what appears to be a multiple victim homicide and suicide, with ties to a very dark side of american politics. police say they believe that the shooter is this man, j.t. ready, one of the country's most visible neo-nazis and most vocal anti-immigrant provocateurs. investigators are working from the theory that mr. ready put on body armor, he entered the home in gilbert where he lived, he killed his girlfriend, his girlfriend's adult daughter, the daughter's boyfriend, and the daughter's 16-month-old infant child before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. after the shootings early yesterday afternoon, police told local press that they had to wait to go inside the home, the site of the shooting, because of a large amount of ammunition on site, and because of chemicals found at the home. chemicals reportedly including two 50-gallon drums of some unknown substance or substances. according to the local fox

affiliate in phoenix, "the fbi and the joint terrorism task force are investigating the military-grade munitions, ordinances and hazardous chemicals and why they were at the home." it's also reported that the chemicals, these 50-gallon drums of chemicals were removed from the scene by the local fire department's hazmat team and by the department of defense. the department of defense? mass shootings are now a depressingly common feature of the daily news diet in the united states of america. but in this case, the alleged perpetrator is a very well-known political figure who has long personified the dark side of a very particular part of arizonan politics and american politics. in 2010, at an anti-immigration rally that featured speeches from russell pearce and joe arpaio, j.t. ready distributed these flyers, flyers saying that americans should put land mines along the u.s./mexico border.

the flyer from the event, it's signed there j.t. ready, over there on the left, about halfway down, and it's also marked nsm, as in national socialist movement, as in national socialists, as in nazis, neo nazis. j.t. ready then posted a picture of him and his friends holding up the land mine flyer while standing next to a van from univision. they think that's hilarious, the land mines thing by the -- yeah. that was in 2010. then in 2011, a member of the national socialist movement, a neo nazi was arrested in arizona with plastic tubs full of explosives. when he was picked up by the fbi and local police, he had three homemade bombs with him in his truck. in a later search of his home, they found 12 more bombs. this violent neo nazi thing has

been a fringe in arizona politics in a while. including nio nazis showing up at tea party anti-immigrant rallies to advocate for land mines. this kid you just saw being arrested with these bombs he reportedly said were for the border. but also, these proudly racist white nationalist groups openly parading on the border, as neo nazi vigilantes. they did it under the banner of the national socialist movement with swastikas flying. they also did it under the name minutemen. they also, most recently, have been doing the same thing under the name u.s. border guard. the man who is the accused shooter in this mass shooting in gilbert, arizona, has been behind all of those vigilante groups on the border. and he has been in evident presence on the far-right edge of republican politics and anti-immigration politics in arizona for a long time. >> i got news for all the judicial branch too that are in their little fancy black dresses, the ones who released these illegal aliens on our

street. we'll yank them out of the collar too and say, we're done. we're going to put patriots back in office. >> that is the neo nazi border vigilante guy speaking there. at that event in 2007, where you just saw him speaking, he's not wearing a uniform of any kind, he's wearing a suit. that's because what he's speaking at is not a nazi rally, it's an anti-immigrant rally. you can see the sign that he's speaking in front of the podium on, the sign on the podium says, "where's the fence?" which is a common anti-immigration slogan in very mainstream republican politics. and at that same event, as he is speaking, this guy here with the circle around him, who you can see applauding j.t. ready is arizona republican state senator russell pearce. here's ruffle pearce and j.t. ready again.

ruffle pearce, by all accounts, had a long and close relationship with j.t. ready. mr. pearce actually baptized j.t. ready into the mormon church. this is a picture of them at the baptism ceremony. this was first posted by the phoenix new times, which has done much of the legwork and ground level reporting aboutthe connections between the neo not gnatzis. you can see at the bottom, it's the logo or the masthead of jesus christ church of latter day saints, and you can see from the certificate here, he's being brought into the church as an elder. and the person who's bringing him in is russell keith pearce, russell pearce, his sponsor when he's baptized into his church. when mr. ready ran for city council in mesa, arizona, there were four people on the ballot. j.t. ready came in second out of four. it undoubtedly helped him do that well that he had the endorsement from a republican

state senator, from ruffle pearce. although he didn't make it on to mesa city council, he came in second, after all, j.t. ready did ultimately get elected as a republican party precinct committee man in arizona. the problem, of course, is that j.t. ready is a nazi! and that really should not be compatible with mainstream major party politics. after he game a republican precinct committee man in arizona, arizona republican congressman jeff flake and john shadegg asked for him to be removed from his post. and after his long association with russell pearce, his long, close association with russell pearce, russell pearce too walked away from j.t. ready. >> could i ask you if j.t. ready is your friend? >> j.t. ready showed up at a rally with me and j.d. hayworth, the great fiction around it is went around to try to find a picture they could use. >> if you had to do it over again, would you take another picture with the guy? >> i didn't take it. it's an old story. they made it up. >> do you know his history?

>> nope. >> that was in july 2008. ruffle pearce personally brought j.t. ready into the mormon church in 2004. for russell pearce, this is starting to become a very sensitive subject, for a couple of reasons. the first is that russell pearce had his own problems on the race issue. in 2006, he had forwarded to his supporters an e-mail that included a white nationalist anti-semitic screed accusing the media of pushing on an unsuspecting public, a view of the world in which, "every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the innerant nature of the jewish holocaust tale, the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of non-white aliens pouring across the borders." russell pearce had sent that out to his supporters in arizona. he later apologized, saying he really didn't know what it was when he sent it along. but the increasing visibility of j.t. ready as a neo nazi, the

other reason it was becoming an increasingly sensitive subject to russell pearce, is that russell pearce after having this long association with j.t. ready was ascending to become the most powerful republican in the state of arizona. he was frequently described as the most powerful politician in the whole state. and from that position, russell pearce authored and passed and got signed into law the most radical anti-immigration law in the country, sb-1070, papers, please. russell pearce is the guy who introduced it and got it passed as state senate president. but the guy who takes credit for writing sb-1070 is this guy. he's now secretary of state in kansas, but one sb-1070 passed into law, when he was a lawyer for a group called fair, the federation for american immigration reform. this is the group that helped right sb-1070. fair was founded in 1979 by a named john tanton. for some insight into where john tanton and fair were coming

from, what they're all about is an organization, seven years after he started f.a.i.r., john tanton wrote this, "to governor is to populate. will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? as whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night or will there be an explosion?" john tanton, the founder of fair later wrote, "i've come to the point of view that for european american society and culture to persist requires a european-american majority and a clear one at that." the organization that he founded to accomplish those goals is who russell pearce turned to to write arizona's papers, please, immigration law. that's who kris kobach was working for when he wrote that law. and you know, there are all sorts of radical groups with cockamamy ideas in american politics. that's the beauty of free speech, you get to be crazy if you want to be. radicalism is not a crime. radicalism is not illegal in the united states of america. but when you are not just some

free-floating radical with cockamamy ideas that nobody else buys in the world, but rather you are being drafted by the president of the state senate in arizona to help write legislation based on those crazy ideas, and that legislation is becoming law, and that legislation then gets described by the republican candidate for president as a model for the nation, you are at a place where radical has met powerful. and that is a whole different thing. the combination of radical and powerful that is russell pearce and his career ended up freaking out his home city of mesa, arizona. freaked them out enough that they recalled him from office and replaced him not with a democrat, but just a mainstream republican last year. it's the first time any stay senate president in any state was ever recalled from office in american history. it's the first time that any arizona lawmaker has ever been recalled from office in arizona history. but russell pearce did get himself recalled. how'd the state republican party react?

they appointed him vice chair of the party. even after his own jurisdiction got rid of him because he was too out there, the state republican party in arizona made him number two in the state. russell pearce is now running for senate again. and when the obama administration sued the state of arizona to try to stop papers, please, to try to stop his sb-1070 law, when that went to the supreme court last month, arizona republicans sent russell pearce to the united states senate to go defend that law. there he is, speaking in the u.s. senate, wearing his "don't tread on me" tie. but today russell pearce is back home in arizona. today, at least for the day, he is not talking about the evils of immigration. today, instead, he is talking about how before this mass shooting in gilbert, he hadn't talked to j.t. ready for quite some time. and local police and the joint terrorism task force and the fbi and the department of defense, apparently, are in and out of this home in gilbert, arizona, trying to figure out if j.t. ready had military-grade munitions and what they can do

with them. trying to sort out what's in those 50-gallon drums of chemicals. they're walking in and out of that house, past j.t. ready's car parked in the driveway, with his license plate "usbg," it stands for u.s. border guard. joining us now is e.j. montini, a columnist with the "u.s. republic," thank you very much for joining us tonight. it's nice to have you here. >> thanks, rachel. >> in terms of my summary of that history, let me ask you first as someone who's much closer to this reporting, is there anything i said that you think is wrong or that i should add some nuance to? >> no. i mean, with i think that you described the relationship fairly well. what's interesting is that one of the things that russell pearce often talks about is how, you know, when he finally found out that j.t. ready had gone to sort of the dark side, that he distanced himself from him.

but the fact of the matter is that in 2006, before that, the tape of that rally that you were showing, you know, russell pearce was approached by the head of the local anti-defamation league and told, specifically, that this guy, this j.t. ready guy that you've been seen with or hanging around with or whatever is a neo nazi and you have disassociate yourself from him, and yet the very next year he's at this rally at the state capital where j.t. ready calls russell pearce a statesman and he's applauding for j.t. ready's message. so he can't distance himself in that sense. he is -- and what's particularly despicable today, at least to me, anyway, is that he's put out a statement where he's talking about how the news media has been contacting him and they want to link him to this j.t. ready character, and it is just despicable, what they're doing. well, what's really despicable about that is russell pearce playing a victim at a time, a day after there are four legitimate victims found.

four dead people, including a toddler. those are the victims. he is not a victim in this. he was an associate of this guy. you owthat, you live with it, you deal with it. you don't try to paint yourself as a victim at the same time. the police are still cleaning up the crime scene. >> in terms of what police have said about the crime in itself, it seems like there's no reason to believe that there was anything other than a very, very horrible domestic violence incident. at least, that's the description that i've seen so far. if you could shed any further light on that, and also, on this further detail about what was in the house, there being some kind of munitions military-grade munitions, potentially, in the house. something about chemicals. can you add anything to what we understand about that? >> well, in terms of the incident itself, the gilbert police just said today that lisa maderos, the girlfriend of j.t. ready, was on the phone with a dispatcher calling about a domestic violence issue when the phone went dead. so it's pretty clear this was a

zpinls situation that the occurred inside that house. the police found 50 .40 millimeter hand grenades that are meant to be launched, but they didn't find any launching device. apparently they're a little bit older than the most recent model. but they'll be able to trace those and find out where they came from and hopefully find out where he got them. in terms of the chemicals, the two drums, i've heard that there are no solid information on that yet, although there have been some speculation about one of the barrels just containing water and one of them perhaps containing acetone. now, there's a lot of uses for acetone, some of them very bad, but some of them as simple as cleaning automobile parts. and j.t. ready did work in an automobile parts store, so it's hard to say exactly what he was trying to do. i don't think many people necessarily thought of this guy, you know, as terribly intellectual, terribly

sophisticated in terms of the kind of things you might be thinking the really bad things somebody might be able to do with this kind of stuff, but you never know. the fact is, they're still a long way from figuring out what all that stuff is for. >> e.j. montini, a columnist with the "arizona republic," thanks for helping us to sort some of this stuff out. thanks for your time. and in terms of the munitions found on site, we've had some different reports. you heard mr. montini mr. say several dozen grenades potentially found. we've also been told it was six grenades found. we're waiting on the local police to find out if there were things in that home that were of note, that may have been connected to something other than this specific crime, something other than just for personal use. and this conflicting report, but we'll keep you posted as we learn more. all right, coming up next, mitt romney campaigning today with governor ultrasound in virginia. we'll tell you how that went and what it means when come back.

there was an issue in american politics that democrat thes typically avoid trying to make eye contact, let alone actually flirting with or espougz it. but this year in the context of the presidential election and in the context of a republican party that is newly radicalized and emboldened to go after abortion rights and even contraception access in way they have not done since roe versus wade, this year it turns out politics are different. this year it turns out that politics are not only willing to defend abortion rights against those politicians trying to take those rights away, democrats

this year are raising the subject themselves. they're bring it up. democrats are trying to force republicans to admit to and own their own record on it. this is a new thing. and it's happening just in time for republican presidential candidate mitt romney's joint appearance today with virginia governor bob "ultrasound" mcdonnell also with congresswoman michele bachmann of minnesota. the democratic national committee out with a new ad going after the three of them as a group for their collective record on women's health. >> planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. >> some women across virginia a outraged as governor bob mcdonnell signs that controversial bill, requiring women seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound. >> were you wrong initially, when you said it was a basic

procedure that should be part of the bill. >> i want to tell you about new legislation that i've just introduced in congress to require that abortion providers make the heartbeat of the unborn child visible and audible to its mother. >> do i believe the supreme court should overturn roe v. wade? yes, i do. >> the democratic party today going after mitt romney and his very obviously wannabe vice president, governor ultrasouth sound, and his brand-new supporter, specifically on issue of abortion rights. but president obama himself recently released a video addressed specifically to planned parenthood voters. and a not too subtle reminder that mitt romney said he would get rid of planned parenthood. >> over the past year, you've had to stand up to politicians who want to deny millions of women the care they rely on, and inject themselves into situations that are best made between a woman and her doctor.

let's be clear here. with women are not an interest group. they're mothers and daughters and sisters and wives. they're half of this country. and they're perfectly capable of making their own choices about their health. when some professional politicians casually say that they'll get rid of planned parenthood, don't forget what they're really talking about. eliminating the funding for preventative care that millions of women rely on, and leaving them to fend for themselves. that's why last year when republicans in congress threatened to shut down the government unless we stopped funding planned parenthood, i had a simple answer, no. >> the president campaigning there against republican efforts to defund planned parenthood, reminding voters that he smacked down the last big republican effort to defund planned parenthood at the federal level. when he talks about professional politicians who say they will get rid of planned parenthood, he's, of course, talking about mitt romney. but the president is also now

bringing up specific anti-abortion policies that republicans have been pursuing not just at the federal level, but in the states. >> these are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling. but it doesn't seem to bother them when it comes to women's health. now we've got governors and legislators across the river in virginia, up the road in pennsylvania, all across the country saying that women can't be trusted to make your own decisions. they're pushing and passing bills, forcing women to get ultrasounds, even if they don't want one. if you don't like it, the governor of pennsylvania said you can close your eyes. >> the president, of course, referring to virginia republican governor bob mcdonnell and the new forced ultrasound law and the pennsylvania forced vaginal probe, forced the image into your sightline ultrasound bill, which is supported by republican governor tom corbett of pennsylvania. >> making them watch, does that go too far in your mind? >> i don't know if you can make

anybody watch, okay, because you just have to close your eyes. >> in this political climate, created by a whole new radical republican era of policy making on this subject, the issue of abortion rights is one where democrats are starting to feel less shy. democrats are starting to feel about their political responsibilities on this issue, given how far and how fast republicans are pushing on this issue on the other side. in the great state of michigan, in a congressional race in the state of michigan, support for abortion rights is becoming a major issue between the various democratic candidates who are vying in the democratic primary. the battle creek michigan enquirer reporting that while serving in the state legislature, one of the democratic candidates for this vulnerable republican-held justin amosh congressional seat, one of the democratic would-be candidates earned a 0% approval rating from planned parenthood for his state voting record. that included him supporting a bill to defund abortion providers. he is being called out in the democratic primary on having an

anti-abortion, anti-women's health record. being called out by his democratic opponents. that former state legislator is now insisting that his views have changing, saying, "i don't believe in making abortion illegal. let me be very clear about this, i'm in in support of any legislation in front of the u.s. congress that would defund planned parent." it's remarkable, right? republicans all campaign on abortion rights. democrats almost never want to talk about this. but thanks to a year or two of republican radicalism on this issue, this is now turning out to be a key issue for democrats. i mean, this is a democrat with an anti-abortion record that now feels compelled this year to explain himself to try to reassure voters that he's not too anti-abortion, that he doesn't want to defund planned parenthood. we are seeing this as a new dynamic playing out not just in individual congressional races, we are seeing this play out legislatively, in states where democrats are in control, they're pushing measures to expand or shore up abortion rights. in washington state this year, democrats pushed a bill at

making sure that insurance policies would still cover abortion services. in california, democrats are pushing a bill to expand access to first trimester abortions. new york democrats are supporting a bill to expand access to late-term abortions for women who have health complications. this is the backdrop for this year's election, up and down the ticket. and this is new. abortion used to be a wedge issue that divided the democratic party and therefore democrats did not like to talk about very much. this year, with republican, dare i say, overreach on the issue, this year abortion rights are poised to become a wedge issue that divides republicans. so the default republican position right now on this is to not want to talk about it. their default position right now is to pretend none of this is happening. this year republicans are the ones who are trying to avoid talking about what they have been doing against abortion rights. and they keep getting really mad that people are noticing that they are, in fact, making a whole lot of policy on this issue, because they would really rather not talk about it. they would really rather not answer for it.

but here's mitt romney campaigning alongside governor ultrasound today. the presumptive republican nominee for president, auditioning the guy who spent 14 years as a state legislator, sponsoring or co-sponsoring 35 anti-abortion bills. the guy who this year became governor ultrasound, signing into law a state-mandated medical procedure to be forced on virginia women, for the first time. so how about it, governor romney? are you campaigning with governor ultrasound in spite of his long and radical anti-abortion record or are you campaigning with governor ultrasound because of that record? when asked at today's event if he thinks his ultrasound bill could cause problems for mitt romney, here's what governor ultrasound himself had to say about it. >> no. look, i'm pro-life, romney's pro-life, some people have a different opinion. we've been debating this for 40 years in virginia. people have differences of opinion on that. i believe it's important to support a culture of life, so does governor romney.

>> governor ultrasound says that he and mitt romney, two peas in a pod. they are totally in sync on their super anti-abortion politics. we asked the romney campaign today if they agree. we asked the romney campaign today if governor romney supports governor mcdonnell's two-decade anti-abortion record. if there's anything on the subject of governor mcdonnell's anti-abortion record that mitt romney disagrees with him on. we did not hear back from the campaign.

today was a really big news day both in politics news and news news. there's a very dramatic spy-like situation still under way between our government and the government of the closest thing there is in this world to a another superpower. we'll have details on that ahead. plus we've got some details for you on the mitt romney spokesperson who has been relieved of his job. he did not get relieved of his job for saying that i look like a man and should wear more jewelry. he got relieved of his job for some other reason. that's all coming.

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idea? ahead of the invasion, one of the countries we tried very hard to get on board with our war is mexico. while we were trying everything we could to woo mexico to participate in this international pariah of a war that we were about to start, while we were pulling out all the stops, flattering mexico every way we know how, offering everything we could to get them on board with this thing, somebody in the bush administration screwed it up. mexican press lit up with reports that at the u.n. some american official had leaned on mexico's u.n. ambassador and told them to hurry it up while he was talking to the press. hurry it up, because america's u.n. ambassador was waiting to talk. this american guy hurrying up mexico's ambassador was reported to have said, quote, who cares what mexico has to say? ah, the bush era. not exactly a high point in american diplomacy. but while we were trying to get them go along with our iraq war, that was especially not good, right? this whole anecdote was reported on today at foreign policy magazine by collin lynch. the star of that kerfuffle, the star of that blow-up, the guy

who made him famous in mexico by saying who cares what mexico has to say, in the middle of this diplomatic tinder box, that guy was richard grenell. after the george w. bush administration was out of office, mr. grenell became a very prolific user of twitter, and while twitter does not always bring out the best in people, as a high-ranking former bush administration official, mr. grenell's tweets stood out for, frankly, their immaturity and sexism and apparent lack of judgment. did you notice that while michelle obama is working out on the biggest loser, she's sweating on the east room carpet? just saying. do you think callista's hair snaps on? rachel maddow needs to take a breath and put on a necklace. what does that have to do with whatever he disagreed with me about? i don't know. but given that this was his post-bush administration public persona, it was a little weird that that was the guy that governor mitt romney chose to be his spokesman in his presidential campaign. once mr. grenell's junior high school-style online history started to get reported on, he

immediately scrubbed his online profile, he deleted something like 800 of his tweets. weirdly enough, the one about me and the necklace, you can still find that online. he apologized for some of his tweets, saying he didn't mean any of them, any of those 800 he deleted. whether or not governor romney didn't bother to look at mr. romney's online profile or didn't care this was the guy he was hiring, he did pick him as his spokesman. and there was a totally unrelated different criticism of this same guy. but this time it came from deep, deep, deep in right field. >> now, richard grenell is an out loud and proud homosexual. and he is now the face of the romney campaign on national security and foreign policy. >> and that was brian fisher from the american family association. you probably remember seeing him on the show. he has a long history of saying inflammatory stuff on lots of issues, including gay rights. but it wasn't just brian fisher, it was also tony perkins, also

the tucker carlson website, founded by the rick santorum billionaire, foster friess. it was also the national review online, questioning whether a gay person could ever really be loyal. they published is a piece saying whatever fine record they compiled in the bush administration, grenell is more passionate about same-sex marriage than anything else. so while richard grenell is being criticized by the anti-gay rights and by other people for something totally unrelated to him being gay, when it came to the romney campaign, the criticism about his fitness for office, his maturity, his judgment, that apparently did not matter to the romney campaign. but the people on the right who hated richard grenell because he was gay, that mattered to the romney campaign. according to "the new york times" today, even before mr. grenell quit the campaign, the campaign was not allowing him to speak. even on conference calls that he had organized. a policy aide to mr. romney quoted as saying, rick, the campaign has requested that you not speak on this call. it's best to lay low for now.

when you're hired as a spokesman and you're not allowed to speak, you're allowed to sit on the conference call, but not say anything, you are probably not long for that spokesman job. and sure enough, soon there was a exclusive scoop for a conservative blogger at "the washington post" that mr. grenell would be resigning. the report made it clear what it was that made it so mr. grenell had to go. "although grenell also raised the ire of liberal commentators with now deleted tweets about certain prominent women, none of the sources i spoke with mentioned the tweets as a factor in his resignation decision. instead, the reason richard grenell could not stay on as a spokesman for mr. romney was attributed to a full court press for anti-gay conservatives." for his part, mr. grenell released a statement upon resigning, lamenting that discussion about his personal issues had made it impossible for him to stay on. but he went out of his way to thank governor romney for his, quote, clear message to me that being openly gay was a nonissue for him and his team. clear message? how exactly was that made clear to you?

as the right was attacking richard grenell for being gay, neither mr. romney nor anyone in the romney campaign ever spoke out against it. they never defended mr. grenell for being gay. they never told anybody on the right to cool it with the anti-gay rhetoric. they apparently did not even do so privately. one republican adviser telling "the new york times" today, quote, they believed this was a non-issue, but they didn't want to confront the religious right. so you're privately okay with a gay spokesman being gay, but you won't stand up to people attacking him for being gay. you won't stand up to guys like derek fisher in public. privately, you think they're wrong, but you won't say anything in public about this private feeling that you have that you want to be known. this thing that we might be interested in knowing whether or not it's a way we can judge you. when somebody on the right calls for a scalp publicly and you hand them a scalp, that kind of puts that person in charge. and they know it. this guy brian fisher today was crowing about this being a huge win.

quote, it will be a long time before the governor appoints another homosexual activist to a prominent position in his campaign. whoo-hoo! the right wins. on tuesday, north carolina has its republican primary. spoiler alert, mitt romney will win. but north carolinaens will also be voting on an omit to doubly, triply ban gay marriage in that amendment. a fayetteville pastor is apologizing, kind of, for saying this weekend that parents should beat their children if their children appear to be gay. the wife of the sponsor of the anti-gay amendment is reported to have described the impetus of the amendment for defending the white majority, encouraging caucasian reproduction in north carolina. white people can't be in gay marriages, they need to be in straight marriages so they can make more white people. the amendment sponsor is denying that this was his intention, but that's what the anti-gay politics around this is like in north carolina. president obama has actually waded into this state issue.

his re-election campaign has said that they oppose this anti-gay ballot measure in north carolina. the democratic party in the state is fighting against it. so mitt romney's taking -- so president obama has taken a position on this. mitt romney has not. whatever mitt romney's position is on this north carolina anti-gay thing, mitt romney will not say. he will not say publicly, at least. what does he think privately? well, i'm sure privately you can rest assured that whatever he thinks privately is something that you'd be very comfortable with. publicly, he's not going to say anything, but privately, be assured that mitt romney agrees with you, whatever you believe. vote for him, for leader. e.j. dionne from "the washington post" joins us next. [ male announcer ] can febreze set & refresh make even this place smell fresh?

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former massachusetts governor, mitt romney picked a spokesman, an out gay man. that spokesman lasted a very short time before he resigned this week after a barrage of criticism from the right. not about his competence, not about his creepy sexist online record but simply about the fact of his being gay. through it all, the romney campaign never stepped in to publicly defend him. one republican adviser told "the new york times" they believed this was a nonissue but they didn't want to confront the religious right. joining us know e.j. deon, washington post columnist and contributor. thanks for being here. >> good to be with you. >> i don't think of mitt romney

as someone incapable of confronting the religious right. i directed some cross words towards bryant fisher who had taken the lead in attacking richard grinnell for being gay. are you surprised the romney campaign never publicly made a peep in defense of this man they chose for the job? >> actually, i'm not. i think their biggest fear is losing evangelical conservative votes. if you look back at the primaries, he lost every state when it was competitive br there was a majority of evangelical christians. he is in the same box as john mccain. john mccain was never the favorite of the conservative wing of the republican party, including the evangelicals. he constantly had to give in to them or give them something. when i first heard this story, i thought he was being fired for the right reason, which he had made all those nasty comments about women, including you. i thought, oh, romney is doing

something about his women problem. instead, he is doing something so he doesn't have an evangelical conservative problem. i am not surprised at all that they handled it this way. >> don't you think that now that the nomination is wrapped up, everybody keeps saying that mitt romney is pivoting to the center. isn't this his time to take a stand on the anti-gay bigotry and say i am anti-gay rights but i am not a brian fisher guy? i sort of feel like he has room to do that. i don't think the evangelicals are going to flee. >> if he is pivoting to the center, it is still little, little baby steps it seems to me. i think that when they looked at this, this issue was really live on the right wing. where as the voters he is going to pick up in the center, he is going to pick up as economic protest voters for other reasons, they are probably not very engaged in this. i think the one place where this could hurt him is among voters under 30.

if you look at recent polls under 30s, president obama doesn't have all of them locked up. he won them 2-1 the last time. i think there are some in roads romney could make. on the issue of gay rights, the under 30s have very, very strong views. that is the one and only place i can see some cost to romney for handling this thing this way. >> we are going to be covering the north carolina issue. because the obama campaign seems clear this is a clear political issue, they waded in at the state level without qualms. to see the romney campaign get so shy about it is fascinating. a.j.dionne, thanks for being here. >> good to be the second e.j. of the night. >> clearly, we are blessed. >> a really great spy novel with really high stakes coming up next.

this is the man at the center of one of the most sensitive complicated kim matt tick situations, chen guangcheng. he sued chinese authorities. it is a dangerous thing to do in china. he sued them over their one-child policy. in 2005, he recorded interviews with rural villagers who reported they had been forced to have abortions and undergo sterilizations by local authorities. this 36-year-old woman who told him she was seven months pregnant and on the run when she learned that local officials had detained more than a dozen of her relatives and would not release them unless she returned for an abortion.

drawing attention to that kind of government activity is what mr. chen did before he was imprisoned for more than four years. he was released last year, only to be kept with his family under constant surveillance in a strict house arrest. his family says they were beaten regularly, particularly when they tried to communicate with the outside world. this is what happened in october of last year when a mcclatchy news reporter tried to reach his house to interview him. watch. >> in a split second after the man in black heard i was a journalist, he lunged through the window screaming and tried to drag my news assistant out of the car. this next scene picks up at what followed. the man in black sprinted back to the silver volkswagen and took off after us. >> 11 days ago, mr. chen escaped house arrest and in a daring intrick cattily planned plot, he pretended to be sick and bed ridden for weeks.

on a moonless night, he sneaked past sleeping guards and heaved himself over the first of several walls, injured himself badly during his escape. he hurt his foot and got in touch with fellow rights activists who helped hide him. one told reporters our main goal was to get him to a safe place. it was decided only the american embassy could provide that kind of protection. what followed was a period of several days of speculation about whether or not mr. chen was hiding in the u.s. embassy. now, we know he was. while the u.s. government and chinese officials tried to negotiate what would happen next, chinese officials were none too thrilled he had escaped house arrest and that the u.s. was now involved in what they believed was an internal situation. despite the circumstances of the house arrest, imagine if someone were under arrest in our country and got away and fled to the chinese embassy. what would we think or do about china helping that person escape from the united states? just yesterday, details began to emerge that a settlement had been reached. u.s. officials say that mr. chen told them he wanted to stay in

china. he would leave the embassy in beijing. he would not be forced to return to his home in shandong province where no one could help his safety. he would be allowed to enroll in a university near beijing. mr. chen with the american ambassador to china, gary locke, spoke with the media saying this deal was satisfactory to him e was taken to the hospital with american embassy staff. ambassador lock on the right. he was rue eye nighted with some family at the hospital. this all happening yesterday as secretary of state, hillary clinton and treasury secretary, tim geithner, were beginning a previously scheduled trip to beijing than no sooner had mr. chen arrived at the as part of this new deal that the deal ensuring his safety fell apart. he says he does not want to stay in china. he says his family was threatened while in u.s. custody. he did not realize the amount of danger he was in when he said he wanted to stay in china rather than seek asylum in the u.s. he has changed his mind now.

he wants to leave china and with his family and with second clinton when she flies out of china tomorrow. from the u.s. perspective, a human rights activist oppressed by his own government and in danger by his own government and seeking our help. from the chinese government perspective, this is none of the united states business. his appeal for help, his appeal directly for the u.s. for help is happening while the secretary of state is in china. mr. chen also called into a u.s. congressional hearing on his case held today, an emergency hearing called on capitol hill to deal with the pressing and time sensitive nature of his case. that's congressman chris smith of new jersey and pastor bob fu on the right, holding a cell phone and translating for mr. chen. >> translator: i want to meet with the secretary clinton. i hope i can get more help from

her. i also want to thank her face to face. >> what happens now is unclear. presidential candidate, mitt romney, wasted no time today criticizing president obama for this unexpected almost unprecedented turn of events. he called it, quote, a day of shame for the obama administration. secretary clinton is scheduled to depart china tomorrow. the next 24 hours are going to be critical for mr. chen and potentially for america's future relationship with china. this is what has happened so far. the next 24 hours are going to be really important. stay tuned. declassified documents. papers seized from osama bin laden's lair reveal the terror leader's final thoughts. supermoon. why this weekend's full moon will be bigger and brighter than any other day this year.