will focus on those people we think we can bring in to support me. this is a campaign about helping people who need help. i have a record. i've demonstrated my capacity to help the 100%. >> hi everybody. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, mitt romney is now mr. 100%. 47 days to go and romney trying to distance himself from his own remarks about the 47%. the republican nominee striking a much more moderate tone last night saying the phrase 100% over and over. the univision forum in florida. president obama is departing the nation's capital for the sunshine state where he'll speak at the same forum this afternoon. just when it seems like the week couldn't get worse for mitt romney, new battleground polling showing romney losing ground to the president. the president has widened his lead in three crucial swing states, ohio, virginia and florida.

>> absolutely for mitt romney, if he's going to turn the corner, he's going to have to turn it quickly. >> there's no doubt this campaign is adrift and without mitt romney being more active, engaged an specific, this could spell a second term which i would not be upset about at all from president obama. >> from the 47% to the polls, what's team romney's rescue strategy? more mitt and then more mitt. the candidate who put fund-raising at the forefront this week will next week be back on the trail and next week with this three-day bus tour of ohio lined up. we'll bring in today's political power panel, joe watkins, a romney surrogate and former bush white house aid, karen finney, former dnc director and jackie kucinich, politics reporter for "usa today." paul, i'll start with you. paul ryan said to a gop conference that this will be an up-and-down race. they're going to try to distract us. romney kept pushing this 100% at the event last night that we saw

in miami, also trying to make it very personal. i want to remind everybody. take a look. >> my dad was born in mexico of american parents living there. at age 5 or 6 there was revolution and they came back to the united states and my dad had to get help, the financial help. the government helped his family to be able to get back on their feet again. by the warks that's the way america works, we care for people and help lift them up and get them back. we don't have that become a permanent lifestyle. we help people, we get them on their feet. >> joe, a lot of people are analyzing mitt romney as taking a much more moderate tone. how will those on the right who may have liked this hard line that they were hearing from mitt romney, hearing that hard line from the private tape that was secretly recorded, how are they going to react to this more moderate approach? >> i think that they will like the fact that mitt romney is talking about everybody. he made those comments in may. they could have been worded a

lot better than they were. he's doing the right thing by telling people he cares about all americans and he cares about the situation of every american and lots of people including his own family in the past have needed help. there's nothing wrong with needing help. it's going forward that really matters. i think that what really matters, also, is not just the base, but those swing states where there are lots of undecideds. a lot of people like me are following the daily tracking polls which have gone back and forth. one week mitt romney ahead by two percentage points. the next week president obama ahead. and so right now those swing states really matter. i think mitt romney is doing the right thing by getting out and talking to the undecideds to make up their mind. >> karen, a new "usa today"/gallup poll asked independents about the impact on their voters. 15% say they're most likely to vote for romney, 29% is less likely. this big 53% saying those comments make no difference.

several members of romney's own party renouncing those comments. why do you think that voters don't seem to care about what people look at punditry wise as very revealing. >> we are obsessed. we follow twitter, facebook, e-mail. one of the things we have to remember is that the polls tend to lag behind the things that we're following in the news. so my guess is we won't see the full impact of romney's comment until about next week. it will be the week after, whatever the cleanup job is. it does take a little bit of time. if you're working hard and you maybe get a little bit of news in the day, you may not have -- you may have heard part of the comments, then you may hear something else going on. i think it does take a little bit of time. the problem that romney has had, though, and part of why these comments were so devastating is that, again, the obama team did a very good job very early on, spending their money and resources really reenforcing this narrative of somebody who is out of touch.

unfortunately for romney, he has -- every single gaff has reinforced that, unfortunately for him, fortunately for democrats obviously. so the big challenge he has is he doesn't have a lot of time to try to change the impression of him. he says now -- this week was supposed to be the reset -- i guess we're going to reset the reset. it really depends on what his performance is like when he's out there talking to voters. is he able to make a compelling case without saying things like, you know, if you want freebies, go vote for the other guy. >> karen, i want to tell everybody we've got president obama at andrews air force base getting on board "air force one" taking off to florida. that summit to speak where mitt romney was speaking last night. florida is obviously a battleground state. jackie, let's get into that. the new polling shows the president ahead in three crucial swing states including florida, then virginia and ohio.

obviously he seems to have had this more moderate evening last night with the univision facebook candidate forum where he softened his stance on immigration, gay rights and the economy. >> i think he's got to get out there more which is why you see him launching this bus tour in ohio next week. he needs to get out there with voters. he's had a very light campaign schedule up until now. to karen's point, i had a republican consultant tell me this week, you can always raise more money and hire more people. you can't manufacture time. time is running short. it really is. i think this is a bad week for mitt romney and this is a week where we'll look, it either turned around or it didn't. >> let me ask real quickly. joe and karen, if he gets back out on the trail, more mitt, more mitt. joe, is that problematic for gaffs? >> i think it's a good thing. get on the campaign trail, get to the swing states, talk to the voters, get the undecideds to

hear what you have to say about the economy. that's what he needs to win. >> it seems like every monday, karen, we start the script with "worst week ever." >> can't imagine it getting worse. here is the thing, last night he was speaking to a spanish-speaking audience. one thing to make the political calculation not knowing if those clips will make it into translation in english language speaking. let's see if he says the same thing main street media ohio. the challenge he's had is to r hold on to the far right. >> we were waiting for him to say. [ speak en in foreign language ] >> i wasn't advanced spanish in college. thank you very much to all of you. on capitol hill, the blame game over the fast and furious

gun walking operation is back in the spotlight. right now the justice department inspector general is testifying before the house government reform committee. in a new report he referred 14 federal officials for discipline. two of them, including the former head of the atf have stepped down. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. attorney general eric holder has been cleared of any wrongdoing in this case. what's the next step? >> reporter: here it is, thomas. about 470 pages in this inspector general's report. what it says is not only did attorney general holder not approve the risky tactics that agents were using, he didn't even know about them until he was told about it when congress started asking questions. it appears the seminal moment is when a border patrol agent was killed in a shootout and some of the weapons that were allowed to walk across the border were found at the scene of the shootout. that was in december of 2010. at the time the report says the attorney general wasn't even told that some of the guns were

at that scene. he wasn't told of the whole fact that this operation was falling apart until early in 2011 when congress sent a letter saying what's going on here. the report says some officials at the justice department should have recognized warning signs and sounded the alarm on this. it says it was primarily run by officials in arizona. atf and the u.s. deern's office. the report says they were very eager to try to make a big case, to try to score a big hit against mexican drug cartels and try to get to the bottom of how guns were flowing from the u.s., bought by straw purchasers and getting their way into mexico and they aggressively followed it even as it was falling apart. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joining us from d.c., thank you. appreciate it. in our next half hour, actress slash obama co-chair joins me to talk about the battle for the latino vote. romney is out there making his case. are voters going to buy it?

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as mitt romney softens his stance on the 47%, he continues to hammer the president on a 14-year-old comment on the redistribution of wealth. >> we've had a president who has been putting in place a political and economic program that a lot of us don't recognized. we haven't seen anything like this in america before. he said -- he said some years ago something we're hearing about today on the internet. he said he believes in redistribution. >> so that actual video is of a 1998comment. it shows a then state senator, barack obama, speaking about competition in the marketplace. >> how do we structure

government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because i actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody has got a shot. how do we pool resources at the same time as we decentralize delivery systems in way that is both foster competition, can work in the marketplace and can foster innovation at a local level and can be tailored to particular communities. >> joining me is msnbc contributor and former radio talk show host ron reagan. i want to tell everybody about nbc's first read. it said of the redistribution, that it smacks of a campaign trying to invent a news cycle and stumbling. is it fair to play this 14-year-old comment to rouse the bases specially when we saw during the dnc we were seeing a

lot of comments of mitt romney when he was running against ted kennedy in massachusetts? is it fair to say this? >> all is fair in love and politics i suppose, thomas. the problem with this argument about redistribution is that our system here in the united states has long been based on redistribution. we have a progressive tax code, for instance. you could even argue -- you can argue very well, as a matter of fact, that mitt romney is part of his 47%. remember mitt romney doesn't pay much in federal income tax. mitt romney pays capital gains taxes which are much lower, 15%. that's because the american government has decided to favor people who get most of their income from investment. the government is helping out mitt romney. he is one of the 47% there. his redistribution argument really makes no sense. the fact that this is a 14-year-old tape just sort of highlights that i think. >> so here is what the "huffington post" said about romney's original comment. the red line reads "romney's

comments threw ronald reagan as well as 47% of americans under the bus." your dad expanded the tax credit which allowed tax credits, even a tax refund. what is someone's reaction to hearing romney's remarks like that, especially when he likes to throw around your dad's name a lot as a reagan conservative? >> well, once again, we have an instance where mitt romney apparently thinks that words don't really matter, that things can just sort of tumble out of your pie hole as necessary to get you through the day. and there's really no consequence to this sort of thing. you're absolutely right. my father extended the earned income tax credit. he thought it was the best jobs program that you could have. so is mitt romney dissing ronald reagan, dissing the tax credit? is he saying half the united states are lazy, free loading bums, apparently that's what he really thinks.

he's been saying he was taken out of context, these are off the cuff remarks. exactly. they were off the cuff. they were unscripted. those are the remarks of someone saying what he really felt. those are some of the most lieu sid things that mitt romney says. usually when you finish a paragraph, you can't remember how he started it. in this instance you know exactly what he was saying and it seemed entirely sincere. >> from "the washington post" henry olsen had this is to say, in reagan's america, it was okay if you wanted to lead a quiet life so long as you didn't prevent others from pursuing their dreams and in reagan's view, ordinary people were capable of greatness. do you think romney's drifted away from your father's view. we hear about romney trying to instill class warfare. doesn't it reek of class warfare, almost that they're at the top pulling up the ladder? >> the republican party has long

been in the habit of cuesing their opponents of doing exactly what they're doing. the republican party has, in fact, been waging class warfare for a long time. they don't want everybody to vote. they don't really believe in equality of opportunity. they, in fact, think if you're wealthy it's because youd eve been favored by providence, that you're living the good life and providence has rewarded you with great wealth. therefore, if you're poor, you must be doing something wrong. you must be living a bad kind of life. that's the undercurrent here in the republican party. it's very ugly, very divisive and it is, in fact, class warfare. but i must observe that their class has been winning for the last few decades. >> msnbc contributor ron reagan. thanks for waking up early. appreciate it. >> happy to. chicago teachers back in classrooms after accepting a three-year standoff. all sides claiming victory. who really wins. melissa harris-perry joins me to talk about that. dangerous and deadly,

florida congresswoman fredicka williams calls for an end to hazing. a three-minute amusement park ride turns into a three-hour nightmare. dozens of people stranded hundreds of feet in the air. ask me what it's like when my tempur-pedic moves. [ male announcer ] why not talk to someone who owns an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america? ask me about my tempur advanced ergo. goes up. goes up. ask me what it's like to get a massage anytime you want. goes down. goes down. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ergonomics. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. [ female announcer ] for more information or to find a retailer near you, visit tempurpedic.com. and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra.

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educator, also a mom, a television host, a writer. you wear a lot of different hats. a lot of people question union officials of locking out the poorest, the most vulnerable parents. a lot of these parents working multiple jobs, they have to scramble to then provide child care for their kids, meanwhile worried about when this is actually going to be takingien of. to teachers lose a pr war? >> i don't think some i think parents overwhelmingly in the city, it looked like chicago public school parents were on the side of chicago public teachers in large part because the teachers were talking about the things that kids needed in classrooms. but i think the point is that whether, sort of who lost the pr battle, but the fact that kids in the chicago public schools lost two things. they lost time and they also were made vulnerable to the incredible violence in the streets there. in addition to all the other things i am, i'm also the aunt

of a group of young people who are in the chicago public schools. i have nieces and nephews there, and the kind of fear about the violence in the streets, the kids being home during that time and the difficulty now of making up that lost time with those high stakes tests still looming at the back end of the school year. >> let's talk more about the students because the teachers did get a lot of attention as you pointed out. what's at stake with the time loss and still the high bar of expectations. what about the concessions within this agreement? what do the kids get to benefit? >> you know, i think that -- i'm generally supportive of a longer school day, generally supportive of more days in the year. there's a lot of evidence to demonstrate that makes for overall better schooling. we see that the mayor got those concessions. the problem is what the teachers were asking for is that those hours be meaningful hours in the school day, not just warehousing the kids. so what we didn't see was a new set of resources contributed to

school nursing, to social workers, to arts and music and sports programs. those things that would have made that additional time in school meaningful instructional time. >> what about political impact down the road? president obama concentrates highly on democratic union bases. rahm emanuel, the president's right-hand man, the mayor there in chicago, do you think this is going to have a bigger impact on election day? >> i think in the short term it doesn't have that kind of impact in part because mitt romney and paul ryan stepped in saying they were with rahm emanuel which in the president's hometown -- just his opponent stepping in on the side of rahm emanuel allowed the unions to cast the president as a supporter though he didn't actually said nothing. whether it's a second term for president obama or first term for mitt romney, this issue of

school reform and this issue of house we are going to cope with the quality of education in our country must be dealt with, and it can't be done on just a one off basis in each individual city. we have really got to decide as americans what we are doing in our public system. >> it's the investment in our future, the kids. this sunday melissa hosts this extraordinary two hours on air, talking to hundreds of students to get their perspective on what's working, what's broken in our education system. it's all part of nbc's week long "education summit." on tuesday mitt romney will talk about his plans for education in an exclusive live sit-down interview with nbc newt nightly news anchor brian williams. an interview with savannah guthrie here on "jansing & co." from desperate house wooifts to an enthusiastic obama

campaign co-chair, eva longoria joins me to talk 2012, latinos and a special awards show. two flight attendants cause a four-hour delay after getting into a fist fight. a big change in policy for chik-fil-a and the popular chain's actions when it comes to lgbt rights. details in the news now. but first, we'll bring you up to speed on the space shuttle "endeavour," taking one of its final flights before reaching the final destination, the california science center in l.a. space shuttle "endeavour" is en route to edwards air force base after stopping to refuel in el paso. it will fly over white sands test facility in new mexico and then over arizona to honor former congresswoman gabby giffords. nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd. [ man ] it's evil! if you'd try it, you'd know.

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let me tell you why, because the eva longoria who worked at wendy's flipping burgers, she needed a tax break. but the eva longoria who works on movie sets does not. [ cheers and applause ] >> actress and obama re-election campaign co-chair, eva longoria bringing the crowd to its feet at last month's democratic national convention. the star criticized the republican candidate for being out of touch of everything, to the pursuit of what many latinos define as the american dream. now mitt romney is trying to publicly persuade latino voters he's on their side on many issues including immigration. >> for those that are already here and that are undocumented, that were brought in here by their parents and, therefore, are illegal aliens in this country, my view is we should put in place a permanent solution. >> as we mentioned at the top of the hour, president obama will

speak at that same univision and facebook forum today. joining me is eva longoria joining me to talk more about what we're seeing on the campaign trail. as we look at the polls, the president has 70% to 60% hispanic support, especially many terms of immigration. when we hear what mitt romney has to say about softening his stance on the highly controversial remarks he made about self-deportation and remarks about immigration itself, should latinos believe him? >> it's interesting you say that. in the primaries he had a very sharp rhetoric about it. now he's in the general election he's kind of softened it. mitt romney is on the wrong side of every issue that pertains to latinos. he called the arizona sb-1070 law a model for the country. so he's not exactly living in reality within the latino

community. there's a reason why latinos are leaning towards president obama seven to one, and that's because he has done so much for our community. and our community is disproportionately affected by policies in washington. by doubling the pell grants, 150,000 more hispanics are able to go to college. through the affordable care act, 9 million more hispanics will have access to affordable health care. by cutting small business taxes 18 times, this directly affects hispanic communities because we're very entrepreneurial and latinas open businesses six times the national average. obama has done a lot. especially with immigration. he's done this special executive order to keep dreamers here and defer the deportation if they were brought here through no fault of their own. it's interesting that mitt romney is agreeing with

president obama. president obama would do something more permanent if he had the cooperation of congress. >> with 47 days to go, it really is important to see how this race is tightening up when it comes to the latino community. so many watching this feel they'll have such an important effect on how the election turns out. romney said earlier in the year he would go after 38% of the latino vote. unemployment vote among latinos is 10%. that's above the national average. do you think president obama is vulnerable there and that is a soft spot for him? >> i think, like i said, all of the policies affect minority communities disproportionately, african-americans and hispanics and women. so i think that -- is there a soft spot? people think latinos have -- that we only care about immigration. immigration is pretty far down the list when it comes to our concerns. we care about the economy, we care about jobs, we care about education, we care about health

care, all before immigration reform. so we're american, and so we care about the american issues. i think obama is addressing them. >> eva, before i let you go, on friday you'll be returning the the co-hosting duties of the 2012 alma awards. natalie morales will be there as a presenter. tell us about the show and do you think it's going to be a little political? >> we do have messages from mitt romney and president obama in the show. they recognize how important the hispanic vote is. they both made a presence. but the alma awards are an amazing fun, star-packed show. we have some beautiful tributes, we have a tribute to christina aguilera this year. we also have a tribute to the american latino olympians who medaled in the olympics. you saw their stories being told, daniel leyva, ryan lochte and how they are living the

ultimate american dream by bringing home gold or silver or bronze for the united states. making sure that we live in an america where that dream is possible is a beautiful thing. we also have some great performances, flo-rida and, of course, george lopez and i are co-hosting. a celebration of positive imagetion of latinos in the media. >> keep george in check. >> we have to have the censure button ready all the time. just a reminder for everybody, tune in and you can see eva host with george lopez the alma awards only on nbc. the lead investigator in the colorado movie shooting seeking to obtain notebooks that purportedly contain descriptions of a violent plot. a judge first ruled it's off

limits because of doctor-patient confidentiality. take a look at this. new video just in of firefighters rescuing a man stuck in a tree in atlanta. we're having problems with the video. i'll describe it for you anyway. the man who was working as a tree trimmer reportedly was injured on the job. now word on how serious those injuries are. they waited in line for a thrill ride. what they got was a thrilling view for hours. 20 people stuck 300 feet up in the air in a california amusement park when the wind seeker ride malfunctioned. it took more than three hours to manually lower the ride. nobody was hurt. american airlines is scrapping flights in record numbers as it faces off with pilots and battles financial woes. some 250 flights canceled in just the last two days, the airline cutting its schedule for the rest of september and october by up to 2%. among the reasons cited, pilots calling in sick and unusually high numbers of maintenance

reports. to top it off, an american eagle flight was delayed for several hours in new york last night because of a disruption on board. this disruption between two flight attendants. the flight was about to take off from jfk when the flight attendants reportedly starting arguing during preflight checks. passengers say it started when one flight attendant was on her cell phone and the other told her to shut it down. passengers had to wait 4 1/2 hours for a new crew to arrive. chik-fil-a is no longer giving money to anti-gay groups after its president triggered a controversy over the summer about same-sex marriage. they say the chick philly culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect regardless of their belief, race, creed. this morning on capitol hill, the fight against hazing taking center stage. congresswoman fredrica wilson of

florida is writing legislation to combat hazing on college hazings. she was joined by two moms whose sons both died as a result of brutal hazing pacts. >> no parent expects that phone call in the middle of the night. no parent expects to send therapy child off to university and get this devastating news due to a senseless hazing. it has got to stop. >> here is what we need to do. we need to stop hiding. we need to stop keeping things under cover and not saying that this is the way it is. well, the way it is is wrong. so it's now time to make a change. joining me is congresswoman fredrica wilson of florida. describe exactly how the bill you're writing will make changes on the college campuses to protect the youth going off to school that may be intimidated by this type of peer pressure and they don't know better. >> thank you, robert. in fact, we hope to start in our middle schools and high schools

implanting in the minds of young people that hazing is wrong. we are not going to call it hazing. we're going to call it what it is. it's assault. it's battery. it's murder. we're working on a plan to let students know that, if you participate in hazing incidents in your college -- on your college campus, regardless, you will lose your financial aid for life. >> congresswoman, i want to say, we heard from pam champion a moment ago. her son robert was a drum major at florida a&m university when he died after being beaten during a hazing incident. famu has countersued saying he signed a form acknowledging the dangers of hazing. they pointed out he was a 26-year-old top leader in the band who should have known better than to participate. how much responsibility do institutions bear and compare

that to what rests on the individual. >> well, there's a culture of hazing that permeates throughout college campuses. it's almost like a tattoo in the brain that when you join an organization, you have to go through some sort of mediation or some sort of initiation, and it includes hazing. so that's all a part of the initiation process. that's the culture that's on the college campus. it has nothing to do with the students. it has to do with the culture on the campus and that's what we're going to try to decimate, the mindset that that is what is supposed to happen. and so many of these incidents involve sometimes faculty, most times alumni and we've got to stop this. this unconscionable. no one wants to get the call that you've sechbt your child off -- in fact, since 1970 there

has been one -- at least one hazing-related death on our college campuses. that's a lot of children. >> congresswoman fredrica wilson, we'll let you get back to work. thanks for joining us. >> thank you, robert. republicans shelf the president's plan to create jobs for new military vets. senator ben car den of maryland joins me to weigh in. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t. the nation's largest 4g network. now covering 3000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. at&t. rethink possible. and those well grounded. for what's around this corner...

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. there's not a day that passes when the word job is not mentioned on the campaign trail. for thousands of military veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan, it's nearly 11% unemployment. the veterans job corps bill has been killed in the u.s. senate. >> -- kill it on a technicality. that's the bottom line. that's what's going on here and it's sad. >> senator ben cardin of

maryland joins me now. after you voted you tweeted out that the gop defeats the veterans jobs bill. it's disappointing, our vets deserve more, urging congress to refocus efforts on helping vets. >> what brought this down. what are we hearing about the technicality? >> they used a point of order that required 60 votes in order to move it forward. it clearly was an effort by the republicans not to have to deal with this issue before the november 6th elections. they used our veterans as an excuse. i tell you, it's sad. we all talk about how much we respect those who wear the uniform of our nation. they put their lives on the line in order to protect us. and then when they come back home, the least we could do is to make sure they have jobs. this job corps bill was we thought bipartisan. it made sense to say to our spret rans we're going to help them with employment when they come home. unfortunately it has to wait until after november 6th now.

>> i want to play some of the comments that the gop colleagues said on the senate floor. >> for the past 3 1/2 years the president and the democrats here in the senate have failed to provide the leadership that america needs. >> we've learned again a lesson we've learned time and time again in america, you can't tax, regulate your way to prosperity. >> the president has put class warfa warfare and his own political future ahead of the immediate and long-term interests of our economy. >> sir, is this just the state of the things on capitol hill, just mud, everybody standing still and nothing productive getting done? >> i think we're hearing sound bites. obviously the president has made progress during this four-year period with very little help from the republicans. we've got to continue to make that progress. the republicans have chosen, let's wait until after november 6 to do more business. they control the house of representatives and they can effectively stop because of the

60-vote threshold in the senate. i think the american people expect more, and i think as we move towards november 6th, they understand that one party was willing to move forward and get things done. the other party preferred gridlock. >> sir, i have to lighten up here real fast. i couldn't have you on being from maryland and i'm from baltimore and not get your take on the orioles, how well they're doing right now keeping us up late at night. >> you're right. i'm losing sleep. we're looking forward to the national oriole world series this year. >> i hear you loud and clear. i'm all for it 100%. i'm in tough territory here in new york. it's good to have a fellow o's fan on. senator ben cardin of maryland, thank you. i appreciate it. we'll be right back with a look at how the repeal of don't ask don't tell is doing one year later. the aarp has great tips on

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i would like to have the term marriage continue to be associated with a relationship between one man and one woman. and that -- that's certainly -- that certainly doesn't prevent two people of the same gender living in a loving relationship together, having a domestic partnership if you will. i can see rights, such as hospital visitation rights and similar types of things being provided to those individuals. but marriage, for me, continues to be a relationship between a man and a woman. >> that was mitt romney giving his definition of marriage during last night's univision forum q and a, a position that puts him at odd with his conservative base. the republican candidate's position represents a step backwards from progress made in the past four years on a number of lgbt rights issues including president obama's repeal of

don't ask, don't tell. my next guest is a former u.s. army intelligence officer honorably discharged before the repeal. now an advocate for other ousted comrades, founder and executive director of service members united. also the author of a new book called "fighting to serve." alex, great to you here. you point out in the book, prior to at peel there were many times when the white house and the pentagon were often at odds with each other over the issue. explain about the internal struggle or the disagreement that was most pronounced. >> well, that is true. i think the most pronounced disagreement between the administration and the pentagon was on the time line originally for moving forward with repeal. and that also unfortunate will became the chief disagreement between the advocacy community, advocates, and the administration. the administration originally, of course, eventually, of course, went in lock step with the pentagon in advocating a stud gl y in 2010, as in 2011 a

talk about in the book. so we pushed for legislation and the study simultaneously in 2010, fortunately we won. the white house came on board. we got repeal of don't ask, don't tell, at the very last minute. >> as we look back over the last year, the worries that people had, the detrimental fears that were attributed to why it shouldn't be repealed, none of them have come true. >> they haven't. you know, opponents predicted doom and gloom, the apocalypse, the combat readiness of the military and in the end none of that has happened. that's a fundamental issue we need to look at going forward. the issue of accountability and professional military judgment. you had chairman of the -- members of the joint chief of staff, senior members of the armed services committees predicting doom and gloom, if the law were changed.

it changed. we've had a year, absolutely nothing has happened. so it revealed a severe error in judgment on their part, and a flaw, i think in the process of relying on military judgment so severely. >> quickly, before we go, the next big hurdle with unfinishes business will be concerning doma because right now service members who are married and have families don't receive the same federal benefits as heterosexual members. >> that's the next phase in the battle for the gay military defense community. service members who are gay and lesbian in the military don't have access to benefits, not treated the same. own post-don't ask, don't tell they're not treated the same as counterparts. militarypartners.org is trying to support them and help them. hopefully that will come next. >> service members united and founder director, alex nicholson, great to have you on. i'll see you back here tomorrow

11:00 a.m. follow me on twitter. don't go anywhere. "now with alex wagner" is next. the sprinter runner himself, ari. >> how are you doing? we are going to dive right into governor romney's new attack on redistribution are why there are so many youtube moments in the campaign. in a segment here comes money boo-boo, a new report by james bennett argues when it comes to cash flooding leaks super pacs are the beginning. and nicholas confessore will explain why romney's cutting down on his campaign rallies. finally, we'll look at how the obama administration is defending free speech while it tries to tap down on protests in the middle east. all that when "now" starts in three minutes. [ giggling ]

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