and i wind up with this fanfare like it's the st. patrick's day parade. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix, a house committee is expected to vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt. it's a republican controlled committee, of course. after a contentious debate over documents that house republicans are demanding about a controversial gun program. documents the white house says today are covered by executive privilege. >> the attorney general says that his offer is extraordinary. the only thing extraordinary about his offer is that he is asking the committee to close an investigation before the committee even gets to see the documents. i can't accept that deal. no other committee chairman would. >> i must say, mr. chairman, i am offended personally by your calling the attorney general a liar. it shouldn't be a political witch hunt against the attorney

general of our country and our president in an election year. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is here with me and chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. pete, this showdown on the hill, chris and i can talk about the politics, but what about the law here? the executive privilege assertion, that's not a first by any means, but this is really heating up for eric holder. >> it is, although i don't know what the end game is because it's always so mushy when it comes to battling these things out in court. that's when a contempt vote is. if the committee approves this it goes to the full house. if full house approves it, under federal law, the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, part of the justice department is instructed, it's his duty, the law says, to convene a grand jury to decide whether to prosecute. couple things about that. number one, the justice department has long taken the position under both democratic and republican administrations that congress can't tell the

u.s. attorney what to do. so that's unresolved in court. secondly, justice departments most recently in the bush administration, both republicans and democrats again have further taken the position when there's an executive privilege claim, the u.s. attorney absolutely cannot do anything. all these questions are unresolved in court and in fact, in past cases, most recently the battle over harriet myers and the firings of the u.s. attorneys under the bush administration, the judge said you know, i'm begging you guys to work this out and not come to court. so who knows what the end game here is. what you have right now is darrell issa, chairman of this committee, saying give us the documents and if they satisfy us, we won't have this vote. and eric holder, the attorney general, saying if you promise not to have this vote, i'll give you what you want and i'll brief you on what it is. the justice department says they think this indicates the committee isn't serious because they made an offer to tell them what they need. one other point here. this is not over fast and furious itself. this is over documents created last year in terms of what the

justice department's response was once it found out that it had sent a letter up to congress that turned out to be wrong. they sent charles grassley, the senator from iowa, there was no gun running here. then they found out there was. the committee wants to know was there a cover-up. it's not about the operation itself. it's about how the justice department responded when it found out what the facts were. >> hence the assertion of executive privilege, because these were internal documents reflecting internal conversations. >> yes. >> is the assertion from the white house. chris cillizza, clearly this was party lines today in the committee. you had senator maloney from new york versus darrell issa, you had congressman cummings, who we interviewed yesterday, the ranking democrat on the committee. so this is a party line vote so that means that most likely, it will at least pass the committee stage. >> yeah. and you know, andrea, the white house communications director put out a statement essentially saying house republicans would do well to move beyond fast and furious and focus on the economy at a time like this.

so there are politics everywhere in this. i would say, though, that don't forget that the obama administration ran and most candidates do run on the promise of transparency. republicans believe this is an issue that fires up their base, without question. i don't think most independents have heard of this but i have heard the push-back that don't totally dismiss this as a potential issue because it plays to a pillar of the obama core message which is transparency in government, honesty in government, all those sorts of things. i'm not suggesting fast and furious overruns immigration, overruns the economy, but i also wouldn't be too quick to say this is a minor issue that only, only, only can impact the republican base. >> we should also point out that there is sort of the sense of executive privilege, that goes back 40 years to watergate. that's when most americans became aware of this conflict over executive privilege and

it's the suggestion of something that's nixonian which of course the white house would push back against. let me briefly ask you about the bloomberg poll. this is the widest spread we've seen in some time, 13 points, barack obama over mitt romney, and it's being looked at very closely. we know ann selzer, who does the polling for bloomberg, is the tiffany of pollsters. we all admire what she does. yet there's been some suggestion looking at the internals that the weighting of this poll was too heavily weighted in terms of minority voters who might be more supportive of course of barack obama, the democrats rather than mitt romney so it may overstate the size of the head-to-head gap. >> let me say two things. one is ann is the woman who conducts the des moines register poll that's gotten the iowa caucus result correct in the last two elections. let's say that. i will also then cite the guy who gave me my first guy in washington, charlie cook, political handicapper extraordinaire who also told me

when i was 23 years old and starting to write about this stuff, don't ever look at one poll. take ten polls that are done in a week, average them out and that's probably where it is. i think personally, 13 points is far too high. i don't think the obama people think they are up 13 points nationally but remember, polls are snapshots in time. it's why you should never take any one poll, even one as good as nbc/"wall street journal," don't take any one poll and say this is the definitive document about the race. look at the averages over time. >> what i would also look at is the disapproval, 53% disapproving of the president's handling of the economy. 43% approving. similar numbers for mitt romney. neither of them are up very high on handling of the economy but that may be the most important poll number to look at. thank you very much, chris. see you later. and thanks to pete williams. a day after huge protests in tahrir square against egypt's military rulers, hosni mubarak is still clinging to life, they say, in a cairo military

hospital. who is going to succeed him? that gets more murky by the day. mohammed morsi and ahmed shafiq are both now claiming victory. nbc's eamon mohadin is live for us in cairo. seeing the scenes from tahrir square, it just is so extraordinary, such a powerful reminder that one should never jump to conclusions. the arab spring is certainly no longer a spring. >> absolutely. if there was any unifying criticism among the many egyptians towards the ruling military council, it is that the ruling military council has somewhat botched this transition. that has been evident by the past 72 hours. if you start with the announcement that the military council made on sunday that they want to retain certain powers, including the ability to appoint senior military officers, the national budget as well as the ability to actually declare war,

the responsibilities of commander in chief, all those powers are going to stay in the hands ever the military according to this new document. so you can get a sense of the frustration and anger among many egyptians who felt that they were on the cusp of appointing a new civilian president who would have the full power. so that's why there's a great deal of anger. when you look at the issue of mubarak's health, that's another example. here's a convicted criminal serving a life sentence who was transferred from a prison hospital to a military facility and that is shrouded in all kinds of secrecy. yet no official word coming out about the condition of this former president and again, that's angering the people here as to what the military council may be up to behind the scenes. >> and there have been veiled threats from the u.s., from the state department, suggesting that $1.3 billion that's on account for egypt in u.s. aid will not be distributed unless the military goes along with whatever the election result is. i am told that u.s. officials do

believe that morsi, the muslim brotherhood candidate, most likely did win. >> that's correct. the initial indication is that the muslim brotherhood candidate morsi is ahead in the polls. however, again, shrouded in secrecy, there are some rumors that the presidential election commissions, the final word as to who will win, will not make the announcement on thursday. they could delay the announcement for a few days until the situation becomes more clear. again, that is angering people here and as you mentioned, the u.s. now saying that if there's any attempt by the military to retain powers and not transition to a civilian government, that could jeopardize u.s. relations with egypt. >> thank you so much. joining me now from jerusalem, ambassador dennis ross, former middle east peace negotiator for the bush and clinton administrations and now with the washington institute for policy and also with nbc news and msnbc middle east diplomacy analyst. that is a mouthful. great to see you. thanks for joining us from jerusalem. first to egypt and the concerns,

there must be a lot of nervousness in israel over its first arab peace partner, egypt, and it being on the cusp of what could be a transition either to military rule and protests or to an islamist leader. >> well, i think you're right. i think there's a lot of uncertainty and when you have uncertainty, particularly when so much of the israeli military doctrine, so much of their posture on defense overall has been shaped by a set of assumptions about what the relationship with egypt would be, now that relationship seems to be increasingly in question. they watch it very closely but they also don't want to be part of the story so they're very, very careful about what they say about it. >> you know, in talking to u.s. officials, they say look, if morsi did win, then we have to go with democracy. that's what we say we believe in. and he's going to -- the big test will be whether he believes he's elected for all of the people, because if that's the

case, he has to represent primarily economic interests. he has to deal with the imf, has to depend on u.s. aid, has to deal with the world, and in that case, he cannot cut the peace treaty with israel. >> well, i think one of the key issues is going to be, assuming that he has won, the first issue is going to be what's the relationship between the president and the military, what's the balance of power there, what are the authorities that the president will have. clearly the military is staking out certain grounds where they want to preserve their prerogatives. that's point one. point two is going to be does he define his responsibility as truly improving life within egypt. one of the reasons there was the revolution was because of the sense of indignity and injustice, the absence of any hope or sense of possibility, the absence of jobs. there's an overall sense that you had no real future. now, if he presides as president and doesn't address the economy, you are going to see a great

deal of cynicism begin to emerge about the muslim brotherhood. he does have a stake in delivering and if he wants to deliver, he has to fulfill egypt's international obligations, first and foremost the peace treaty with israel but he has to respect minority rights, has to prove he's prepared to be the president of all egyptians, not just some. >> you are in israel at a time when the latest diplomatic round held in moscow between the u.s., the western powers and iran failed. there was no agreement. now time is running out july 1st, very tougher, much tougher sanctions on iran's oil will step in. at this point, if the sanctions do go into effect, how does that affect israel? there's a lot of sort of loose talk, i think, about some sort of israeli military action if iran does not now compromise.

>> i think there's two dimensions to the israeli views right now. one is they continue to believe that it's important to rachet up the pressure even more on the iranians in the hope and expectation that could affect iranian behavior. the other is that the clock keeps ticking. the iranians keep enriching uranium so there's a concern that as the clock keeps ticking, the israelis are getting closer and closer to the point where the character of the iranian nuclear program, its depth, its breadth, its redundancy, would make it very difficult at a certain point for the israelis still to retain a military option. no israeli prime minister is going to surrender israel's military option when they're facing what they perceive to be a threat. so they look at the clock as it relates to increasing pressures on iran but they also look at the clock in terms of are they running out of time with regard to their own military option. at this point, they would like to see a greater degree of

clarity as to whether or not diplomacy really can produce a change in iran's behavior. if they come to the conclusion that it cannot, then you increase the prospect that the israelis will feel they need to take action or we will need to take action. >> do you see that happening before the election? >> i think it's an open question at this point. i don't think -- one thing i feel quite comfortable saying is the israelis have not made a decision. so i think they're really going to judge what are the next steps that the five plus one, the permanent five members of the security council in germany, are going to take vis a vis iran. if the conclusion is that the shape of the diplomacy to this point isn't producing anything, the israelis will want to know what is the next step, what is going to be done to clarify whether it's possible to reach a deal that would matter, meaning that the iranians expose themselves one way or the other, are they prepared to accept an outcome where they have nuclear power but that civil nuclear power is constrained with very

clear limitations so they cannot convert it into military weapons, nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons capability. if they feel that answer can be clarified sooner rather than later, then they're not going to act. if they feel that answer is not going to be forthcoming it increases the prospects they will act militarily. >> dennis ross, our newest nbc diplomatic analyst, thank you very much. thanks for joining us today from jerusalem. up next, who are the t tevangelicals and why does mitt romney need them? [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain.

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welcome back. a group of conservative christians who agree with the

fath tea party's position on fiscal policy. joining me now is david brody, author of the new book, "tevangelicals." david, congratulations on the book. thanks so much. tell me about your analysis because when we first heard from the tea party in august of '09, it was all about health care, fiscal conservatism and you're suggesting there is overlap on social issues, particularly the evangelical, religious issues, there are components where these two factions in the conservative movement come together. >> that's right. you're looking at fiscal issues and social issues and there is a convergence. that doesn't mean that life and marriage and all of the controversial social issues are part of the tea party. that's not what i'm suggesting at all. what i'm saying is that there is always a social component to a fiscal issue. take planned parenthood funding. planned parenthood has the abortion issue attached to it but there's a funding issue as

well. there's a study out there, $112 billion being used on unwed programs and also on divorce by the federal government. pro-family conservatives say you cut the divorce rate down, you will save $55 billion or so. you can go down the list. that's one of the main reasons why conservative christians are really joining the tea party. 55%, 60% at least of the tea party is conservative christian. >> one of the king makers in tea party terms has always been south carolina senator jim demint. this is what he had to say. >> i really think a lot of the motivation behind these tea party crowds is a spiritual component. people are seeing this massive government growing and realizing it's the government that's hurting us. i think they're turning back to god in effect is our salvation and government is not our salvation.

>> it's really the contrast, the push/pull between government as an agency of good that can help people with a social safety net and government really as a force that hurts individual initiative and really goes against the grain of independence. >> that's absolutely right. i think that's one of the challenges i lay out later in the book, in the last chapter, which is how are tevangelicals going to convince independents their message is mainstream. we've heard a lot of time the tea party message isn't mainstream. there have been plenty of articles written about that. how do you convince independents that it is. if you actually look at what independents believe, for example, over 70% of independents think a balanced budget amendment's a good idea. over 70%. so can this tea party in essence be able to rachet up victories in certain areas, term limits, balanced budget amendment, though the balanced budget

amendment is a whole other ball of wax, but can they eventually have some victories to show we're not just about stopping increasing the debt ceiling and we're just there to cause a ruckus. >> michelle bachmann, rick santorum more in sync with this movement than mitt romney. whom can mitt romney pick as a running mate who might pick up support from tevangelicals. is tim pawlenty in that group? >> i think he certainly is. mike huckabee is a name for sure. bobby jindal's a name. marco rubio. tim pawlenty, those four. there is somewhat of a split on portman in evangelical circles. if you talk to evangelical leaders in ohio, they really like the guy. nationally there are evangelical leaders that are concerned about him. so it kind of runs the gamut. >> david brody, fascinating new book. thank you very much for taking a fresh look at all of this. thanks for joining us today. up next, politico briefing. do we have a new favorite in the

vice presidential sweepstakes? we'll take a deeper dive. first, senate majority leader harry reid channels washington nationals star bryce harper. who wouldn't. the 19-year-old rookie phenom coined this phrase last week in a locker room interview with the toronto tv reporter. >> you know you of course in canada are of legal drinking age so what celebratory canadian beer would seem to make sense after a hit like that. you got a favorite beer? >> it's illegal to drink in the states at 19. why don't you ask something else. >> not canada. >> i'm not answering that. tuesday on the hill, senator reid showed that he follows the nats. at least he responded to a reporter's question about immigration this way. >> i don't want to answer that question. that's a clown question. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool

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briefing, joe williams with politico joins me. joe, thanks very much. obviously, nobody knows what's going on inside the debate but there is a lot of talk and you all have written the story that tim pawlenty is actually rising in the vice presidential sweepstakes because he brings a lot of surrogate power, he has a lot of conservative credentials and arguably, there isn't a whole track record because he dropped out of the race so early back after the straw poll that he didn't spend months and months beating up on mitt romney. >> exactly. there are two things that factor here beyond just the notion that he is a very effective surrogate. one is the fact that he was a governor of a state that's trending towards red, sort of purple right now, and the second thing is that he brings a contrast to mitt romney in that pawlenty has working class roots. kid from south st. paul, where i used to live many years ago, grew up irish -- or catholic,

rather, hockey player, has a lot of regular guy street cred. nice contrast to mitt romney if you're looking at the republican side. >> and if we look back at the debate, this was last june, just a year ago in new hampshire, a cnn debate. john king was pushing pawlenty to what he had previewed the weekend earlier on his attack lines against mitt romney over health care, and you can see in this clip that mitt romney -- that tim pawlenty just wouldn't go there. let's watch. >> your rival is standing right there. if it was obamacare on fox news sunday, why is it not standing here with the governor right there? >> president obama is the person who i quoted in saying he looked to massachusetts for designing his program. he's the one who said it's a blueprint and that he merged the two programs. so using that term was a reflection of the president's comments. >> that is about as rough as it got. in contrast to some of the other candidates for whom there is a long list. of course, there is rob portman.

the downside to portman, i guess the upside is ohio, ohio, ohio. the downside is the former budget director for george w. bush which would certainly give a talking point to the obama camp. >> exactly. rob portman would bring a ghost to the party because he's got that association with president bush and not only the association with the bush administration, but also the bush budget which a lot of people are still remembering, the bush economic policies led to a lot of economic distress that we're still trying to dig our way out of. also, just one thing very quickly, pawlenty, besides bringing contrast, you've got to look at what his liabilities are and that includes the fact that he is not necessarily all that popular, wouldn't necessarily bring minneapolis or minnesota along with him to the romney campaign and left the state with a bit of a budget problem they're still trying to work themselves out of. >> thanks so much.

the first rule about veep club, you do not talk about it. mark halpern will, next. plus, america awaits the big decisions, expected soon from the supreme court. so you brushed with colgate total and you didn't. let's compare. germ party! eww! now the colgate total mouth. nice! [ female announcer ] colgate total fights 90% more plaque germs. i'm in. [ female announcer ] colgate total. less germs. healthier mouth. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno.

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topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports" the defense rested today in the jerry sandusky sex abuse trial without calling the former penn state assistant coach to the stand. over seven days of testimony, jurors heard from eight accusers who say sandusky sexually abused them. they also heard from sandusky's wife, who testified in his defense. they will now have to consider 51 criminal counts that could put the former coach in prison for life if he is convicted. for the first time in its 167 year existence, the southern baptist convention has selected an african-american president. he was elected tuesday in new orleans and will officially step into that role later today. major milestone for a group once

known for supporting segregation. heat is on from the midatlantic to the northeast. temperatures are soaring, topping the 90s, expected to hit 100 degrees tomorrow along the east coast. the national weather service is encouraging people to stay inside if at all possible, and keep hydrated. that means water. will he or won't he? is mitt romney considering an early pick for vice president? mitt romney broke his own rule about not discussing the selection process after abc reported that marco rubio was not being seriously vetted. citing unnamed campaign aides. >> i can't imagine who such people are, but i can tell you this. they know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not, and that's beth myers and myself. i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly

vetted as part of our process. >> mark halpern, editor at large for "time" magazine and msnbc senior political analyst. was mitt romney trying to smooth ruffled feathers among rubio supporters who might feel he was being dissed by not even being vetted? what was romney trying to do in breaking his own promise to never discuss the process? >> i should say that this is based, what i'm going to say is based less on reporting and more on magic eight ball and ouija board and experience covering these things. my guess is he's not going to be picked, he's not going to hand over the full documentation because he doesn't think he's going to be picked and they will send the signal he's not going to. there is clearly a political problem caused by the report, which is a lot of conservatives, a lot of people who think governor romney needs to do something about the hispanic vote, feel marco rubio should be considered. so i think it was a mistake from a communications point of view and process point of view for the governor to do that. i don't know why he did. i think there would have been

other ways to send the message, true or not, that he was being fully vetted rather than having the candidate do it. for some reason, they chose to do it that way. i don't think it really matters. again, i don't think he'll be picked in the end. i don't think it matters one way or the other to real voters. it was a strange decision for someone who is trying to do it in kind of the traditional way, what's become the traditional way, no leaks, no discussion of who's on or off the list. >> it's almost as though he was already on the defensive about the immigration issue. he had not responded at all to marco rubio's trial balloons about dream act light and for that reason, the legislation wasn't completed, wasn't introduced, then the president preempted all that last week. by doing an end run. so maybe that had something to do with it. marco rubio was asked about it, of course, by greta van susteren on fox last night. >> interesting day. you know, look, i don't want to talk about the process. i haven't up to this point. it's governor romney's process. i want to be respectful of that.

it's been quite an interesting ride around here over the last few months. >> have you actually talked to the governor today? >> i have not. >> as he told us last week at the bloomberg breakfast, he had still not talked, this was two days before the president's announcement on his decision about the dream act, but he had not ever discussed his proposed legislation with mitt romney personally. >> well, the immigration issue is a big issue. it's going to be a big issue the next couple days for the president and governor romney, both giving speeches in orlando to hispanic elected officials. in terms of the running mate situation, i'm not saying marco rubio falls into these categories, but there are some people who really don't want it for whatever reason. sometimes because they don't want -- they don't think they can withstand the scrutiny of the process. so they don't want to hand over documents because they're -- they don't think they will get it or want it in the end. there are some people, we have seen this more in the past with walter mondale and others, you want names out there to get credit for considering people.

and you have seen candidate -- campaigns leak names, here was our short list and you see a name on there that clearly is meant to appease or appeal to a certain constituency. my guess is that's what they were trying to do. it's not a great week given with what happened on immigration friday and republicans feeling on the defensive. it's not a great week for the republican party's most prominent hispanic star to have his name out there as someone who is not even being considered when a lot of people in the party, regardless of whether it be a good idea or not, think he would be the best pick. >> briefly, is it your judgment from your reporting for a game change to or future reports and books that they are going to go early or not, do the traditional convention pick or jump the gun? >> they may go a little bit early which is not to say on the eve of the convention. the biggest argument for going early is to have somebody out there raising money. one of the advantages the romney side has now is they are almost certainly going to have money, maybe substantially more. i think if you had somebody like

tim pawlenty or rob portman out there going to other big cities and meeting with donors, you could add even more money to that advantage and that's a big deal. >> money, money, money. thank you very much. >> thanks, andrea. june means weddings, graduations and the end of the term for the supreme court. with big decisions still to come that could change the course of the presidential campaign. the biggest unknown of course is whether the court is going to uphold all or part of president obama's affordable health care act known to opponents as obamacare. joining me now is supreme court guru, tom goldstein, to talk about the court and the remaining decisions of this term. great to see you. you know it all so you can tell us right now, what's going to happen? we've got nine decisions left, big ones, plus health care, and health care is the biggest of them all and it could come on the last day which is next thursday. >> that's exactly right. the court is only scheduled to sit next week on monday but they always end up adding days.

what they've done basically in their own calendar is reserve next week and based on their past practice and it's a very tradition-bound place, they would probably finish up next thursday. the biggest, hardest case would co down on the last day. that means health care. >> immigration, the arizona law is also a very big case. that could be next week, it could be monday. the impact of that as well is being widely followed. >> there's no question. if it weren't for health care, that would be what everyone was looking at. it's a once an every few term case because it has political overtones, racial overtones, balance of power between congress and the states. it was argued on the very last day of arguments in april, so they've had even less time to work on that opinion. i would bet on next wednesday for the sb 1070 arizona immigration case. >> there was an interesting "time" magazine cover a week or so ago with justice kennedy, who is widely viewed as the swing voter in a lot of these cases. a cover which was a profile photographed in his chambers.

that was an unusual intimate look at a supreme court justice at a key moment, not after the term but in the middle of these final days. >> that's right. i think that with health care, since it touches so many people, the public is really engaged the supreme court is thinking about it in a way that it hasn't in a long time. so "time" recognized that people would buy the magazine because they are so interested in what the court is up to. >> why did he agree to it? >> i think that he, you know, it's an important profile of him. he's never going to step out and say inappropriate things. he probably viewed it as an opportunity for people to learn more about the court. >> and is it your judgment, i don't know if you want to base this on the oral arguments, because that can be misleading, but is it your judgment that the health care decision is very much up in the air or do you think that it is likely to go against the white house? >> i think it's a toss-up. it's one of those cases where you say based on past precedent, it looks like this is a law that would be upheld. the question is congress' power

to regulate interstate commerce. >> a conservative judge on the second highest court, the appeals court, upheld it. >> that's right. on the other hand, at oral argument it's clear the justices were taking the challenge seriously. we probably should have seen this coming when they set aside three days to hear oral argument which they hadn't done in decades. i would say 60/40 in favor of the law but not more than that. >> we have a couple other big decisions coming up. one involving -- >> television indecency. and military honors, whether it is a federal crime or constitutionally can be a federal crime for you to claim that you won something like the congressional medal of honor and you're lying about it. >> stay tuned. we'll see you again in the next couple days. thank you very much. >> thank you. up next, high honors for myanmar. this is "andrea mitchell reports." this message. back from the worst economic depression. almost 4.3 million new jobs we're still not creating them president's jobs plan firefighters, police officers, work. right now. wealthiest americans congress refuses to act. tell congress we can't wait.

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coming up in just 15 minutes on "news nation" breaking news. will a house committee take the unprecedented step of holding the attorney general in contempt? >> mr. chairman, i am offended personally by your calling the attorney general a liar, and you've called me a liar. >> that was caroline maloney earlier today, a top democrat on the committee. she will join me live. plus, was mitt romney pressured by conservatives to make it clear that tea party favorite marco rubio is being vetted as a possible vp pick? we'll play what romney has said in a new interview. it came 19 years late but today, aung san suu kyi finally received her degree from oxford university. she donned cap and gown to

receive her civil law doctorate to wide applause. she was under house arrest for more than 15 years by myanmar's military government and is making her first round of visits outside her native country. since that detention was lifted. joining me now is peter popham, who has written an autobiography entitled "the lady and the peacock." this must be such an emotional moment, having her at oxford. this is really a moment to finally signify the end of this ordeal. >> yes, that's right. i think the last two days have been the most emotional so far, because she lived in oxford for more than 15 years all together, first as a student, later as a wife and mother bringing up her two sons there. so to come back after all this time, 24 years, has been clearly, it was in her face and in her speech that she gave this morning. it's clear that it was an amazing, amazing feeling for her. >> she spoke at the london

school of economics yesterday but there have been other moments this week, this whole week has been amazing, because she went to oslo to finally accept the nobel and also appeared with bono in her honor on monday in oslo. there have been a series of events to signify she's finally free. does this really mean her political future is in any way guaranteed? >> well, i think it's clear that she could go back, she is now an elected mp. there has been talk about her perhaps being made a minister in the government. but i think her sights and her party's sights are set on 2015, when the next general election will be held in burma. if it goes like the election held a little earlier this year, her party's going to do very, very well, so finally, we may see her and her party beginning to have some power in the country. power in the country. >> of course, she met with hillary clinton who in myanmar

last december. and i remember back in 1995, hillary clinton first speaking out in beijing and then speaking about aung san suu kyi and elevating the whole issue of women's rights and political rights, and so there was a real bond between them, these two powerful women in completely different parts of the world and different circumstances. >> yeah, and i think it was a very strong meeting. suu kui has been very clear about the importance of hillary clinton's support and the support of america for her cause, for many years. and i think hillary clinton in particular must have had lessons to give her, things to tell her about the change from being an activist, which of course, she has been for 24 years, to being an active politician with all the difficult compromises and so on which that necessarily involves. >> peter popham, the biographer offing and sa ing and sang saun.

there was a great moment last night at the historic howard theater in washington. a very special gathering for the fourth annual news babes bash for breast cancer organized by a group of tv anchorwoman and network as well to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer screening. i was honored to speak for them along with george washington university hospital's dr. rachel brehm who runs the unique mammo van to help the most at risk and sunday served women in our city. >> the women that we service are low income and uninsured, a patient population on the increase due to job losses. >> we are here today to send a message loud and clear that this city, this community, is supporting women's health, girls and women need to be taken care of and we will not let them lose the ability to take care of themselves, to be strong, and to survive. we are all fighters.

we're all fighters against breast cancer, and my role models with up here. i just want to thank you all for making this possible. [ male announcer ] this is sheldon, whose long dy setting up the news starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. high schools in six states enrolled in the national math and science initiative... ...which helped students and teachers get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this.

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will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? msnbc contributor chris cillizza is back with us. chris, if you're tuning in at 11:00 tonight on the east coast, conan with the five romney sons all in one place. that's something to watch for. josh, ben and craig all appearing on conan tonight. >> i'm assuming you did that off the top of your head, andrea. >> i'm impressed i will say by that. look, i would say this is a good thing for mitt romney to put forward. anytime you can put your family forward, wife, kids they round out the perspective of you to potential voters who don't know that much about you. smart politics. i always watch conan. i'll be watching. >> my five sons for those not watching at daily show and ha does it for this edition of

andrea mitch it will reports. tomorrow, florida senator marco rubio joining me. tamron hall has a look what's next on "news nation." >> i can't wait to see that interview tomorrow. we are following breaking news. will a house committee take the unprecedented step of holding the attorney general in contempt? >> i must say, mr. chairman, i am offended personal ly by your calling the attorney general a liar. and you've called me a liar. >> that was congresswoman carolyn maloney earlier today. she's a top democrat on the committee and will join us live. plus, was mitt romney pressured by conservatives to make it clear that will tea party favorite marco rubio is being vetted after all? we'll play what the governor said in a new interview. ♪ ♪

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breaking news this hour. we are close to a vote from a house committee to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress. right now that committee is in recess but is expected to return very soon. this all follows the obama administration today invoking executive privilege over additional documents related to that will fast and furious investigation citing they've already handed in more than 7600 pages of documents. it's been an intense day of back and forth along party lines. >> more than eight months after a subpoena and clearly after the question of executive privilege could have and should have been asserted, this untimely assertion by the justice department falls short of any reason to delay today's proceedings. >> mr. chairman, it did not have to be this way. it really didn't. we could have postponed today's vote, accepted the attorney general's offer and worked with the department to