jail this morning. legal reaction to what happened in court ahead. more scandal fallout. another three agents leave the secret service as new details emerge on what went on in colombia. inside the polls. what do the new numbers mean for both the president and mitt romney come november and who has the easiest path to victory? office politics. rachel maddow talks about her new best-selling book and the plastic soldier on her desk. this is a must-see interview. with that, good morning and welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we have developing news to share from florida. george zimmerman could walk free on bond at any time now as he awaits trial for second-degree murder. and new fallout from those surprise moments at his bond hearing. we heard from zimmerman for the first time as he took the stand and addressed trayvon martin's parents. >> i wanted to say i am sorry for the los of your son. i did not know how old he was. i thought he was a little younger than ament.

and i did not know if he was armedç or not. >> alexis is here with me now with a good morning to you. i'm curious how trayvon martin's family reacted to zimmerman's statement. the apology, if you will. >> yes, trayvon's parents were upset with the apology, but the very low bond, in their opinion, they believe the judge set. the attorney for the family said they were devastated that at least a million dollars was not asked for bond. and they felt the statement was essentially self-serving. they said that the parents were expecting him to apologize long before this moment. he could have apologized on the website he created and also could have apologized to the call made to a friend played on national television. he didn't take the opportunity to do so before and why they waited until this moment when his bond was being set. >> because the way he talked about this apology, you say qualifying, it was like he was saying an apology buzz here's what i thought.

>> also he was contradicting a previous statement. in the first non-emergency call he made, he told the dispatcher he thought trayvon martin looked like he was in his teens. for him to tell his parents he thought he was close to his age, i don't want to say he was lie, but it is definitely not the same statement made before, so it does suggest a little bit of manipulation. >> it is also like, what, you can take someone's life because they are older? the qualifying statement there doesn't ring true for a lot of people. how about the mere surprise, alexis, that he took the stand? >> well, a lot of legal experts are saying that was a very intelligent thing for his attorney to do. it isç uncommon in the bond hearing for the defendant to take the stand, but mark o-meara is a media player, unlike his previous attorney very much interested in painting trayvon martin as a thug and criminal. this attorney is very subtle. he's interested more in rehabilitating zimmerman's image and taking every opportunity to do so. know that the trial is

televised, this is a perfect opportunity to refashion zimmerman's image and it might be working. >> how about were you surprised by the prosecution's investigator who took the stand and said he didn't know who started the fight. >> that's not surprising for two reasonses. one, i think that the state prosecutor angela corey is being careful on relying on the facts in this case, unlike mark o 'mera, they are not trying to refashion the facts. they just want to focus on the facts and he was speaking on the facts. the other case is basically the defense is trying to get information out of the prosecution at this point to help them build their defense. the prosecution is trying to play their cards close to their chest, they don't want to reveal anything. so they were letting mark o'meara intervening because the pros cushion prosecution can then make its case. >> we'll speak with you later in the hour. thank you. >> thank you. >> for all of you, what do you

think of george zimmerman's apology to trayvon martin's parents? you can tweet me throughout the morning. three big headlines right now this morning on the she secret service scandal. three more she secret service employees were separatedç from the agency bringing the total now to those who have left to six. 11 members of the u.s. military are also being investigated in the scan stall scandal by the secret head of the secret service. we'll be joined by one of the reporters who broke the story, dave mcnamara, good morning. >> hi, alex. >> we'll talk about the fallout from the scandal because there's more to talk about, growing details. now these departures, what's the latest on that? >> we are up to six people who have lost their jobs because of this with five more under investigation from the secret service as well as the ones we mentioned from the military. the bigger news in the last day or so is that investigators believe they are expanding their

investigation to look at more than just the hotel where the men were staying but also another hotel where the president and his staff checked in. of course, the president and his staff are certainly not being looked at, but the support staff at that hotel. so investigators are trying to talk to all the hotel worker who is might have seen things. the secret service announced and as did the military one more of each of their mesh members have been implicated this. as they interview the men involved, more people could come under the umbrella of this. >> and the political implications overall, the criticism of some by president obama and the further investigations being called by senator chuck grassley of iowa saying, let's look into where all the white house staffers were in the light. what's the fallout here from that? >> these advance operations, these guys wereç down there to help prepare for the president's visit. it's a huge operation of a couple hundred people before the president even arrives and there are white house staff.

we have not heard evidence to believe any white house staff was involved in the partying and misbehavior, but the distraction here for the white house is that the more time they have to deal talking with this and answering to the capitol hill lawmakers or critics talking about this takes away from the message they are trying to portray, which is the economy. >> what about the shocking details, the stuff that leaves investigators inside and outside the white house kind of shaking their heads going, really? >> well, i think we saw that the two supervisors involved and their behavior, was, i think, the biggest thing. these guys were sent down there to lookout for the younger guys and yet they were alleged to be just as involved. we talk about strip clubs and people going out and going there and also bringing women back to the hotel, checking them in. you know, really compromising potentially their positions as the protectors of the president's security bubble. and i think the more we learn about exactly what happened that night, the worse it has been getting. right now the story has no sense

of going away any time soon. >> okay, david nacnamara, thank you. and i'm going to speak to a secret service agent on what it is like to be on the road preparing for a presidential visit and whether there's a code of ethics among agents. that's coming up in a few minutes, stay tuned for that. now to front page politics. a joint appearance by mitt romney and senator john mccain in an effort to çunite the par. this was in scotsdale, arizona, last night. >> barack obama believes that government creates jobs. mitt romney knows that business creates jobs. >> i find him to be a nice guy. i think he's a nice person. i just don't think we can afford him any longer. i don't think the american people can afford the have to have barack obama as our president. >> new campaign cash numbers show president obama's re-election campaign had ten times the money at the end of

march than the romney camp. the obama camp and the democratic party raised $53 million in march. romney raked in $12.6 million during that period. and that's his best month yet. so i said thank you to david, but he's back with us because i want to talk politics with you beyond the secret service scandal. we'll talk about the polls, the two battleground states looking at the general election polls. first up in ohio, president obama with a six-point lead over mitt romney. florida, the president has a two-point advantage. how does the white house read this? it is early, but they must have encouraged by the numbers at this point. >> certainly that's good news to be ahead rather than behind, but the white house is taking the long view. we have six months to go before the election. the president was just in ohio last week and the republicans are coming off a bruising primary that the president has to deal with. and mitt romney would answer, hey, now it is my time to consolidate support and you'll see a long extended battle ahead. the white house by the end of

that, everybody assumes it will be nip and tuck down to the wire. so the president certainly isç not resting on these morals if the polls are right. he's going on a three-state battleground tour with ohio last week. there's still a lot of work to be done. nobody is really looking at polls that closely in terms of this will be the way it is. >> yeah, we mentioned the cash count here with the obama camp having a 10-1 lead over the romney camp for cash on hand at the end of last month. the total is $104 million for president obama, $10 million for mitt romney. do the amounts matter with the super pacs and how much they raise? >> still the republican super pacs are raising $50 million for just two of them alone for the quarter, well outpacing anything the democrats can do. so obama has been sort of trying to spread the grassroots support and rely on smaller donors. he has a big advantage over mitt romney right now with a huge

network. but romney is now trying to show i'm the candidate now, consolidate the fund-raiser to get people motivated to the republican side. i think the white house and the obama campaign know that they have a challenge ahead, even though they have a big bank account right now. >> what about the gop primaries that come up on tuesday, five states hold their contests. there was a point when the contests matter, now that seems to have dissipated somewhat. rick santorum is not in the race anymore. he's really all about looking where newt gingrich finishes up and how long he's going to hang on? >> i think for the republicans it is really about using this time for the romney campaign to get out and organize. the president has had a chance to, while the republicans have been battling each çother, to continue to lay his groundwork in the key states across the country. really getting out the vote and, you know, laying the groundwork for your message across the country, how you're going to do that. that's where the gop comes in to use the time on the remaining primaries. >> david, now you can exit the building, not that we want you

to, just saying. >> thank you, alex. taking a look at texas where they are in cleanup mode. powerful gusts downed trees in a downtown complex and blew the glass out of the revolving doors. how is it going to be where you are this saturday? bill karins has the forecast. good morning, bill. >> well, good saturday morning to you, alex. big storm for the east coast going throughout this weekend, especially sunday night and monday morning up in new england. let's get down to who has the problems on this saturday morning. showers and thunderstorms down around south florida is the worst of it. the storm that's causing all the problems is now over the top of new orleans. there's actually a cold front to the north of that to the great lakes going to bring really chilly area to seer kaus, syracuse, buffalo and detroit. as far as the drought goes, a dry march and april. we are going into severe drought categories in new england. extreme and severe drought in florida and georgia. we need the wet weather. this is how it is going the look the next 48 hours. the green shows you where it is going to rain.

the yellows and oranges are the heaviest. we don't see much rain for florida and georgia and south carolina. that's where the drought is the worst. but new england, we'll see a drastic improvement getting this heavy rain event. we are predicting one to two inches of rain from richmond to d.c. to oxç city. the closer to the coastline, the better chance for the heavier rains. new england could get socked. the heavy amounts could be near long island, hartford, springfield, someone has a chance of four to six inches of rain. thankfully we don't have to worry too much about flooding because we have not had a lot of wet weather. also the big surprise in this forecast should come monday morning into monday afternoon. yes, this is a snow forecast. areas between buffalo and pittsburgh, the higher terrain, we'll see enough snow to knock down trees and power lines. that's a story going into monday afternoon. today's forecast, alex, once again, the southeast dealing with those storms. new england, we'll have to wait for the bad weather sunday afternoon and evening. back to you. thank you.

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more now on the developing she secret service scandal. three more agency employees have been ousted bringing the total to six. the investigation is ongoing. we'll get perspective on the secret service from a man who is on the inside. andrew o'connell, former secret service agent. andy, good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> let's talk about really what goes on here. what are the duties of advanced teams in the secret service,

particularly when scouting foreign locations for the president? >> well, before the president travels anywhere, whether it is in the united states or overseas, the advance teams go out, the white house staff advance team goes out to figure out what the president is going to be doing, the schedule, where he's going to be going, who he is talking to. the secret service advance teams go out to design security, so they get there ahead of time, sometimes weeks and days, it really depends on the country or city to which they are going and the threat or risk assessment. and then when they get down there, their job is to meet with local law enforcement, the military, white house staff, and figure out what needs to be done to secure the president on the visit. and when they figure out what they need to do, they let washington, d.c. and the president's detail know what needs to be done. and they ask for certain resources, including men and women bodies to come down and stand post. they ask for things like metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs

and the like. that's really what goes into an advance. >> okay, is there typically much down time? >> not typically. it depends on the country or the city. some places you go you work an 8-hour shift during your advance and maybe you're done and have time for dinner and to go out after it. sometimes your 12-hour shift, 16-hour shift, because it's a really high-risk environment and you are worried about getting everything done before the president get there is. >> okay, i want to pick up on that, you're talking about the shift time, when you're overseas, are you on 24/7? >> inç theory you're on the jo 24/7 no matter where you are, the united states or overseas, you're given a firearm, you have a badge and credentials that identify you as a federal agent, you're always on. but in reality, agents work a shift, and they're allowed to have time off, that is to go

have dinner or go out to see and experience the culture of the different countries or cities they are in. >> so is the secret service, are they advanced or encouraged to get to know locals, dignitaries or others, or are they encouraged to stay among themselves and be that kind of tight unit as we all have the presumptions about who the guys are and what they do? >> they are not encouraged to get to know locals. they are encouraged to do their job. in fact, required to do their job while they are there. but the fact is, when they finish what they're doing, as long as they have everything done, they do go out and experience the culture. so you can be in a foreign country, maybe you have never been to before, and you want to see some of the sites after you get off. certainly you're not supposed to be walking the streets and just hanging out with the people and meeting the people. >> what about -- is there reason to be concerned that prostitutes or anyone might target secret service agents for information that could compromise national

security or the security of the president? >> well, certainly anyone. it doesn't matter what their background is or what line of work they're in. you always have to be on the lookout as a federal agent, especially a secret service nagt a foreign country for folks that could be foreign intelligence, trying to get at you, trying to get at the information thatç y have and using ways to get to you. so it could be any number of ways. >> describe the code of ethics, if any, that secret service agents must ascribe to when joining that team. >> well, the first thing is to abide by the u.s. constitution, but really it is some simple concepts. that is, don't engage in unlawful conduct, don't break the law, act ethically, act professionally, and almost as important, most importantly, don't embarrass the secret service or the president of the united states. that's really a summary of what you're taught when becoming a

secret service agent and throughout your career. those basic tenants. >> okay. andy o'connell, thank you very much for speaking with us and giving us the lay of the land in what happens there on the road. appreciate that. >> thank you. green is universal this week on msnbc. we've been highlighting new events to save the environment. and if you're looking for a cheep and green vacation, this is the time to check out a national park near you. because today is the first day of national parks week. admission is free at all 397 national parks through april 29th. there are other deals on tours, food and fishing. as we listen to the dixie chicks, love them. you're watching "weekends with alex witt." we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger,

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all right. those gas prices there, from there to the three big money headlines. xome sames slide, job hunting season, and the magic number. consumer expert regina lewis is joining me to make sense of it all. good morning. >> good morning. thank you. >> i'm glad you're hear. let's talk about the national report from realtors saying existing home sales slipped in march. what does that say about the housing crisis as a whole? >> it says we are getting mixed signals and questioning the stability of the market. what's most interesting when drilling down on the numbers is that inventory is shrinking, particularly the south and the west. it is spring, so normally you would expect it to be up. year over year it is down 22%. drill down a little further and you notice a third of the market is dis dressed homes, short sales in foreclosures. as the banks revisit the way they are handling foreclosures, that sector is drying up. now, you would think, okay, smaller supply means higher

demand and higher prices, not yet, alex. the prices are only up 2.5% year over year making the average house on the market right now $163,800. >> wow, okay. let's get to the job hunting season because the new workforce survey says more than half of all u.s. workers plan to look > the next year, so what does that tell you about the state of the economy, regina, in terms of worker confidence? >> it is actually a good sign. it's quitting time. right about now 2 million people a month are quitting their jobs. in the height of the recession that number went down to 1.6 million. in a healthy economy, economists look for 3 million people to turn on a monthly basis. whatç makes that number grow? young people in the market. they traditionally have many more turnovers, if you will, and people having that confidence that you spoke of. it takes some guts to quickly quit a job. one concerning part is that open

positions are outpacing the rate at which the positions are being filled, actual hiring, which could mean companies are posting positions but then someone from accounting is walking down the hall saying, don't rush on filling that, we are trying to meet quarterly numbers. you have seen that movie. >> for sure. let's get to the magic number because a new poll suggests as little as $50,000 can bring genuine happiness. there was the earlier number at $75,000, does this mean people are learning to be happier with less? >> it could mean that. that's $50,000 as the new tipping point. and that has to do with economic security, feeling more confident about the future, feeling like the worst is behind you. the $75,000 number is still relevant. that's the point at which after that it is almost a wash, which is really interesting. meaning you'll be as happy making $75,000 and you will making $575,000. now before you say, try me, it's the relativity that is the biggest factor of all, meaning

are you doing better than your friends, family and colleagues, which makes sense because as a nation, collectively we do better over time and become a wealthier economy and don't get happier generation over generation. so it is all about -- interesting stuff. >> many thanks. >> sure. in the one-minute playbook, julia louis çdreyfus is in the new show called "veep." earlier the former "seinfeld" star sat down to talk about it. >> so you are making fun of a position that even joe biden sometimes will say to us, what am i doing here? >> right. exactly. >> every vice president feels that way at one point. >> listen, i would say this, i would say there's no politician in washington who aspires to the vice presidency, right? >> right. >> that makes it just a delicious fun thing to do. i have to say, it is absolute,

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or your money back. and for dry messes big and small try swiffer sweeper vac. let's go to politics and the numbers are in for now. the latest msnbc wall street yurnl poll showing president obama has the early lead over mitt romney, but there's one key issue that could prove a major problem for the president in november. joining me now is fred yang, how are you? >> good morning, am ex-how are you? >> i'm fine. hope you are, too. let's talk about the president who beat out mitt romney in all of the personality questions, likability, compassion, consistency, but then mitt romney beat him in one important category, that being who has the better ideas for how to improve the economy. how worried should the president be about that number? >> i'm assuming, gathering that the president is very worried about that number. i think the economy is the biggest issue of the election.

it's basically a re-run of a famous line from 1992, it's the economy, stupid. republicans are seen as a party that knows how to create jobs, knows how to improve business, but look, the president is the economic numbers are improving. the president is ahead in our poll by six points, alex. he can lose the economy and still lose the election, he just needs to keep it within a respectable distance of romney, and our indications are that he can. >> we'll talk about whether the president leads, which is in latinos, women, independents, can romney realistically turn those numbers around? >> there's a long way to go between now and november. i think the most important group of those you mentioned, alex, where the president has a lead, are with independent voters. the independent voters are just what that say they are, they are going to swing back and forth.

but the structure of the election, barack obama's strong appeal with young voters, african-americans and women, i think he still has a demographic edge over the next six or seven months. >> it is interesting, you take a snapshot where we are now, even with the demographics and the edge he has right now, he is still just six points ahead of mitt romney if the election was held today. what does that tell you about how close the race may be? >> i think it is going to be very close. again, i still believe the president has an advantage and will probably win. i think the other important number, alex, that's riding all of this, in the nbc/wall street journal poll, we asked the right direction for the track of the country, and it is 33% right direction. so this is a campaign of at least two major narratives. mitt romney has to say we can do better, and barack obama has to say,ç look how much we've donen four years. give me a chance to finish the job. >> how about a positivity rating, because the president's was considerably higher than

mitt romney's. do you think a positive view translates into votes? >> i think any positive indicator you have as a politician these days is helpful. look, if it's between who is more effective or who do i like better, voters are going to vote on effectiveness. but likability is also very important. ask george w. bush in 2004. ask al gore in 2000. those things do matter. >> what about the party popularity numbers? what does that tell you about the current economic climate? >> this is the first time where one party, the democrats, have a net positive over negative. albeit it is only one point. for about the last year to 18 months, both parties have been viewed negatively. i think the voters are frustrated with washington and the country. that's why there's only a 33% right direction, but it is interesting that over these past months or so the democrats have slowly inched ahead. i think we need to see a couple more pol, alex, to see whether

or not that's a blip or a trend. >> okay. fred yang, we'll have you back to talk about it. thank you so much. >> thank you. we have an update now on the developing story on the secret service and the scandal this morning. the fallout from the hotel and the events in clm by ya resulted in three more employees separated from the agency. however, investigators are still trying to determine exactly what happened. mark potter is inç colombia. we'll let the viewers know we have a delay here, but you take it from here. >> reporter: good morning, alex. the prostitution scandal that began here continues to fall. the secret service announced three agents will be leaving the service. also yesterday at the white house the president was briefed by the secret service director and other secret service officials that also went to capitol hill to talk to senate staffers there to reign in the political damage. among the things they told the senate staffers are that

polygraph tests are continuing. there was no drug use by the agents. no evidence of a prostitution party here at the hotel caribe as reported. and after the hallway argument that sparked the scandal between the agent and the colombia woman over how much money she would charge him for sex, they are telling the staffers that the agent now claims he did not know she was a prostitute. now on facebook an image has surfaced that could be of the woman involved in the disagreement, but because there was no official confirmation of that, nbc news continues to blur her image. a lawyer there says he does represent her and is helping her to negotiate a deal where she would sell her story to an american tv network, not nbc news. he also told reporters that she is out of town and has left town but is willing to talk to investigators as the secret service and the military, the u.s. military, continues to try to determine how big the scandal is to determine the scope of the case they are still working on

here in colombia. >> nbc's mark potter, thank you for that çupdate. in this week's office politics, rachel madow, we discussed her number one new york times best seller, "drift." it's been on the best-seller list for three weeks. she says the inspiration behind the cover, but we begin with why she decided to write it. >> it was a 200-page long argument. i wanted to make the argument about this thing that i thought had changed in our country over the course of my lifetime, and the only way was in book form. the success of the book is blowing my mind, just because the, you know, i think part of the common wisdom in washington, part of the reason the politics have changed is because people think that citizens of the united states don't care much about war politics anymore. we are willing to let the experts do it. we don't feel engaged with it. >> do you feel part of the disconnect is because there's a smaller percentage of our

citizen that is are involved in war now, those that actually go, those families that are affected by it? >> for 8 1/2 years of the afghanistan war we were simultaneously fighting another war in iraq. even with that less than 1% of the population was doing the fighting. so that is a deep divide. but there's an even deeper divide, which i think is about our level of engagement, our level of whether or not we feel like we are a country at war. i think we feel like we are a country that sent the military to fight a fire, we don't feel like we are at war. >> why do you think that persists? >> decisions were made in the political field to make warless hassle. so if theç president wanted too to war and couldn't convince congress, we cake up with ways for the president to start wars without the congress' coke. we came up with presidents to fight wars in secret. if the president wanted to fight

aer with a. he could persuade people to do it but we came one a place to hide the cost. all the different ways to make it more streamlined, less friction, less hassle to get around the constraints that might be there. if the country is going to be nudgey about calling up so many people to go fight a conflict abroad, we'll bolster the number of people we deploy with a bunch of people that work for private companies. because when they get hurt or killed, we don't think of them as u.s. casualties. we don't know what we are paying them, they are shielded for the political accountability. >> do you think that's because we do not have a draft and do you think there's any environment under which we would reinstitute one? >> that's really a good question, alex. it is interesting to me the emotional connection we have with the idea of the draft. but, you know, if you look at the last time we had one in this country, we got rid of it in 1973, having the draft didn't mark a high point in relations between civilian population and the military.

right? the military is a high-pressure, high-performance fast-moving environment that does not want the draft, only wants volunteers. they don't want to deal with people who don't want to be there. >> how do we stop the drift to always go to war? you talk about this, or is there a way to make itç harder to goo war from this point forward? >> when the founding fathers were debating what kind of country we aught to be with regard to national security and how we aught to divide powers, they really believed that if you put the decision about whether or not to wage war in the hands of one person, if you put it in the president's hands, we would have more wars than if you put the decision about whether or not to wage war in the hands of congress. >> do you hope something comes from this book on capitol hill at 1600 pennsylvania? >> the feeling that a lot of people have, that there's something disconnected from our lives from the lives of military families. you know, i feel for the guy who puts the magnetic yellow ribbon on the suv and i feel for the

guy in the bike lane next to him cursing him for having the yellow ribbon on his suv. both the feelings come from the same place, we are unsettled by the wars having been fought in our name when civilian life is totally affected by them. >> is this your new mascot? >> this is the guy on the front of the book. he is the guy. it is actually a photo of him. they just changed the base to make the base into the united states. >> very clever. >> yeah. but it is actually the guy. it was really hard to find an army man who wasn't shooting his gun or doing something that would otherwise convey some sort of editorial message. i wanted a guy with a radio. >> our conversation continues today at 1:00 p.m. we'll discuss what she thinks about covering the personal lives of the candidates that might surprise you. meantime, watch the rachel maddow show at 9:00 p.m. only on msnbc. still ahead, waiting on the release of george zimmerman and the questions about his bond hearing. was it really a good idea to have him take the stand?ç you're watching "weekends with alex witt." 1200 calories a day.

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george zimmerman could leave jail on bond as soon as the officials work out the çdetail of his electronic monitoring device and his bond is paid. yesterday a judge demanded zimmerman to be released. he has to pay 10% of his there are 150,000. he spoke for the first time to apologize to the family of trayvon martin. >> i wanted to say i am sorry for the loss of your son. i did not know how old he was. i thought he was a little bit younger than i am. and i did not know if he was armed or not. >> yeah. joining me now is defense attorney karen desoto and alexis st staughill returns. how unusual is this? >> extremely unusual. i don't think i have had anyone talk in a bond hearing and i used to do quite a bit of them. in florida they have an arthur

hearing. you can actually, the prosecutor can keep that person in jail if you can prove that it is highly likely they will, in fact, be convicted. but that's also an opportunity for the defense attorney to go ahead and do some, you know, fishing, put the investigator on the stand and get information. because unlike a civil case n a criminal trial, you don't get the benefit of doing a deposition. this is your chance to get as much information or statements to use on the trial. probable cause hearing, bond hearing, anywhere to get statements from anybody. >> clearly, the prosecution is doing a really good job, the defense is doing a really good job on this one. >> yes, go fishing. >> let's talk about the terms of his bail release, and that includes çgps monitoring, no firearms or drinking. he's got a curfew. no contact with trayvon martin's family. actually, to you, alexis, even with all of this, there are the concerns about george

zimmerman's safety. how valid do you think those are? you have been down there and are feeling the polls of what people are seeing and feeling, does this exist right now? they did get hem arrested and facing trial, which was the major clamber by people, originally. >> yes, basically what mark o'meara is doing is get him released on bond outside of the state. if he can reside out of the state he'll be safe. >> safer out of the state? look at the coverage. >> i think so. he was actually outside of the state, they believe, before they actually arrested him and really nobody could find him. law enforcement had a vague idea where he was, but being outside of the state, he was very well hidden and nobody could detect his location. >> google him, you can probably find him. >> you have a point there. what about critics who say that the prosecution really dropped the ball because they were given a chance to cross hmm examine him. >> yeah, they did drop the ball

because, obviously, he doesn't seem like he's quite the most stable person. so it would be interesting to try to get that information, but that's a strategy thing. at this point they are still trying to put their case together. they have plenty of opportunities. they have statements from him. they have never they need. they don't want to muck it up. +tr'jury on george zimmerman's head? >> that probably got a lot of people thinking that maybe the prosecutor overcharged here and that maybe it should have been manslaughter or maybe they are shooting too high because now there's contradicting evidence. unfortunately, the only two people who really knew what happened, one of them was what they are saying is murdered. so you really don't have enough information and it is really going to be the jury's determination and credibility in what they think. this is really going making the. >> that's going to be pretty extraordinary. see where this goes. thank you very much. appreciate it, ladies. washington's tug-of-war over our tax dollars. our next guest says uncle sam will need to raise taxes to cut

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fairness in the u.s. tax code. it took center stage on capitol hill again this week and in a new op-ed by my next guest, ceo of the comeback america initiative. welcome, david. talking ak your op-ed looks at the fairness of tax ezenkzs, charitable donations, for example. how much could they save the u.s.? >> the united states loses $1.1 trillion a year revenue because of deductions, exemptions, credits, ex-clueses and the difference in the tax rates that apply to capital gains and dividends versus ordinary income. we could deal with our nation's financial problems solely with

spending cuts if we treated tax expenditures like they really deserve to be treated. they are back-door spending and we need to streamline and simplify the code to improve economic growth and equity. >> do youç have any idea how lg it would take to pay off the $15 trillion national debt with those revenues? >> well, alex, we don't need to pay off the debt. here's the key. we need to get debt as a percentage of the economy to a reasonable and sustainable level. that's about 60% of gdp, and we can get there, and if you go to keepi in in keepingamericangreat.org, there's a couple of ways to get us there. some debt is okay, but we are at over 100% of gdp when you count what we owe social security and medicare and adding debt at record rates. that's clearly unsustainable. >> any way congress can guarantee that money raised actually goes to fighting a deficit, or do we just have to

trust them? >> there's no trust of congress anymore. washington is out of touch and out of control. we need to reclaim control over the budget. right now only 37% of the budget is controlled by the congress every year. we need an annual limit on every major aspect of the budget but two things. number one, social security, because we can reform it. make the numbers work. secondly, interest, because you can't have a cap. you have to pay what the market demands. secondly a limit on how much taxes the government is impose on the american citizens, because government's already spending $1.40 for every $1 of tax revenue it gets and it's shown it doesn't have the ability to discipline itself and it's mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren, which is immoral. >> in the future what is the amount of timeç you think it wl take to get to a place where you would be comfortable with our national deficit and can you put a ballpark number on it? you said we don't have to get rid of it?

>> no. we need to make meaningful progress in 2013, because we could have a debt crisis in the united states within the next two years if we don't. this presidential election, the general election, must deal in substantive ways with our financial challenge. we once talked about specifically what people are talking to do, what the proposed solutions are so no matter who wins the public has been prepared and there's a mandate to take action. >> david walker, thank you for your insights. that's a wrap of "weekends with alex witt." straight ahead, more smart political talk on "up" with chris hayes. he'll take it away. ale announce) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance.

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