conference about the economy. first this morning, he touted his jobs bill in his weekly address. >> i know states are still going through tough times. i realize that every governor is dealing with limited resources, and many face stark choices when it comes to their budgets. but that doesn't mean we should just stand by and do nothing. when states struggle, it's up to congress to step in and help out. >> those comments came after a day of back and forth between the president and republicans over the economy. that all started when the president said, quote, the private sector is doing fine. later, he said this. >> listen, it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. there are too many people out of work, the housing market is still weak and too many homes under water, and that's precisely why i asked congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference. >> republican rival mitt romney wasted no time jumping on the president's initial comments.

>> he said the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch? i think he's defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the american people. >> joining me now for more front page politics, white house editor for politico, rachel smoken and senior white house correspondent and editor for mcclatchy newspapers. good morning to both of you. steve, i'll begin with you. you just heard the president focusing on the job situation, framing what the president said yesterday as well and how unintended were his comments about the private sector. give me a perspective on that. >> i think it was a slip of the tongue. alex, it reflects the ad strategy, the campaign strategy of the white house, which is to focus on the job creation of the last 27 months and kind of want to start the calendar not on inauguration day of his term, but when the job situation started to improve, and they want to focus, obviously, on the

private sector jobs that have been created. the second part of the strategy is they then can point out that, even in a bad month like the may report we saw last week, there was an increase in private sector jobs, but public sector, government jobs have been cut. they can use that then to blame the republican congress and republicans in the state houses for cutting the government. >> so, rachel, as you might expect, the republicans seized upon the president's words. take a listen to this. >> mr. president, i used to run a small business, and, mr. president, take it from me, the private sector is not doing well. listen, the american people are still asking the question, where are the jobs? >> and my question would be to the president, are you kidding? did you see the jobs numbers that came out last week? the private sector is not doing fine. >> rachel, one of your colleagues in politico wrote a new article. it's titled gop treats obama's comments as a gift. we heard the president clarify his comments. do you think this is going to put this to rest now?

>> i absolutely don't. i think you can see a lot more of this in ads, attack ads against the president. you can see the republicans jumped on this immediately. romney jumped on this. now, of course, this is not what the president meant. he was making the point that the private sector is doing better than the public sector, and he wants congress to act to help the public sector, but because of the wording he used, it gave the republicans an opening, an unforced error, to jump on this, much the way democrats jumped on mitt romney saying that corporations are people. >> steve, in fact, democrats say that romney would like to eliminate the public sector jobs based on the comments he made on friday. let's take a listen to those. >> his answer for economic vitality, by the way, was, of course, pushing aside the private sector, which he said is doing fine. instead, he wants to add more to government. he wants another stimulus. he wants to hire more government workers. he says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. did he not get the message of wisconsin? the american people did. it's time for us to cut back on

government and help the american people. >> so, steve, a bit later, the dnc vice chairman said this, "could mitt romney be more disconnected from the concerns of middle class americans to suggest that police, firefighters, and teachers aren't helping the american people and aren't vital to our communities shows that he has no clue what's going on in the real world." is this the case of there he goes again, steve? romney misspeaking saying something that could hurt him with the middle class voters, or did he really mean it? >> i think, if they're going to fight about police and firefighters, mitt romney's going to lose that battle because the american people like police and firefighters. but the reality is there were a couple of votes last week, both in wisconsin, where they kept the governor in office, and in california, several cities voted to cut pensions for public employees. there have been a lot of states and a lot of cities now, when it comes to the voters, they do want to cut spending for public employees or government workers. so i think right now the tide is

on that side. >> rachel, there's a new all america economic sector, and it shows that 39% of americans think that romney's policies are better for the economy compared to 33% for the president's policies. it's pretty much unchanged since april. how does the white house interpret these kinds of numbers? >> we've seen the numbers tighten as to who could handle the economy better. there have been a number of polls out that show the two candidates pretty close. so the challenge for the white house is how to frame the economy. president obama has worked very hard with his advisers to tell the american people we're not satisfied. the economy is not good enough. but we are making improvements. we are moving in the right direction. so that's the challenge. they have that against the jobs report we just saw with the 8.2% unemployment, the very unpredictable situation in europe right now. so that's what they have to get on top of. that was the purpose of the press conference yesterday that didn't quite end up the way the president had hoped. >> real quick, guys. i want to ask you both about

last night, the attorney general eric holder appointed two u.s. attorneys to lead investigations into the unauthorized leaks, classified information from the white house and congress. what's the latest you're hearing on this, steve? >> this is potentially very significant. this administration has been particularly zealous in going after people who leaked to the news media. they had not yet taken any action on these leaks, which, of course, republicans in congress say were leaked to the media to make the president look good. if, in fact, they find out people close to the president leaked them, there would be a significant fall back or fallout for the white house. >> rachel, are you hearing anything on this? >> this has been a very interesting issue this week because we've seen a bipartisan agreement these leaks have to stop. there was a rare bipartisan press conference on capitol hill. democrats and republicans can't agree on much these days. but they did come out together and say the leaks have to stop. the president, of course, came out yesterday as part of his press conference and said the idea that his white house would be purposely leaking national

security secrets is totally wrong. it's offensive. this is another issue we're going to see continue to develop. >> okay. rachel smolkin and steve thelma, thanks so much. we appreciate it. later this hour, the political firestorm over the bush-era tax cuts. meantime, developing now, today russia says it wants a big international meeting on syria, not new sanctions. and this just in, 17 syrian civilians, most of them women and children, have been killed today in dahra by a syrian army bombardment. and new video from the massacre that killed nearly 80 men, women, and children. syrian tanks rolled into town on thursday, but united nations observers did not get there until yesterday. and there is new shelling, including in the city of homs, which is the center of the 15-month-old uprising. now the headlines. fiscal cliff hanger, gone fishing, and fast food makeover. forbes staff writer morgan

brennan is joining me to make sense of all this. good morning. >> good morning. >> so fed reserve chair ben bernanke says the u.s. is facing a fiscal cliff. take a look at this testimony before congress. here it is. >> a potential expiration of the so-called bush tax cuts of 2001, 2003 tax cuts is the single biggest item in the fiscal cliff. as always, the federal reserve remains prepared to take action as needed to protect the u.s. fiscal system and economy in the event the fiscal stresses escalate. >> are we facing a looming fiscal crisis at the end of this year? >> we are, but don't get too worried too fast here, just to talk about this fiscal cliff and what it actually means. we have seen, if the jobs report last week is any indicator, we have started to see economic growth slow down here in the u.s., and that's been in part because of unseasonably warm weather in the winter as well as the looming fiscal crisis in europe. but at the end of this year, the fiscal cliff he's referring to here in the states is the

expiration of tax cuts that are written into law right now as well as the implementation of automatic spending cuts. if these two kick in, according to the current law at the end of the year, many economists argue that we could fall into a recession back in 2013 with a fiscal hit of as much as $700 billion coming down on us at the end of this year. it's not to be worried about this because there's time for congress to come to some sort of agreement. now we just have to wait and hope that congress comes to some sort of agreement about this. >> we hope. how about this? linked in is telling people to change their passwords. has what's going on there? >> linked in and e-harmony were the targets of what's believed to be a phishing scam. with linked in, 150 million users around the world, about 4% of those users. 6.5 million people, were the targets of this hack. they had their passwords stolen. linked in has already reset those passwords, but there are

several security take-aways for you, the user, to consider now that this has happened. the first one, if you start to get phishy e-mails from linked in, think twice before opening them. the second takeaway here, if you use the same password on different sites, linked in as well as all your social networking sites, you might want to diversify and change those. if you were one of targets, if you have the same password, it will make you more vulnerable on the other sites as well. >> what about the fast food chain taco bell going upscale? >> taco bell is getting fancy. next month they're getting ready to release a slightly more upscale product line. it's been created by a celebrity chef, and this is sort of trying to take some market share back from the casual lunch giant chipotle. that being said, they are not moving away from their 2:00 a.m. middle of the night taco --

>> burrito supreme, come on. college midnight run, i swear. >> so this is the most recent product line. i think it's part of a larger trend we're seeing with all the fast food giants, and that's that, while they're keeping their fried specials, they're also diversifying to slightly more healthy options. we're seeing this with burger king and wendy's as well. >> morgan brennan, thank you. from there to the weather this saturday morning. big storms swept through the northwest, and this morning a man is recovering after being struck by lightning in portland, oregon. nbc meteorologist bill karins is here with a look at the rest of the weather. >> good morning to you, alex. this is by war one of the warmest weeks we've seen. a little break in areas of the great lakes. that's coming to an end as the warm air is moving in. here's the pattern as it sets up for the weekend. we're watching all the hot air in new mexico and arizona and texas beginning to spraet northwards now. it's been a very warm week around minneapolis. get ready in chicago.

you're going to bake. thunderstorms remain in florida down the gulf coast and still relatively cool and kind of cloudy in areas of the northwest. here's a breakdown of where we're dealing with rain. portions of the catskills is where showers will be arriving as we go throughout the morning. this will make its way to new york city and hartford as we go throughout the day. forecast in new england. northern new england much cooler, only 73 or so from albany to boston. should be in the 80s, low 80s from connecticut to new york. belmont stakes running later today on nbc will feature a chance of showers, maybe a thunderstorm, with temperatures near 80. also, wet weather guaranteed today down along the gulf coast. southern portions alabama, mississippi, louisiana, and also north florida. so there's your forecast for your saturday. storms definitely likely for new england and also there down in florida. we're looking at the very warm conditions from minneapolis to chicago. today we're 91 in chicago. tomorrow, alex, we're probably going to be close to 94. looks like the heat is on. it's a summer weekend to get to

the pool or maybe even the beach if you're lucky enough. back to you. >> absolutely. thank you very much, bill karins. office politics. los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa talks about his plan to build up the economy. plus how the mayor got cussed out at the grocery store. time for your business entrepreneur of the week. former british counterterrorism expert developed tough mudder. it's a miles long obstacle course that inspirs people and builds teamwork. with more than 30 events in 2012, tough mudder will earn more than $70 million. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take

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the notion that my white house would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. it's wrong.

>> strong words from the president on national security leaks, and new today, a big effort by the white house to stop those leaks. attorney general eric holder just assigned two federal prosecutors to investigate the source of the leaks. joining me is one of the journalists at the heart of the controversy, dan klaidman, he is the author of "kill or capture, the soul of the obama presidency," and he is here with us. big question, have you been contacted by the fbi or the department of justice about your sources? >> i have not. i hope i won't be, but i have not. >> that puts new a pretty awkward position. i'm sure you can't give those kinds of things up. what about critics of president obama who said the leaks came from his administration as a political maneuver because they make him look good? >> look, you know, everyone tries to divine who sources are and what their motivations are, and for the most part, they don't know. in my case, i've been working on

this book for more than two years. i have to dig and scratch and claw my way to get and earn people's trust, get people to talk to me. we're not being spoon fed. it's old fashioned reporting, which is digging it out ourselves. so this idea that we're being called up, hey, come on in, we want to bolster the credentials of the president of the united states is just ridiculous. >> do you think there's anything in this book that damages or compromises national security? >> i don't. look, responsible journalists, all of whom have been mentioned in association with this investigation, are people who will, when they are in possession of information, where there's any doubt as to whether it will do harm to the national security, we feel it's incumbent upon ourselves to go to the relevant agencies and have those conversations.

if they say, look, this is of concern, it doesn't mean automatically we're not going to print it, but it does mean that we're going to listen. it does mean we're going to have some discussion and debate and then make responsible judgments. you know, in my case, that's happened. i'm sure it's happened in the case of "the new york times" and others as well. >> what's interesting is that in the coverage of this issue with "the new york times" and other publications, a lot of the focus of the stories has been on the polarization, the politicalization, if you will, of the leaks, instead of the information that's actually been out there. what do you make of that? >> i think that's an excellent point. when you read these stories about potential investigations and accusations, you don't see any specifics. you do see the impugning of motives. you do see people taking political shots. it's not surprising. we're in an election year. national security has been politicized by both sides, frankly, for quite some time now, and i think to some extent

this is getting caught up in that. that's not so say that people ought not be concerned about certain leaks that might harm national security. i think those kinds of leaks are exceedingly rare, but it's a valid issue that ought to be discussed. i'm happy to talk about it in that sense, just not talk about sources. >> what about how the book chronicles a significant transformation in the president's national security policy? what led to this change? >> look, i think any president who -- first of all, there's a disjuncture between campaigning and governing. i think any president who, once they assume the office, assume these awesome responsibilities of protecting the nation, they begin to see some of these issues from a different vantage point, and i'm sure that happened -- i know that happened with president obama. there are other factors as well, like the politics.

as i just said, the politics of terrorism have been toxic, and they are a constraining factor on any president. and so some of things that president obama had promised he would do turned out to be a lot harder than he expected because the politics were so difficult. and then presidents have to make choices, and once they begin governing, they have to make -- choose priorities, and this president inherited a very deep recession and made a choice to go after health care as his main priority, and you only have so much political capital, and other things fell by the wayside in some respects. >> dan klaidman, thank you very much for coming in. the name of the book, "kill or capture, the war on terror and the obama presidency." the show will go on at belmont today after a triple crown disappointment. why we haven't seen the last of i'll have another. for three hours a week, i'm a coach.

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jockeys, fans, gamblers, even the horses gearing up for today's running of the belmont stakes. and it will continue without the horse i'll have another, who had a chance of ending the longest drought in triple crown history. nbc's jay gray is live for us at belmont park in queens, new york. good saturday morning to you, jay. what are you thinking? a lower turnout today at the racetrack or the bets on for everybody nonetheless? >> good morning, alex. i think that we will see less people than we would have seen if this thing was a race for the triple crown. look, the early estimates had been over 100,000 people packing this park to watch the race later this evening. we now get an estimate of around 75,000, maybe even 80,000 people. so it will be diminished a

little bit, but still a great crowd and still a great race, by the way. there are a lot of good horses in the field here. not the one everyone wanted to see obviously. we've seen some out making their training runs before this evening's race. missing, of course, from that group was i'll have another, the favorite going out after his run around the mile and a half oval early yesterday with that swollen and sore front left leg. trainers and owners deciding it just wasn't worth the risk for him to run today. >> probably a wise one, though. terribly sad at all that. i know he's going to be retired, but we're going to see him today. can you tell us about what we're going to see and why? >> if there's any good news in this, it's those two things. first they decided to pull this horse, erring on the side of caution to make sure that it didn't damage him for life. so that's the good news. and the prognosis is he will be well after six months of rest. but he will be on the track today, not in the role that everyone had hoped. he will lead the post parade before the race, and mario

gutierrez, the jockey, will be on board. >> he is a beautiful horse. we'll miss seeing him run. he's pretty spectacular. okay, jay gray. thank you so much. and live coverage of the race begins at 4:30 eastern today on nbc. [ male announcer ] if paula ebert had her way, she would help her child. no. no no no no no. mommy's here [ male announcer ] with everything. but instead she gives him capri sun super-v. with one combined serving of fruits and vegetables. new capri sun super-v. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." strong momentum into investigations behind a string of national security leaks. last night attorney general eric holder named two federal prosecutors to take over the fbi investigation. nbc's mike viqueira is live at the white house with us. with a good saturday morning to you. what's the official word, my friend, on these investigations? >> reporter: it's interesting. the president had a surprise news conference, and the information that came out of it was not what the white house intended. the information was that the administration intentionally leaked classified information in order to make the president look tough on terrorists in an

election year. principally two stories, one in "the new york times," one about a potentially approved kill list in the middle east, and the other is the so-called cyber war against iran. both citing sources both inside and outside the administration. critics, principally republicans, say there's no way these stories could have come forth without the help of administration officials. the president sharply denied that, and then on the same day, later yesterday, as you pointed out, actually about 6:30 last night, the attorney general eric holder appointed two u.s. attorneys, one from maryland, one from here in d.c., to investigate the leaks. republicans still not mollified about that. meanwhile, another firestorm ignited in that press conference yesterday, where the president said the private sector is doing fine, this exactly a week after those jobless numbers came out that were a big disappointment to everyone showing anemic job growth and the unemployment rate

ticking up to 8.2%. let's have a look. >> good morning. >> reporter: with the debt crisis in europe threatening an already weak economy, president obama defended his record on jobs in a surprise white house press conference. >> we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months. over 800,000 just this year alone. the private sector is doing fine. >> reporter: that assessment set off a firestorm. republicans, including mitt romney, pounced. >> he said the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch? >> did he see the job numbers that came out last week? the private sector is not doing fine. >> reporter: by midafternoon, mr. obama used an oval office photo-op with the philippine president to clarify his stance. >> the economy is not doing fine. there are too many people out of work. the housing market is still weak and too many homes under water. >> reporter: alex, the way both of these controversies suddenly

erupted yesterday, just an end ka indication of this hot house, this tinder box in washington just months away from a tightening presidential race. >> thank you so much, mike viqueira. another fight over tax cuts for richest americans brewing this week highlighted in a new report this morning. former president bill clinton brought it up this week, and now an article in roll call says, even though the former president walked back his comments supporting an extension of the bush era tax cuts, it still sparked a political firestorm. joining me is the author in roll call. we're going to get right to it. your article says, even though mr. clinton apologized for what he said was the mistake in the timing and the damage had already been done, is there a chance it might force a short term extension of all of these tax cuts? >> the short answer is not before the election. this is all about political posturing, about striking out a

difference from the other party before the election. republicans saying we want to extend all the bush tax cuts. and the democrats saying we want to extend for the middle class, but not for the wealthy. >> not for those over $250,000. but republicans are completely opposed to that? >> at this point, yes. that's what barack obama's stance is. nancy pelosi and some other congressional democrats, senator chuck shchumer as well, have sad let's extend all the cuts up to $1 million, but not anything over $1 million. republicans, of course, say the people who make that much money, those are the job creators. if we don't extend their tax cuts, they're not going to be able to create jobs. it's not going to help the economy. >> what about the possibility of some sort of a compromise being worked out in congress? i know the political climate is what it is. is there any chance of a short-term extension? >> you have to remember these things don't expire until december 31st. what we're likely going to

see -- and this is going right back to the fiscal cliff issue we were talking about earlier, is all this will be dealt with in the lame duck session. what really determines how it will be dealt with is who's in office. it could be mitt romney, barack obama, we don't know what the lay of the land in congress will be in terms of who's going to be in power. all those things are determining factors. right now basically members of congress are saying vote for us because this is what we're going to do with the bush tax cuts. >> daniel, you make a really good point about the timing here because, as we get closer to the november election, how many of the votes on these issues are likely to be political statements but with no chance of actually passing anything? >> well, probably all of them. majority leader eric cantor gave an interview with reporters where he basically said as much, that we're going to be voting on certain things, but we don't expect the senate to take them up. the senate may have some political votes as well. this is par for the course, especially in a presidential election year, but really in any election year, that they'll have

votes to put the other party in a tough political situation. so the house will vote on the bush tax cuts in july, right before congress leaves for the august recess, and hopes to probably put some pressure on democrats to say, i dare you to vote against this. i dare you to vote against giving every american a tax break. >> and real quick, looking ahead to next year, how bad could this fiscal cliff be if the taxes go up and automatic budget cuts take effect? >> it would be pretty rough on the economy. most people say it would probably take care of the deficit. but it looks like they'll probably get something done. i can't see congress just letting all these things lapse. even standard & poor's yesterday came out and said that they think these issues will be addre addressed. so i think it can be averted. in today's office politics, we talked with los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa.

we talked about his plan to fix the traffic congestion that would spur the economy. and he shares a voter's colorful reaction when he met him in the grocery store. i began by asking his assessment of what happened in wisconsin this week. >> i think, whether you're a democrat, republican, or an independent, we should all be concerned about the power of money here. the governor spent eight times what mayor barrett spent. both sides had a lot of people out. they both tried to turn their voters out, but in the end, i think, it was an issue of just overwhelming money on the governor's side. >> do you think the democrats underestimated this? i mean, they got into the game a little bit later. the republicans seemed to be more motivated here. >> there's no question that both sides put out as much of an effort as they could. i think the difference was money. when you spend eight times when

the other candidate spends, it just overpowers your ability to get your message out. >> i want to talk about this back there in the corner, proposition "r," because that's something that you've hung your hat on in getting that passed that will leave los angeles in a far better place. >> i focused on transportation and congestion. measure "r" was something we put on the ballot in the middle of the recession in 2008. we said, look, we've got a plan to double the size of the rail system, to improve our highways and our roads, reducing congestion, but importantly to remake what the city looks like, create about 500,000 jobs to improve our public health and our environment, and importantly, to address the need for job creation in the middle of a recession.

there was a lot of opposition. it passed with a two-thirds vote. we called it the 30/10 plan. it's now america fast forward, and it stuck currently in the surface transportation bill that hasn't -- that's only been extended and not been adopted. so we're looking to get that moving. we're also looking to move the 30-year time limit on measure "r" so that we could accelerate these jobs. >> fast track them. >> without washington. we're not waiting on them. >> you're talking to an l.a. girl here. is there anything better than the los angeles basin, where you have the ocean at one end, you have these beautiful snow capped mountains at the other. drive a little further into the desert. really, is there anywhere better than l.a.? >> to you and i, no. i imagine there are others who would be watching this and saying, well, i've got something in my town. but like i said, i really do believe this city is like no other.

i believe it's the city of america's future. and what happens here happens 20 years from now all across the country. politics is about selling those ideas. it's about building coalitions. it's about communicating. persistence. the good ones are persistent and dogged. the reason things don't change is we're not dogged and trying to make them change. passionate. if you're not passionate, go get another job. just go get another job. and finally, it's about people. if you don't like people -- and i hear -- i know politicians that don't seem to be comfortable with people. if you don't like people, go get another job. you know, i was in the market the other day, and this guy walks up to me and says, hi. he says, are you the mayor? and i said, yes, i am. and he said, well, i can't say it on tv. he cussed me out. >> oh, my. >> some of these -- all the security came in the market, and, of course, my officers were

there. and i said, you know, he's got a right to his own opinion. i mean, people feel strongly about things. >> wait a second. you do your own grocery shopping? >> i do sometimes. well, you know, first of all, i don't do it all the time. sometimes i send my son. he's old enough to go shopping. but i like picking my own stuff, by the way, because it just -- but i also just like being regular sometimes. >> our conversation continues with the regular mayor today at 1:00 p.m. we're going to talk about the mayor's position as chair of the democratic national convention and what it means to stage that convention in north carolina after the state passed an amendment banning same-sex marriage. in a moment, a proud mom cheers at her daughter's high school graduation and gets thrown in jail for it. was she out of line, or were police? always called oregon hom. until i got a job in the big apple. adjusting to city life was hard for me. and becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti.

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attention this graduation season, it involves families getting excited and students paying the price. first up in ohio, anthony cornis will not receive his paper diploma until he and his family get community service. his family was excessively cheering during the ceremony. here's how the main players in the drama described it. >> it's ridiculous how another person can take midi pleau ma away from me. >> the diploma is his. if there was a fine for myself cheering, and he had already had his diploma, i would do whatever. >> a lot of our posts this year and some of the planning around graduation was to be sure we accommodate and respect the community to have a dignified graduation ceremony. >> joining me now, defense attorney joey jackson and defense attorney and former prosecutor karen desoto. this is going to be fun. we're all parents. the school says the parents

signed this form, and it outlined all the etiquette rules they have to go through. does the principal have authority to assign community service on not only the kids but on the parents? >> if the parents signed an agreement, they obviously have an argument. alex, come on. it's graduation. it's ridiculous. how much was it disrupted? was it two or three minutes? i would really love to see what their graduation statistics are. they should be happy these kids are actually graduating. >> you have a good point. we've seen the boisterous celebration story. you're going to a travel baseball game. you're going to get a lot of that going. but in graduation, it can slow down the ceremony. does the school have a point? >> listen, there is a supreme court case that talks about disruption of school activities. we studied it in law school. the bottom line is this. the regulations have to be reasonable. you have to evaluate it in context. it's a graduation ceremony. there's a first amendment right to cheer. you want to cheer.

you want to be happy you brought them to this point. there's also an eight amendment issue, cruel and unusual. the point is the punishment has to fit the crime. you want to withhold the diploma? now you have the selective enforcement issue. how many other people are cheering? >> this is not an isolated incident. there's a situation in south carolina. police hauled off the mom during the ceremony, handcuffed her, removed her from the graduation. she got booked, and they had to pay like $200 to get her out of jail. karen, did the school cross the line there? how about police? >> i -- well, listen, you're talking to a resident of jersey city, new jersey. so at our graduation ceremonies, there's actually police officers there. but the elephant in the room too is that joey and i were talking about maybe a little racial discrimination. both of these cases involve black families. so i mean, black families in jersey city, we cheer. we say a lot of things, and we like to scream, and we get a little bit rowdy.

is there some race issues going on here? >> so, joey, do you expect this to be brought up? this woman apparently is going to fight it at her trial come wednesday this week. do you expect this to be a point? >> it could be. let's be happy our children are graduating and educating themselves and moving forward. we're going to start arresting parents because they're boisterous and happy about graduation? i think it's arbitrary and capricious. we do have to be respectful at ceremonies, but, alex, it's a graduation. >> if they want to stand up for five minutes, ten minutes, everybody should be happy. if that's the case. >> just extend the ceremony. let people cheer. extend it a little longer so you can hear the other names being called. >> all good points you make, as always. here's the question for all of you. should kids have to pay for their out of control parents? you can talk to me on twitter. wake up!

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as early as mondays, we could hear the spleem courts

ruling on the health care reform law. the best kept secret has been under wraps since the court heard that case in march. the key issue is the individual mandate requiring all americans to have health insurance in 2014. joining me is patricia anne millett partner of the firm's supreme court practice. thank you for being here. appreciate that. so let's break down this case. what are the justices deciding specifically. >> the case is actually decided into four separate issues. the first is whether they should support the case. there's a statute to the cases involving taxes. there's the whole question should we kick the can down the road or decide it now. now the big issue is, as you mentioned, the individual coverage position, whether people should have to buy insurance or pay this tax on their tax returns. that's the big issue there that one's been talking about. there's a tag along issue if

they decide that mandate is unconstitutional, they have to decide what else goes down in this statute. the affordable care is a very large statute. so the question is does the whole statute fall? or do you just take that minimum coverage requirement out? what about the insurance protections that people like? the guaranteed issuance of insurance, the ban on conditions keeping you from getting insurance. the last issue is an expansion of the medicaid program, which is sort of a separate issue from the ones we've been talking about most centrally in this case. >> so all four of these issues, three specifically, disregarding whether or not they're going to actually roll here, can you, in terms of precedence, rule against just one aspect of a larger law? >> you can. d, in fact, that's the normal rule. normally the court is very, very careful and narrow. taking the statute down after it's been enacted by both

congress and signed by the president, that's historic to do. we all know that. brown versus the board of education. but they try to be careful and narrow about it. but the problem is they can end up with a frankenstein. if they take out an important part of the statute and leave the rest statute standing, you'll have a big mess. so they just have to sit back and go. what would congress have wanted? how would this thing work without a minimum coverage position? can it work in anything remotely like congress would have wanted it to work. it's a veryesoteric inquiry her. >> and if the entire law is struck down, what does the aftermath look like? >> if the entire law is struck down, which i think is an extremely low chance of that

happening, but if the entire statute were to be struck down, than it would be an extraud nar mess. there's contracts out there, insurance companies changing their behavior for a couple years. and i you're literally going to have to unscramble eggs to take it down. the minimum coverage that everyone talks about isn't due to take effect until 2014. so the real thing is the things that haven't taken effect. one of the examples is the restaurant and you see those calorie counts on the menus now. that's part of this statute, as well. now, it's hard to figure out why you need a minimum coverage position to have that in effect. so those are the kinds of things that we decided. do we have to take everything down. >> all right, we appreciate your insights. be sure to join me for a two-hour edition of the show today at noon. but straight ahead, more smart political talk on "up with chris

hayes."

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t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. good morning from new york. i'm chris hayes. u.n. obseramservers say they f evidence of government vehicles around homes there. the syrian government denies responsibility. 15 people died in new shelling overnight. but i want to started to with my story of the week. the man who may determine the nation's economic future and the winner of the 2012 presidential election. on thursday, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke went up in front of capitol hill to testify. he faced a skept