and low cost investments at e-trade. good afternoon. it's thursday, march 29th, and here's what's happening. ♪ >> there were no visible injuries. >> the video is very grainy. >> i just heard a loud gunshot sound and then the screaming stopped. >> trayvon fell back and said you got me. that's what the police initially told me. that was bull. >> the lead investigator told me this was absolutely not self-defense and they needed to prove it.

it's been more than a month since the 17-year-old unarmed black teenager called trayvon martin was shot dead in sanford, florida. the shooter, george zimmerman, has claimed that he killed the teenager in self-defense. but an extended and newly released surveillance video is now raising serious questions about the veracity of zimmerman's story. here are new angles, never seen before, showing george zimmerman handcuffed, being brought into the sanford police station four hours after what he claims was a life and death struggle that ended in trayvon martin's death. yet the tape seems to show no signs of the injuries that zimmerman's father and lawyer claim that he sustained. alleging that trayvon martin attacked him, his nose and slamming the back of his head against the sidewalk. attorneys for both sides are weighing in on the release of that video.

>> there absolutely was some misleading the public when they said his nose was broken, there was blood on the back of his head. there is no blood on his clothes. >> the video is very grainy and i'm not sure as far as being able to see the injuries that were recently sustain and later clean up. clearly if the report shows that he was clean up before he was taken in the squad car. >> we are also hearing for the first time from the family of george zimmerman. zimmerman's father, his silence in a local fox interview, saying trayvon threatened his son. >> in doing so, his firearm was shown. trayvon martin said something to the effect of, you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight. >> joining us now from sanford, florida, msnbc contributor joy-ann reid who is also the

manager, doing an outstanding job. joy-ann, i know you've been looking at the new angles on the surveillance tapes as i have. does it seem to you that we're looking at a man who had his nose broken in a fight to the death just hours before? >> reporter: well, see, there in lies the problem, martin. i think in this case, george zimmerman is the victim of the escalating stories that he's been telling. his surrogates have been describing this increasingly dramatic environment horrific struggle between george zimmerman and a teenager who was something like 30 pounds lighter than him. smaller than him. you see him in the tape. he looks bulky. he doesn't look chunky. he looks like he's in pretty good shape. what he's claiming isn't backed up by now what we're seeing as the visual evidence of his appearance after this supposed life and death struggle. remember, he said he was being pummelled, punched over and over again by trey martin. that martin pinned both his arms down but he somehow got them free to get his gun.

that he was having his head slammed repeatedly into the concrete. that his nose was broken with one punch. joe oliver, his friend said. you don't see any evidence of that on the videotape and obviously, his friends and father didn't see that tape before they made the stories public. >> indeed. i've broken my nose myself playing sport and i can tell you, i didn't look like mr. zimmerman does in that video. he looks in extremely good shape. he doesn't look disheveled. his clothing, i'm sorry, his clothing is tucked in. i'm struggling to see on this particular extended video, images of a man who has been in a really serious fight for his life with a young teenager. i mean, i'm struggling to see it. >> reporter: also, where's the blood? another strange thing about george zimmerman's appearance is that as up, he looks neat. doesn't look disheveled. he doesn't look per turned. he doesn't look like someone who was in a hair raising

experience, someone having the life beat out of him with all these dramatic lines, you're going to die tonight. we're getting these new narrative and scripts that are coming out. you don't see blood all over him. either from a broken nose which as you know, blood would pour out of your nose. or from the gunshots. where's the blood? i think that the videotape is the biggest problem. it's not grainy. we can see what he looks like in the tape. >> joe-ann reid, thank you. so i would encourage all of you to go to the website which has the details. that's at the grio.com. i want to bring in a columnist writing extensively and expertly on the subject of trayvon martin. eugene robinson who joins us now from washington. gene, even as we watch the police report being questioned by the video evidence and the statements from the mortician who handled the corpse of this young man, aren't we also seeing

the public collapse of the stand your ground law which you've describe, and i'm quoting you, is nothing but a license to kill? >> i hope we're seeing the collapse of that law in florida and in other states that have similar laws that are similarly vague and badly written, and awful in their effect. as the florida law. who benefits from the stand your ground law in this situation as we understand it anyhow? why wouldn't trayvon martin have benefited from the stand your ground law, having been stalked and could be fronted by a strange man with a gun at dusk in a neighborhood where he had every perfect right to be. if there is one outcome, i think, of this case should be a reexamination of these really terrible laws. >> indeed.

we're now hearing george zimmerman's father come to his defense. i want to play a clip and get your reaction. listen to this. >> i guess they would have preferred my son being beaten to death. i never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, the congressional black caucus, the naacp. every organization imaginable is trying to get notoriety or profit in this in some way. but there is so much hate. >> so much hate from the president. i'm sorry. i thought the president extended only his condolences and a desire for a proper legal investigation. >> that's all he said. he thinks there should be a full investigation. in fact that's all the naacp has said and the congressional black caucus has said. there hasn't been any hate coming from the groups he named. the two ways of looking at this.

that perhaps these perceptions of the elder mr. zimmerman say something about attitudes toward black people, frankly, cynic he listed only black people as the sources of this hate. even though this has become a national decidedly multiracial issue. that's one interpretation. the other interpretation is that here is a father who is trying to, however inexpertly or inhe will beganly trying to speak out on behalf of his son. >> doesn't newt gingrich have something to answer for? wasn't it him that legitimized these attacks on the president? when the president was simply offering consolation to these two parents who lost their child to a shooting. newt gingrich starts describing the president's comments as disgraceful. >> he did. newt gingrich was blowing the dog whistle that he successfully blew in south carolina. and it's the whistle that says

race. in a high pitch that many people can't hear and some can. what he was could go in this case was saying, look at this black president who has reflectively come out on the side of the black victim, or in quotes, i guess he would have put it, victim in this case. that's what he was trying to do. it does give license to jump on that bandwagon. >> and so they have. there has been an interesting pursuit of sympathy here. while zimmerman's father seems to want sympathy for his son, he offers no word of condolence to the family of trayvon martin. >> let's look at the outcome of the altercation between zimmerman and marine. one young man is dead. one set of parents has lost its

son. one young man will never grow up. on the other hand you have george zimmerman who claim to have suffered these horrific injuries. i don't see them on that videotape either. and who has not been arrested, who is subject to some questioning about what he did and what he had a right to do. so that's not an equal outcome that i would think the father should perhaps be able to express some sympathy for a young man who lost his life. >> indeed. eugene robinson, gracious as always. thank you for joining us. >> good to be here, martin. >> next, one of the greatest minds in congress helps us answer the question. >> i am an endorsement romney. the reason is not only because he'll be the republican nominee

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at this moment, house republicans are playing their favorite parlor game. charades. many are gathered on the house floor pretending the paul ryan budget has a chance of passing the budget. the wisconsin republican's plan has obvious flaws. for instance, austerity and tax cuts balanced on the backs of the elderly. yet he is still regarded as some as very much the golden boy. >> paul ryan will of course be one of those that people across the country look at and say, hey, that guy could be vice

president or president if the need arose. >> wait a minute. mitt, did you just tell conservatives that their golden boy could be president if the need arose? that must be another you one of those my dad and i like to fire people stories. good afternoon, sir. you're the ranking member of the house financial services committee. i would like your opinion, if i may, on paul ryan and the tireless praise that republicans like mitt romney like to bestow upon him and his budget. >> well, it affects his sharing of the values. by the way, one of the thing that he is getting praise for, i think he might not have wanted this so explicit. the "wall street journal," the tutor in chief of the republicans the day before yesterday in an editorial praised him because in his budget, he rejects any cuts in the military including those that had been called for in the budget agreement and said instead, it has to come out of

medicare and medicaid. a central part of the debate is as the "wall street journal" wrote, good for paul ryan. he is protecting the defense department against any further cuts and he is instead going to get those cuts from entitlements from medicare and medicaid. secondly, he of course is determined to keep the taxing of the wealthiest people far above what we would need to reduce the deficit in a realistic way so as a result, medicare and medicaid get cut. every program we have to protect the quality of life in america. to clean the rivers. to build highways. to put police officers on the street. any of those things, to provide help to the cities to deal with basic services. those all get cut. so it is not surprising. the mitt romney of 15 years ago would not have been in agreement with paul ryan but with mitt romney, he moves with the party. the party moves farther to the

right and he is with them. >> i've been having some problems understanding precisely who mitt romney actually is. a few months ago you help us define one newt gingrich with the following comment. here's the clip. >> you talked about the l word with newt. let's be clear, there are two l words, lobbyist and liar. >> if newt beginning is a lobbyist and a liar, are you able to offer a similarly straightforward assessment of mr. romney? >> yes. mitt romney is a man who appears on the base i of a long effort to be a politician. he claims he doesn't want to be a politician. that's mostly because he's generally been unsuccessful in his efforts to be an elected official. mitt romney is a man totally devoid of any commitment to any principle except his own advancement. there is literally not a public policy which he has not advocated one side on one time and one side on the other. i've never seen a major

political figure so absolutely unburdened by any commitment to any principle what so ever. >> so he has no convictions what so ever. the only conviction he has is his own personal advancement and presumably, personal success. >> he believes that he should be the leader. he has since 1994 been running for president. he told people in '94, he would be better on gay rights than senator kennedy. a couple months ago he spoke on a very demeaning fashion about the marriage of two people of the same sex who love each other. he has reversed his position on the environment. on the questions of whether or not we should ban abortion. on health care, very clearly. usually when a politician shifts position to a certain group, they don't mind. people are very tolerant of people who flip toward them. but mitt romney has been so obvious in his absolute lack of

principle that even the people who he temporarily says i agree with you, are not reassured because they understand when the wind blows, there he will go again. there's also in mitt romney and people don't fully intend -- there is a meanness at his core. you know, he ran ads. i never thought i would feel some sympathy for newt gingrich but mitt romney with enormous amounts of money at his beck and call from people who want him to treat them right and protect their riches has run the most relentlessly savage campaign against anybody who dared get in his way. he ran an abusive personal campaign against senator kennedy. he ran a demeaning personal campaign against a first rate woman who ran against him, shannon o'brian. when he wanted to be governor, he undercut the then republican governor, dana swift. he has a record of being very abusive toward women politicians if he has to be. with all this planned image of

his, you will not find a more devoted partitioner of the most vicious aspect of position than mitt romney. >> he is a man without any convictions but he has more positions than i guess a porn star. we know that mitt romney enjoys an enormous amount of wealth. does this explain yes keep saying things that indicate such a lack of compassion for ordinary americans. he said he likes firing people. he doesn't care about the poor. now he makes a joke about his father laying off 4,300 workers when he moved a business. >> no. that's unfair to other very wealthy people. we have a lot of people with great wealth in american politics. franklin convenient, senator ken, my own senator, john kerry. there are a number of people. wealth does not explain callousness. you can be very wealthy. warren buffett certainly is. bill gates, and have some compassion. in mitt romney's case, he simply has decided to go with whatever will advance him.

and we are at a point in american history when the right wing has taken over the republican party to a degree that no ideologically farout group has ever run in the american party. they want to substantially increase. they want to go further in afghanistan and invade syria, do all these other things. cut taxes and reduce the deficit. the only way you do that is by cutting social security, medicare and every program that tries to enhance the quality of life at home. >> congressman barney frank, you have given us an excellent description of mitt romney and help us understand the paul ryan budget. for that we are grateful. thank you. stay with us. >> it's time for wisconsin to do what i did the other day. in sheboygan. not just bowl one strike. not just bowl two strikes. but to bowl three strikes in a row and knock obama out of the game by electing rick santorum. [ female announcer ] with swiffer wet

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right now the house is voting the republicans' budget proposal authorized by congressman paul ryan. the very latest. and a short time ago, the white house, president obama once again call on congress to put an end to subsidies for big oil company like exxon which he said made $4.7 million per hour last year. less than an hour later, the senate rejected a bill to repeal those very subsidies at the same time as the national average for regular gas inched up to $3.92 a gallon. mike viqueira braved the sunshine. one imagines the president is barely over his jet lag and yet by speaking so soon after he landed, is this a clear sign that the white house somehow feels compelled to address the issue of rising gas prices? >> reporter: you'd better believe it.

and you'd better believe the president was acting in concert with harry reid and the democrats in the senate. this bill came up to the floor today. it would repeal, not the entire $4 billion a year that the oil industry gets in subsidies but about half that targeting the five largest oil coil. as the president pointed out, as he has time and time again. the price of gas continues to rise, they've enjoyed the record profits. the preds ever president taking to the rose garden them say the key to political communication, can't get the word communication out. a little bit ironic. you should be consistent and you should have clarity and the third thing is, you should be consistent. certainly the president has done that. you remember his energy tour last year. four states, two days, four states. harping on many of the same themes, using many of the same theme he used today. touting all of his energy. hitting republicans in the senate for not going along with

repealing those tax break for big oil. >> mike viqueira, clear, always clear, always consistent and always charming at the white house. stay with us. the top lines are coming up. >> the conservative teen. finally a publication for kids sic of doing their own thing and just want to conform to conservative ideals. [ male announcer ] there's a crushing national debt hanging over us. hindering economic growth. it's time for some common sense -- people in congress who'll come together and put partisan politics aside. not with radical schemes that gamble with america's future. but with a plan that requires washington to balance the budget the right way -- protecting the priorities of america's families. tell congress to pass a common sense balanced budget -- now. sign the petition at center-forward.org.

here are today's top lines and command edition. >> i want to announce this to everyone here in the americas. there will be a sequel. >> i am an endorsement romney. the offers at this point such a stark contrast to the president's record. >> governor romney called the

president of the united states, out of touch. out of touch? romney? >> he has a lot of chutzpah. >> what is the name of this network? >> espn. >> that's a terrible name. >> i think we should decide. what do you think? >> you said it, man. nobody [ bleep ] with the jesus. >> let's see what rick santorum thought about that videotape. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> now it's time for wisconsin to do what i did the other day. bowl three strikes in a row. and knock obama out of the game. >> i did not feel empowered. >> did you find it useful financially? >> it appears as though he is at the end of his line. >> where are you? >> i'm in a glass cage of

emotion. >> they're saying the only way is to have a floor fight in tampa. that's a recipe to deliver four more years to barack obama. >> you're so wise. but like a miniature buddha, covered in hair. >> let's get right to our esteemed political panel now. krystal ball is an msnbc contributor and jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor. as well as joe williams who covers the white house for politico. mitt romney says he likes firing people. he's not concerned about the very poor. he build as car elevator. we're beginning to realize where he gets it from. because it comes from his father. listen to this. >> as the president of the company, he decided to close the factory in michigan and move all the production to wisconsin. later he decided to run for governor of michigan. his band did not know how to

play the michigan fight song. it only knew how to play the wisconsin fight song. so every time they would start playing on wisconsin, on wisconsin, my dad's political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop. >> ha ha ha, my dad laid off 4300 people in 1954. >> this guy really knows how to spin a yarn, doesn't he? one time i hit a 6-year-old with my cadillac. it was hysterical. it's crazy. you couldn't make this stuff up. what i really love about the story is it is not only him being out of touch and wealthy and laying people off. but it also about him trying to pander to voters in the states that are having primaries, and one of which is having a primary this tuesday, by the way. >> guess what, it's brilliant. we talk about gaffes and mistakes. but do you not think this is coming from the genuine psychology of the man? a man who is so wealthy and has lived such a wealthy life for such a long time.

that these are the kinds of things he says. he has no feelings important people who are not perhaps wealthy. >> i won't say he doesn't have feelings for people who are not wealthy but this is not just a man who hasn't just lived a privileged life for a long time of but he was born into a privileged life. his father was an auto executive. the three-time elected governor of michigan. this is a person, mitt romney is a person who is used to living in the upper echelons of the 1%. so for him to now have to campaign for votes and try to connect with people, it comes off like symbols. he doesn't understand why people cannot relate to the fact that ann has a couple of cadillacs and he is building a car elevator at his gigantic house in california. that he can say something like, i don't care about poor people. >> and quickly, it is not that he's wealthy. it is that he is lacking in the

imagination and the empathy to be able to understand what ordinary people would think of comments like that. you think of ted kennedy. you think of john kerry. some people would say he has no self-awareness. a short time from now, he will get the endorsement of george h.w. bush. also santorum manages to win wisconsin on tuesday, has romney in your view notwithstanding all of this horrific comments, locked down this nomination? >> well, it is hard to figure out how anybody else can get it. quite frankly, you've got mitt romney who is stiffer than a girder but still ahead in the delegate down. you've got rick santorum who has gaffes of his own aplenty trailing badly. and the campaign is coming -- the reason why bush 41 came out and endorsed romney, they want this thing to enthemselves want it over with. they want to martial their

forces them want to give romney time to get off the road and quit and come up with some good -- >> a cadillac. >> exactly. >> hold it there. i want to continue. but for the moment, you're staying with us. next, newt gingrich's sugar daddy said enough is enough. sorry, callista. stay with us. >> you don't really have much money. you can't win. so it really is an intellectual exercise going forward, is it not? [ male announcer ] this is coach parker...

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ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing for his little girl. hey don't worry. e-trade's got a totally new investing dashboard. everything is on one page, your investments, quotes, research... it's like the buffet last night. whatever helps you understand man. i'm watching you. oh yeah? well i'm watching you, watching him. [ male announcer ] try the new 360 investing dashboard at e-trade. nbc news is reporting that mitt romney and newt gingrich held a private meeting friday in new orleans. was it to talk about newt dropping out perhaps? or how about vice president gingrich? back with us, krystal ball, john capehart.

there was no agreement reached but how do you think that conversation went between mr. romney and mr. gingrich? >> well, it's kind of one of those things. what does newt exactly bring to the table, right? his many endorsements? his many financial backers? what exactly -- >> he brings the much coveted herman cain endorse many. the sarah palin endorsement. what does he have to offer mitt romney? and for romney, he is not convinced that he is not better off having newt in the race, dividing up the conservative vote. that's out very well for him. >> i'm wondering whether he said, stay in, stay in. even though you've run out of money. >> i wonder if what newt gingrich offers is convention peace. can you imagine, you're the presumptive nominee and you go into tampa not knowing whether you're actually going to leave tampa as the nominee? and newt gingrich as we all know has the capacity for mischief. >> he's crazy enough to do it.

>> but joe, even his friends are calling for him to throw in the towel including casino big shot who has already wasted over $16 million on newt. listen to this. >> it appears as though he is at the end of his line. because i mean, mathematically, he can't get anywhere near the numbers and is not -- >> what, other than having his credit at tiffany cut off, what could be more devastating for newt gingrich than losing his sugar daddy? >> this reminds me from the famous scene in the monty python movie. he hacks off one arm, he hacks off the other article. the black knights call it a scratch. this is where newt gingrich is on stumps basically. he has nowhere else to go. his car is broken up at the side of the road. it's over. when sheldon cuts off the tap, you're pretty much out of business and i think he will have to reconcile that. to the meeting with romney,

romney probably wants to bury the hatchet in some form or fashion, possibly in newt's skull. but certainly i take jonathan's point that peace ahead of the convention is probably the best move that romney can make. even though gingrich does divvy up the conservative vote. if you look at the stats, all the voting totals have gone down in subsequent primaries and newt gingrich, the last one was, what was it? 2008. the south carolina primary. and it was so long ago. and the turnout is getting lower and lower. people want it over, end this thing. let's get out of convention will. >> don't forget that. >> give him credit. john, gingrich may be reduced to selling photographs of himself at $50s which is what's happening. what is your view of rick santorum's campaign delivering a major speech on foreign policy at the jelly belly cannery factory in california. come on, the jelly belly, look.

they have a long relationship with presidents. >> foreign affairs? >> not foreign affairs. but hear me out. jelly belly has been giving candy and jelly beans to president reagan since when he was governor. so they have a long relationship with republican presidents. meanwhile, rick santorum, you know, is the senator from the great state of hershey. and he had the canny desk when he was in the senate. and filled it with candy. sugar everywhere. so i see -- >> a certain consistency. >> right. i just don't know, you know, what it is actually going to lead to. >> maybe it is an indirect slap at the first lady's healthy children initiative. we're going to be the candy party. >> very final question to both of you. what is newt gingrich's legacy going to be from this campaign apart from the fact that he smeared and insulted the president using code language about being a food stamp president. history addiction lust comments about the president's expression

of condolence to trayvon martin's family. what else is gingrich done during this campaign? >> i think that's pretty much it. >> thank you. thank you very much. next, george zimmerman's father aparts newt gingrich. welcome to the cnbc market wrap. stocks have turned around a little bit in the last hour or so. what began as a very soggy day has turned around. the industrials are now higher by 6 1/2 points. the standard and poor's 500 down 2.73. and nasdaq staying above 3,000 but it is down 7.5 point. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade.

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we have some breaking news out of capital. the house has passed the ryan budget as expected. it passed 228-191.

along party lines. with ten republicans voting against it. after the vote, chairman ryan made a statement saying, his plan will save the country from debt and decline. turning now to the trayvon martin investigation, and for some, this case has turned into an opportunity to rehearse racial stereo types and smear the president. yes. smear the president for remarks like this. >> i think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does thing like this happen. that mean we examine the laws and the context for what happened. as well as the specifics of the incident. if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> and of course, you remember what newt gingrich had to say about that. >> what the president that in a sense is disgraceful. any young american of any ethnic background should be safe. period. is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had

been shot, that would be okay because it didn't look like him? that's just nonsense. >> right. disgraceful. the daily caller went further suggesting the president only spoke out because he was pressured by black radicals. quote, following demands by the new black panthers and others on the scene in sanford, florida, the white house get involved. obama jumped into the fight. now, like a per verse game of telephone by which the president's remarks are disported into something hostile, we have george zimmerman's father speaking out saying this about the atmosphere surrounding this tragic loss of life. >> i guess he would have preferred my son being beaten to death. i never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, the congressional black caucus, the naacp, every organization imaginable is trying to get notoriety get no noteriety or profit from this in

some way. but there's so much hate. >> all of this while suggesting that nobody should rush to judgment, so long as that, of course, doesn't include judging the character of trayvon martin. joining me now in new york, nbc political analyst jonathan alter, analyst, and david kohn and author of the book "showdown." you write that the birth of a conspiracy theory rempresented dominant theme. obama was the somewhat not quite real american who truly understood and treasured the nation. so i guess when the president offers condolences to the parents of trayvon martin, he's immediately attacked by newt gingrich for doing so and they all talk about the hate that's

going around. where is the hate coming from? >> it might have come from the barrel of the gun that night. if you remember "jurassic park," the dinosaur that spits toxic poison, for the president to suggest that it's okay if this had been a young white man who had been shot, it's not only ridiculous, it's playing the newt card that the president is accusing gingrich as playing. it may be one facet of this tragedy. i'm kind of inclined to give every parent in this situation a bit of a pass. i think george zimmerman's father's comments won't mean a lot when we put it into context at the end of the investigation and know for sure what happened, but for newt to get out there and try to stir this up and suggest that barack obama is anti-white, that was really despicable, but what do you expect when you're in the death

throes of a campaign. >> newt has been playing this to the campaign. in louisiana last night, somebody shouting that the president is a muslim and wants to destroy the country and gingrich not clarifying the matter at all, just letting it go. >> here's what i would like msnbc and the rest of the media to do. sheldon edelson has now pulled the plug on the gingrich campaign, so it's already on life support. his campaign is basically over. why don't we just all agree that gingrich is not going to be the nominee, he's not going to be the president, and in the same way that we don't quote denny hasturt, who was speaker of the house, that newt gingrich, from this day forward, be consigned where he belongs, the dust bin of history. he's yesterday's news, he's a figure from the 1990s, it's of no consequence what he says. we had to pay attention to him

when he was a serious presidential candidate. he's not anymore. let's expunge him from our consciousness. >> the problem with that, john, is that by saying the sort of things he says, it encourages others like the daily caller, like the blaze to whip up the kind of rhetoric that is so deeply problematic. >> so he was in a position to do that as a presidential candidate. he's no longer in that position. there's nobody, including him, who expects that he will be the republican nominee. so, you know, every so often the media needs to take a step back and say, is this person newsworthy any longer? does the filth that comes out of his mouth, is it of consequence? it is no longer of consequence because he's not a potential president. it's just garbage and should not be covered. >> david, do you support jon's view? >> i hadn't thought of it. i think it's just a matter of nanoseconds before gingrich is back on fox news and being in

the bloodstream in that way. i do think perspective is worthwhile here, and i guess, jon, is we've seen the print media pull its report off the gingrich campaign, so i think whether there is a signed declaration of ignorance when it comes to newt gingrich, he's going to get the equivalent of the silence treatment pretty soon. >> jon, going back to the case itself, george zimmerman's father told the local fox news reporter that his son is not racist and said, quote, he's colorblind. given his multiple 911 calls on alleged vagrance of color, not to mention the trayvon case, are you sure about that? >> well, if you listen to the tape of the trayvon case in the 911 call, he doesn't use the n word but he's basically making a very disparaging comment about trayvon martin being black. and, you know, as if that in itself is cause for suspicion.

he didn't say ashe has a hoodie but he says he's black, and you hear the 911 dispatcher saying, don't follow him. they know this guy is a potential vigilante who is going to take the law into his own hands and is possibly going to cause big problems. they should have reined him in earlier than this, but because of the loose gun laws in florida, there was really nothing they could do about it. >> david, if i can ask you finally, this is a case, is it not, of racial profiling? >> it may well be. we just don't know yet what was in his head, his heart, george zimmerman's, although the circumstances don't look favorable to him. the other aspect of this is how the police responded and whether, because of the color of the victim, they did anything than they otherwise would do, if it had been a young white teenager whose body they had,

would they have moved quicker? would they have looked at the cell phone to see who his last calls were? i mean, the investigation seems rather sloppy and often racial profiling works not just in terms of the perpetuation of a crime but how a crime is handled and how people are judged after the fact. >> a kind of institutional racism. david corn and jonathan alter, i'm afraid we've run out of time. but thank you both. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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