in the three dead is the shooter, a 58-year-old man who police say died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. right now the scene is secure and the investigation is ongoing ongoing. up next is the rachel maddow show with updates on the latest on the lafayette movie theater shooting. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. we actually have an update coming up on the rick santorum interview from last night. there is a trailing end from that interview that we're going to hope to sew up tonight. it's not exactly what you think, but we'll be revisiting that in a moment. very nice of chris to say those nice things. first of all i want to show you what the donald trump phenomenon looked like in the year 1992. >> well, they've got a point. i don't have any experience in running up a $4 trillion debt. i don't have any experience in gridlock government where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames

everybody else. i don't have any experience in creating the worst public school system in the industrialized world and most violent crime ridden side in the industrialized world. but i do have a lot of experience in getting things done. >> in getting things done. sound familiar? that was ross perot running for president in 1992 running as an outsider, a non-politician, a businessman who didn't care how you're supposed to play politics. he just knows how to get things done. today, this year's businessman presidential candidate continued to dominate the political news. and this year's ross perot character, this year's outsider, businessman, i can get things done kind of guy, self-financing candidate who doesn't play by the political rules, well today this year's version of that candidate, donald trump, made comments that put the ross perot election of 1992 at the very center of american politics. it put that ross perot election -- he elevated it to make it the most important piece of american history in today's politics. unfortunately for us, though, as a country, that ross perot election of 1992 is a history that almost everybody gets totally basically wrong. right now donald trump is

running for the republican nomination for president. right? but starting a few days ago, starting this past weekend, he's been raising the prospect that he might not keep running for the republican party's nomination. he might run as an independent instead. when he has been asked about it at least starting a few days ago, he has at least been refusing to rule it out. >> respectfully we represent the 1992 election, ross perot cost us that election. >> right. >> would you go on record today in saying that if you can't get the republican nomination, you will not run as a third party candidate? >> no. no. no. i won't go on record as saying that. >> that was on saturday. mr. trump being asked if he

would rule out a third party candidacy. he said he would not rule that out. today mr. trump expanded significantly on that idea. he's now openly threatening to run as a third party candidate unless the republican party starts being nicer to him. this is from the hill newspaper today. quote, pressed on whether he would run as a third party candidate if he fails to clinch the gop nomination, he said, quote, i'll have to see how i'm treat bid the republicans. absolutely if they're not fair, that would be a factor. he told the hill, quote, the rnc has not been supportive. so that threat that he might run as a third party candidate has caused a lot of things to happen today. but one of the things it caused to happen is that it has led to an eruption of terribly wrong common wisdom and bad history. in terms of talking about the

recent political experience we have as a country with this subject. the ross perot 1992 election thing, this is one of those stories where it didn't happen all that long ago. the truth about it, the facts about it are totally knowable and out in the open but we have invented a giant national lie that we tell ourselves about what happened in that race. and the lie really is the common wisdom. the lie about that race is much more commonly asserted than what is true about that race. and it makes me crazy. donald trump today is threatening to run as a third party candidate. and instantly everybody just gets it wrong in terms of explaining what that would mean. explaining the historical precedent for what that would mean. here, for example, is "the new york times" today. mr. trump is positioning himself to be a ross perot-like spoiler in the general election. that was "the new york times" today. "new york times" two weeks ago thinking ahead about this prospect made the same mistake. quote, any top-down campaign by republicans to marginalize mr.

trump might encourage him to follow through with a threat to run on third party ballot. here's cnn today. should he run as an independent? mr. trump would be following in the footsteps of ross perot in the 1992 election. he caused immense trouble for republican president george h.w. bush in his campaign against bill clinton. that is not at all what happened. when bill clinton was elected president in 1992, i think republicans just couldn't believe that this guy, this random young arkansas governor had beaten an incumbent republican president. they just couldn't believe it. and so it started off i think as this myth that republicans like to tell each other to make themselves feel better about that election. to make themselves feel better that bill clinton somehow hadn't legitimately been elected president in his own right. wasn't like the country looked at president george bush and

bill clinton and decided they wanted clinton instead. that truth was too much for republicans to deal with. that was too much to absorb. so then they invented a different story to tell themselves. they started telling themselves this little myth. i think it started off as a republican bedtime story to soothe them, to make them sleep better about 1992. they told themselves this story that the only reason he got elected in 1992 was there was this other guy in the race that screwed it up. george w. bush wrote in his own book he believed the only reason his dad lost the presidency that year was because of this candidacy from ross perot. he said he believed that even though he couldn't show you any evidence to prove it. dan quayle, the guy who lost to the white house alongside bush in 1992, he's been pushing the myth harder than anybody. still trying to make people believe it. he wrote in "the washington post" in 2010, speaking on behalf of the bush/quayle campaign, to this day we believe perot cost the republican party the white house in 1992.

i get why republicans like to tell each other this story. it is a cuddlier feeling, i'm sure. to think that their president george bush, ronald reagan's vice president, it's a cuddlier feeling. he would have done it. if it wasn't not for that meddling kid from around. but that meddling short guy from texas with the big ears who skewed the race and stole it from the republican party. they would have had it if it weren't for ross perot. i understand why republicans want to tell each other this story. it delegitimatizes the whole clinton presidency in the same way they tried for years to delegitimatize this obama presidency saying he wasn't really the president. he swooped in from kenya to steal it. they don't like to think they've been beaten fair and square. they tell themselves it was somehow a terrific, an asterisk, an aberration that shouldn't have happened that way.

and, you know, if donald trump does end up running as a third party candidate, who knows what effect that will have on the election this year. we'll have to see when it happens. but it is a knowable truth that the last time a businessman did run a candidacy in 1992, it did not cost the republican white house the presidency that year. everybody is saying today that it did. but it didn't. bill clinton was going to beat george h.w. bush in 1992 anyway with or without ross perot. we know that for two reasons. one is the numbers. and one is the single craziest thing that happened in that election that year. i mean, the numbers part is easy. they did exit polls for people who voted for ross perot. if you hadn't have voted for ross perot, who would you have voted for instead? those people split down the middle. 38% of them said if they hadn't voted for perot, they would have voted for bush. 38% of them said if they hadn't voted for perot, they would have voted for clinton. 38 and 38 do not add up to 100%.

and the rest of the people said they wouldn't have voted for bush or clinton. they would have stayed home had perot not been on the ballot. so yeah ross perot brought out people that wouldn't have otherwise voted. in terms of what he might have taken from either, it was an even match in term of whose votes he stole. and it makes sense when you look at how he ran. ross perot was neither a conservative nor a liberal candidate. he was super progressive on some issues. he was super progressive on abortion rights, on gun control. he was to the left of bill clinton, to the left of barack obama on trade issues which was his signature issue. he was also conservative on some issues. he was conservative on the deficit, on law and order issues. he was a total mix. he really wasn't a democrat or a republican or a liberal or a

conservative. he was ross perot. and he appeared to -- appealed to all sorts of people. he took votes equally from both sides from the democratic candidate and the republican candidate. we know that from the numbers. and if there is any evidence that ross perot's presence in that election threw it one way or the other, the evidence we've got suggests contrary to what republican mythology would have you believe, the evidence that we've got suggests that having ross perot running in that race actually might have hurt bill clinton more than it hit -- more than it hurt george h.w. bush. clinton may have beat bush even worse had ross perot not been running that day. and we know that because of something unbelievably nutty that happened right in the middle of that year's election. so that's the 1992 election. 1992, summer of '92, july. bill clinton was accepting the democratic party nomination for president. literally that day the day he was going to give his speech accepting the nomination, hours

before bill clinton's speech at the democratic convention that year, shocker. out of nowhere. ross perot dropped out of the race. >> ross perot, the texas billionaire who went from being a front runner in polls about a month ago today became an asterisk. a dropout. a quitter. the man who promised his legion of admirers a world class campaign a change in american politics today unexpectedly offered his admirers instead an excuse. >> an excuse. this was a shock, it was really weird. july 1992 the election was going to be that fall, it's the day

that clinton was accepting the democratic nomination and ross perot shocked everybody by announcing that he was dropping out and he did sort of make a weird excuse for why he was dropping out. he had this long explanation about how he thought the election was going to be decided in the house of representatives instead of being decided by the voters and he didn't want that because of when the new president would take office if the house had -- honestly, it did not make any sense. but he dropped out that day. and there had been increasing worries at the time that maybe the pressure of the campaign was getting to him, that maybe the pressure was -- he didn't seem well. but for whatever reason, ross perot cracked up a little bit and got out in july of the election year. he got out of the race in july. and then he decided to get back in in october. what? july, august, september, he was not running anymore. he got back in in october which was really weird. and when he got back in, honestly, he seemed more -- than ever. a week before the election, one week before the election, ross

perot went on "60 minutes" and explained that the real reason he had to drop out in the middle of the summer had nothing to do with his strange theory about the house of representatives deciding anything and the timing and the new president -- blah blah blah. he explained a week before the election the real reason he had to drop out was because of a secret plot that he uncovered involving the cia and a photo of his daughter that somebody had doctored to make her look like she was a lesbian. and it was all going to ruin her wedding. what? seriously, that's what he said. >> he made the charge sunday in his first campaign outing since getting back in the race saying the republicans planned to distribute the fake photo of his daughter caroline before her august 23rd wedding and to -- >> smear her before her wedding and actually disrupt the wedding ceremony. >> perot repeated the charges last night on "60 minutes". >> this is watergate 2. >> top aides to president bush including fitzwater called it wrong. >> a dirty tricks campaign against his daughter caroline.

the family says the idea was to portray her as a lesbian. >> a fella had seen a doctored photograph to smear my daughter before her wedding and they were going to disrupt the wedding in the church. >> the key source of the allegations appears to be this man. scott barnes. a convicted wiretapper and known peddler of hoaxes. at least one part of perot's account first aired last night on "60 minutes" doesn't square with the facts. >> i didn't want "60 minutes" to run it. i didn't give them the story. i told "60 minutes" when they first called me, i said approach this with great skepticism. >> but in august he discussed the story with nbc news and claimed that there were videotapes and documents to support some of his allegations. the fbi investigated his

allegations and so far has found absolutely no evidence of dirty tricks. >> so ross perot is kind of a nut ball. at least the way he ran for president was a little nut bally. that was a week before the presidential election that year. and yes, even with being that nutty right before the election and having been not running for a president for july and august and september, he did go on a week after the "60 minutes" thing and took 20% of the vote. almost 20% of the vote. and republicans have forever more decided to blame papi bush losing that election and losing the white house on the presence of ross perot and on that 20% of the vote that ross perot got. but the exit polls prove it's not true. the exit polls prove that he'd equally took votes from clinton and papi bush. and that weird period of time when he dropped out of the race

from july to october because of something about the house of representatives or maybe something about the cia and his daughter looking gay but not really being gay. and they're going to disrupt the wedding and a guy from arizona through an intermediary. i mean, that really weird period where he dropped out of the race, if it were true that ross perot was a spoiler for the republican party, that papi bush would have won re-election, would have stayed in the white house if it weren't for that darn ross perot, if that were true from that time that he was out of the race, papi bush would have done better in the polls, right? where ross perot was hunting down the fake lesbian cia intermediaries to save his daughter's wedding, that whole period would have been a golden age for papi bush. right? papi bush is going to get re-elected. look how far ahead he is in the polls. if this myth about ross perot stealing that election from the

please allow us the opportunity. what you saw earlier were the gentleman running across the parking lot. they located the car of the individual of the alleged shooter who is now deceased at that time. a dog actually hit on a location in the car. out of the abundance of caution we brought in the bomb squad. they see some stuff that looks suspicious. we also want to get into the trunk. what you will hear him and we moved people completely out of that area just to make sure that the scene is safe. officer safety, people safety is my utmost concern. you will hear noise. if it sounds like a muffled

shotgun, that is powder going off as we will explode the windows and the trunk. we don't want to open ourselves to anything. we want to make sure there is nothing in there that can cause anybody any harm. that is what will take place over the next hour. after that, we go into the theater itself. that is a crime scene. we still have oddities in their. the shooter is still in there. at least one other person. we need to get back in there and make sure that is completely we are. some dogs hit on it earlier. we want to go in there and make sure that there is nothing that concerns us in their. once we get that clear him a that will take another hour or so to do that. as long as it takes, it's going to take her it we want to make sure everyone is safe. once we secure that seem the next one would be to bring the

crime lab in. a lot of information we want to make sure that we get accurately we want to get the coroner in their. that will be the next couple hours or so. you heard the chief a few minutes ago. there is information people are putting out on the actual shooter itself. why would we want to put any information out about that individual until we get all the things that we need from him? we need to check his place out talk to his friends, family. if there are other concerns, you are just adding somebody's life in danger. we want to get accurate information to you. we will release it as soon as possible and verify the information, verify the deceased deceased's name. we need to talk to the families and let them know what happened to my and then we will systematically work with the

chiefs office and find out what happened what brought the guy to this. why did he go in there by himself, and why did he decide to pull a weapon out and harm individuals? we need to find that out. time to do that. these allow us to do that. we have information and will get it to you. please keep in mind that when we leave here we have a lot of people with a lot of work to do. it will be into tomorrow before we clear the scene from a forensic standpoint to make sure we look at each one of those. a lot of experts on the scene. the right people are here. we want the public to work with us. there is nothing that we believe that is any other concern past this point. no other act of shooter out there. we don't leave there is anybody else involved. that is why we have moved the people out.

just to make sure that we keep that car completely cleared out and make sure there are no concerns. i want to turn it over to the gov. gen. who visited some families and went by the hospital and delivered the message. he will answer any questions. >> i want to thank michael and the chief of all law enforcement working together here. today is the day that not only angers but saddens all of us. this should never happen anywhere but we never imagined it would happen. it is a night that brings us together. we are resilient. we ask us to shower these families with love. i went to a local hospital to visit with some of the families.

i want to share with you a quick story of hero is him of what happened inside the theater. i visited with family members and friends. a couple teachers were in there tonight. both of them were shot, one released tonight. her friend jumped over her and save her life. if she hadn't done that, her friend got shot. that all it would have hit her in the head. both teachers were shot. the one whose life was saved, she had the essence of mind to pull the fire alarm to help save other lives. if we learn more about the details, we will hear about other acts of selfless heroism and try to save other lives. these are teachers out to watch a movie during their last few days of summer break, getting ready for the new semester. they never imagined that would happen, this awful tragedy.

i saw family members that were hoping for the best. they were waiting information on their loved ones. even though they wouldn't be discharged, they wanted to make the recovery. they just want to know and are waiting for the dock is to tell them. they are anxious and fearful. the best thing we have heard is that now is a great time to send thoughts and prayers and love. this is a resilient group. we have been joined by local, state and federal folks. i will close by thanking law enforcement. they ran toward the danger and not away from it. the officers heard the gunshots and ran into that theater. they do an amazing job of protecting us. i am grateful for their heroism. i think we will hear as those details come out. keep those family members in your thoughts and prayers. a lot of folks waiting to hear some good news.

>> we want to thank opener gentle on the part of our community as well. >> our prayers are to all of those injured and those who have lost loved ones. we cannot emphasize enough that this is a major crime scene and a large crime scene that is along a state highway. tomorrow morning that roadway will be very, very busy. please don't take that way to work. if you can take a different route, please allow and respect what is going on here today. this is the beginning of a very long process. we need our community to come together. please respect the families and privacy. it for thema for them and the first responders who got in harms way today.

we thank you all for your outpouring of love and support and the contact we have had throughout the united eighths tonight. please to the local folks, ray for our community but take care of each other and stay away from this place. >> can we ask you about the people in the theater. >> there was a backpack in there and several items that they hit on. we want to make sure that we clear it because once we do that, we will let the investigators go in there. that job will take some time. we have to locate each one of them. all that information that we have to fill, even though we have the alleged shooter that is deceased. it is out of fairness to all involved. we have interviewed all who is in their. a little over 100 individuals in the theater talking to

witnesses that were there and going to the local hospitals into the eyewitnesses that we saw. we have to look at his history him a family. calling it all together. bring some closure for this neighborhood and to the city. first responders, they were running in. all those individuals going in there. >> it is extraordinary. >> has anybody been released from the hospital? >> they are working on that now. >> any information on the shooters? >> he does have a criminal history. it looks like it's pretty old, nothing recent.

we have to make sure that we positively identified -- [ indiscernible ] i know there is a lot of speculation right now on social media. we ask to please not put out any information right now. there is a lot of investigation on the suspect's background. we do not want to compromise anything. we need to learn more about the suspect. >> have any of the victims been released, hospitals? >> one victim has been released from the hospital. >> i saw one. >> one of the teachers? >> the injuries range from nonlife threatening to critical.

we know that one victim was in surgery and not doing well. we will get constant updates. we want to make sure those folks are protected. we are continuing to get updates on the scene. >> when will people be able to return to their homes? >> that will take time. once we clear that, we can let the technicians run the crime scene itself. probably several hours. [ indiscernible ] >> it's going to take a while.

we will do it as quickly as possible but also investigate everything. [ indiscernible question ] >> just from eyewitnesses no one reported -- [ indiscernible ] >> can you give us ages of the victims? >> ages range from 18 to probably 60. >> we are actually talking to a family right now. let's give that family a chance to get that information out there. we need to i.d. the bodies. we have done that -- [ indiscernible ]

>> we went to the hospital to check on him. >> you said 100 people were in the theater. is that the entire theater? >> the headcount inside the theater itself -- >> that is the back end of the news conference. >> we have been listening to a news conference live in lafayette, louisiana, following this pierre shooting where we understand three people are dead dead. seven people are injured. we heard a lot. the victims range in age from the late teens into the sixties. as for the injuries, they are nonlife threatening to critical. we also learned this is a very active seen as you can see by what is on air right now. investigators will be on scene throughout the night with a lot of work to do. they have located the car of the alleged shooter. they will be going through that vehicle looking for anything that may be suspicious.

they have moved people out of that area just in case there is something in that vehicle that could explode pierre and speaking of explosions they will be using robots to explode the windows in the trunk in order to open them so they can see what's inside that vehicle. this is out of an abundance of precaution. this is an active crime scene. once they go through that vehicle, they will go back into the theater tonight. that is where everything happened earlier around 730:30 p.m. local time. the bodies are still inside that theater, the bodies of the shooter and two other vic m's. they do know who the alleged gunman is. all we know is that this person is a 58-year-old man who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. there are a lot of questions still out there as to what the motive was. why here six why now? that will be discovered over the

coming days. we will try to get some more information from the money is tied that theater at the time and witness to what happened. make sure we understand this right. you are in a different movie theater inside that complex. >> yes. i was down the hallway from it. >> what did you see and witness? walk us through that. >> it was about 730:30 busch. arm be was beginning, and probably five minutes into the movie the screen went black. an emergency siren went off saying to evacuate to the closest exit immediately. we went to the back door. it was probably 100 people or more to the back of the theater. we walked around to the front. they were already on scene.

there was a lady who had been shot in the leg and she was laying across the sidewalk him of the grass kind of. just waiting on the ambulance to get there. she had people coaching her through what was going on. the cops went through the front doors and they had a guy who was actually in the theater that i spoke to that said they were sitting there just watching a movie right when it started. it was really quiet and they were not arguing or anything. he said he was kind of just didn't have any care about when he got out. he was just shooting around. >> frightening scene that you described. you were not even in the theater where the gunshots went down. he said that he had spoken with

two teachers that worked inside that theater at the time of the shooting. both had been shot. i don't know if this is the same person that you saw. >> that is what went off in our show. we evacuated. the lights came on and the screen went black. the public service announcer came over and evacuated immediately. >> what did people do? they are going to do what it says, but was there a sense of chaos or calm? walk us through that. >> it wasn't a chaos. it was a concern. it was an. feeling. it for like something was going on. two0 two people, people with children were trotting across to get

away. we didn't know exactly what was going on until we got to the front. everybody saw the lady that had been wounded. >> as for the gunshots, did you hear the alarm or any of the gunshot? >> i heard the alarm. the movie had just started. it was a pretty loud seen. all i heard was the movie. >> what was the police presence like? we heard that officers that 2 that seemed quite quickly and could hear the gunshots. instead of taking cover, they were headed into that fire -- not fire, but the gunshots. they were headed toward those sounds. >> it was amazing how quickly they responded. they went in with no fear and did their jobs. they were there immediately. we were probably outup the back of the movie theater and they were showing up. >> did you get a chance to hear or gather any information about this shooter? what have you heard?

>> all i heard was that it was an elderly male in late 50s. that is all i heard. he just it up and opened fire. >> have you spoken with any people since leaving that theater? have you spoken with any of the injured? what are people telling you? >> no, ma'am, i have not. a couple fatalities. i haven't really heard anything other than what i have told you. it's just a surreal like something you would see in a movie. >> before we let you go, what is going through your mind? i know you are processing all of this and it might take a while. what is going through your mind right now? >> it's just amazing that at the drop of a hat something like us could happen. it's such a great town and great people. you don't expect this to happen. it's just surreal.

>> that is absolutely understandable. glad that you are okay and thank you for the information you have provided this evening. now we are joined by the chief administrative officer for lafayette. and we want to thank you for your time. we have any updates on the people injured? >> yes, ma'am. we have injuries ranging from nonlife threatening including one of the victims who has been released from the hospital to another vic them in surgery with potentially life-threatening information -- injuries. the information we are receiving is from the best of news to the worst of news, and our prayers are with the families and injured themselves. >> the correct ever is still seven injured? >> we believe that number is nine injured. >> nine, okay. >> nine and three fidelity's ain't cleaning the gun man. >> we heard a cyst at this package, what do you know about

that? >> there was sun to the the, a flurry of activity in front of the theater where the crime scene detect is had also moved people fairly quickly away from the crime scene and expanded the distance of the crime scene away from the theater. we were told by the kernel at louisiana state police, mike edmondson, who was briefing the that there was a suspicious package that was found. law enforcement was able to locate the suspect's vehicle. he cautioned those who live in the neighborhood or within earshot of the vehicle that they may hear what would sound like a muffled gunshot or a shotgun blast. the trauma we have seen mow we did not what the community and those around to believe that there was something else terrible happening. the kernel wanted to brief the public and let them know there would be something like that going on. >> that is understandable.

i'm going to ask you to stand by because we will continue to follow this but want to let the viewers know that at this hour three dead, nine injured in a louisiana theater shooting. keep it right here on msnbc. want bladder leak underwear that moves like you do? try always discreet underwear and move, groove, wiggle giggle, swerve, curve. lift, shift, ride, glide hit your stride. only always discreet underwear has soft dual leak guard barriers to help stop leaks where they happen most and a discreet fit that hugs your curves you barely feel it. always discreet underwear so bladder leaks can feel like no big deal. because hey, pee happens. get your free pair and valuable coupons at always discreet.com i hate cleaning the gutters. have you touched the stuff? it's evil.

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you are watching msnbc's coverage of the lafayette louisiana theater shooting. we can report that three people have died in that shooting. that includes the shooter, a white male in his 50s. around 730:30 p.m. local time, that shooter opened fire and turned the gun on himself. his motive is still unclear. we know the weapon he used was a handgun and police say investigators are searching his home. along with the dead victims, there are nine injured. they range from serious to critical and life-threatening. somewhere between 100 people in that theater at the time of the shooting. no more information about the victim. stay right here with msnbc. copy is just instructions on how to win a free trip! instructions actually written in this legal copy. use your dvr to read them. this is the pre-recorded voice of

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fascinating strategy moments in the obama presidency will be this moment on "meet the press" when joe biden said what he really thought in response to a direct question about gay rights. and he gave that response to that question in a way that apparently blind sided everybody in the white house. joe biden was asked about gay rights and he said he was, quote, absolutely comfortable with same-sex marriage. and then three days later president obama said he, too, supported same-sex marriage. quick pivot. thanks to joe biden pushing. but that pivot happened at joe biden's lead. by the time the supreme court ruled that marriage equality should be the law in all 50 states, it was not at all subtle that the white house was celebrating. that they picked a side in that fight. but that victory this summer was specific to marriage.

vice president biden is now still in some ways still pushing the envelope in terms of where the administration is at and what ought to happen next on this issue. vice president biden was invited recently to give basically a victory lap speech before the advocacy group freedom to marry. they threw a party to basically going out of business. because they got what they wanted in equality. and he did take a victory lap on marriage. but he also said that he knew exactly what should be done next. >> although the freedom to marry and for that marriage to be recognized in all 50 states is now the law of the land, there is still 32 states where marriage can be recognized in the morning and you can be fired in the afternoon. i don't believe that people in those states, i don't believe they even know it's possible that you can be fired because

you're gay or lesbian. and i am absolutely confident that when the people and organizations in this room and the president and i take this fight to the american people, we will win. because all we have to do, all we have to do is let them know what the law allows now. if you think i'm kidding, go to any one of those states when you're on business. ask at a train station or at an airport or when you're having lunch, can someone in this city be fired just because they're gay? you'll get the answer that can't happen. they don't even know. >> the vice president is correct about that. support for non-discrimination laws that protect people on the basis of gender identity and

sexual orientation. but three-quarters of the american public falsely believe that a federal law already exists banning that kind of discrimination. there is no federal law banning that. but three-quarters of the public think there is. now as of today, there is a big new effort to make that false perception into a reality in law. >> this legislation is what justice requires. this legislation is what justice demands. and like the recent supreme court decision, it is long overdue. no longer should america turn her back on our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender brothers and sisters. i said it in the past and i'll say it again. we fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

>> congressman and civil rights icon john lewis joining a lot of his democratic colleagues today introducing new non-discrimination legislation. his role, not just as a civil rights activist, but his key role in bringing about some of the most important civil rights action makes him a messenger here today. today it takes a different approach to gay non-discrimination than other bills have in the past. this new bill they introduced today would amend the 1964 civil rights act. it's very simple. it would just say you can't discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. just like you can't on all these others covered in the civil rights act. no one is honestly all that optimistic about this passing any time soon. part of the challenge is not a single republican has signed on to support this idea. not a single one. 40 democrats in the senate, over 150 in the house have signed on.

but not one republican. that's one challenge. but the other challenge, i mean, especially after the big gay marriage ruling this summer, the other challenge paradoxically is as joe biden said, people don't believe this is needed because people don't believe you can get married in all 50 states in the country and yet in most of those states, your marriage can be recognized in the morning and you can be fired in the afternoon if your boss finds out you're gay. people just don't believe it's true, but it's true. the lead senate sponsor of this bill joins us next. stay with us.

today in most states an lgbt person can get married on saturday, post pictures on sunday and get fired or thrown out of their apartment on monday because of who they are. >> the congressman from rhode island at a press conference today introducing legislation that would amend the 1964 civil rights act to protect people from civil rights discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. this is a new approach to anti-gay and anti-transgender discrimination. joining us is jeff merkley of oregon. thank you for being here tonight. >> great to be with you. >> is part of the challenge of getting something like this passed, getting support for something like this that you have to convince people that it is legal in most states in the country to fire somebody just for being gay? people don't believe discrimination is legal? >> that's absolutely true.

of course we understand when our children say, really, it was illegal or is illegal -- i know my own daughter couldn't believe it an adults couldn't believe it either. a rental contract on a house, yes, it is. it is true in the majority of states in the country and not okay. it is time to end discrimination in a comprehensive fashion and put the lgbt community on the same foundation as ethnicity as race and gender. >> i am one of the people who, as a member of the gay community always felt like the nondiscrimination fight should have come first before marriage and it didn't. the marriage fight not only happened but it won and succeeded beyond anyone else's dreams. i'm wondering why the marriage success hasn't created more political momentum for supporting this nondiscrimination clause. it seems to me to be less

controversial than supporting people's equal right to get married. i'm surprised there are zero republicans signed on to the bill so far. >> they came on with time. this is a whole set of issues. i want to think the best of this, that they want time to consider it and look at the details. i think they will conclude -- all of those that supported us on employment, they will conclude if it is wrong for someone to be fired from their job because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual, it is wrong to be denied a mortgage, denied the ability to serve on a jury. i think that will carry through. people will start to realize, yes, you can get married but you don't have the full measure of dignity, respect, opportunity, if you can get married and then get fired, get married and be denied rental opportunity or be thrown out of a restaurant. i think it will help build

momentum toward this vision of full equality. >> jeff merkley of oregon, democratic senator, this is a simple idea, radical in its simplicity. i share your sense that over time this is sort of thing that could be as bipartisan that support of marriage is getting outside of elected officials at least. thank you. >> you are welcome. >> we'll be right back. bring us your aching and sleep deprived. bring us those who want to feel well rested. aleve pm. the only one to combine a sleep aid...

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are you moving forward fast enough? everywhere you look, it strategy is now business strategy. and a partnership with hp can help you accelerate down a path created by people, technology and ideas. to move your company from what it is now... to what it needs to become. i said at the top of the show we had an update on our interview last night with rick santorum. we do have an update on that interview. honestly, it's going to have to wait until tomorrow's show because we are monitoring breaking news for something happening right now that you need to know about.

a multiple shooting at a movie theater in lafayette, louisiana. we do not have a ton of detail about what happened here. the lafayette police department said on twitter they received the first call at approximately 7:30 p.m. of a shooting involving multiple victims. the shooting happened, we're told at the grand 16 theater on johnston street in lafayette. at this hour what we can report in terms of the toll of this shooting is two people have died and six others are treated at area hospitals tonight. again, this is multiple victim shooting. we do not know the circumstances urn which this happened. and we don't know whether among those two with people dead -- we can't confirm whether one of those two dead is the apparent shooter in this incident. we will be watching this throughout the night. lawrence o'donnell will have continuing coverage on "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." the basics tonight what appears to be a multiple shooting at a

movie theater in lafayette, louisiana. the emotional resonance is not that it is just another apparent shooting in a movie theater but the emotional resonance is not just that it is an apparent multiple shooting but on the day when a jury in colorado is considering whether or not james holmes, the massacre shooter is going to get -- >> hello, i have continuing coverage of tonight's breaking news. three people are dead and nine injuried in a theater in lafayette, louisiana. one of those dead is the gunman who turned the gun on himself. authorities say the injured are being treated at local hospitals with conditions from critical to nonlife-threatening. the alleged shooter was a 58-year-old white man. that's all we know at the time. no victims have been identified. governor bobby jindal said thi