economic road we're on and take a new direction. i could not agree more. >> let's bring in monday's political power panel. good day to all of you. here's what we heard from senator rubio over the weekend. take a listen. >> i'm not going to even discuss the process anymore. i'll be respectful of the process he put in place. last thing he needs is those of us in the peanut gallery to say what we will do or won't do. there's a process in place and i want to be respectful of the process he's working on. >> fact aoring in delegates, is putting marco rubio on the gop ticket closer to a reality today than it was a few weeks ago? >> i don't think so actually. i don't think it's the right match for romney mostly because

it doesn't seem insync of how he's had success throughout his life. he doesn't like going out of the box. and i think rubio will be extremely helpful to him when he introduces the dream act 2.0 sometime shortly and i think that will benefit romney but i don't think he'll end up being a vp pick. >> who do you think gets the approximatic? >> i'm leaning toward portman. it's just more in step and makes more sense. seems like it's something that romney would be most comfortable with. >> david, the political attacks from democrats going to of course be fast and furious toward mitt romney. put yourself in the obama re-election team strategy sessions. what are some of the weaknesses that could really hurt marco rubio's political reputation nationally? >> the first thing i would do in those campaign strategy sessions is look at the map. this is really a state by state race and there are about a dozen swing states like republican colleagues in florida. it's important but not the only one. look at the west.

colorado, nevada, let's look at the industrial midwest. michigan, wisconsin. and the problem that rubio has is even within florida where romney trails president obama badly, rubio is one of many ethnicities within the latino community. he's cuban american. i got to tell you, in the west, in the midwest, in the northeast, in places where there still are swing states, that dog won't hunt with the entire latino community. he won't stand up and say i am onto you. this smacks of sarah palin a little bit. john mccain picked someone green and unknown and was more of a liability. i think that's what rubio is if he's chosen. more of a liability than an asset. simplistic to say he's latino and will bring along the state of florida or that voting block. >> let's go out to ron mott

ahead of the rubio/romney event we have been talking about. shouldn't we expect them to get more questions about the names on the ticket this afternoon? >> reporter: i would think so. good afternoon to you. we're outside of this event they'll speak just before 1:00 together. today is the first time as you mentioned they have stomped. they are at a shipping company. mitt romney is hoping that marco rubio can help deliver votes in november with or without him on the ticket. a lot of folks want marco rubio on the ticket and let's not forget the campaign acknowledged they have work to do with the latino community. latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll which was released late last week shows him down 47 points. astounding gap between him and the president. 69-22. a lot of folks say for mitt romney to have any shot at this white house in november, he needs to get up to about 40%. >> it's going to be very interesting to see the dynamic between romney and rubio. we haven't seen them together on

the national stage since 2010. ron mott, thank you so much. appreciate your work, sir. let's bring in ann. given rubio's lack of experience on the national stage even in washington, do you think that this is more of a smoke screen by the romney campaign? >> i don't think the romney campaign itself yet knows who they're going to pick. i think what we're seeing right now is their attempt to maximize a lot of buzz about the more popular people. whether they pick marco rubio, they'll get a whole days of people like us sitting around talking about it and talking about the fact that romney is campaigning with somebody who has got some appeal to certain hispanic if not all of them. talking about the dream act. talking about immigration. ultimately i would expect to see him tour with a variety of people whose names will be floated ultimately he'll pick one but they won't know even internally who that person is for weeks if not months. >> i want to call your attention

to an article that got our attention this morning from politico. i'm sure you saw it. president obama's campaign whisperer, bill clinton, the re-election team taking a cue from the former president and painting romney as a candidate embracing far right positions i believed he described himself at one point as not just conservative but super conservative. you worked for the former president. what do you think he's whispering in the president's ear? >> well, i was always struck by president clinton's ability to both see the forest and the trees politically. in other words, he could understand the wide sweep of an issue but then speak in very detailed specific terms about the exact americans who are impacted one way or another. he has this undeniable sixth sense about how mainstream america thinks and feels. the advice he's probably -- if he's giving advice to the president, i have no insight whether he is or not, if he's

giving advice, it's probably about how things are going to impact voters in these swing states that we've been talking about. ohio, pennsylvania, colorado, nevada, florida, michigan, wisconsin. these are places where president clinton fared well and he's got great advice. >> severe conservative by the way. that was what i couldn't recall. mitt romney described himself as a severe conservative. newt gingrich, we're still talking about newt gingrich out there campaigning. hoping for an unlikely victory in delaware tomorrow. reports continue to swirl about major campaign debt possibly skipping some campaign events. what's he's hoping to accomplish and is he staining his legacy within the republican primary with each day that passes? >> i think right now he may be looking at a way to pay down campaign debt. there's a lot he won't be able to continue. whether it's agreeing to something with the romney campaign and maybe they'll help

him there. he wants to finish on a strong note. that could be a convention spot. >> what do you think about the gingrich legacy? >> he's working on it now. hoping in short-term to not end this with a ton of debt. depends on what happens between now and the convention what his long-term legacy will be. he says he's staying in the race not because he's under illusion he could be the victor but anything could happen and it's his responsibility to keep romney to account and keep him committed to conservative positions. if the republican party feels he's done that, his legacy might be enhanced. if he's seen as a spoiler, it may be diminished. >> any time we don't include ron paul, i get three or four e-mails. thank you. after spending the last ten days in jail, george zimmerman is now free on bond. the neighborhood watch volunteer who claims he shot trayvon martin in self-defense walked out of a florida jail around

midnight wearing a gps tracking device. all of this coming two days after a judge granted zimmerman $150,000 bond. we're told that he had to put up 10%, which amounts to $15,000 to secure his release while awaiting trial. joining us is martin family attorney benjamin crump. thank you for joining us on this monday morning. >> thank you for having me. >> george zimmerman's location expected to remain secret. i know the family had to be expecting this. how is the family reacting to his release? >> with a heavy heart they watched the killer of their son be released from jail last night. they would rather he have stayed in jail until conclusion of these criminal proceedings. however, they hope that his freedom is temporary because the pain that he's caused their family is forever. they're never going to get their

son back. >> pictures have surfaced reportedly taken three minutes after trayvon martin was killed showing blood coming from zimmerman's head. this picture first aired on abc news. they were mentioned at the bail hearing on friday. how do you respond to those who say that the picture supports zimmerman's claim that he was in a fight for his life that night. >> well, obviously the detectives and the law enforcement did not believe that the evidence supported zimmerman's claims. when you think about his version of trayvon martin allegedly hitting his head against the pavement repeatedly but yet all you have is two cuts in his head that doesn't seem consistent with the force of hitting his head against the pavement and besides that, they didn't even put a bandage on it. there were no stitches. no hospital came to treat him.

>> you think the pictures look far worse than it was? >> right. it seems to suggest that he has embellished greatly and then that photograph has not been authenticated by anybody and so we have to wait and see evidence that comes out. the police have all of the evidence. they vetted it. based on what they examined, they charged had him with second-degree murder and as special prosecutor angela corey said they would not have charged him with second-degree murder if they didn't feel they could get a conviction on it so the evidence is there. >> the family rejected zimmerman's apology on friday. you called it insincere. his attorney mark o'mara apologized for the timing of that. this is what zimmerman's attorney said this morning. >> i'll leave it up to the family on how the family would

like to handle it. we would hope it would be private. >> mr. crump, if that apology had come during a more private moment, would the family have been more willing to accept it and what does the family, if anything, want to hear? >> i'm having trouble hearing you. the family right before the bond hearing we were asked if he could have a private meeting to apologize. the family said it's inappropriate at this time. this was 50 days later. he had ample opportunities to apologize if he really felt in his heart that he wanted to apologize. remember, he did this -- the real george zimmerman website where he authored the website saying he controlled the content and everything that was important and everything that was relevant to these matters, he was going to tell the world. nowhere in that website did he

ever say he was sorry for taking the life of trayvon martin. nowhere in that website did he show any remorse. to do that apology at a bond hearing when he's supposed to address the court to try to sneak it in seemed very insincere. he had ulterior motives because he was trying to get bond to get out of jail and the family felt offended by it. it was an emotional day. it was sybrina fulton trying to comfort him to say we have to stay strong. that's different. normal he would be comforting her. he just felt a sense of powerlessness in that courtroom. >> benjamin crump, attorney for the martin family, always a pleasu pleasu pleasure, sir, thank you for your time. >> sex lies and a videotape in a north carolina courtroom. the high stakes on the line for

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could the secret service scandal reach all of the way to the white house. members of the house homeland security committee have sent 50 questions to mark sullivan including were any members of the executive office of the president involved in the alleged incident? six agents are now out. more could follow.

a total of 12 secret service agents and 11 members of the military are implicated so far. we are also learning one agent allegedly took a prostitute to the hilton hotel where the president later stayed. >> to me the most important question is did any of those foreign nationals have access at any time to any data, any information of any type that could have compromised the president of the united states or made an enemy force aware of the practices and procedures of the secret service. >> joining me now is david wilkinson, former special agent in charge of the president's protection agency and served under presidents clinton and george w. bush. good morning. senator chuck grassley says the white house ought to launch its own investigation. should the white house look into this and why have we not heard from homeland security secretary janet napolitano since the secret service falls under her control?

>> good morning, craig. i don't know why you haven't heard from secretary napolitano. of course they will come back with facts and weed out bad apples of the secret service and i'm sure the white house is doing the same thing to make sure no one from the staff was involved. >> one of the highest ranking african-americans in the agency is earning a lot of praise for launching this investigation. her role also perhaps raising some questions among some female lawmakers as well. take a listen. >> i can't help but wonder if there had been more women as part of that detail if this ever would have happened. >> i can't help but keep asking this question. where are the women? >> could this scandal have been avoided if the secret service had more women in its ranks? >> it's hard to say. obviously, craig, you know,

character honesty, integrity is gender neutral. the secret service has women agents within the ranks. i can tell you this situation and this incident will show and prove to be an isolated incidents and whether there were more female agents, i don't think would have affected this particular situation. >> appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. john edwards is now on trial accused of using campaign money to hide his mistress who was pregnant with their child as he was running for president of the united states. the trial started this morning in greensboro, north carolina, and the star witness is expected to be andrew young, a former edwards' aide that wrote about his role in the affair facing six felony counts and could go to prison for 30 years if convicted. joining me now from miami, a

former u.s. attorney. good morning to you. >> good morning, craig. >> a new cbs/"the new york times" poll shows that john edwards has a favorability rating of just 3%. he's widely known for cheating on his wife suffering from cancer at the time. how are attorneys trying to make the emotional aspect out of this equation? >> they have a very uphill battle in terms of trying to do anything to create sympathy, likability or humanize john edwards. this is an incredibly ugly series of facts and even though the law is come flex, even confusing some would say, even though the prosecution theory has never been brought before, it's the kind of case where the prosecution thinks they'll get this jury to so detest john edwards that that jury is going to want to convict him of something. what the defense has to do is try to talk not to extent they can to get away from some of those things and focus on andrew

young. focus on him as a cooperator to present him as a lying rat that took money that was supposedly being donated and intended for edwards' girlfriend for andrew young's own house. they've got to make andrew young as much as they can the center of this case, center of focus and attempts to discredit young because the more the prosecution talks about john edwards and more difficult it is to get an acquittal here. >> wealthy donors had a gave money to edwards won't be testifying. the money wasn't given to edwards directly but funneled through other people, through those two. does this boost the defense's argument that the payments were gifts and not campaign contributions? >> it starts out with a proposition this was clearly private money and not campaign

money directed to pay personal expenses not traditional campaign expenses. if we had a case where campaign funds from contributors were being used to pay a girlfriend's expenses, that would be chargeable case as a federal crime. what's unusual about this one is trying to say that private money really should have been recorded as a campaign contribution because it was being used to keep edwards' campaign alive. the fact it was diverted through other folks helps the defense in a couple respects not the least of which is the defense is going to challenge the prosecution to prove that john edwards had specific knowledge about what was going on with these funds and that john edwards knew that it was in effect an illegal series of contributions. >> we should note here that five current obama administration or campaign officials are on that list to testify. it's going to be very interesting to hear what they have to say as well. always a pleasure, sir. thank you for that perspective.

>> thanks, craig. federal agents set to resume their search in soho for a child that vanished in new york city decades ago. the latest on the etan patz case. we're tall to forensic expert who went to the scene and we'll talk about what, if anything, they found there. and mother nature's perhaps payback for that all too easy winter. the weather channel's eric fisher is going to show us where april showers are bringing some snow. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing

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the sharp change in weather in perfect perspective. >> it's a quick change. you never knew this was coming. >> the weather channel's eric fisher joining us live from somerset, pennsylvania, where that snow continues to fall. what's the word there, sir? >> reporter: good morning. the word is what's going on here? the phrase is what's going on any way. we had 70s just a few days ago in western pennsylvania. flowers blooming. leaves coming out. we'll escape winter. it won't be that rough. this is creating problems for many folks in pennsylvania. over 40,000 people without power right now. every 60,000 between pennsylvania and new york and that's our biggest concern with this storm especially with higher elevations. i can give you good news. look up at a tree like this. it was completely coated in snow a short while ago. when you get these late-season storms, the sun angle is higher. energy gets through clouds. it helps to melt away that snow as it falls.

there that's a good sign for limiting power outages and property damage concerns we'll have heading through the afternoon. elevation storms are notorious this time of year. we're talking above 2,000 feet, highest totals. one sitting at 14 inches of snow here on april 23rd. >> appreciate that. thank you. the fine line between policy and politics. we're going to look at how president obama is molding the roles of campaigner in chief with commander in chief. not the first president to do that. we'll talk about that and controversy comments about the president lead to more fallout for musician ted nugent. which group decided to lock him out of a concert at ft. knox. s♪ ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade.

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they are doubling down on those broken down theories. >> president obama takes his message for the future on the road while reminding supporters on the trail and in private events what's on the other side of the aisle. on many trips, the rolled up sleeves in front of big crowds. those sleeves get buttoned up and suit jacket comes back for big political fundraisers. the republican digs are a consta constant. good monday to you. >> same to you, craig. >> "the new york times" highlighted a trip to florida. the president sticks in a discussion on the economy at florida atlantic university in between three campaign events. one at a hotel, two others at private residences. this is something we've seen over the past two decades. par for the course this time around or does president obama's

mixing of presidential duties raise more questions than his predecessors? >> it really is a recurring theme. it seems every time we have an incumbent president running for re-election, you see headlines that say using air force one an unprecedented amount of times. we saw that with george w. bush and with his father and with bill clinton. this is definitely a recurring theme and the white house would say and obama for america campaign would say they reimburse for travel expense $100,000 so far on reimbursement for travel but what comes with that is security and other list of costs. it definitely is seemingly par for the course for pass presidents. >> the article also shows where the president as taken air force one. two dozen trips to new york. ten out to california. will this travel mixing public

events with private fundraisers, will it hit historic highs? >> i don't know if it will. when you look at it in full screen, that's something else. coincidence the places he's hitting are places like new york, boston and california where he can raise a lot of money and swing states. and we're having that this week also where the president is going to go to north carolina, colorado, and iowa to talk extensively about policy but also about politics because he needs those young voters. >> always a pleasure, sir. thank you. >> here are some other stories topping the news right now this morning. president obama marked the annual remembrance of the holocaust during a speech at the u.s. holocaust memorial museum in washington. the president was introduced by a nobel peace prize winner and holocaust survivor. >> the bigotry that says another person is less than my equal,

less than human, these are the seeds of hate that we cannot let take root in our heart. >> the president also signed the new executive order today opposing new sanctions on iranian and syrian agencies and companies that create human rights abuses. if conservative nick laz sa ni nicolas sarkozy is to be president, he needs to win the runoff. he's facing fallout from the european debt crisis, polls show he's the underdog in the runoff. we also are keeping a close eye on markets this monday. a rough start for wall street. today's dip about investor fears concerning economic uncertainty over the european debt crisis.

the dow down 145 points. believe it, it has rallied somewhat. when it comes to lung cancer, a new study from the university of miami shows that hispanic patients live longer than their white or african-american counterparts. this applied whether they were born in the united states or not. latino patients develop less life threatening form of lung cancer as well. the exact genetic and environmental reasons for this are not yet known. hundreds of workers for american airlines and american eagle rallying in new york this morning holding a march and rally outside of the federal bankruptcy court. that's where american's parent company is seeking to tear up labor contracts after declaring bankruptcy last november. a murder trial is beginning in chicago right now for the man accused of killing singer jennifer hudson's mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. the former husband of hudson's

sister, william balfour is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the killings that took place at the house where jennifer hudson grew up. authorities say balfour acted in a jealous rage because his estranged wife had a new boyfriend. investigators say the family of a 6-year-old girl who disappeared saturday is now being kept away from their home in tucson. the investigators say that's after an fbi dog search turned up information early today that requires a follow-up. they would not say what was found. the last saw her at 11:00 p.m. on friday and was discovered at 8:00 a.m. on saturday. developing now on msnbc, investigators completed the search of a new york city basement on the street where 6-year-old etan patz disappeared back in 1979. sources tell nbc news forensic evidence including strands of

hair reportedly not blond like etans and a piece of paper is undergoing analysis. you recently visited the site. first of all, thank you for joining us this morning. reportedly human remains were found. why did you visit this site and what did you see while you were there? >> i wanted to see what kind of investment the fbi and nypd were making to look at this cold case since 1979. we've seen very little active and now all of a sudden we see tremendous resources being thrown in in an examination of that basement area. >> what sort of tests are they doing at the site right now? >> they are trying to find out whether or not there are skeletal remains underneath the concrete. they have removed all of the concrete. they are now in the process of

digging through all of the soil handling it like an archaeological dig. all of that soil has to be collected and analyzed in a laboratory and they are spraying walls with chemicals like luminol and blue star which is very much like luminol to determine if blood is present. it's a presumptive test and if you get as positive reaction i means you may have blood not necessarily human blood. at that point you have to go further. if you do get a positive result, which apparently they have, they have got to determine if it is etan's blood and they'll do that through dna analysis. >> it's been 32 years since etan vanished. there's been a lot of talk of what was found in that basement. hair that we mentioned. a stain on the floor. no human remains so far. what are chances that authorities will be able to find evidence that is intact? >> if the body was buried there, they should find skeletal

remains and hair. unfortunately they haven't found it yet but the dig is still going on. they may not find a body. it may have been moved. they will find evidence that a body had been there. if the body had been decomposing it could have left remnants in the soil and an analysis would definitely show the presence of those decomposition products. >> we of course want to remind folks that so far no one has charged in etan patz' murder. thank you so much, sir. appreciate your time. >> thank you, craig. the etan patz case believed to be the first case of a missing child put on the side of a milk carton. a series of kidnappings and disappearances including that of etan patz prompted president reagan to create the center for m missing and exploited children. the first picture was put on in 1984. since then, the national center for missing and exploited

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it's seen as a growing threatto our economy. student loan debt. a recent study found the average student loan debt among seniors graduating in 2010 rose to a record of more than $25,000. according to the federal reserve bank of new york, total student loan debt now stands at $870 billion and for the first time tops credit card debt and auto loan debt in this country. the situation could soon get dramatically worse unless congress acts the interest rate on student loans will double on july 1st to 6.8%. during visits this week to three college campuses, president obama will focus on that issue which is now at the center of the latest partisan battle in washington. here's the president's latest weekly address. take a listen.

>> we cannot just cut our way to prosperity. making it harder for young people to afford higher education and earn their degrees is nothing more than cutting our own future off at the knees. >> joining me now, u.s. news and world report chief business correspondent rick newman. all of this comes with a new a.p. survey showing this year's college class facing dim job prospects as well. studies show that 54% of bachelor degree holders last year are either without a job all together or if they do have one, they are underemployed. does this make the issue even more urgent? >> it's two problems coalescing which is the amount of student debt going up that's not surprising because of people that couldn't get jobs did go back to school or stayed in school longer but now they are graduating and time they took on the debt they thought this recession will be over by the time i graduate and i'll go get a job and pay it off. that's not happening. the other problem is jobs aren't available and jobs are returning

it's just very slow. unemployment is higher than it is for everybody else. that's really where the crunch point is. >> if congress is not active in the next few weeks and there's a good chance that won't happen, what could be the practical effect of this on students and families? >> the interest rate will go up. it was cut in 2007 to 3.had%. it will go back to 6.8%. the monthly payment is higher for everyone with a loan. it's good to be a voter during an election year and congress may extend this for a year. it can't go on forever. it's going to cost $6 million to extend it for another year. we may see it come for another year but then interest rate will go up. this is just going to be a continuing problem. >> we talked about student debt more than we have over the past five, ten years. the conversation that's not started in this country is spiraling cost of higher

education. the sheer cost of going to college or going to a university has spiraled out of control over the past decade or so. to what can we attribute that? >> part of the irony might be that the availability of student loans actually may be pushing college costs up because it means more people want to go to school and therefore the demand for education goes up which means the price goes up. that's one of the things. it's the private market. the cost of education is set by how many students want to go and how many slots are available. so this is yet another thing where we may have to decide do we want more government policies that somehow put a cap on tuition costs and things like that or feel like we want the market to sort this out and this is not at all clear where this is likely to head. >> all right. rick newman, thank you for your time. always appreciate your perspective. president obama on the brink of the democratic nomination that kicks off today's side bar.

the president all about certain to lock up his party's nod when five states vote tomorrow. he's won almost every delegate so far in the democratic prim y primaries with an exception of handful of delegates in southern states. crackdown on illegal immigration will take center stage at the supreme court this weekend. there will be hearings on arizona's tough immigration law and whether the state law interferes with the federal immigration policies. rod blagojevich could be turning to teaching while he's in prison. fox chicago reporting that blagojevich is currently washing pots and pans but soon be teaching shakespeare and greek methodology to other inmates. ted nugent lost a gig over his rant about president obama. the u.s. army has removed nugent from the lineup of a summer concert at ft. knox. new jersey governor chris christie continues to insist

that he did not doze off during a recent bruce springsteen concert at madison square garden. another concertgoer snapped a picture of christie appearing to have his eyes closed during a song "rocking ground." >> when i was fist bumping during "bad lands" nobody took pictures of that. when i was singing to "out in the street" thankfully no one took pictures of that. when i was contorting myself, nobody took pictures of that. former presidential candidate jon huntsman saying this of the possible nap on "morning joe" this morning. >>morning. >>. >> and following asleep at a bruce springsteen concert. >> have you ever done that? >> i think i fell asleep at an air supply concert one time. f starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com.

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more isolates with every like and status update? that's the question posed on the cover story of this month's edition of atlantic magazine. joining me robin goodman, clinical psychologist, art therapist. she has at least 10,000, 15,000 friends herself on facebook. here's the thing. a person on facebook may have hundreds of friends in a lot of cases but the idea that a lot of these connections are very shallow, very thin. >> the idea that it can make you lonely doesn't work just like it can't make you feel popular. you bring to it who you are. so there's actually good and bad things about social media and networking because it can be a way for somebody who's a little more shy or a little -- holds back a little to make connections, take those steps in a safe way. there are those other people that are already lonely that go on and say see, i'm not so popular. it's like who is the most popular all over again. >> it's high school all over again. >> exactly. you kind of -- you bring to it

who you are. it's not like it makes you one way or the other. >> you know, this was brought up in the meeting when we first talked about this. if you are living a life like that, a life of solitude and go on and see birthday parties and people at the bar and people at concerts and posting pictures and you don't have this, could facebook be making your life perhaps even sadder tan it would be in. >> well, see, this is the other thing. it's like we're all supposed to have those hallmark moments when we go home for christmas or thanksgiving. people choose what to put up there. is that reality? because they're not always posting everything bad that's going on in their life. they want to sometimes put their best face forward. and then they're presenting this sanitized version some days and you don't necessarily see that when you're prone to feeling badly about yourself already. >> robin, goodman, thank you so much. >> sure. >> will you friend me on facebook this afternoon? >> yep. >> let's be facebook friends. >> you got it. that wraps up things for me

here. thomas will be back tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. now with alex wagner" is up next. what you got coming up? >> a lot. how many facebook friends do you have? >> 15. >> now 16. happy monday to you, sir. coming up today is america having an existential crisis if you look at recent pillows, confidence is down in just about everything. we will tackle the great american trust deficit. and the $20 billion bp fund. less than half has been given out. bp claims is czar ken feinberg is here to discuss. plus, will the supreme court rule that the nation's toughest immigration law goes too far? it's a big monday edition of "now." and it all starts in a mere 180 seconds. [ male announcer ] this is lois.

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unspecific about specifically everything. it's monday, april 23rd. and this is "now." joining me today, writer and host of studio 360 radio kurt andersen, msnbc contributor ari melber of the nation, michelle goldberg of the daily beast and catherine crier, journalist and author of patriot acts". former presidential candidate jon huntsman is issuing more harsh criticism about the state of the republican party today after saying at a new york fund-raiser last night "the i don't know what world these people are living in." here's what huntsman said about the gop this morning. >> what does it stand for today? whanl a what are the driving idea disease other than being against things? what are you for? what is the bold part of your agenda you're shooting for? >> catherine crier, i take this