cover on the show either. the obama campaign goes after newt gingrich. one of the greatest proposed shrink and running bane capital. claiming he is a job destroyer. note the timing. they continue to hope to define romney before the slow summer months roll around. >> a terrible mistake is how jpmorgan's ceo described the company's $2 billion loss. three executives are on the way out and will bank regulations get tougher now that the critic has egg on his face. on capitol hill, pressure from the right on john boehner and mitch connell. if you thought the tension had eased, think again. good morning from washington. it's monday, may 14th, 2012. let's get right to the first read of the morning. a lot of folks wanted to get it

back to the economy. they are borrowing a page and newt gingrich's from january of this year to make mitt romney's strength a weakness. they are out with a two-minute attack ad that tells the story on a company whose kansas city plan was shuttered after bane purchased it in 1993. >> mitt romney was involved in the influence that he exercised over the companies. >> they made as much money as they could and they filed for bankruptcy without concern for the families. >> something i thought that was -- >> it's like watching an old friend bleed to death. >> the one on point they're making is that happened after he left bane capital. it was just four months ago when the pro gingrich super pac got romney's record at bane.

those ads worked. romney found himself on the defensive and ended up losing the primary badly. he never figured out how to respond to the attacks on bane. >> free enterprise will be on trial. i thought it was going to come from the democrats and the president on the left, but instead it comes from speaker gingrich and others. that's part of the process. i have broad shoulders. >> that has been working so well, the backlash was don't run then. can romney respond more effectively this time? the campaign had the statement in response. president obama can't come close to matching the many years of experience that mitt romney has as a private business man so he has chosen to attack it. they are spending a lot of money to define romney before they lose the attention of voters between memorial day and the fourth of july. so far the camp has been quiet,

another reminder of the bullying. the campaign, you have to be careful. they are not letting others define romney before he has a chance to define himself. did that trend continue? or did they respond directly to these attacks. we said romney needs to figure out perhaps how to talk about his mormon faith. he calls himself the largest christian university in the world. romney probably gave the closest thing to a speech on mormonism than in any of the cycle. he never mentioned the word. >> people of different faiths like yours and mine sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose. >> at a campus where many view his mormon faith with suspicion, some label it a major cult. his message was i'm one of you and he was greeted warmly.

the son of jerry falwell summed up the acceptance they feel for him now that he is the nominee. >> positions on the political issues are most closely aligned with our own, not the candidate who shares his or her faith or theology. i have a crack in here about jimmy carter. i'm going to skip. >> romney name drop and gave rick santorum a mention, but this was the line that brought the crowd to its feet. >> marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. >> when he was asked by the christian broadcasting network whether he intends to keep talking about same-sex marriage marriage, his answer was not exactly a yes. >> what i speak reflects what i'm being asked about. those issues by virtue, the president's change of view on

this topic has become a more current one. how important it is to the people a few months from now, time will tell. >> interestingly, there is a memo being circulated among republicans written by president bush's pollster in 2000 and 2004 that essentially recommends careful wording on the marriage issue that even if you are against gay marriage as a republican, don't be talking about taking away rights. be talking about equal rights for gay couples. romney's challenge is to make sure what happened in the debate doesn't happen with gay marriage. he wants to avoid being stamped. comments like this are a bit awkward. >> he said the views were evolving. call me cynical, but i wasn't sure his views on marriage could

get any bigger. >> we talked about how to respond to the gay marriage issue. president of the family research council praised romney's speech and criticized congressional republicans for taking a cautious line. >> i don't think the way that the republicans are on capitol hill are doing it saying it is a distraction and defending the family and the cornerstone of civilization is not a distraction. >> i point you to the memo and we will post a first memo later this hour and later this morning. should you read it. it's fascinating. if you thought the on set means anent of pressure from the right, think again. interesting this weekend. a couple of stories show mitch connell and john boehner have good reason to watch their backs. the speakers are angry about the approach boehner has taken on weather to vote to have eric holder for his handling of the fast and furious scandal

specifically about whether he is turning in records fast enough to the investigators. then the "new york times" reminds us that connell could have the same problem boehner has, taming the tea party. in arizona, missouri and pointedly not vowing to back connell in the next leadership election. this is how richard murdoch put it to me on the issue of connell. >> they get a few more conservatives, we can change that and not necessarily the people, but at least give the senate leadership a more conservative point of view because they have more in the caucus. i never had the occasion to talk about him. >> if they don't want that in november, does he normally need the conference? up with the first real leadership fight with the top spot in years.

the fight over gay marriage showed no sign of slowing down on sunday's talk shows and church pulpits who were among african-americans. will the president's position hurt them with voters in november? south carolina congressman and leader james cli born. good morning and good monday morning. >> good morning. how are you in. >> i'm okay. first where are you on gay marriage number one and number two, what did you hear sunday from the pulpit? >> well, thank you so much for having me. first of all, i have evolved to a point of marriage equality. i have not always been there. i grew up as a fundamentalist christian and i grew up with that indoctrination and i have grown to the point that i

believe that we have evolved to marriage equality. however, i depart from the president on the state by state approach. if this is a civil right, and i do, i don't think they ought to be left up to a state by state approach. we should have a national policy on this. the state regulation is one thing, but the granting of the right to the states, i don't think that's a good policy and i have a problem with that. >> what did you hear this weekend yourself from the pulpit and from what you could hear from african-american church leaders? i know the president reached out to some last week. what did you hear this sunday? >> i read a pastorial letter written by my pastor at the ame church in charleston. i read that letter about three

times. it was kind of interesting that the reverend feels the same way about this as i have just expressed to you. he gave some history as to how we have evolved as ames on very questions of marriage and marital fidelity. and certain scriptures that moderated over the years and that is a sign of evolution. i do believe that we should not have a revolution on this. we should continue to evolve because that's the way to sustain these kinds of expansions of rights. that's what this is. i do believe that we should say to gay couples that you ought to be able to enjoy the same insurance protections, the same civil rights that everybody else

enjoys and i than is a position where i was not ten years ago. >> what is the line -- you say marriage is a civil right and that hasn't been always the president's position. there has been a debate about is it a full-fledged civil right? >> what is the line of -- when should government lead the public on a cultural ship like this and when should government leaders leave it to the public to lead? i say it in an ought way. it seems as if the president is getting on board right after it looks like a majority of the country is getting there too on this issue. >> that's true. i don't know that there is a line to be drawn, but i would remind you in my lifetime, it was illegal in some states. for black and white couples to get married. i think that we have seen in

many churches that call themselves fundamentalist and christian they teach theological tolerance of slavery and certitude. these kinds of things are there and contradictions based in the scripture that we all have to work our ways through. sometimes it takes the federal government to step into the breech in order to resolve many of these issues. it certainly did that through the courts with the marriage question and did the same thing when it comes to whether or not colored folks have the same rights as white people have. i don't know that there is a line to be drawn, but we evolve and work and try to make sure that we in the process, don't do unfair things to people.

>> very quickly, i can't let an appearance on this show go by without asking you about the sequester. there was a republican version trying to replace the sequester which would have massive defense cuts. you have been against these cuts and you want the sequester. where are we and will this done before election or at the end of the year after the election? >> i have been saying for four or five weeks now, what we will see in november after the elections is the mother of all lame did you works. i do believe that so much of this will be worked out in a lame duck session. i know a lot of things are on the table and i don't believe we will fix them for ten years. we might do a one-year fix to give everybody time to work through things and do income tax reform and that kind of stuff. i look for us to kick this issue

into a lame duck and do a one-year fix while we get it all worked out for the long-term. >> all right. the member of the house leadership and democrat from south carolina with a reality check on sequester. that is like most of us would expect to happen here on this issue. thank you, sir, and happy monday. >> thank you. same to you. >> coming up, the $2 billion banking blunder. two top executives are on the way out. jamie dimonworks damage control. plus, endangered incumbents. is pete stark the next in what's developing to be a long line of incumbents getting shown the door. we go to the west coast where the house member faces the biggest threat of his political

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>> a $2 billion blunder by jpmorgan chase fueling calls for a crack down on nbc's "meet the press." jamie dimon called it an egregious mistake and here's what he said when asked if his officials did anything illegal.

>> did the bank break laws or violate accounting rules or sec rules? >> we had audits and the best people looking at all of that. we know we were sloppy and stupid and we don't know if that's true. that's their job. we are open to regulators and they will come to their own conclusion. we intend to fix it and be a better company when it's done. >> the correspondent for the national journal. the "squawk box" on cnbc. i will start with you. we don't know if laws were broken. that to me was a stunning admission beyond anything else said. >> agree and there was a story in the financial times that said the bank is looking into this, trying to track things down. it's telling that heads are starting to roll. three people in greece who is expecting to leave the bank as a

result of this. that probably told you that the people at the top, jamie dimon and below him didn't know what was happening at that unit. >> you know, i heard the phrases too big to manage and too big to regulate. what's correct? >> what's correct is that we are still in a situation where we are too squishy in the regulations. >> that really implicates. let's combine people. >> the rules that would have been overseeing are not even in place and won't be having that for a couple of years. that's when i'm saying about squishy. tough to say that they weren't there when in fact they were supposed to regulate them. >> go ahead. this would have been legal we think through dodd frank because of the idea of institutional bets is the way to put it? >> these are institutional bets

where they are hedging the risk. that is supposed to be allowed. there is all sorts of interpretations whether that's what it is or not. it's so complicated that even whether this is legal or not will take people god knows how long to figure out. beyond that, you have this yet that the regulators are smarter and they have a better idea of what's happen something they are already there and at the bank. it doesn't seem like they have a better idea of what's happening than the people at the top of the bank. >> it teams to be a harder time making money and they have to find out other ways to make the profit. >> right and the macro impact could be from that very question. how much do banks need to do and lend and how much activity can they spur by loaning people money to start businesses if they are too worried about it

and too busy doing all this financial transaction. the core question of banking needs to be right now with a recover. are they lending the money they need and how did the regulations play into that. >> you have this idea that the fed made this easy money policy and they want the banks to be lending. there may not be enough demand. you get people starting to come back to the idea that this is the fed's fault for the easy lending to begin with, they are trying to push them out the doors and so much they can do to push it to places they want to do. >> me about i that drew. >> she is one of the top earners at jpmorgan. 14 or $15 million a year over the last couple of years. she was responsible for $400 billion, a lot of money to

oversee. that trade was part of $100 billion bet, part of the responsible. she had gone to jamie dimon and offered up a resignation and they have just taken her up on this. this is part of the unwinding of who told who what. >> what does it mean for dodd frank as the law itself gets written and politically does it make it harder for mitt romney to say repeal it all? >> i don't think americans are on the details, but it's likely that you will see a much stronger push now by democrats in particular and putting more teeth in this rule that would apply. >> washington to wall street and trying to get both angles on this. thank you both. >> a stinging defeat as backlash hits germany. state elections there. the not so warm welcome for mitt

romney's son josh and the ron paul stuff. wait until you hear this business. which current member of congress was once a five-time jeopardy winner. i'm chuck todd and this is "the daily rundown." the answer is coming up. [ female announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role

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headlines i'm watching this morning. the merkel party suffered a crushing loss in an election on sunday. as seen with a backlash against austerity policies. in greece and france, does it potentially put merkel in a vulnerable position as she seeks a third term and how much money she throws in to save the euro

zone? meanwhile, we have been tracking how this ron paul delegate push has been going. mitt romney's son, josh, at the arizona convention was booed off stage, supporter of ron paul expressed dissatisfaction as josh romney tried to solidify support for his father. take a listen. >> make sure that said it pay for romney and that's that it's green. i appreciate your support. thank you very much. >> remember in arizona it was a winner take all state. romney won the delegates, but you have the election of the people who will be there to cast the votes for mitt romney and a lost ron paul supporters have to be mid-romney voters. one of the only this this happened, tim pawlenty, he too was booed off stage. you are watching this now by ron paul supporters and this is

happening in a bunch of states that could make tampa very fascinating. a deep dive into california politics and another washington insider. pete stark on the democratic side of the aisle in a fight for his own party. you are watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink? ♪ power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. uncer) most life insurance companies. look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. our wellness for life program rewards you with savings just for getting a check-up, and it's only from aviva. pssst! don't go in there! it's your surprise party and we want this hair color to be party ready. let's get some dimensional color. now!? what if it comes out wrong?

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attorney. in illinois, it was the republican getting knocked off by king singer. that is predictable. in ohio, 65-year-old democrat and 60-year-old republican congresswoman both lost primaries on the same day. although kucinich with another long time member. a combined 40 plus terms failing to make it out of the primaries and losing to team in had been there longer before they think except in the case of is you sin itch. can california's pete stark be next? the democratic congressman is mr. their with 20 terms under his belt. it's from a relative newcomer eric swal well who has been pushing "the insider" outsider narrative. he is even using pete stark's

old material against him. look at the flyer when he was running on a flat form of fresh inside against the 81-year-old george miller. he is running copies alongside his picture, casting the 80-year-old star in the role of the out of touch lawmaker. turns out he is serving congress for half his life and hasn't lived in california for more than 20 years and then the self-inflicted wounds. there have been plenty of them. he called an official a disgrace to his race. he accused a colleague of being aer who for industry and challenged another to a fight, calling him a fruitcake. he put his foot in his mouth when he made an accusation about his primary opponent last month. >> somebody who has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the family for giving them special zoning

privileges, if i were a lawyer, i would call that bribery. i'm not a lawyer so i will let this define what he thinks taking all this money from people that he gave special zoning privileges to. maybe it's how he sees his in of the g. >> i am not accept ant of bribes and i don't know what the congressman is talking about. >> the problem is he didn't know either. he couldn't produce any evidence and he would sue him if he department, prompting the congressman to see this statement. he said i misspoke about taking dribs and for that i apologize. >> he accused him of lying and a tactic he said is forced to issue more public apologies than lindsay lohan. i am joipd by eric swal well for a seat in california. he is early from oakland,

california. good evening and good morning and thanks for joining me. what's wrong experience in washington? there is a lot of people that attack it. what's wrong with it? >> there is nothing wrong with experience and where you have an entrenched incumbent who is disconnected with the district and hasn't lived in california for over 20 years. lives in maryland and lives closer to the annapolis capital than the washington, d.c. capital and he has been ineffective. he missed more votes over his 40-year career than 90% of congress. of course this bizarre behavior we have seen cost him what senior really means. he squandered authority by behavior and he should have been the chairman of the ways and means in 2010, but our party had to pass him over for that.

with that type of behavior and not wanting to live here in our community, i think he has shown that that experience doesn't count for much. >> in order to defeat him, you have to defeat pete stark twice. you can finish second, but the way the rule works, you may be facing off all the way to november. are you going to have the resources to be able to hang on and defeat an incumbent? >> in the top two system, the top two votegetters move on. we have shown that we got into the race in september, we have raised the same money as congressman starks. we raised over $280,000 to date. that's all individual contributions. we are up against somebody who 85% of the contributions have come from corporate packs. we are ready it go to november.

our supporters are fired up and we are showing that we ve that grass roots support that will have you be victorious in november. >> there were outside third party groups trying to get involved in primaries. are you welcoming them or asking them not to participate in the race? >> we are sticking to the message, chuck. that message is that the district needs tu sdmrg new ideas. it's working because if the congressman has been thereby and is attacking me and making outrageous comments, he sees this new distinct that is 60% new, they are ready for energy and ideas. he hasn't offered much as a vision. >> i guess you welcome these outside third party groups thinking about coming in big on your behalf. i take it you welcome it? >> no. we will stick to our own

message. we can't coordinate and that will resonate with the voters and take us to victory in november. >> we will be watching your challenge and in this new bizarre way that california will deal with elections where top two regardless of party face off. we will be watching. thanks for coming on. >> up next, we kickoff the week with our panel. can mitt romney put the mormon issue to rest without mentioning the word? what's going on with the defining of mitt romney before he defines snimz the white house soup of the day is gazpacho. seems rainy and cold for that today. by the way, we had gazpacho one day last week. c'mon dad! i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy.

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in this day in 1904 when the city of st. louis became a first in the united states to host the olympic games scheduled for chicago. the games were moved to st. louis to coincide with the centennial purchase of the louisiana purchase. >> mitt romney wants to convince voters he is the candidate, but the obama campaign is trying to define him as part of the problem for the middle class. >> we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> he is running for president and if he runs the country the way he runs the business, i wouldn't want him. they have more money than we will spend, but they don't have the money to take care of the people who made the money for him. >> daniela gibbs. "washington post" correspondent and the associate editor for the

heel. let's go through the romney campaign this morning. number one was he was not running bain day to day when steel was carved out, but he was a partner. does that matter as far as the rules of the game is concerned some. >> probably not a lot. part of what's going to be on trial is private equity. he was part of that and the obama campaign will tie him in and that ad size we know is likely to be effective. it was effective with the republicans against romney in south carolina until they cried foul and said you kent r can't go after private capitalism. the obama folks believed since november that this was an avenue of attack that would work. >> the first people that thought this would work a the folks that ran ted kennedy's cam

campaign. >> much tougher in a strained economy and not looking like it will imruf. when you go to romney economics and they go through several companies where bane, dade bearing staged for us. it's a very slick website about how much were made in profits and how much debt the companies were impressed to acquire and just like did with king rich and they rallied around mitt romney, it's a tough thing for these guys to say i lost my job, i lost everything. >> the of the push back against the president and his critics and you folks who have been pushing this against romney and

saying capitalism is not pretty, but this is what happens from the, conme. >> i suppose it could be fair, but if romney is saying he is a job creator and the president is not, he has to be willing to discuss when he doesn't create jobs. i think this is fair game. no one denies that he was a good businessman. it was not to create jobs. the bottom line was to bring in money for the investors. he's a great wealth creator. what kind of a job creator is he? >> she is giving him credit. yes, he did his job which was to make money. >> that's right. the point that the romney folks have made and will continue to make is you should not condemn or criticize success in the private industry or business. if he can make that and turn that around on the obama campaign, we will have a

fighting chance. >> this is all part of the larger issue that romney is undergoing. other people define him. he never did figure out the answer to bane. we all know that they pile up and told him to stop. he has got to. other people whether it's what happened last week with "the washington post" story about the bullying, but others are doing the structure. >> mitt romney is running for president for six years and he had a lot of time to figure out the narrative and his story and find ways to tell it in a compelling way and say he is catching up and that's a liability for him whether it's a mormon issue or he got a right. he knew it was coming and it's time to get at it. it's trick to describe because it was to create wealth and not necessarily to create nobs. he neats to redefine it.

>> you don't believe that mitt romney will have a problem with the e van yell cal voters? >> i don't think so. i don't think they will come out in droves for president obama. the question is will they be energized. >> do you buy the idea of gay marriage? >> i don't know. my theory is for people who gay marriage is number one, i assume you will vote with the president if that is number one. you if you don't, you were never going to vote for the president. i don't know how much this will move. >> with connell is under real pressure or not. they have a lost opinions about this. we asked what current member of congress was a five-time jeopardy win. the answer is rush holt. look out. a bunch of us had our turn and it's this being weeka jeopardy. we are among the nbc faces

including david favor that went up against the political names in washington. i'm on thursday. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. . i'm not paying hidden fees or high commissions. i'm making the most of my money. and seven-dollar trades are just the start. i'm with scottrade. i'm withcottrade. i'm with scottrade. and i'm loving every minute of it. [ rodger riney ] at scottrade, we give you commission-free etfs, no-fee iras and more. come see why more investors are saying... i'm with scottrade. [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance.

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let's bring back our panel. dan, it seems -- do you think there's real tea party angst, conservative angst, with john boehner and mitch mcconnell or a drummed didn't up story? >> a little bit of both. clearly is angst. we have seen boehner under pressure the entire time that the new group has been in the congress. and he struggled and is, you know, had to pull back at times on key votes. so there's no question that there's -- discontent with him, whether it is enough to knock him off, i still don't -- >> i would assume, maybe the way i look like it with winning

overshadows everything. as a win, if boehner holds republican control of congress, it is not as if there's any -- mcconnell gets control of the senate, all the stuff goes away. it is if that don't it becomes a problem. >> right. we have seen, actually, all of these threats before. i'm not going to vote for the leader. i will decide at the time i get there. then somehow they always pull them into line. what's going on now, though, so interesting about this congress, sort of post-2010 revolution, talk to freshmen republicans that are in stage three. stage one was we came in and blow up everything. they realized in stage two they can't really do anything. there's not enough votes but can stop things. so they stop things for a while. then they had all these, you know, kind of come to jesus moments with the leadership. now we are in -- deep into the campaign season. facing the constituents again. primary challenges are in the air. they are saying wait a minute, we really need, you know, we immediate scalps here and real -- we immediate to say we are actually pushing a huge comprehension tax reform plan

because we don't want to say we can do that in december or next march. and so they are struggling with how to adapt to washington, stay in washington, and keep their jobs. but still tell the voters we are going to slash it. >> are you guys -- if somehow house republicans decide to take up this eric holder contempt charge on the house floor, i mean, are you guys poised to pounce on the -- i mean, sort of boehner and his right, this is his -- >> yeah -- i'm not one to like, you know, back up john boehner p.m. but he shouldn't really jump to what the tea party is trying to do. like 2011 never happened. there was backlash against the extreme right wing politics that's happening. i think that they are going to make a big mistake if they acquiesce to what they want do. people are going -- sort of waiting. ready for the fight. anything to draw that stark contrast between what the president -- democrats are doing and what the folks on the right want to do, that's a battle we are waiting for. >> all right. i have to go to shameless plugs. >> two anniversary this week. one, it is my first year back

after leaving the white house. shoutouts on my great colleagues. tomorrow i celebrate my eight-year wedding anniversary. >> excellent work. >> we have a story from cameron joseph, wrote about congressional republicans and other republicans interested in pushing romney into a trip to israel. he has a decades long friendship with netanyahu. >> i will be shock if he does didn't i will give a shout-out to amy for intuitive piece about how the obama campaign is going after veterans. >> it is an interesting thing. there was that poll out there. it has been a concerted effort. we will see if it pays off. norfolk, virginia, maybe the most important swing mark net the presidential election. that's it important this edition of "the daily run-down." tomorrow on the show, president obama's deputy campaign manager, stephanie cutter, will you join us. coming up, chris jansing. bye-bye.

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good monday morning. i'm chris jansing. president obama is on his way to new york city now. he has a very busy day. first he will give the commencement speech at barnard and then taping an appearance on "the view." tonight he has two fund-raisers. let me bring in steve mcmahon who work order three presidential campaigns. and msnbc contributor robert trainam. good morning to both of you, gentlemen. >> good morning. >> steve the president obviously had these fund-raisers scheduled before he made his stand on gay marriage supporting gay marriage. but there's a lot of thought this is going to open deep pockets in the gay community. maybe even get some additional donations to some of the other outside organizations as a result of this. but the republicans are using it to fundraise, too. i'm curious, is it clear, do you think right now, who might have the advantage here in the money