onlylyouour alth care prprovider c tell if symptoms are fr an enlae and not a more serus condition like prostate cance soavavregular exams. call your doctorododay. avodart. help take care ofour growing problem >> isis hour omsnbc,t he close of a meeting today with european leadeders president obobamratcheted up hisarning toto in. >> we'rere n goingo just wait inindenitely and allow for the development of a n nucar weapo. >> the h hawshsh approach may garner some criticism. >> my bibiggttob is too explain to the a amecaca people why t ti is so importanant. also thiss hour, newetails ononhat the cia m may have misl congress abouou foryeyes. rumors are flyingg aboutececre

asassaininion rings and rogue actition one other biggquestion,hy is foform vp dickckcheney's name back the midsdst of it all? we'll have the lalast. >>pl, smearingresident oba.a. some on the right nt cry over thihi photoohehe claim shos president t oba a th a wandering eye. but check th ta. e e tually video shows a far different s sryry. whyy t t right wasas so wrong w th one. >> and theother thingsee ththghght u should know.. presidenent amam meetss the pop. >> thank youou such. >> allllhahatand morehis hr on msnbc. >ququita day for thth esesidt. good aftftnonoono all of you watching uss his friday. i'm tamron h ha live inin nw yorkrk. hey, david. > hey, tatamn.n. i'm david shuster l livee in washington, d.c., ananththe g picture thisis afternoon, the prididt is en routute to ghana atat ts hour after visitingitit ththe pe and wrarainingp the g- suitit the presididenheheld big nene cocoerence today in italyly whe

he hadad tghghords for iran. >> thee intntnanatial community s said here's a door you can walk ththroh.h. we're not goingtoto just w wtt indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclearr wwean, the beaea ofnternational treatieses a wake up oneday and findndurursees in a much worse situation andunblbl to act. >> that was intereststinggn ters of foreign policy, but also in tetermof domomtitic politics cause republicans hammered thehe president ononhe iran sue for weeks, buthehey ve nowoocud ththr r fi the economymy wre polls show the presidentisis mot vuererle. >> herere a aret a te when we'r ying to saave jobs in america, help g get our economy ing again,and all people see is a lot o of wasteful washingt spendingng, job-kikillgg measur lilikeneney and h hethth care. wonder the american p peoee thk we're nuts. president obama fireded bkk at

s s reblican critics today with this. >> t the's's bn a lot of talk about the dicic and the debt ddrom my republican colleagues, whysn't obama ing something about this? ignoring t faact tat we gogo into theheorst recessioninince the great t prpreson with a $13 llllio ffit. the only w to g a handlenn r medium andndng-term budgett deficits is ife corrrr and cocontn n heth care sts. body denies th. >>epublicans continueeto oppose any p puic plann andnd momocrs areiivid. eaear pelosielayedeleasing health careleleslation todayy after dends from fiscally conservatiti b bludog democrats thth the bill be more grgrsive ateigning in coning in costs.s. the president did gegeinin a fe laughs today w whi t taing about

ththe ininfititingt hhom >> after six months weling and dealing g wi these international ruru, g-20, nato, and g-8-8,o o you find it morore mpmpcated or lecomplicated toeaea with atathan with t theamerican congress? >> oh, llll, onheheecond quesesti i it'not even osose. i mean conongrs s always tougughe >> well, now t the bigger pict, aewew gllup poll o outoday shows the president's jo approval difting dnwards to % sofafar in j ju drin by his losses with indepeents, down 6% in the last month. can republicans capitalize th the unseize th this eco and hale care and rebrand themselves over a month were gop scands have certainly been dominang the headlines? joining no nbc ws washingt bureau chief mark whitaker good to see you. >> hey, tamron. >> the democrats point to the fact thatbviously the prident is so very, very popular, but these are very difficult times. put it in perspective for us abt what he is saying and what, if any,opening is availae for republicans.

>>well, i think that as a good news/bad news moment for the republicans,the good news polically is that t of eir criticisms of the obama agenda are starting t gain traction not oy with republicanbut with independents. y said in the polling, people are concerned about the cost of the program, is t presiden takg on too much, is there too ch of a re for government in a lot ofhese programs? but the badews ishat soar the republan hve really not prested rong, plausible alrnatives to the president's planhat seem new. on the emy you haveth old playbook of tax cuts. on energy you ve drill, baby, ill. on heah care there really isn't a concrete plan. so the rublica still lo not just like the party of no, but so far the party of no ideas and the challenge for them i going to become --s going to

be to come up with some fresh thinking an some fsh thinke. it's n necesrily good news wh the most creative guy in your party ia blast from the past like newt gingrich. that's interesting. republicans certainly have their leadership issue b let me ask you the leadership for the white hous you've got vice president biden sayinghathey misread, the republicans tryin to get a lotof traction over those kinds of comments. on the sunday programs, what might be theheme comg from the e house? know that's a big opportuty for them to try to get ahead of messag >> well, there's been a lot of ta in the lastweek out whether a second smus package wilbe needed. i think what you're going to hear the white house say is that we still need time f the first stulus package to wo. 's a little bit like a slow-release dru very littlef e medine is in the bloodstreay. that the bad news because so fa we haven't seen a dramati

effect and t unemployment numbers ntinue to gop. but it means tat more of the stimul money is going to come online in the next year or so, and theye hong that that will start to tn things arou, if not in the next months, at least by the 2010 ection. >> mk, finally, as far as the political fight with republicans, a lotf people suggest that the preside has too mu on his plate, he's trying to too much, but is it possible tt 's at leas more difficult for the repubcans t find two or three major issues than it is for the white house to do that? >> i've talkedto people in the white house about that, and they wi admit that that is part of the strategy. you launch aot of boats and a lot of different fropnts, and it's harder forthe opposition to pin you down on any o of them. of coue, they also see fro a policy pointf view that they think all of thesehings are terconnected, that you can't do a long-term sustainle reco without addressing health carecosts, education, energy, which are the three big

items on their agenda. >> all right. thank you very muc mark. it's great seeinyou. be curio to see whahaens over the weekend. ank yo >> absolutely. big week next week. >> i was gng to say, and again it feels liket's theumr ti and things are slow, but e rubber is hitting the road, everybody. these are the big fights. it doesn't get much better tn this i terms of political clashes with b stakes. >> i think th is going t be an iredible summer. starti monday with t confirmation ojudge sotomayor and after that it's going to be scching. we'll e what happens. >> absutely. faen your seat belts. another major story this hour, there are new call by democrats tonvestigate whether cia leaders and offials misled and withheld iormati from congre over the past eig year those calls follow revelations about a s highly classified cia program that was allegedly hidden from congresssince 2001. according to "the waington post," ciairector leon panet just learned of the program on june the 23r, four mons after taking offic and ordered it canceled immediaty. he irmed theouand senate

intelligence committe abo the program the next day. as for what that program was, ers speculation it m have involved what investigative reporter seymour hirsch alleges was an executive assassination ring run by formeric president di cheney. hirsch first dropped the news of e possility in a discussion in march sponsored by the university of minnesa. hirsch saysecretteams of special forces have been going into countrs. not talking to the u.s. ambassador ciatation chief and thteams have beeninding people on list, executing them, and thenleaving the country. hirs says the teamsid not answer to the cia, only vice president eney, and afte he left office, those teams allegedly answered to no one. with us now from san francisco to talk more about all of this is joan wsh, editor in cief for salon.com. and nobody is really confirming any of is, but does this sem like the sort of tg cheney might have been capable of?

>> mr. hirsch certainly thinks so. wee seen dick cheney take responsibili for all sorts of ful things, waterboarding, sleep and food deprivation. he'sn the recordupporting wh is illega torture. it's not a huge jump to go here. we also kn that at least 100 detainees ed in our custody in some fashion, wheer an illness maybe, abuse, negct, murd. we don't know that. i think the bigger question here, david, and yo alluded t it earlier is what is congress gointo do abou this? because it's not an allegation that they were ld to or misled orhat this was held back. that part is true. what's not true is whether it was ieg, and someelievet is an illegal brch of the national security t that say they have no know about programs

like this. we know they didn't know, that's a fact. thenhere's the larger questio about their retionship with the obama administtion when it mes to thesessues of disclosure and transpancy and getting to the bottom of this illegal torture rege that we had for eight years. obama has not been happy t do that. congress makes noise and th they withdraw. so willhis be an impetus fo them to, you know, al saddle up invesgations of this and other prrams? we'll have tosee. >> well, especiallbecause if therwas an assassinationing that tice president was directing, that would be an eve clearer constutional violation than the torture pgram. i mean, there no grounds to fend that because th it's so clearly against what haseen writteas a result the church committee andso on. is there a possible mdle ground? >> well, you know, congres does eventually find middle ground,

and sometimes weakens the principles that we're supposed to believe in. i think ittilleay. i think that this round of disclosurethough seems to have shked congress enough. i mean, u know, anna eschew said she was stunned by the program. they won't talk about it, but they're usingxtremelanguage. even pete hoeksa, a republican, who says maybe it didn't go on all the time, even he said he wouldn't have suppord xcept maybe september th, and that's an intesting ttle piece of information because all of u re heartbroken on september 12thnd all of us might have go pretty far in our determination to stop al qaeda on that day. so, yoknow, it's got to be something prty extreme and prettyisrbing for hoekstra to use that date but also say that even he would not have supporteit had he known about it beforeanetta disctinued it. it's something big a i think we needo get to the bottomof it. >> joan walsh, we agree. thk you for comingon.

e constitutnal stakes th this o are also huge. >> yes, they are. >> still ahead, wh will hapn to tt swim club th turned away minorit kids? >> yeah it's a story that we talked about yesterda vid, generating a lotf interest and a t of anr. we're goingo tell you wt's happening right non a live report fm the scene of it all. plus, michael jackson's father now sayg that he thinks his s was e, ote, victim of foulpl. there any evidence to back up joe jason's theory? you're watching msnbc. how does jell-o sug free puddingitll that rich, chocolatey tastste in 60 calories? ♪ ♪ oh, so delicious wh cares? jell-ougugar free pudding. every didi needs a little w we room.

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welcome back. the state of pennsylvani h

opened an investigation into why dozens of minority children were banned from a prive swimming cln suburbanphiladelphia. >> 65 kids from the creative steps summer club visited the valley club for theirst time too sing and apparently some racist mments were allegedly made. the children were asked to even leave the pool. club officials deny any racial discriminati. this afternoon a develment in the story the president of the club saying it was a safety situation. >> this was a safety situation. many of these children were not able toswim. most of them we not abl to swim a we were just overwheld with the sheer number of ildren that came to the club >> ron allen joins us. heus got bacfrom pennlvania. there are ople calling for the ub to shut wn, all kinds ofxtreme reactions it. >> it's a vy ugly situation, ry emotl situaon the new thin is the clu president cing out and essentially alogizing saying

th was a big misunrstanding. he said it was safy issue because there were kids or re in the shallow end of the pool. yestday when we were talking to the day campe, thestaff, th said the club kne how many ds were coming. this was not surprise, and th said that they coul accommodate it by extding the invitation. has hale this really badly.b the first thing theyaid was these kidschanged the complexion andtmosphere of the club which is probably the wt choice of wosan, yes, the club president amits that toda but the bottom line is the are a lot of kids whe feengs were really rt, whose se-esteem was damaged some of their parts saients said. there's indication there's a lot of bad feelings out there, racial feelings that still need to be resolved between peoplein these communities. >> other than i'm sorry, this was a safetysituation, what is this club doing to make good on -- if it was just a misunderstanding. >> i don't know that they ca really make good. the camp, theids don't want t comeack there. e club al sd there were a

least two otr day camps they hadnvited out that came or at were going to come and that they havso dinved. they insist theseere multthnic campers. i thin the club just wants to close its doors and get on with its mer. the campers don't wa to go back there. there are the various group that are investigating allegaons of discrimination. >> senator arlen specter was said to be getting involved. >> he's asked for an investigation which amps this whole thing up. it's a private club so there are different rules that apply. but yo can't-- these kids heard these awful tngs. these kids who are kindergarteners through elementary school. they heard these tgs. there e probably some people in the cb who didn't want any black kids there o hispanic kids there. not evybody is a member othe clanthere, but clearly there are somehings said that shouldt have been said and a lot of ht feelingsll around. >> all right. so they've said their sorry. i'm sure the's prob sothg else -- that's a private club. people probably have money. why don't u sponsor the day

campgive a donation. nothing says i'm sorry like a donation. >> we'll see. >> ron allen, thank you very much. so, david? >> y know, tamron -- >> tre nothing i c say. >> younow what i hope happens, tamron, and i think we all do. i hope that members of that club are as outraged as all of us are and say i don't want to be part of a club that's gng to handle a situion this way. i'llo find another club where people are a litt more nsitive. >> wshld call themnd find out if anybody polled thr membership. i'm cious. put ur money where your mouth is. isn't that p o americanway, sadly? absolutely. up next, what the right did ong with that prident obama photo that was splashe all across some conservative websites.bother to check e tape bore making accusation >> what is at?

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there ar a lot of things that could be consered news in this world. >> but there e only a few story that is make u say -- >> no w! >> n way! >>ind of a special edition of noway. o of those stories is "bruno." the new movie from sachaaron cohen that hits theaters today. the movie i about a gay over the top austrian fashion knnis that. it's expected to bringn $30 million this ekend. "bruno" is funnyto some, shocngo others, and offensive to come. >> i loved him.

>> what? >> for what? >> for an ipod >> what? >> what? we have the senior editor r "in touch" weekly. you told me during the break it wasbrilliant. >> utterly brilliant. >> you saw with a couple friends who were gay and a cole who werestraight. >> everybody was offeednd ved it. >> how can it still be easurable to see? >> because it's sobrilliant. he's fearless to take these stereotypes and then confront average people wit these and we get tosee their prejudice reaction. we learn l abt ourself. >> whaabout the gay and sbian leaders out there who sayt's one thing f people who live in neyork and l.a. who are around a diverse community to see this and see th satire and see what the message is, whic is to expose homophobia, but when you into smalleromnities where people have not met people of

color or maybe someone who is openly g, theyee this a theye not laughing with you, theye laughing at you. >> right, andhose are the people who are targeted in this movie over and ove again. a t of southerns, a lotf conservative religious peo are the buttsf these jos. you hahave to ha a strong stomach for t th movie. i think it's very i iportant film. >> one thi you just told me that i had not heard from anyone, yosay there arer the top likex and provocative -- it's kind of raunchy. >>t's extremely raunchy for an "r" rating. ers a talking penisn this movie. there's jorgy in this movie. it's so extreme. >> david shuster, would you like to follow that? >> i was going to say -- i didn't hear him. what did he say, a talking what? i'm not going torepeat it. a taing part of a guy. >> kidding. >> no way! >>o way! okay, tom o'neil, instead of -- >> tamron, we havto see this

movie. >> instead of three stars, it ge three- no way! thank you, tom, because i'm utterly barrassed. thank u. >> tamn, i think i knowhat movie we're algog to se this weekd. >> tom o'neil is so re with his mouth open. >> was i allowed to say that word on tv? it's technical. it's anatomy and it taught in science. i don't kn if people want you teaching their children that word but hey. >> sorry. >> cl with me. all right. >> up next, the startng claim from michael jackson's father. e jackson is speaking for the first time since his son's memorial and he'salki out foul play. and when pictures do not say 1,000 wos. why this misleading photograph was veopular on conservative blogs and papers. we'll take a look at it in he big picture." nt value for their dollar?

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i'm scott cohn with your cnbc market wrap. ocks closing mied. the d lost 37 points. s&p down 3 ints. oil dropped below $59 a barrel adding to th biggest weekly decline sinclatejanuary. the drop com as investo brace for next week's corporate earnings reports. neral motors emerged from bankruptcyprotection today leaner now that it's fre massive de and burdsome contracts. the new gm promises to be more responsive tooonsumer nee. aig is preparing to pay millions of promised buses to several executives next wee but it's reportly looking to quietly get the government's approval this time arod to avoid setting off yet another firestorm of controversy. according to "the new york times," aig is looking to dole ou $2.4 milln in bonuses. that's it from cnb first in busine worldwide, now back to msnbc. welcome bk. i'm david shuster live in

washington. >> and i'm tamron hall live in new yorkn this friday. so this e, david, is aeal big picture. it's a small picture that launched a thousd words abo president obama. beginning late thuday afternoon,this picte appeared on thedrudge report. it's still at thtop of the website. it apprs to show pside obama and french president nichololas sarkozyneaking anned ring look at a youngad from brazil. before you judge, if you lo at the videof that same moment in time, you notice president obama is helping another wan down the steps, and s appears be just watchingistep. naturally, we to the time to slow this down a bit. and again, and when we did, we could notelp but noticing choolas skozy maybe glancing, but the point is wn you capture a moment people can read so much in it but when youo

your research you should be able to see whahappens. >> iit fair game for websites, blogs, andable ns neorks when auick look at th video clearly shows the photo omple colely misreprents what was happening. carl, this has been bouncing arnd the cservative neorks. what are thedoing here? >> well, let's put some conte to this. it started yesterday aernoon on freerepublic.com. basilly they posted this reuters pho asking their readers to ption it. what folwed was a string of racial expletives and jt kind of gutter smp verbiage that i don't think anybody would want to hear on television. abt 30 minutes later drudge t it up with, u know, a blaringheadline that said mr.

president, and then you know, a little later it ended up on the fox nation.com wch is the fox news networks right wing website. basically making the same poin d then onto abc's the note which shows you what we're looking at here is really an echo chamber where things sta in extremely consertive circles and thr retition they end up in the mainstream press. >> here is what i don't understand. our colleague greta van sus tran said the photo was alie and yet that sort ofdebunking of it, that w the only place where it was ma ov there. is it a matt of you just d't wa to get facts- you don't want to l facts get in the way of a good smr? is that what's going on hee? >> somemes you have to wonde mean, greta did a good job last night of showing the video for the first time i'm aware of and then thi morning fox and

friends wasoing the exact sa things that these websites were doing. the frightening things here is this is not the firstime this has happened we all know this happens with the udgereport. he's kind of likthe fedora wearing boy who crieswolf. you'd think by now meers of the dia would knownot come calling every time he pu someing across his website. but foxews ran with it again this morning. "good morng america" did rit thing and did a fac check it this morning. it's segmts like these at are the exception to the re ther than the standard. you know, it mes y wonder if people don't ask thequestion anymore, should we rify this before we broadcast it on national television? >> carl, you know what, a i know a lot of those conservative blogs, and you point o drudge and the news network that is did that, but what startled me, i went on a couple african-american blogs, black blogs,wlo often aho often are v

supportive, and one ofhem said president obama looking a a 7-year-old thang. this went out of control. >> one of the things said on ee republic was comparing president obama to michael jackson calling him a dophile. that's the lenh to which this kind ofstuff will be twisted. i think one thin that w have to understd here is that to many of u we' seeing ts in one way. we're seeing a misconstruction of a photo. many people online, this has raalovertone this is like theantiquated racist stereotype of an oversexed ack man being a predator, and at's the way so. coervative circles are talking about it online. that's unfortunate the problem here i it's not even true. this didn't even happen. you know,f he hadn't have been watching a step and tumbled wn th steps, we'd probably be talking abt himfalling. >> karl, thanks so much for cong on. we appreciate it. and, tamron, i thinksome of these consertive tes, they

know exactly what they're doing, theynothey're throwinghe fuel on the fire and it's outrageous. >> which puts the onusn these sites that are supposed to be telling the tth or even the liberal ones o here, if that's the side of the coersation we're going is ght or left, they should call them out on t, t. i'm not advocating fihting, but battle it ou with the truth. speaking of something tat's still going on, several michael jackson's doctors a now der scrutiny as a los angeles police department looks into the pop star's death with reports out there that the king of pop was taking dozens of pills day. the lat unse l.a. county coronee issued aumber of sbpoe to doctors. wait an accidental overdose? was it homicide? anwhile, joe jackson, michael jackson's father, says he belies this is foul py and hin was a victim of foul play. >> i don't know anytng about the ugs. i didn't even kw the name of them, but i d know whatever

he taking, it would make him rest because h had been working so hard and that dras suosed to make him relax and sleep. >> and joining us now from buank is tkim serephim what are you arning about michael jackson's alleged drug diction and whatay have been prescribed to him over te years or eecially close to his death? >> as you mention, the coroner office has subpoend all of ese cal records. athey're trying to do is piece together whatas actually goinon. there have been reports, of course, that they did fin diprivan in his house other sources are sayinghey're finding all thesether pills at maybe aren't labeled. report they don't knowow miael got some of these prescription that's why they're issuing the subpoenas, trying toiece together who prescribed drugs to michl and what exactly was taking. that really what everyone is trying to gure out. so much of at is still coming in right now.

>> any incation- >> and also the toxicology reports. >> any indication when there might be word on t famy's second autopsy. the whe point of the family having a second autop was to get information bck fast. >> yeah, and think joe jackson addressed that in that inrview you shod. he saithey're still waiting on that as well. they don't have that information. but joe jacksos interview, spking of which that yo owed, that was pretty interesting becae he is now saying that h suspects that it was ul play, which i thought was very interesting, especially coming off of the remarks that bi brattonade yesterday saying was i homicide? was it accidental overdose? agn, this is all sculation, but it seems to be ratcheting things up. >> the police chief said they're not ruling out homicide. that's not spelation. that's investigative work this circumstance he, but some of th conversation ou chael jackson's drug us they're goingack to court documents and at one point when he was in cour for the molestation charges showed he had a preption drug bil over $100,000.

>> yeah. there's interesting ings coming outeven going back a loing he records backrom when the trial was going on showing that he was taking enormous amounts of pills. you know, even hisdermatologist was ying he d not thathe was taki diprivan whehe was doing a tour over in germany. a lot of things are comingut now about his drug use or the s, and i'm sure more of that will come out. again, as little things are leaking out and we'll see what th do find out of the toxicology results. >> this is sti moving and this sty is still develing. thanyou very much, kim. thank you. and today's "facoff" coming up next. the cia's secret proam and what it may or may not have to do with dickheney and all those reports about an executive assassination ring. a hot one is next. you're watching msnbc. i never ththought it could happen to me...

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and d abt t pitor.

welcome back. it's fal tor "face-off." thessues today, the cia is ing or misleading congrs? what exactlyre they tryingo de? >> "neweek" magane is reporting th cia directoreon panetta has ordered an internal investigatio into secret program he shut down as soon as he learned about it. the estence of the program sparked a firousarof words this week and todaymembers of the use intelligence subcommittee are calling for a investigation into accusations e agency systematically misled congress. here to ce off arejulian epstein, democratic sateg and former chf democratic council to the house judiciary

committee. alsoith us, ron christ our friend, repuican strategist anron is also a form special assistant to president bush, and rmer deputy assistant for mestic policy to vice priden chene ron, let's start with you. see more hirsch is alleging dick cheney wasrunning a secret program at essentially involved assassination teams. we don know obviously whether that's true orot or whether it's a wild thry. but i it is ue would you acknowledge that's flatly against the law? >> i think this whe situation from everything that we've heard over the course of the week -- >> ron, before u -- know where yore g. stes or no, if that was happening -- >> it is -- >> if they were running an assassinatn ring, you would ree that's against the law. >> i'm not eve going to answ that. to suggest the vice president of the united stes was running an assassinatioring is absurd its . it'sothe policy of the amican government to assassinate foreign leaders. the bush administriohas that.

consistently follod the law. it'sore allegations by people in the media suggestingick cheney d somethg. nt to say let the fac come out because this pitical assassination, political tch hunt of the cia and its employees has got stop. >> julian,s the see more hirsch story surd? >> i don think it's absurd. it's not so much a violation o criminal law. but itould have been a violation of execuve orders put in ple after e argentinean situation inhe 1970s. i think the thesis for the democrats in the 2008 election was the republicans had mismanagedhe economy and mismaned the war in iraq. is me one more exhibit in that gener narrative, but i think to pick on at ron said, demoats do have to be careful about this. on the one hand litically, we want to keep remindingpeople about how badly the republicans handled the gornment. democrats are no in chargof

the governmentnd they want to be seen as fixing the oblems, fixing health care, energy, the econ running an intill geellint war in afghanian. while this is lpful for t 08 narrative, i think the democrats have to be careful about overplayg their hand on this. >> a lot of people are bringin up that argument, that the don't want it to appear the democrats are infighting. a loof people has sid this is vindication fospeaker pelosi. you it this way or is that wa >> no, i don't. i thinkf you look very closely the facts here, th direct ofhe cia, leon panetta briefed congress on june 24th out of tt conversation there was a program that had bee created in the aftermat of 9/11 that the dirtor had disclosed to members of congress. what we find here is a single se, not a pattern, but a single case where some democrats were concerned where the political element comes in play

isylvestilvestre reyes slipped a note under the door i think this in no way vindicates spear pelosi saying the cia was full of liars. it's saratsues. >> i thi what speaker pelosi said was under the bush administration the cia was not exactly forthcoming and candid with the american people or congress about a hst of things whether it was weapons of mass destruction, a host of things. the knowledge she may have had at that time aboutorture was at best sketchy and this is a strawman because und the inal laws, s would not have been allowed t disclose that anyway. so even if she knew about torture, she couldn't have sd anything about i these are suesthe bet. i don't thk the american puic is too inrested in hearing abt how thebush administration mismanaged the war in iaq. everybody belied that. we had an election on that.

>> that may be the smart political strategy, but aren't the american people titled to find out if the cia was breaking the law -- >> solutely. noquestion. >> and i vice president cheney was involve the american people are entitled find that out. it's excellentquestion, d the way you do this is you don't do this in aartisan hearing. what we should d is something like the crch committee from the 1970s where we get bipartisan commissioor a bipartisan congressial committee togeer to look at this, not try tocore political pots but find ou what went wrong and to chage the laws. change the laws in ahole host of areas to make sure it doesn't happen again. we don't need to score politics. we need to start moving rward. >> i agre with that. this is one thing, they should have an interl investation, t the issue bend us. the democrats control the white house. let's wo on the ises impactg the americaneople ratherhan trying to dred up the bu years. >> the public has already made the decision ty didn'like

how thebush administration ran the war inraq ey di't like h intelligence was treated and how economy was managed. we've had a rdict on that. so i think ros points escially right because t public is so overwhelmingly in agreement with it. >> julian epstein and ron christ, with both of you in agreement, i tnk you have nominated yourselves to head up the special committee instigwhat happened at the cia. they're bo right. litically it's not a wise ing for democrats to jump on this and go crazy, but on the other hand there's so seris issues he. >> there aressues that this country is facing, hlth care. climate change, blah, blh, blah, but you have to know what went wrong a if pple broke the law. i don't get tis meality that, okay, well, the peoplespoke, let's move on and dust it under the rug because the dirt ill reinunder the g, and whe the g flaps up, guess wt you have? dirt. somebody has tclean it up. >> the cia acts on our behalf not on aybody el's. >> up next some things we

thought you should know about the presidt's visit to see the pope. including we're alwaysalking about the rst lady and her shns. what sheore on her head had a lot of people asking questions. also, our next read on politics. monday battleroyale and the confirmation hearing for judge soni sotomayor and then lawrence o'doell fills in for chris matthews on "hardball." you're watching nbc. after 50 i switched to o a cote multivitamin wititmore. only one d dayen's 50+ advante... has gingko f femory and coconcentrion. plus support for h heart heae. that's a great call. one a day men's.

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there is lot going on toy, and here are thre things we thought you sh knowbo the president's visit to the

vatican. >> david, the presint metith pope benedict xvi f his first audienceh the video. firs lady michelle obama wa also there and she was weang a mantla vaeil. women often wear that in the esence of the pope. it'sn old spanish custom. is is not theirste we've seen it. laura bush wore a similar one duringer visit to the vatican. and the former first lady jacqueline kne wore a much longer veil durin her visit with po john xxi back in 1962. i ke the sign of respect. it looks a little awkward fo those of us not used it. but i like it. >> the comings and goings of chelle obama very much of interest to people. she was notalone in wearing at mantilla. >> during the eting president oba and the leader of the catholic church exchanged gifts. e president gave the pope is

stoll,type of religious garment. the president also hand deliverea persal letter from senator ted kennedy to the pope. the president askethe pope to pray for kennedy who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer a year ago. th opose gave president a mosaic and a rosa and medal. >> beats out a ipod, whic they gave the queen. >> for the next one we have to ay a littlga. the first rson to twitte this to us d catch it, we' going to send them a mug. how is that? >> w don't have mugs. >>e it is. so what did t two leade say to one another during today's meeting and watch t mistake on this graic. watch. >> okay. >> that's right. if you notice the wd picture

was misspelled, y are the winner o an msnbc ug. >> someone i bringing me the mug to show because i spoke too soon. parently we have an extra one. >> i sor ofonder if the president cae of the photo that was running all oer the drudge report, if maybe that's why photraphs d pictures were on his mind. who knows. in any case, those are just few thgs tamron and i thought you should all know. >> still waiting onhat mug, but in the meantime, the president is wrapping up his overseasrip, but he has a full plate of hot domestic issues iting for him. >> let's get to our nextread on politics with th stories we will be wching heading io tomorrow. ma murray is nbc news deput political director who never misspells anything. mark, what do yohave for us? do sometimes. ually tryto run it through spell-checfirst. happy friday, david and tamron. obviously,resident obama rrow spends his final day his overseas trip in thefrican nation of ghana. in fact, he's gng to be riving there just mentarily.

, on suay "meet th press" will have arizona sator hn mccain and so new york senator chuck schumer and th finallytarting monday will be the sonia sotomayor confirmation hearings for supreme court and that will go on throughout the entire week. that is the vry big story for nextweek, and one we'll be talkinabout going into the weekend. >> and real quick, mark, i know we'vgot a big wek ahead. i wan to look athis trip to ghana. a lot of people talking about the aicipation of the president being there and the reception th he's getting. >>o doubt about it. it's going to be au rock star welme, and one th he was used to actually getting on his trips to latin america and europe. obvisly, he got kind of chly reception in russia, but is will be the rock star welcome th he'll get, and obously the reason why is that barack oma is of heritage from kenya and afca is very excit about havi him. but earlier toda weeard a very kind of tough love msage from the prident talking about

african nations, that their governments need to get their actstogether. e of the rasons he's stopping by ghana is cause it's one o the democracies infrica that seems to bfunctioning better than others and he wantso highlight that. >> we're highlighting the pictures of the re carp that's rold out waiting fo president obama land. >> as we lo at this, ishere any sort of spillover right now from the president? when people see these pictures of all the adong crowds, does that help him now politically on alth care or the economy or are we beyond that and we're in this tough polical fit? and i'veen you all of teb seconds to answer that. i think we're beyond that because oviously health care, energy, the stimulus, those are actually being decidedby capital hill a by congress. however, you kno it could add a point o two perhaps to his approval ratings. but obviously thereal big domestic fights are going to be on capitol hill. at said, one of the things