wrote memos trying to legally justify torture? you won't believe what somebody did while he was teaching a law class. all that and more this hour on msnbc. good afternoon, everyone. i'm tamron hall. >> i'm david shuster. we'll begin this hour with a market alert. the dow just topped the 9000 mark for the first time since january with strong corporate prafts a profits and rebounding home sales leading the way. the nasdaq at 1973. a great rally today. the dow is above 9000 for the first time since january. now, the big picture, president obama is changing his time line for health care reform. just a short time ago at a town hall meeting in ohio, the president said it's okay if he doesn't get a bill on his desk by next month. >> i just want people to keep on

working. just keep working. i want the bill to get out of the committees and then i want that bill to go to the floor, and then i want that bill to be reconciled between the house and senate, and then i want -- >> earlier today senate majority leader harry reid said the august deadline would definitely not happen. he wants to give the senate finance committee more time. house speaker nancy pelosi is sticking with her comments that there are enough votes in the house to pass health care legislation and that the house will meet the president's deadline. nbc's mike viqueira is traveling with the president and joining us live from shaker heights, ohio. what was the overriding theme from the president's town hall today? >> reporter: it's interesting because, of course, the president had that big prime time press conference last night and then took it on the road today to press his case directly to the american people. here in cleveland, ohio, he stopped at the world famous cleveland clinic touting the cleveland clinic and mayo clinic

because the cleveland clinic does not have a fee for service setup. this is one of the arguments in favor of health care reform. fee for service encourages doctors to do unnecessary procedures driving up the cost of health care because all of these things may be covered. he then went the five or six miles across the city limits to sha shaker heights, ohio. we're in the home of the wrestling raiders at shaker heights high school where he talked about largely the same things he did last night. the whole thing lasted an hour in a hot and sweaty gymnasium. the most notable thing, the sound bite you played at the beginning, that he is now saying, admitting that the senate is not going to be able to take up that bil as harry reid had stated. they brought all their forces to

bear. the president had town hall meetings. he had events day after day after day. he had a prime time press conference. now, first thing we learn the morning after that press conference is it's simply not going to happen in the senate. it's a setback no matter how you slice it. >> mike viqueira just outside cleveland. thanks for the report. now, in the big picture, a fact check on health care reform. president obama is trying to make his case to the american people on why health care is needed, but are all the claims we're hearing from the obama administration true? here is what president obama is saying about the republicans and playing politics. >> you haven't seen me out there blaming the republicans. i have been a little frustrated by some of the misinformation that's been coming out of the republicans. >> but that's not entirely accurate. here is what the president did say about the republicans earlier in the news conference. >> i've heard that one republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it's better politics to go for the kill.

another republican senator that defeating health care reform is about breaking me. >> alec burns is a reporter with politico. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> we heard john boehner say that the president would have a speech or remarks filled with myths here. so we wanted to take a look at what we heard and match up some of the accuracies. the president claims the health care bill will be deficit neutral. that's one of the things congressman boehner honed in on before the press conference. let's play what the president had to say. >> i've also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and i mean it. in addition to making sure that this plan doesn't add to the deficit in the short term, the bill i sign must also slow the growth of health care costs in the long run. >> so is that a myth as congressman boehner said easterlier in the day? >> this is one of the issues where it's a little hard to tell exactly where the president might be fudging the facts a

little bit. when you project out the deficit over a ten-year period, you get into a lot of different economic estimates that are hard to pin down exactly. we know this administration is planning to increase spending on health care in some areas that aren't included in this health care reform. we know, for example, they're planning to increase disbursements to doctors in the medicare program in some areas that won't necessarily be paid for as part of health care reform. so whether all told ten years from now a health care reform bill is able to keep the deficit down, we'll have to wait and see. right now the president is probably selling that a little harder than he can. >> there's also a sales job on the other side. here is house minority leader john boehner talking about the point the republicans like to make, that a number of americans who have private health insurance would be forced out if there's a public option. here is what boehner said yesterday. watch. >> the congressional budget office estimates 23 million americans will be forced out of their private health insurance into a government-run plan, and

lieu w lewin and associates estimates that number could be as high as 114 million people. >> what he didn't mention, of course, is that lewin group is owned by united health care group, a major health insurance company that is opposed to the public option, which then makes you wonder about the statistics that boehner is quoting. >> that's exactly right. i think you're hearing both sides point to authorities they trust and maybe are a little partial. the president reports to the estimates coming out of his own budget director office and clearly peter orszag is invested in passing health care reform. that's not as egregious as john boehner was doing pointing to a very, very partial source. >> obviously we could go moment by moment, but those are who of the big headlines. >> the stakes are so huge and it's easy to fudge things and mislead because it takes more work to catch them than it does

to put it out there. a major fbi sweep in new jersey has landed more than a dozen public officials under arrest. the bust is part of a decade-long federal probe that uncovered human organ sales and money laundering. among those arrested the mayors of hoboken and secaucus, new jersey as well as the deputy mayor of jersey city. several rabbis in new york and new jersey are also under arrest. >> the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale. the complaints show that for these defendants, corruption was a way of life. they existed in an ethics-free zone. >> joining us is the new jersey bureau chief. he's the co-author "of the soprano state: new jersey's culture of corruption." is this typical or worse than usual? >> i think it's worse than usual. it was said to be one of the bigger sweeps they had.

usually they will nab one or two people and they had to bring them in this buses this time. >> bob, when we think of soprano-style, you have this image of the mob, not rabbis. several rabbis were involved in this. what role are they allegedly playing here? what do they have to do with the mob? >> well, as i understand it, the rabbi involvement had to do with alleged international money laundering, but when we wrote the book, we called it "the soprano state" because it's the way the government treats the people. they treat the taxpayers as if they were the mob dealing with people who couldn't defend themselves. they leave them somewhere in an ali ley to take care of themselves. no matter how many people that get arrested and busted and sent away, and by the way tomorrow there is going to be a long-time state senator who is going to be sentenced down in jersey, it doesn't do any good. there's something in the air,

something in the water -- >> something in the air in jersey. >> these people get by with it. they'd rather play the odds they can get a lot of money. maybe they will have to go away for a year or two. >> who is the sate senator? 1e second question, what does it say now they're branching out into organ donor -- >> the state senator a wayne bryant from camden. he has been involved in politics all of his life. what does it say? well, i think it says if you have a criminal enterprise and you want to play the odds that you won't get caught and if you have a high enough profile and you get caught, you can probably get by lightly. if you look at some of the other people who have been snagged over the years, that's what happened. >> governor corzine has a statement on this. he says any corruption is unacceptable anytime, any where, by anybody. the scale of corruption is outrageous and cannot be tolerated. you chuckle when i say the

governor had a statement, why? >> i wrote my log before i came up here to be with you, i said he was going to say something about it later, and i said i hope it's not as lame as that. come on. if they want to do something about corruption, then what they need to do is they need to have an attorney general who will go after corruption. over the years and in our book we have a whole chapter on corruption and judges and law enforcement and the attorney general, how they do nothing. they go for the little guys. they don't go for the big guys. you have to get the fbi to come in and do that. if you governor wants to have less corruption, than maybe he ought to tell the attorney general to get off the chair and do something. >> is there lots of money criminals can make in the organ donor business? >> i was discussing with another long-time newsman early this morning when i heard the part about the organ donors. he said what? because we're used to stealing.

we're used to paying money, the pay for play thing that -- that's the way they do business in jersey. it's legal. but the organ donor thing was new even for us. >> wow. >> bob engel, thanks so much, we appreciate you coming on. and, tamron, it is fascinating. the idea there are somehow organs being harvested in israel and being shipped over a black market and there are people on the receiving end and if the mob is involved, it's crazy. >> especially, i mean i hate to relate things to television and movies, you think they're stealing cigarettes from the airport in "godfather." now they're shipping in kidneys. but it's true. still ahead though, a new twist. officials now looking at the security breaches with michael jackson's death certificate. also, the controversy surrounding president obama's comments about that racially charged arrest of a harvard

professor. at 5:00 p.m. eastern we expect a live news conference from cambridge police to respond. chris matthews will have live coverage on "hardball" at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. welcome to the now network. currently, thousands of people are enjoying the new palm pre with its revolutionary web os. they're running multiple live applications at the same time. - ( thunder and rain ) - 3 million are using the simply everything plan. each is saving $1200 - over an at&t iphone plan. - ( cash register dings ) together that's over $3 billion. - enough to open a dunkin' donuts in space. - ( walk-talkie sounds ) from america's most dependable 3g network.

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now that's progressive.sprint. only on the now network. call or click today. and now to the investigation into michael jackson's death. police are now taking a closer look at the star's nutritionist. officials have subpoenaed che l cherylin lee. lee is a registered nurse who treated michael jackson between january and april. you might remember she was one of the first people to come out and mention this powerful sedative diprivan she said

michael jackson had requested that she give it to him. she said she did not. she's already provided the coroner's office with medical information in the case. >> basically, they were just coming up to pick up the hard copy. i could have faxed them over and none of this would have happened today. >> and meanwhile an official from the l.a. county coroner's office says at least six employees improperly looked at michael jackson's death certificate. the employees had no role in the investigating of the cause of death. nbc's jeff rossen joined us live from burbank. jeff, it's so interesting they would look at the certificate. it ended up all over the news coverage. they could have waited and not gotten themselves in trouble. >> the high interest case, of course, and you have staffers inside the l.a. county coroner's office who were looking at this death certificate. people who normally wouldn't look at death certificates. so the coroner is launching an internal investigation to figure out who did that. you mention the nutritionist.

she is according to the coroner's office cooperating with them. there's no reason to believe she isn't. she handed over the medical records, but it really does show you have an expanding investigation here. we looked at those pictures yesterday of the dea, the federal drug agents along with l.a. police and houston police at dr. conrad murray's office. the video on your screen from houston. they spent about two hours in there. according to dr. murray's lawyer, they took out 21 documents, including an forensic amount of a business computer hard drive. they're looking for evidence, according to dr. murray's own lawyer, to build a case of manslaughter. and so what we have to look to now moving forward into next week is the toxicology report. it's critical really to the criminal case if there is going to be one because there are boxes on there, accidental, suicide, homicide. to get criminal charges, you really have to have that homicide box checked, and so that's sort of what they're

going through now. you have the coroner's own investigation going on to figure out the manner of death. then you have the possible criminal investigation going on and prosecutors and the police trying to get their ducks in a row if and when the toxicology report comes back positive. >> i'm not sure if you can comment on it, but a couple of these entertainment magazines are reporting that rebbie jackson, his oldest sister, may be caring for the children after all? >> we've reported over the past week or so that according to sources from jackson insiders that, look, one of the things they're looking at, they're looking at two siblings, janet and rebbie, to possibly help katherine take care of the children. it's already happening right now. katherine has temporary guardianship. we've seen rebbie out with the children in public. she took them to a jehovah's witness church, stable mom, good mom. she's sort of out of the public eye, but the kids have been growing close to janet we understand as well. she's been spending a lot of time with them. so that is something that we can't confirm at this point but it's not out of the realm of

possibility. >> i was just reading another comment from jermaine jackson, the family still fighting over where to bury michael jackson. >> i mean, it's sad. >> yes. >> the whole thing is sad, and in the midst of this, where is he going to be buried and who knows where he's buried now and the different claims. hanging over all this, the toxicology report. still ahead, john yoo gets punked kind of. a protester crashes into the courtroom of the man who wrote the infamous bush torture memo. >> if you like that video, later you will love the video nike apparently didn't want anybody to see. lebron james gets schooled on a basketball court by a college kid. i never thought it could happen to me... a heart attack at 53.

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there are a lot of things that could be considered news in this world. >> but there are only a few story that is make us say -- >> no way! >> no way! >> soon we'll be having celebrities saying "no way." a minneapolis woman got the shock of her life after checking her bill using her debit card to buy milk and eggs. the total for purchase more than 23 quadrillion. >> how about that? >> that's some good milk. should never go spoiled at that price. that's about 2,000 times more than the national debt. the outrageous bill was corrected by her bank which says

it caused a temporary program error. it's amazing it went through. how did that even -- >> something is up with our banking system. here is the video that lebron james and nike did not want to you see. the video was taken during a pickup game last month. it shows a college student, a college student dunking on the professional basketball star. according to witnesses at the game, lebron ordered the tape to be confiscated, but the tape is now on youtube. now that it's out in the open, looks like the cleveland cavalier may have some work to do, some competition and now we know his skills about hiding tapes are also questionable. >> he should have bought it from him. he make a quadrillion dollars. here is the other favorite story around here a town manager in ft. myers beach, fl, orida, after the mayor learned his wife has an interesting job. his wife is a porn star.

that's the happy couple there. the council fired him saying it needed to save the town's credibility, but residents are coming to his defense saying they could care less what his wife does for a living. so they fired this guy because his wife is a porn actress. >> i have a feeling there were a lot of people in that town who knew that but if they're like any other town where they just didn't want to come out and admit it and how they knew that they didn't want to tell anybody. >> that's an excuse to google her at work. >> don't fire the guy. up next, the latest tweets from sarah palin. and new signs of trouble for a republican senator who admitted an extramarital refair. you might be saying which republican? plus, the north korean government's bizarre attack upon secretary of state hillary clinton. to stay on top of my game after 50, i switched to a complete multivitamin with more.

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i'm rebecca jarvis with your cnbc market wrap. stocks rally on wall street today. the dow added 188 points to close at its highest level since november 2008. the s&p 500 picked up 22 points and the nasdaq gained 47 points. oil prices rose nearly $2 to close just above $67 a barrel. the gain pushed by that rally on wall street which itself was driven by strong corporate earnings and positive u.s. housing numbers. ford motor posted a surprise profit of $2.3 billion in the second quarter. huge gains mainly due to debt reduction. the company swapped stock and cash to reduce loan and bond debt. another newspaper hit by the recession is shutting down its presses. "the ann arbor news" is printing its last edition after serving the community for 174 years. the paper is being replaced by

ann arbor.com. that's it for cnbc, we're first in business worldwide. now back to msnbc. welcome back, everyone. i'm tamron hall. >> i'm david shuster. >> in just about a half hour we expect a live news conference from cambridge police responding to that traefer -- controversial arrest of a professor. president obama said the police reacted stupidly. we just got that information in. the ap is reporting that crowly is an expert on racial profiling. he taught a class on the subject for five years at a local police academy and we're going to hear from cambridge police a little later. chris matthews will be carrying it live on "hardball" at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >> in the big picture, there may be more trouble for republican nevada senator john ensign. ensign was a potential 2012 presidential candidate until he admitted an extramarital affair. las vegas sun reports ensign's

chief of staff has decided to leave his office. john lopez is a long-time aide to the republican senator. ensign's spokesman wouldn't confirm that lopez is leaving only saying when we have information to announce regarding personnel we will announce it. lopez has not issued any comment. the report comes after ensign's admission last month that he had an eight-month affair with his campaign treasurer, cindy hampton. >> now to the bigger picture and the increasing pressure on senator ensign. republican sources tell "the las vegas sun" the loss of the chief of staff is bad news for ensign as he tries to save his political career. could this be the beginning of his fall. john ralston joins us live from vegas. john is a columnist for "the las vegas sun" who broke the news about ensign's aide leaving. thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> i understand there's been p

some op s-ed pieces written boo ensign and his involvement in c street. what kind of jeopardy is he in there? >> well, i think he's in a lot of jeopardjeopardy. the question is how much of it is immediate and how much of it is long term. there's still speculation about whether or not he's going to resign. he says he's going to run for re-election, which i think is the only thing anyone in his position is say. i think the whole c street issue has become very interesting to watch because you have these other congressmen who have lived there who are very upset about the attention that is being brought to c street. an author is talking about ensign and talking about an allegation made by doug hampton, who is the husband of the woman who ensign is said to have an affair with. said there was a confirmation

and tom coburn was involved and there was talk of payoff. they don't like the attention john ensign has brought to them. >> i read a quote saying that people are concerned that ensign may have been putting the priorities of c street ahead of the people in nevada. >> jeff charlotte, who wrote that book about the family, said they essentially believe they have a higher calling, thatter in not working for their constituents, they're working for the family and god. he was not accountable to the people of nevada, but he was accountable to those folks inside that house who confronted him at one time. what exactly happened in that, we only have one version of events of what happened, but doug hampton says there was a confrontation. john ensign wrote a letter to his then lover in front of people at that house, said that he was trying to rebuild his relationship with god and soon after this even by john ensign's own account, he was again pursuing this woman. so again, there are charges of

hypocrisy. there are questions about who is he really representing, the people in that house or the people of nevada. >> in addition to the controversy over this bible study group, which met in this c street house on capitol hill supposedly to study the bible and now we know at least three different people who did that were also engaged in extramarital affairs, which makes you wonder what sort of lessons they were really learning from the bible, but never mind all of that, there's the allegation that now ensign's parents paid, what, $96,000 to the family of this woman he was having an affair with. what's the latest on that money, whether there's an investigation or how is that sitting with people in nevada? >> well, i think that that was a real shocker to people, that mike and sharon ensign, his parents, mike ensign is a former casino executive, has a lot of money, paid to the family of doug and cindy hampton, $96,000. that disclosure was only made by john ensign's attorney after doug hampton said he got paid a

severance, that his wife got paid a severance, excuse me, of well over $25,000. that triggers potential criminal penalties for nondisclosure. a complaint was immediately filed. it was within hours of that that john ensign's attorney put out this statement saying they had given these gifts, these were gifts, it wasn't severance. that's the key legal question now that's going to confront people in the senate ethics committee and maybe beyond. the hamptons, they have certainly consulted a lawyer. will they file something? we don't know, but i guess my point on that would be is why should we believe anything that john ensign says about this until he produces evidence that that's what the payments were, that they came from his parents, not from him, and that they were gifts and not severance. he's refusing to provide any evidence to back up that claim. >> all right, john. thank you very much. a lot of detail you provided. we certainly appreciate talking with you. thank you. >> absolutely. >> so you wonder if this is a fall, and then you look at someone like david vitter who

survived a scandal where madams and prostitution and all kinds of tawdry things are brought up. people have survived, but it's the criminal -- possible criminal investigation or whatever, the ethics investigation about the money that's the key. >> absolutely. and when you think about his re-election that he's got to decide on fairly soon, it's so difficult to imagine how does he get re-elected given the hypocrisy of the bible study and extramarital affair and then the money and possible investigation. that's a lot to deal with. today, the palin chronicles. the trustee or sarah palin's legal defense fund says the alaska governor was never involved in the controversial trust. a report out yesterday said an independent investigator found palin may have violated ethics laws by using the alaska fund trust as her official legal defense fund. but trustee christian cole says the investigator is the only lawyer who has ever questioned the legality of the fund. cole says she never discussed the trust with palin until tuesday. the governor weighed in on this

legal mess writing, try to follow this, palin twitterees, legal fees fund trustees press conference yesterday, set record straight with facts, truth, recent complaint, read transcript in case in case press chooses not to. what does that mean? >> it means that you cannot respond to serious allegations by twittering. you get 140 characters, and it does not provide for a fair response. she may have been presenting, meaning the governor, may have been presenting a valid argument, but you can't do it in twitter form. >> if you have unusual syntax as she does, the twittering i think tends to make it worse but i don't know. you're watching msnbc. >> the place for twittering advice.

welcome back. funeral services for legendary newsman walter cronkite took place today. andy rooney was overcome with emotion while speak being his friend during today's memorial in manhattan. >> i just feel so terrible about walter's death that i can hardly say anything. he's been such a good friend

over the years. please excuse me. thank you. >> cronkite passed away friday at the age of 92. he will be buried next to his wife in kansas city, missouri. it is time for "face-off." today the emotional reaction to the president obama jumping into a racially charged police investigation. >> the president was asked about the arrest of henry louis gates in cambridge, massachusetts, last week and here is what the president said. >> i think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. number two, that the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. >> and today the officer involved, secretary james crowly went public with his thoughts on the president's mark during a radio show interview in boston.

>> i think it's disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue and something that is really -- that plays out here. as he himself said at the beginning of the press conference, he didn't know all the facts. he certainly doesn't based on those comments. >> today the president responded again to a lot of talk out there acknowledging the tough job the police have, but in an interview with abc news, the president added, quote, i am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement because i think it was pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man, who uses a cane who is in his own home. the cambridge police have scheduled a news conference coming up at 5:00 p.m. to talk about the matter. we'll have it, chris matthews will be here with "hardball." here to face-off about this, peter and ron. ron, you've got people chiming in on both sides of this issue. what do you make of the president's comments last night

and the follow-up today? >> well, tamron, i think they're unfortunate. i do think based on the facts and what we've heard that it was pretty stupid what the cambridge police did. i don't think anybody would dispute that. what my problem is is the president the united states should not wade into a particular issue like this. he should be well above the fray -- >> how is potential racial profiling the fray. it affects so many people. it's a domestic issue. it is something that happens, i'm sure, to people you know, certainly people that i know and that david would know. it's a concern. it goes beyond the fray. >> well, tamron, it goes beyond the fray but moi point is the president of the united states is a lawyer. he mentioned last night that skip gates is a friend of his and for the president to wade in on an issue where it involves one of his friends on a very racially sensitive issue i think is inappropriate. >> how should he have answered it. >> the president should stay out of this. >> peter? >> how should he have answered

the question? >> i think he should have answered the question and said this is on ongoing investigation. clearly there's a strong undertone of racial insensitivity -- >> ongoing investigation. the cambridge police dropped the charges against professor gates. professor gates they said acted in an tumultuous fashion. i would be livid. i think you would be, too. so would david and tamron. i thought his tone was very measured. i thought he was -- >> but should he have said the line about they acted stupidly. is it possible the president could have said, listen, you know, the facts are still coming in or whatever, but the language of saying that they acted stupidly, i think that's what a lot of people, like ron, are concerned about. >> well, tamron, i would look at it a little differently. acting stupidly is a lot different than ascribing malice or another motive that's more insidious than that. i think what he's saying is they acted stupidly, they made a

mistake and error in judgment. i'm curious to say what the cambridge police says today at 5:00. i think they have had a bit of a tin ear on this. they dropped the charges, which is mighty big of them, but i haven't seen them say anything more than that and issue an apology. i would get right behind that if i were them and do it quickly. >> is there an element of race in the reaction, the political reaction we've seen? normally if you say to conservatives here is a set of circumstances, a police officer goes into somebody's home who did not commit a crime, asks them for that i.d. and that person gets pulled out and arrest, conservatives would more outrages than anybody. when you look at the conservative blogs and twittering, people say obama was wrong. it's the president who was wrong to make an issue out of this. aren't conservatives playing politics with race here? >> i'm not going to ascribe any motivation to all conservatives. i actually had the opportunity to meet with professor gates last night. he's a prince of a man. he described the incident that had taken place. the only i think i can say is

based on the facts and what we've heard, it appears race was an element here. there are so many disturbing aspects to this particular case. i think the police action from what i understand was unwarranted. my entire point is the president of the united states should not delve into this level of detail -- i can pontificate about it, but the president doesn't. >> he didn't go into a lot of details. conservatives are more upset about having their guns taken away than -- >> i hate you cut you off, but that has nothing to do with guns being taken away. i happen to be african-american. i happen to be in a position to offer a different profile on racial profiling than you can with my life experience. >> if this were a prominent white man and the president had been asked about it and the president took a pass, conservative groups would be hammering the president for not saying this is outrageous? >> i think the president of the

united states whether the individual in this particular case that's involved is white or black should stay out of that. the president should not be delving into this issue. if he wants to have a broader discussion about race, i think that's important in this country, but to get into particular facts of a case i think highwaysthat's a far, far >> you're drilling down too deep on this. he answered a question and he gave his thoughts. this isn't -- he didn't start ascribing a lot of motives to the police. he tried to answer -- >> acting stupidly. i think that's pretty much the motivation of the police. >> he did not ascribe any malice, did not say they had any agenda. he think he gave them a light pass to be honest. >> we have to go on this one. obviously, we'll see what happens in this news conference when we hear from the cambridge police, but the interesting thing in all of this is the headline story is the president responding and not what it was supposed to be. it was supposed to be talking about health care. he was supposed to have tough talk, more specifics about health care, and instead the headline is the response to this

arrest. >> maybe, you know, this is a political win for the president because the people who want to disagree, president's supporters can say those people have a double standard and the president is speaking his mind and not backing down. >> both made great points on that one. thank you both, gentlemen. north korea is blasting secretary of state hillary clinton for comparing officials there to unruly teenagers. the north korean state-run news agency hit back saying, quote, sometimes she looks like a primary school girl. they also called the secretary of state, quote, funny lady and said she was by no means intelligent. that's a quote. during a stop in thailand today, reporters were eager to know what plans secretary clinton has for the future. >> will we ever get to see you as president of the united states? >> wow, that's not anything i'm at all thinking about. i think the job i have now is incredibly demanding, and i'm not somebody who looks ahead. i don't know, but i doubt very

much that anything like that will ever be part of my life. >> so it's wait and see. >> no, no, no. >> never say never. >> well, i am saying no. >> for now. >> because i have a very committed attitude toward the job i am doing now. >> now. >> so that's not anything that is at all on my radar screen. >> that was a great -- the reporter. secretary of state hillary clinton will join david gregory this sunday on "meet the press." check your local listing for details. up next, some things we thought you should know. >> the author of the torture memo gets punked. an arnold schwarzenegger explains a huge knife in his twitter video. you're watching msnbc. i never thought i would have a heart attack,

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there's a lot going on today. here are a couple things we thought you should know. >> we begin with a prank on john yoo. remember him? he's the former department of justice official who played a key role in the bush administration's justification of for tour. watch what happens when a man dressed as an abu ghraib prisoner disrupts one of yoo's lectures. >> any questions about how this works? >> actually professor, i've got one question. >> how long can i be required to stand here till it count at torture. >> unfortunately, i'm going to have to end class. >> get out of here. >> please. >> sorry about this people. >> after a few minutes the prankster was physically escorted out of the classroom by a school official. he made his point. >> yeah, he did.

california governor arnold schwarzenegger is defending his kni knife-wielding tweet. when asked by a reporter whether it was appropriate, the governor said some say you have to have a sense of humor. here is his comment. >> that's me, you know. you send a governor to sacramento, not el stiffo, like some of the past were, but somebody who is a little more entertaining and has a little more fun with the whole thing, not that i have fun with making the cuts, they sadden me, but fun with the job itself because i think it is the most rewarding job that i have ever done even though it's a huge responsibility. >> good explanation? >> you know, anytime you see anybody holding a large knife, i don't know. just kind of freaky. >> it is. big muscles and the knife. it's scary. those are the things we thought you should know. >> you do this one. >> thank you. it's been a relatively tough

week for president obama. his poll numbers while still more than solid have certainly declined. >> the senate will not meet his deadline to get a health care bill before august. mark murray has our next read on politics. what will we be wochiatching go into tomorrow? >> obviously things haven't been going exactly the way the white house wants them to go. this has been a white house that's always looked at the long term instead of the daily 24/7 news cycle. another thing we're watching according to our very own luke russert, who is up on capitol hill, rahm emanuel, president obama's chief of staff, is lobbying those conservative blue dog house kmentdemocrats. what comes out of that meeting will be very important. the white house is hoping there will be a victory on the white house side. an then president obama will be giving a speech tomorrow to the education department.

>> mark, we were talking just now with our panelists in face-off about how you've got this big news conference about health care and the headline really has been the president's response to this question about the gates arrest. >> that's it exactly. he held that press conference last night to hammer home his message about health care. to have almost free, uninterrupted network time to do so and we're all talking about the skip gates controversy and president obama's comments about that. you know, it wasn't mission accomplished. that said, i'm sure there were a lot of people listening, particularly members on capitol hill who did get that health care message. >> mark murray, nbc news deputy political director. check out first read first thing every morning. it's updated throughout the day. check back often. >> that will do it for us today. another great two hours. >> this is going to be a fascinating news conference coming up. >> we'll be talking about it. all over it. "hardball" with chris matthews, that live news conference. >> you're not going to say your

name before the end of the show? >> tamron hall. >> i'm david shuster. "hardball" starts right now. police story. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, taking sides. president obama asks for last night's news conference to talk about health care. but the biggest news may end up being what he said about the arrest of an african-american scholar, henry louis gates. he said the cambridge, massachusetts, police acted, quote, stupidly in arresting gates. the case and the president's answer touched a very sensitive issue in american politics and history. it's called racial profiling. police treating minorities as suspects because they're minorities. we'll be joined by among others lynn sweet of the chicago sun times who raised that provac ka tiff question at last night's news conference. also cheney versus bush. this week's "time" magazine just

out today has a fascinating cover story on how vice president cheney tried and failed to get president obama to pardon cheney's former chief of staff, scooter libby. the story says cheney, who some thought might be engaging in a cover-up, came close to crossing the line with mr. bush. we'll dig into the details in a moment. plus, more on those republicans, the so-called birthers who insist in the face of all the evidence that barack obama isn't an american. one 69 most prominent of them g. gordon liddy of watergate and radio talk show fame will join us later to explain what's behind it and why he's a part of it. jon stuart had the best take on why this movement is insanity and we'll have it in the "sideshow." back to last night, why did the president call a prime time news conference about health care if he had nothing new to say on the matter? we'll ask chuck todd whether last night was a lost opportunity for the president. we start with what president obama said last