned the very best service in return. ♪ usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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>>who... is this?! >>hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na

>>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm! for the past decade "national geographic" traveled the world searching for the secrets to living a longer and healthier life. there are places in the world where that happens more often than others. our next guest calls these spots blue zones and cynthia mcfadden visited along with him. >> reporter: as in all of the blue zones, the diet here is plant based. when these folks grew up, meat was a twice a month treat. then there's the wine. >> it's any old wine. >> a grape wine three times the level of antioxidants than any

known wine in the world. they grind up the skins and seeds and the wine ferments for 15 or 20 days. >> reporter: delicious and good for you. >> how you can live a longer life without having to more to sardinia, new york times best selling author ever the blue zones exclusion. >> great to see you. >> we love looking through this book all day. this really sounds like the opposite of jumping from one diet to the next. this is really how you approach life differently. give us the secrets to starting to live a happier, healthier life? >> well this project really set out to reverse engineer long he havety instead of coming up with a diet in a laboratory or off the cuff. what we did is found 155 dietary surveys done over the past 100 years in places where people live the longest then disstilled it down so it's easy for people to follow. >> not just easy tasty because

i'm reading this sardinia here and it reminds me of woody allen's sleeper where we found out that chocolate and eggs and all of that stuff is good for you. i'm going to read from your description what they are eating over there. egg fried in lard, sour dough bread, classic goat's milling and two cups of coffee and vegetable, piece of bread and then of course the deep red special wine. this stuff sounds pretty good. >> well you might be doing selective reading there. >> he's also hungry it doesn't help. >> about 90% of what they are eating in these blue zones is plant or plant based. the cornerstone of every long he havety diet in the world and one of the secrets that cynthia and i found was a food that the longest lived family in history ate every day day minestrone

delicious but no lard. >> i've got to add more minestrone in my diet and my colleagues will tell you i've you i have been using the red wine as a way to try to live longer. sometimes in copious amounts. >> is that why? >> yeah. am i on the right track? >> well we know that wine drinkers actually live longer than non-wine drinkers. you can't drink more than a couple glasses a day and you cannot have 14 on the weekend. but a couple a day is probably a pretty good idea for most people. >> a couple a day. or a glass a day. >> couple glasses a day. >> i can get down with that. but dan, the one thing to me though, i look at the book and i'm like okay, i get it. this all sounds good. but then i see the advertisements for something that looks amazing. or something that's terrible for you, or super convenient or super cheap. how do we overcome the fact that

the food system seems to be stacked against us in america? >> the central idea here is that in none of these blue zones did people ever try to be 100. they didn't get on diets. they didn't have the exercise machine. their culture made the right decision for them. the healthy food was more accessible. they lived in environments where it's easy to walk. the fact is that in our country, there is a spectrum of policies -- there's places like baton rouge, louisiana. highest rates of obesity in the world. where just about every trip is done by car. there's really no efforts to curb marketing of fast-food. then you have places like san luis obispo that have about half the rate of obesity and there's a place where the city council said hey, let's create an environment here that really favors fruits and vegetables over chips, sodas and fast-food. they make sure it's easy to bike around town. and it's all those little nudges to eat slightly better and move slightly more that makes a huge

difference over time. and we're able to document that in the blue zone solution. >> yeah. what advice do you have though for people that are nowhere near where you are in terms of how they eat, and they're looking at the menu and they see you can either have the garden salad there or some delicious fried something. aren't they always going to take the second option? >> i think so. it's hard. this is counterintuitive. the biggest thing you can do is think about who you're hanging out with. we know that if your three best friends are obese and unhealthy, there's about 150% better chance that you will. and while no diet in the history of the world ever worked for more than about two years, friends tend to be long-term adventures. if you're hanging out with people or eating plant-based food or eating this blue zones type food, you are more likely to eat it yourself. and as long as you're friends with that person. >> friends don't let friends eat the wrong kind of lard. you need the italian lard. >> or chase it with wine.

>> a couple glasses of wine a day good for you. thank you so much for being with us. >> it was a delight. up next toure explains how the 2016 race is just like ice skating. ted cruz doing a triple axle. like where this is going. your pet... could you love him any more? probably not. but now you can give them even more when you save with sentry® fiproguard® plus. with sentry® fiproguard® plus, your pet is just as protected against fleas and ticks as with frontline® plus. because sentry® fiproguard® plus has the same active ingredients but costs less than vet prices.

and saving money helps you buy... (laughs happily) more tennis balls. sentry® fiproguard® plus - available at these retailers. >>who... is this?! >>hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na >>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm! does your makeup remover take it all off? every kiss-proof cry-proof,

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♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back. look at that skating. so graceful. so technically proficient. so similar to the way presidential nominees are chosen. well, not her in specific but the whole figure skating paradigm is analogous to the presidential contest. a 2008 book called "the party

decides" says "skaters are at the attention of everyone's attention as they glide and leap and occasionally crash across the ice. so in one sense the competition is dominated by the skaters. but the skaters do not determine the number and kinds of jumps and spins they must perform, nor do they choose the judges who are selected by the larger figure skating community to implement the rules of competition. skaters win not by pleasing themselves or the crowd in the arena, but by pleasing the judges and the community they represent. in this analogy, the figure skaters are the candidates preening for attention and the audience is us voters waiting to be seduced. but the judges, the people who truly decides who gets nominated, are the party elites. it's not that candid capture the party. it's that the party leadership chooses. party insiders use the invisible primary to coordinate behind the preferred candidate and to endow the candidate with the resources and prestige necessary to

prevail. one way of seeing the close relationship between support from party elites and victory is to look at the candidate's success at garnering big endorsements. in all but one primary from 1980 to 2004 the leader in endorsements from governors goes on to win the nomination. the party elites were not in control, then surely we would see several elections where the endorsement race was won by a candidate who did not win the nomination, but that almost never happens. endorsements, the authors say, are at least as important as any other factor and probably most important. some will still cling to the power of charisma and winning nominations, but the authors point to the many lackluster campaigners who have won their party's nomination because they were party insiders. from governor dukakis to senators dole and gore and kerry. it all reminds me of the world cup, where it seems like the tournament starts with everyone having an equal chance but somehow only powerhouse g7 nations and brazil and argentina

ever do. big insider candidates are like germany or italy, where an outside chance to win because they're insiders. but most candidates are like trinidad and tobago in that they have no chance. the notion that any candidate could catch fire and be propelled without the blessing of party insiders is farcical. and the book's opening pages, they write, parties remain major players in presidential nominations. they scrutinize and winnow the field, and sway voters ersrs to ratify their choice. the democratic and republican parties have always influenced and often controlled the choice of their presidential nominees. let's not go through this process pretending that the people will make this choice any more than the crowd will choose who wins the olympic medal. "now with alex wagner" starts right now.

>> new flooding today leaves hundreds of drivers stranded in dallas. former speaker of the house dennis hastert is charged with hiring someone to hide misconduct. but first, the race for the white house is rapidly accelerating and taking some bizarre turns. it's friday may 29th and this is "now." >> the increasingly long list of presidential hopefuls. pretty soon going to have more candidates than voters. >> i think my whole life has prepared me for this moment. >> governor martin o'malley announcing that he plans to run. ♪ this land is your land this land is my land ♪ >> look at all the other people who are in this race. >> what you worry about is the vanity