be talking about forever but there were five days of the magical mitt-stry tour and various veep would-bes along for the ride, including paul ryan, scott walker, not that anybody actually thinks he's going to be mitt romney's veep but also tom pawlenty. i feel like we talked a lot about tim pawlenty obviously when he was a candidate. he sort of went off into the magical ether and seems to be back. and have a fairly strong showing, i thought, as mitt romney's road dog. >> i think so, too. i got really excited. i thought it was thursday for a second. >> that's what happens when the prompter breaks down and you're ad-libing the open to your show. >> i was set for the weekend. secondly, i think you hit the nail on the head. tim pawlenty has suddenly, maybe not unexpectedly, resurfaced as one of these front-runners for the veep stakes. if we watched his trajectory, we would have been shocked because the man, you didn't think there were people more boring than mitt romney but tim pawlenty did hit that note. that might be what they want. listen, he's a perfectly capable guy. he has a resume that is, you

know, he was two-term governor, he can bring that to the table, and they don't want -- from all i can tell, they don't want to have some sort of massive game-changing pick. they want to do something very close to the vest and there are few people who do that better than pawlenty. >> actually officially they want to have a boring older white guy. that's sort of out there in the ether. let's take a listen to what pawlenty said regarding the president while he was on the trail with mitt romney. >> it's disappointing that president obama even though he had a democratic congress for the first two years of administration, promised the country and particularly the hispanic community that he would enact comprehensive immigration reform. he didn't do it when he had the chance. now at the 11th hour he comes up with this executive order. >> pretty good. pretty good? pretty good. let's talk, let's just move along. marco rubio, one of the names that has been thrown out there, looks like according to abc reports, is not getting vetted.

they are not asking for his financial records. he is not going to be among the handful of, you know, potential veeps. >> romney goes on a bus tour, rubio gets thrown under the bus. his book is coming out this week. this is the time when he wants the country to think he is as important as possible and someone leaks this. the romney campaign hasn't responded yes or no but presumably it's right, i don't think anybody who had been talking to the romney campaign or really watching this thought rubio was going to get the nod. what's surprising, he doesn't get to play out the process. obama wants to appeal to the people rubio appeals to. he wants that youth, that vigor. he wants to redefine what the republican party is. but he doesn't want rubio because if he picks rubio, then september and october are about the hispanic question which is the last thing mitt romney wants to be talking about. >> but certainly getting sort of wind from the coattails of the rubio association, riding rubio's coattails to a certain

point which is to say drumming up enthusiasm among hispanics would be good for romney at this point. i want to talk about romney's performance on the trail. we did a greatest hits reel from the last five days. let's check that out. >> did you see that? that was water dropping down from the ceiling. did you see that? it's so hot in here the building is sweating. >> to have a couple of my boys and some of my grandkids and my daughter-in-law here with me, i love them, i love them like they're my own and they are. >> playing a little prank on the press while they're off their bus. >> i put p.s., i erased your hard drives. >> the best piece of advice you think you received? >> stop trying to be like yourself. be someone else. just don't be you. >> margaret, giggles galore. >> i can't stop laughing. >> we talk a lot about mitt romney's connection problems, his lack of a sense of humor. there are many accounts from

those who know him well that say this guy is quite funny. are we starting to see some of that? was this a good week for romney? >> we were told that about al gore, too. get him in a room alone and you double over in laughter. it's very hard to escape being the groom on the top of the wedding cake. he looks perfect, he's kind of stiff. the fact that he's going to be played by john kerry fits into the personality. >> in the debate, yes. >> they are both very stiff. you know, it's probably good he's trying. i didn't mind the joke they're not my, you know, i love them like they're my own, oh, they are, that wasn't so bad, because he doesn't do anything that seems the least bit spontaneous. you know he's handed these things. >> two of those jokes in there, the one about wiping the hard drives and also the one about pretend to be anybody other than yourself, these are like legitimate criticisms that people have levied at mitt romney that you're totally fake. it's turning your weaknesses into a strength.

>> speaking of turning my weaknesses into a strength, i think we've answered the question what if shecky green were mormon. >> which is really the question. >> he's got -- what else is he going to do? why else was he on the bus if not to kind of figure out a way to connect with people. you know, these things tend to have a life of their own. people, they could either sort of go off the road or people can figure out a way to do this. i remember being with hillary in 2008 and she started off pretty abysmally. by the time she worked her way through iowa, even though she was beaten pretty badly there, had figured out a way to talk with people. i think that's what he's trying to do. >> there's a generational aspect to this. because romney looks so young for his age, and because he's the ken doll or whatever, the guy on top of the wedding cake, people tend to forget he's a grandfather. obama is younger and is of a different generation and he can relate. that whole wawa thing that happened yesterday with the touch screen and all that stuff -- >> wawa's. >> wawa's. see, i don't even know what it

is. the point is it's a generational thing. he is an awkward guy to begin with. i think it's totally exacerbated by the fact he's not of a newer era. these things aren't familiar to him. >> the generation that he's part of is not the boomer era. he's the guy that didn't fight in the war, that wasn't really politically active in the '60s and '70s so those cultural touchstones that could keep him current with folks of his own age in the same generation -- >> i'm saying -- >> i think he is kind of like ward cleaver-ish and maybe -- >> eddie haskill is not offensive. that will not prevent him from getting to the white house. what could hurt him on his way to the white house is if he comes across as uncomfortable with himself. some of those jokes are staged, written ahead of time. he goes on the bus with a camera crew, they're not the trees are the right height where he messes up. >> yeah. that was clearly planned. >> this is something where he's

doing an snl skit on himself, trying to say this is who i am, i can't really help it and i think it comes off well. what i have been struck by with this whole bus tour is if you compare it to what john mccain did in the beginning of 2008 right after he wrapped up the nomination, he went on a forgotten america tour. nobody remembers it now. >> it was forgotten. >> he went to alabama, west virginia, and it was in like six different ways, a disaster. the optics were bad. he was in front of run-down factories and dark parts of the country, and this one, they have succeeded in placing romney in americana looking good, the trees are blooming, he's in a good mood, the crowds tend to like him. he's making fun of himself. >> the trees are the right height. it is good to self-reference your blunders. to go back to you, his answers of questions are of a man of the '50s who's grown up in a boardroom. we're all just going to sit down and figure it out.

each time he's confronted with a huge issue, whether it's immigration or the economy or jobs, whatever, it's always well, we'll get together in a room, we'll sit down and discusses it. it's his way of avoiding giving an answer but this is when he's actually sincere. he thinks you can sit down in that room. >> i tend to think that the economy is going to obviously dominate this whole thing and jobs. the extent to which mitt romney's mannerisms matter are if the obama campaign can say listen, he's a person who is from a former era. his policies are likewise of a bygone era. that's the only way this actually matters and works. coming up, russian to conclusions. the results of president obama's meeting with russian president vladimir putin. will they match the duo's frigid body language? that's next. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day,

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i've been in a lot of meetings with putin. i've watched a lot of video of him. there was nothing extraordinary. that's the way he looks. that's the way he acts. i wouldn't read anything into that at all. >> that was u.s. ambassador to russia, mike mcfall, pushing back against interpretations relating to the body language between russian president vladimir putin and president obama during their meeting at the g-20 yesterday. reports described their demeanor as chilly, like a cold moscow winter, but the administration calls it businesslike and cordial. joining us is "new york times" white house correspondent peter baker, who was formerly based in moscow and covered vladimir putin extensively. great to see you, albeit remote. thanks for joining us. so are we making too much of a big deal? there are a lot of photos we have showing an incredibly awkward sit-down between the

president and president putin. what do you make of that relationship and specifically, could you contrast it to the relationship the president, president obama had with medvedev? >> right. good question. look, partly we focus on body language because the actual statements that were released after the meeting were so benign. they didn't reveal very much about what was said in the meeting. we take a look at how they sit, how they interact with each other, and yes, this is a very chilly looking pair there, and the ambassador is right. this is how putin is but that's sort of the point. medvedev and obama seemed to share rapport when they got together, younger men, both lawyers. president putin, of course, a former kgb officer, not all that happy with the united states right now on a variety of topics. >> we know there's been a tit for tat for tat between the two leaders, declining invitations

to various events where one was hosting, but certainly the u.s. is in a position right now where we need cooperation from the russians on a variety of foreign policy fronts but most pressing of all, probably syria. so the question is, what's your expectation in terms of anything tangible getting done? >> well, i wouldn't expect president putin to suddenly jump in and push bashir al assad out of damascus. it's not in his interest, not his instinct. he looks outside the kremlin and sees tens of thousands of protesters right now who are demonstrating against his rule, nonviolently, not like in syria, but he sees the bad precedent if foreign powers are allowed to say you're not a legitimate leader anymore. >> i want to open this up to the panel for a discussion in terms of how this plays out for the president. michael, the "wall street journal" today critical of the president, surprise, saying the substitute for u.s. leadership is not a new era of u.n. administered peace. it is often a vacuum filled by the world's nastiest actors that

is nowhere clearer than in syria, where wrurussia and iran have a free run to solidify the world's dictatorship. what matters is if you have partners or patrons in moscow, beijing or tehran. >> i wonder if the "wall street journal" would have written that editorial if a republican president was in office facing what is a very dicey situation. there's not really a good military option in syria. you don't want to start a whole other conflict when we have egypt very shaky right now. iran on the brink in several different ways. but right now, in the political debate, republicans don't really have substantial contrast to put forward with president obama. he's very popular in a lot of

his foreign policy positions. so what you get are stylistic contrasts, saying why aren't we tougher, why aren't we leading from the front. mitt romney's statements on obama, once you start getting beyond the initial sentence, the sound bite, are almost always sort of stylistic criticisms. they're not substantive criticisms. >> don't we need to consider the context? with gadhafi, similar editorials were written about the lack of action. you are witnessing what's happening in egypt where the military is now basically s circumvented this entire process, taken over power. it's easy in concept to say see where the chips fall, but when you look back at what happened in egypt and libya, there's a lot more complexity to the situation. i think the smart prudent thing to do probably is to step back for a second and say okay, let's game this out, what actually happens, where do the players fall if we actually intervene more forcefully. >> one of the few areas where romney has articulated a

specific position has been with russia, saying -- >> they're our number one geopolitical threat. >> as we are re-aligning ourselves to deal with the china situation and some of those commercial disputes which a lot of people, a lot of republican analysts have criticized romney for doing. but in terms of the overall thing, i think the chilliness is both sides here. there were significant raids in moscow ahead of these inauguration protests. people's apartments being ransacked and i don't think the president is particularly keen on putin at the moment and doesn't really want to be seen as embracing this guy who is increasingly being seen as a dictator. >> this is -- president putin has been re-re-re-elected. this is his third go-round in terms of russian politics. i wonder as someone that understands the region well, what do you think putin and his administration, if you will, think of the comments that folks like mitt romney have been making in terms of saying russia

is our number one geopolitical foe, even some of the language around china and currency manipulation. we know the president is meeting with jin-tao later today. the russian stance toward china has been very antagonistic. >> president putin is sitting back and weigaiting at this poi. part of the chill you see in this relationship is sort of uncertainty on his part about where he wants to go forward. privately he tells president obama and his people that he wants to cement this reset relationship that had been brought into the fore the last few years but publicly, he's sort of rattling the anti-american sabers which he has been known to do. as he watches governor romney, he remembers that george w. bush running for president in 2000 was very critical of bill clinton's closeness to yeltsin, bush was critical of the behavior in chechnyia. then the two of them managed to create a fairly productive relationship for a number of years before it kind of broke down at the end. putin is a realist, a

pragmatist. he doesn't take all this stuff too seriously and acts in what he sees as his own interest, not in what america thinks is his interest. >> it is certainly a developing situation. we will be pouring over the jpegs and online screen shots of the two men meeting all day with all sorts of armchair psychoanalysis. the "new york times" peter baker, thank you for your time, sir. after the break, is marco rubio's dream over? what president obama's new immigration policy means for the gop's immigration policy.

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totell congress we can't wait.eo firecongress refuses to act.s, chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. some of these kids are valedictorians of their high school and we're going to deport them. that doesn't make sense either. i'm trying to figure out an approach to that that's balanced, that doesn't encourage illegal immigration in the future but recognizes the humanitarian position these kids are in. my biggest concern is that by

doing this this way, the president is undermined and set back the hopes of getting a long-term solution done on this issue. but listen, i hope i'm wrong because this is an important issue. >> that was florida senator marco rubio this morning saying the president's executive order on immigration may hamper efforts to create a long term solution. rubio has been crafting his own dream act but his office says the senator will not be pushing that version before the election in november. margaret, a bloomberg poll out this morning shows effectively the president has made a slam-dunk on this immigration announcement. 64% of the public support it. only 30% disagree with it. you hear marco rubio in those comments i think parsed comments, if you will, it seems like the republicans are sort of in the catbird seat in terms of how they're going to handle immigration. they've got to tackle it somehow but it's certainly going to be a delicate dance. >> well, marco rubio missed the window if he had one. he may have gotten the message do not do your version of the dream act.

but he's been thrown under the bus anyway, with the word leaking that he's not on the short list for vice president. you know, his version was to take out community college and just leave in if you're serving your country, you get to find a pathway to citizenship if your parents brought you here. and he sounded like jeb bush being all emotional about the kid that's the valedictorian who has been here and done everything right, and we're going to deport or self-deport, if you're going to go with the romney version. but that is -- that's just, you know, it remains a huge problem for republicans. how are they going to get straight on immigration after romney's performance in the primaries? >> it's obviously a very politically smart thing that the president did and we can say it's political because he could have done it at any point in the past two years. but i don't really get the response from rubio that the process has been spoiled by this. there's nothing that's preventing him from putting in

legislation that does the exact same thing the president's quasi-executive order does trying to codify for the long term. no one is saying don't do it except for his own insecurities about what this means for him politically if he doesn't. >> if you talk to immigration advocates they say look the dream act is sort of the cherry on top and everything else is really difficult to hammer out. so you sort of de-incentivize anybody from comprehensive immigration reform. i don't necessarily buy that. >> progress is progress and it begets more progress. my whole point is that there's literally nothing stopping him from introducing that bill now. i understand that he wants to say the process has been broken by the president, but i don't understand that at all. >> i actually agree with sam. in a year or two, they won't tackle this stuff this year anyway. with polls at 60% something, you'll have stories about how this has been really good for these kids. you're going to have more support for this in a year or two. >> is a comprehensive solution possible? that's an excuse to criticize what can be done.

each republican that's been on about this has said oh, but it ruins the comprehensive solution. what comprehensive solution? the one that's been killed? >> let me make one point. mitt romney was asked about it again in a fox news interview and said something shocking. he said he thinks, he's hopeful he can get immigration reform done between the time he's elected and takes office. so between november and january. that is -- >> but also, keep in mind on day one he's going to sort of tackle like 17 major pieces of legislation. day one. >> that boardroom is going to be so busy. >> it's worth noting, arizona republican congressman dave schweikert has introduced a bill which prevents the department of homeland security from enforcing a presidential executive order as immigration law. certainly a developing situation which we will be talking about in the days and weeks to come. coming up, as the supreme court gets set to reveal its

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team obama released a new spanish language ad today promoting what the law is doing for the host, christina. sam, you have written about contingency plans the white house may or may not be making. certainly the republicans smell blood which is why i think you have mitch mcconnell making those comments.

regardless of what happens, well, actually we should discuss that. what are -- who wins if the affordable care act is struck down or the individual mandate is struck down? >> if the individual mandate is struck wn, then the big loser is the insurance companies unless the other provisions are brought out of it as well, the related stuff. the idea that from talking to peop on all sides of the aisle, the expectation, if you had to make a bet, is the mandate's struck down and the prohibition of discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions goes with it as well as community rating. what stays are a bunch of insurance croreforms that do a lot of good but don't tackle the problem of the uninsured as much as you would like. but it's tough, i think the politics are so difficult to really get at when that happens, because a lot of the stuff that remains is really popular. 's like preventive care funding, it's keeping kids on their parents' insurance until 26, stuff like that that is much more relatable for people than all the other stuff. i've heard very valid arguments from both people that it's a win

for the president or win for republicans with the remainder of the law. i'm not really sure where it is. >> don't you feel the politics are sort of baked in the cake already on this? this has already been a huge negative for h and really, a huge downdraft on the congressional side more than on the presidential side at this point in time. i think he's lost a lot of those independents from '08 based on this issue. i think what's left over n is a la carte. that's always been the paradox with this law, it polls really well in terms of the individual components -- >> i think that's right, but at the same time, you can put up a theoretical argument that let's say they strip down the individual mandate and the pre-existing condition ovision, then all of a sudden the people are calling for repeal, are calling for repeal of, you know, the 26-year-old provision. >> but it sounds like the insurance companies, united, i believe aetna is one of them, they will retain the popular parts but thbig thing which is pre-existing conditions, goes out the window. 36 million to 112 million adults -- >> what insurance companies would love would be to keep the individual mandate and get rid

of pre-existing conditions. nirvana. that's not going to happen. people, you poll it and they don't know what's in there. they don't know what's good and bad. republicans are for throwing out the baby with the bath water. they're for repeal and have never really come up with what's going to replace it. >> part of the reason it doesn't poll well is one, it hasn't been explained incredibly well. there has been three to one negative advertising against the law. and three, a lot of the provisions were put in to take place in 2014 which was a very stupid idea by the crafters of the bill because they wanted to make it seem like it was a budget -- >> there's another reason it doesn't poll well, because it solves a problem most americans don't have. most americansave insurance. i actually think the politics is incredibly simple. this is not going to be about the policy of health care. it's going to be about presidential leadership. the republicans will make the case that barack obama spent two years wasting the country's time on something that wasn't even legal in the first place. even if a little bit of it gets struck down.

and one of the challenges obama has in this election is to make the case to the american people that over the next four years, he's the leader they need to take the country out of a very difficult situation. i think it just hurts him. if it passes, on the other hand, if the supreme court approves of the law, then the president's in a position which he can say look, there really are radicals in this country who are speaking nonsense and trying to marginalize -- >> the pre-existing -- the thing about the pre-existing conditn, however, is it speaks to the one campaign theme that obama has developed with some consistency and that is the fairness theme. it polls enormously well. i think the house republicans as usual made sort of a huge mistake by saying that they would consider some version of a pre-existing condition issue, and they have not a chance in hell of passing that. >> we actually have some of the polling on that. the requirement that insurance companies provide coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, 85% of the country approves of that, 12% disapproves. that said, a pew poll from yesterday asks how well do you

understand the law, very well, 18% othe country. somewhat well, 49% of the country. not too well, not well at all, 31%. >> there was a great story in kaiser health news -- >> the new republic. >> the new republic, whe he went to i think kentucky -- >> tennessee. >> tennessee, sorry, to a health clinic. >> you have one more try. >> to a health clinic which served a lot of the people who would be advantaged in 2014 by the law. they had no idea not only that the law was going to help them but even that it had been passed. >> in the campaign, the law gets unpacked in its pieces depending what happens in the supreme court, and people get it. but 2014 is like an eternity anyway. >> yeah. one more point to make which is if the supreme court does end up doing the most likely route, which is ripping out the individual mandate and taking out some related provisions, another conversation then starts immediately which is do you replace that with something, f instance, you could try

penalizing people who show up at the hospital so that they end up covering the bills,r do you then rip it out. that's a different -- rip the whole law out. that's a very different conversation than what we've had, because then you are actually trying to do either something constructive as opposed to defending the law in its entirety versus something destructive. >> how does that look for the president? >> it still looks bad. it's very complicated. >> in political terms, that debate will be held i think on republican turf. the republican line on this right now is that the health care law is really about hurting the economy, it's hurting jobs, hurting what you care about. that's how romney uses it on the stump, saying we're going to get rid of these regulations that will unleash the american dream and everybody will have three jobs and be happy. >> then obama can theoretically respond saying you know what will hurt the economy, if your 26-year-old out there looking for a job has to pay for his own health care. >> that's a big base motivator. >> likewise, if the affordable care act is no longer on the table for tt romney, it could maybe keep people at home come november. after the break, live at 5:00. attorney general eric holder

gets set for a fast and furious meeting with darrell issa. their sit-down likely won't delay a contempt hearing. details, next. ♪ ♪ ♪

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these types of operations actually started under the bush administration andhe bush administration did nothing about it. although they knew about it. when eric holder found out about these tactics, he immediately stopped it. he said no, we're not going to have this. >> that was congressman elijah cummings today on "morning joe" talking about the investigation into the doj's fast and furious program, not to be confused of course with the six-part vin diesel hollywood blockbuster. the investigation has pitted darrell issa against attorney general eric holder. last week, issa threatened holder with contempt of congress vote, saying the attorney general is refusing to hand over documents. the two are meeting this

afternoon at 5:00 p.m. while the contempt hearing is still scheduled for tomorrow. really interesting back and forth over eric holder, who is a man, we talk about the catbird seat, he is the man, sort of the face of a lot of controversial positions the administration has taken. whether that's arizona immigration, whether that's voting i.d. laws, whether that is the fast and furious program. we heard what elijah cummings had to say. i want to play some sound of joe walsh just about an hour ago on msnbc talking, responding to elijah cummings. let's hear what he had to say. >> the bush administration cooperated with the mexican government. they let the mexican government know what they were doing. they traced the guns. fast and furious, our government under this administration purposely turned the other way and stopped tracing thousands of firearms so this is a much bigger, a much more serious breach of justice. >> glenn, is this -- where do you land? is this much ado about nothing?

is this all part of an effort to undermine eric holder, his position in the administration? is this a legitimate concern? the talk of conspiracy theories, the talk of this administration trying to use this whole thing as a pawn to have greater gun control. what do you make of it? >> i think the only answer to this is the appointment of several special counsel with unlimited subpoena power. [ speaking simultaneously ] >> that could feed your show for years. >> i think chairman issa would be more than willing to have that accommodation. look, what are we, in june? i don't even know the month. >> i don't know the day so we're fine. >> where the sense that this is heating up in the middle of a campaign is obvious. things -- there are answers that have not come out from doj in terms of who knew what and when. it is clear doj was slow-walking congress on this but the notion this has to involve some sort of

constitutional confrontation at this particular moment in time seems a little bit far-fetched. >> congress' rep is so intact. people love them right now. why not. >> if they can hold administration officials in contempt they can't be called a do-nothing congress. >> i thought this was -- let's play representative john mica on fox talking about this, giving credence to the conspiracy notion theory. >> people forget how all this started. this administration is a gun control administration. they tried to put the violence in mexico on the blame of the united states so they concocted this scheme and actually sending our federal agents sending guns down tre and trying to cook some little deal to say that we've got to get more guns under control. >> i love that like this is a gun control administration as if that's like the worst thing you could possibly be. >> first off, full disclosure, my wife has worked in the

department of justice on fast and furious matters so i have to put that out there. >> thank you for the disclosure. >> i appreciate that. secondly, it's insane to suggest this is a gun control administration. they have done virtually nothing. in light of massive gun violence episodes, including gabby giffords. that is pure black helicopter stuff right there. >> to say nothing of the fact that maybe being a gun control administration, if they were a gun control administration, would be a good thing. >> i think we can quibble over whether if the bush program was the same as the obama program and what were the differences, but clearly, i think clearly the people in the department of justice weren't operating out of some malicious back door attempt to get some legislative outcome in the united states. i think it's utterly silly and sort of ruins the whole point of the debate. >> also, lives were lost in this, too. >> a federal agent in order to get support for gun control -- >> that is the implication of his remark and it's sort of offensive.

>> it's preposterous. >> it's actively offensive. i do want to talk about a little bit dial it back to eric holder and his role. because we know just from the book "in killer capture" they talk about the difficult role, the justice department and the role of the attorney general is a strange one because you are at one serving an administration but you are not supposed to be explicitly political, and that eric holder has a certain amount of difficult things on his plate right now in 2010, there was rumor that he might have left the white house but valerie jarrett intervened and said this wouldn't be good for us, specifically wouldn't be good for your friend the president, and he said on. but certainly, this stuff doesn't exactly encourage, i would imagine, is not the kind of stuff that makes you want to go to work every day. >> well, i have actually heard different about holder. i've heard that that report about jarrett wasn't necessarily accurate and that he very much, if there's a second term, would like to stay on. i'm not sure that the administration would feel exactly the same way about it.

but this is a guy who has not shied away from controversy and he clearly has an agenda that at times has seemed more progressive than the president's, much to his dismay. >> they haven't always been on the same page. it started very early with the trial of khalid shaikh mohammed and that was a big rift that developed between the white house and department of justice. holder takes a lot of spears for this administration and we all think of it as him acting sort of off the script but in some respects it probably helps him out. he's the one out in the forefront while they can do things in the background. >> you see why robert kennedy was his brother's a.g. that relationship is so key, you want somebody who has your back and who is listening to you. >> if you were to tell the white house right after the midterm elections in 2010 that the biggest congressional investigation a year and a half later, the house republicans had going on against you was eric holder, solyndra is off the table, it really hasn't been able to get much, his talons in

much else. the white house can handle the holder thing. there are worse things that could have happened that never happened. >> fast and furious, not the hollywood blockbuster, nor a political blockbuster, as perhaps darrell issa would have wanted it. coming up, roger clemens is found not guilty of lying to congress. does that mean the government will stop paying for these kinds of trials? [ male announcer ] with six indulgently layered desserts, all at 150 calories or less, there's definitely a temptations for you. unless you're one of those people who doesn't like delicious stuff. temptations. it's the first jell-o that's just for adults. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car!

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welcome back. time for "what now." now that roger clemens has been acquitted on all six counts that he lied to congress about using performance-enhancing drugs, will the u.s. government give up trying high profile expensive cases like this? michael scherer, let's not

forget barry bonds was found guilty only on a technicality which was obstruction after a seven-year investigation. lance armstrong, no charges filed after a two-year investigation. is this the end of high profile sports investigations? >> may not be the end but it's definitely good news for anybody who perjured themselves. >> as many of us have. let's be honest. >> i think most of our local d.c. counsel here have been struggling with this issue themselves. i think what it shows is these are really hard cases to prove. it's like a very difficult thing. there was actual physical evidence introduced at this trial of him having used a needle that someone said they kept and still, they couldn't get him on it. i think perjury's a very serious crime but it's also really hard to get these convictions. >> in principle, it's very important to go after people who lie before congress. you have to set a standard that you shouldn't do it. spending $10 million which was the estimated cost, gets you to think about it --

>> you need someone wired. you've got to have -- >> yeah. sam needs to disclose that he's a yankees fan. >> i'm a red sox fan. which is why clemens deserved the guilty. >> okay. the truth comes out. full disclosure now. moving on to other maybe guilty parties, actor alec baldwin is tweeting about an incident with photographers outside the new york city marriage license bureau because why, if you're going to fight, why not fight in front of a marriage bureau. "the new york daily news" reports baldwin punched one of the paper's photographers. that is the image we have. another photographer was there to capture it. here is baldwin's take via twitter. a photographer quotes almost hit me in the face with his camera this morning, hash tag, all paparazzi should be waterboarded. glenn? >> do i think, yes. >> as someone who is chased frequently.

>> i am a former, full disclosure, former new york city tabloid reporter. i've been hit many times in the side of the head by a "daily news" photographer and have had this reaction. >> anger management issues on the part of alec baldwin. now we have a trend, three of them. >> so much for the calming effects of yoga. >> not the paparazzi. >> you must run for the mayor of new york city. >> it seems like it. >> that's a campaign poster there. >> baldwin's future is still bright. i don't know if it's bright enough to wear shades but it is still bright. that is all for us here on "now." thank you to my charming panel, glenn, michael, sam and margaret. that's all for us. i'll see you back here tomorrow in d.c. still. hopefully with a functioning teleprompter at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. i'm joined by michael steele, ezra klein, casey hunt and mark zandy.

"andrea mitchell reports" is next here from washington. good afternoon to you. good afternoon. great job there. coming up next, the g-20 wraps up today. what have they accomplished? we will check with chuck todd. plus the end of the romney bus tour with chris cillizza. can eric holder escape being held in contempt of congress? his wing man, congressman elijah cummings, joining me here. she's not from texas but gale collins is certainly messing with texas. all that next on "andrea mitchell reports." times and conference times. but what we'd rather be making are tee times. tee times are the official start of what we love to do. the time for shots we'd rather forget, and the ones we'll talk about forever. in michigan long days, relaxing weather and more than 800 pristine courses make for the perfect tee time. because being able to play all day is pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org.

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this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ if i'm lucky enough to become president, i'll be the first president in american history to have been born in michigan. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" last stop, michigan. mitt romney's bus tour winds up in his native state. as a new poll now shows from bloomberg, americans favor the president's decision to stop

deporting some children of illegal immigrants by two to one. the white house action has thrown a wrench into similar plans being considered by leading republicans like marco rubio. >> some of these kids are the valedictorians of their high school and we're going to deport them. that doesn't make sense, either. so i'm trying to figure out an approach to that that's balanced, that doesn't encourage illegal immigration in the future, but recognizes the humanitarian position that these kids are in. and what about those reports that rubio is not being vetted for vp? romney's now weighed in. we'll have the political fix with chris cillizza. the g-20 is about to wrap up with no fixes for europe. plus the showdown between darrell issa and eric holder. who's got the edge as they prepare to meet today? plus, egypt in turmoil. syria already in civil war. we have richard engel, robin wright and p.j. crowley right here. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix, mitch romney is wrapping up his battleground

bus tour in michigan t state where he was born, which today, romney said he believes he can win. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. there has been a lot of discussion overnight about a conversation you and i had yesterday. we ran clips of mitt romney in cornwall, pennsylvania, talking about his trip to a wawa. the rnc and campaign both reached out to us, saying romney had more to say about that visit, about federal bureaucracy. >> i was at wawa's. i went in to order a sandwich. you press a touch-tone keypad. you just touch that and the sandwich comes at you, touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier, there's your sandwich. it's amazing. people in the private sector have learned how to compete. it's time to bring competition to the federal government and to get it smaller and have it respond to the customers, which are you. >> now on to that other subject, immigration, because that was a big topic.