republicans asking us to reflect on the possibility of the romney presidency, and gee, why did that happen, might be time for an update on the wikipedia page on war and women. thank you for being with us. see you tomorrow night. time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have a good evening. looks like new jersey governor chris christie does not believe the polls that show him with a big lead in his re-election campaign because today he behaved like a candidate who is running scared. >> very big day on capitol hill where we're watching three developing stories. >> who will's fill the seat of the late senator frank lautenberg. >> these decisions should be made by an elected official. >> new jersey governor chris christie. >> has the power to decide who to put in the seat. >> power is a curious thing. >> i am calling for a special election. >> a special election will be held this year. >> it is more confusing than you might think.

>> the price tag on that, $24 million. >> essentially wasting $24 million. >> i will do whatever i need to do to make sure the costs are covered. >> it is wasting taxpayer money. >> i don't know what the cost is and i quite frankly don't have. >> now where do we go? >> president obama is under fire from republicans yet again. >> this is not about principled opposition. >> this time because he wants to do his job. >> this is about political obstruction. >> president obama all but dares republicans. >> daring senate republicans to block the nominees. >> to filibuster his appeals court nominees. >> my judicial nominees waited three times longer. >> nominations for federal bench, not including the supreme court. >> than those of my republican predecessor. >> they want to nullify obama's government by not letting him have a government. >> it is simple. >> it was all about politics. >> you speak the language of power, i speak american grass roots. >> developing news on the irs mess. >> conservative groups get their say about the irs targeting scandal. >> i am not here as a surf or vessel, it is not your right to

assert an agenda. >> this story may turn out to be less sexy than some hoped. >> each of your groups is highly political. >> why not move on. >> anything else is simply political theater. today, governor christie decided what new jersey needs, 20 days, just 20 days before its general election on november 5th of this year is a warmup election to fill senator frank lautenberg's senate seat. >> the primary election for united states senate will be held tuesday, august 13th, 2013. the general special election will be held on wednesday, october 16th. >> according to new jersey law, the governor could have ordered the senate election to be included in the general election on november 5th. that's logical.

that would have saved new jersey $24 million, the cost of having the special election a few weeks earlier in october, but including the senate election in the general election on november 5th would have meant probably a larger turnout of democratic voters supporting cory booker for the senate seat or whoever the democratic nominee turns out to be, and that probably would have meant fewer votes for chris christie and his re-election campaign against democratic challenger state senator barbara bono. today he pretended he didn't have any idea how much his choice would cost new jersey taxpayers. >> i don't know what the cost is and i quite frankly don't care. i don't think you can put a price tag what it is worth to have an elected person in the united states senate and i will do whatever i need to do to make sure those costs are covered because all of the people of the state of new jersey will benefit from it, we are not going to be penny wise and pound foolish here. >> the editorial board of the

biggest new jersey newspaper called christie's choice a shameless move, purely self serving, naked self interest. a senior republican official tells the national journal i think this ends his 2016 chances. it is year after year with this guy. christie's opponent released a statement reading despite costing millions of dollars, governor christie made the cynical, arrogant decision to call a special election in october. his choice made it clear that he does not care about wasting taxpayer money. joining me now, msnbc's joy reed and sam stein. i can't pretend to say with a straight face a special election in october. it is just as ridiculous as it could possibly get. >> no, and it is three weeks before the other election! i mean, it's insane.

look, chris christie has never been somebody that could be accused of being selfless for his party. he could put somebody in there until 2014, he didn't do that, the party is mad. he could have let the parties choose someone that would be anti-democratic, he didn't do that. he split the difference. he will allow the public to speak and allow the voters to choose someone. but he doesn't want to be on the ballot with cory booker because all of his supporters may lkt barbara bono. yeah, you can vote but then you have to vote again in three weeks. i think the newspaper had it right. >> it is his attempt to fatigue democratic voters. like okay, vote for a real contested election, which will be the senate seat, and then we're hoping few of you will show up a couple weeks later, we're hoping we have polls that indicate christie has a big lead, why bother showing up. >> sure. there's going to be voter

fatigue. i would say may not be just self interest, though i think it plays a role. he could be looking at races in the state, trying to flip statehouses that are democratically controlled. >> sam, excuse me, that is self interest. >> self interest. but also interest of the state republicans, but yes, i think you're right. the big irony is the idea that the cost doesn't and shouldn't matter. it wasn't too long ago, it was a month ago, he vetoed a bill to extend early voting for presidential elections, saying it was prohibitively expensive for the new jersey voters, he said $25 million was his estimate, shouldn't be taken by the taxpayer. that's what we have by doing this special election. there was a piece of legislation that went under the radar that allowed for school districts to hold school board elections in november as opposed to in the off months of the cycle. he signed that saying it would save the taxpayer monies by basically consolidating all elections in november. clearly in those two cases, cost was a factor, it is beyond logic

that now cost doesn't matter nor should it. >> and the christie brand, of course, is tough talk, straight talk, honest talk. and i want to play again this line we just played about him saying i don't know what the cost is. listen to this one more time. >> i don't know what the cost is and i quite frankly don't care. >> and that is delivered in the classic, joy, classic christie, i'm just telling it to you straight, i don't know what it is, i don't care. and it is possibly the single most obvious lie the man has ever told into a microphone. >> he doesn't want to pay for infrastructure because it costs too much. doesn't want to pay teachers more, costs too much. if he were to start a fraternity, it would be me phi me. he does everything in his own service. the party is mad, he didn't give them any advantage going into

the next election. he is trying to run up the score on his own election. i can almost see the placards going out saying election is over, don't worry about next november. he is doing it to run up the score so he can run for president. republicans are mad, too, dude. >> there's another reason the party is mad, not just the cost he puts on the people of new jersey, he could have tried to create this legal dynamic where he held a seat with a replacement person until 2014. that would have given republicans in the senate another vote, would have hurt the plans for a number of items, republicans are upset about that. there are lease whether he could do it, whether it was permissible. they wanted him to try to get another year and a half with an extra senator. >> given that, sam, if he stayed with the idea of i'm going to make the conservative choice legally, not getting into experimental zone legally, but i am not going to violent this

basic, you know, republican principle that we all pretend to live by that. that is where he gets caught here. if you're going to do it, not giving the republicans the big long run of the appointed senator because that's legally risky, you better do this according to some kind of principle that you can claim you live by. >> and there goes the problem again, therein lies the problem for chris christie. conservatives don't believe he is a true principled conservative who has a set of principles they can believe in. for him to say out loud he doesn't care about how much this is going to cost, first of all, that's a sound bite that will be played back. i am sure barbara bono's people are cutting that tonight. he alienated from the republican base that claims to care about fiscal discipline. we have known they don't really care about it, they say that because they want to beat up barack obama. now he doesn't have a big lead

over that issue. >> and that i don't care how much it costs will be present in any republican presidential primary he tries to run in. no one will let him get away with that. >> true. but it seems clearer and clearer to me that his mind isn't there on 2016. i hate to sort of predict these things, but if his focus is winning re-election, which this move indicates, and enhancing his numbers in the statehouse, then it seems pretty obvious he's preparing to run and then proceed to be governor a second term. i am not certain 2016 is in the offering as people say it is. >> joy reed, sam stein, thank you for joining us. the entire joint chiefs of staff appeared before the senate armed services committee today to say they don't need any guidance from congress in stopping the epidemic of sexual assaults in the military. and in the "rewrite," how state, local, and federal

governments consciously conspire in the flagrant enforcement of marijuana laws coming up. nurses are dealing with a wider range of issues. and there are ever-changing regulations. when you see these challenges, do you want to back away or take charge? with a degree in the field of healthcare or nursing from capella university, you'll have the knowledge to advance your career while making a difference in the lives of patients. let's get started at capella.edu.

the oklahoma medical examiner raised the death toll from el reno to 19 today. we know the tornado was 2.6 miles wide according to the national weather service with winds reaching nearly 300 miles per hour. that's the widest ever recorded and twice the size of the may 20th tornado that hit moore, oklahoma. both storms were rated as rare, top of the scale, ef-5s. only eight tornadoes with such power have hit oklahoma since 1950, and two of the eight were within the past two weeks. coming up next, the president's challenge to senate

republicans. the blisters were oozing, and painful to touch. i woke up to a blistering on my shoulder. i spent 23 years as a deputy united states marshal and i've been pretty well banged up but the worst pain i've experienced was when i had shingles. when i went to the clinic, the nurse told me that it was a result of having had chickenpox. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

hey. whassup. guten tag. greetings earthlings. what's crackalackin? it's great we express ourselves differently. if we were all the same, life would be boring. so get to know people who aren't like you. you'll appreciate what makes us different. the more you know. these are open seats and the constitution demands that i nominate qualified individuals to fill those seats. what i am doing today is my job. i need the senate to do its job. >> what the president calls doing his job republicans call court packing. >> some republicans recently suggested that by nominating these three individuals, i'm somehow engaging in, and i'm

quoting here, court packing. no, people laugh, but this is an argument i've made, for those of you familiar with the history of court packing, that involved franklin delano roosevelt trying to add additional seats to the supreme court to water down and get more support for his political agenda. we're not adding seats here. we're trying to fill seats that are already existing. >> president obama nominated three people to fill seats on the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit, the second most important court in the nation. four of the current supreme court justices served on that court, d.c. circuit court of appeals, including chief justice john roberts. if republicans stall on these three nominations, it could lead to a battle over filibuster

reform. 16 of the nominees were unanimously approved by the senate, but took on average 125 days for the nominees to go from committee to senate confirmation. 23 of bush's nominees were confirmed unanimously with average of 29 days wait between committee and senate floor confirmation. and bill clinton's unopposed nominees only had to wait 17 days. >> my judicial nominees waited three times longer to receive confirmation votes than those of my republican predecessor. let me repeat that. my nominees have taken three times longer to receive confirmation votes than those of my republican predecessor. these individuals that i nominate are qualified. when they were given an up or down vote in the senate when they were finally given an up or down vote in the senate, every one of them was confirmed, so

this is not about principled opposition, this is about political obstruction. >> joining me, jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst and author of "the center holes, obama and his enemies." jonathan, we will put the center holes here. >> i like the way you think. >> stay in the two shot for the interview. i want to see what happens to amazon on this. >> it is the first book out about 2012. >> so this seems like something we could have seen coming in the obama administration. of course, republicans were going to be more combative than they have been on judicial nominations than in the past. should the obama administration be surprised by this? >> i don't think they're surprised, the mistake obama made in 2009 and 2010, when he had the congress and he had, you know, a stronger wind at his

back, should have filled some of the vacancies faster. since the mid terms, it has been obstruction, obstruction, obstruction, all the way down the line. three times as much obstruction as his predecessor. i think it is a dress rehearsal for a battle over quite possibly justice ginsberg's replacement. they want to show that they can overcome this obstruction, overcome the filibuster, if they do it on the three nominees, they can do it for supreme court justice nominees. >> this is a game i have to say in my experience the republicans have always been better at playing, they always understood that the federal bench is the most important thing the president controls and the minute you take that oath of office, you have to start filling every vacancy you have, and what the congressional senate republicans know is it is

so important, we're going to start blocking every single one of them. >> right. so everything is now a bargaining chip. it symbolizes what's wrong with washington right now. meanwhile, judges who are human beings, put their personal lives on hold, waiting two-and-a-half years in some cases for the senate to dispense with their nomination. >> which is harming the judiciary, now you get people saying no, no thank you, i'm going to stay dean of the law school or something, i don't want to bother going through the confirmation process. >> right, it is happening a lot. >> one of the vacancies they nominated to fill today has been open since 2005. it's justice roberts' seat. >> some of that was democratic obstruction. >> when obama was running for office, they knew they had the nomination, and the transition team did nothing. they should have delivered a name for that vacancy on day one from the transition team. >> yes. and the white house counsel's

office and justice department in 2009 have something to answer for, but there was a lot else going on. that was then. they made that mistake. >> there is a lot else going on, but nominations for the judiciary is separate. >> i completely agree. what i am saying is that there was a lot of obstruction from the get go. remember, i've got this scene in the center hole. >> in this book, the center hole here? >> what i am saying is that yes, obama should have moved faster on judges, but i think folks understand that from january 20th, 2009, there was a concerted effort on the part of republicans to block this president at every turn. so even if he nominated those judges early, they probably would have figured out some ways to bottle up the nominations until his political capital started -- >> what move does he have on these nominees? >> he may have to go to a

modified nuclear option as they call it, something that would change the filibuster rules, if senator grassley and others want to push this all the way, that would be a good thing for the country, you and others and i have been urging they make changes to the filibuster. it is good he is doing it now, he is also using something that didn't get noticed much, he says give them a vote. remember in the state of the union, he got rousing applause by saying let them vote. this is something the american people understand. >> sure. >> so if he can apply that, and he got the vote on gun control. he lost it, might win the next time, but he got a vote when a lot of people weren't even expecting him to get a vote on gun control. so he might be able to get a vote on this and shift the debate to that. >> jonathan alter, the new book, the center holes, obama and his -- >> something new on every page, i guarantee the viewers will learn at least one thing you don't know on every page of my

book. >> get that amazon count going. coming up, tea party groups went to capitol hill to complain today about the cruel irs agents, instead of thank them for granting them 501(c)4 status they did not legally deserve. and one congressman today exposed the situation for the charade it is. he will join me next. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter... because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet. and you wouldn't have in it any other way.e.tter. but your erectile dysfunction - you know, that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right.

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in the spotlight tonight, scandal. listen carefully, see if you can find the scandal in this statement. >> we received a letter dated july 9th, 2012, stating that we had been approved to receive our tax exemption. we filled out a complete application. the organization fell in the boundaries of receiving 501(c)4 status, yet our application was singled out solely because we had tea party in our name. >> that was the founder of the witomka alabama tea party. no republican member found a scandal in that statement, neither has anyone in the washington media, but every viewer of this program,

including texas democratic congressman knows exactly what's scandalous about what irs agents did with 501(c)4 applications. >> i don't believe the internal revenue service, the treasury department, should be providing tax subsidies to organizations that are not engaged exclusively in social welfare. this congress was very clear on that point. clear on it in 1913. and in repeated recodifications of 501(c)4. it says they must be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare. >> and more lawmakers are now talking about that scandal that we've been telling you about from day one. >> having organizations parading as being social welfare organizations and then being involved in the political combat

harkens why the statute 100 years ago said they were prohibited and i wholeheartedly agree with mr. dogget saying we ought to stop this regulation interpretation from 1959. >> since the house republicans don't understand the real scandal or its remedy, which is simply to enforce the law as written, today they instead gave the okay for conservative activists to go before the cameras and define the scandal themselves. >> this is about tyranny on the field of our founding documents. >> many agents and agencies of the federal government do not understand that they are servants of the people. they think they're our masters and they're mistaken. >> to whisper the letters i-r-s strikes a shrill note.

when it hits the grass roots, few hear the snapping sounds. >> i feel our country turned a corner into tyranny. >> i am not here as a vessel, i am not begging the lords for mercy. >> check the power of the executive branch. in so doing, you will protect, defend, and preserve human liberty. >> jack boot of tyranny, lie. let's see, tramples on america's grass roots, lie. our country has turned a corner into tyranny, lie. and no one at today's hearing threatened by possible charges of perjury. joining me, congressman lumenaur, thanks for joining me, congressman. >> my pleasure. >> how lonely is it there when you have a hearing about abuse of law in the ways and means

committee and you cannot get republicans of the committee to actually read the very simple language of the 501(c)4 law? >> well, it's frustrating. obviously there were some problems in inappropriate targeting. if it looks like there were confidential tax returns leaked, by all means, go after it, get to the bottom of it, we had the inspector general's report, nothing is willful or criminal. there have been some mistakes made. but as you've been getting to the underlying problem is that we shouldn't have bureaucrats trying to evaluate how much social welfare versus how much political action they're involved with. the statute says they shouldn't have any. that eisenhower era reinterpretation that allowed

some permissible political activity was wrong, it is contrary to the statute, congress should fix it. if they want to play politics, they ought to organize a political effort. they shouldn't be shielded from public disclosure by the 501(c)4 status where they get millions of dollars and not required to disclose and they're definitely principally organized like the national organization for marriage was organized to assault efforts in california for marriage equality. it is blatantly political and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. we should stop it. >> congressman, has janice mays and those on the ways and means figured out how the irs changed that word exclusively to the word primarily and why then the

irs relied on the word they made up instead of the word congress wrote? >> yeah, i am not familiar with anybody teasing out the history on that. it would be interesting. but actually i think a side show. the point is it is inappropriate, contrary to statute, and leads us down this never neverland path, and i don't care if it is an organization on the right or the left, they shouldn't disguise political action behind the guise of social welfare. it is not healthy, it's not right, it's not legal, we should stop it. >> let's listen to how deep the ignorance runs on the republican side on this, what aaron shock had to say today. >> we're not having a debate about whether or not we agree with citizens united, we're not having a debate about whether or not we want to change 501(c)4 or change 501(c)3 processes. if that's your goal, perhaps

introduce legislation to do so. >> congressman, he clearly did not hear or understand what you had to say today. he clearly doesn't have the vaguest idea what 501(c)4 law actually says, which is none of those people should have had their applications approved and in fact none of them had them denied. >> absolutely right. absolutely right. and it is largely i think an effort on the part of some of our friends on the committee to try and conjure up something far more sinister. you recall inflammatory language that was used by the majority of the committee on the very first hearing about corruption and government picking who they're going to support, that it's a corrupt system. in fact, the inspector general acknowledged, found that there were problems, but there was no criminal wrongdoing. it wasn't sort of a willful

effort to try and be disruptive. we need to be mindful of what's going on there. it's a little bizarre that the republicans have had consistent assault against the internal revenue service. they have dramatically reduced the budget. there's about 25,000 fewer people who work at the irs today than when they assumed power back in 1995. even as they have made the tax code more complex and there are millions more people filing returns. i think it is an unfortunate item. i hope we can zero in on this one little item, however, and get the irs out of this completely by making it clear that the illegality will not be tolerated and get rid of that

regulation. >> congressman, thanks for telling the truth about that hearing and thanks for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. while congress pretends to be outraged over targeting, they ignore the racist targeting of black people in the unconscionable war on marijuana. the federal government is funding the targeting of black people and washington could not care less. that's in the "rewrite." [ ice freezing ]

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steady energy to do what i do all morning long. targeting, that's the big scandal word in washington these days, targeting, because some political groups that applied for a tax status that they did not legally deserve were all granted that tax status, but weren't granted that tax status as quick as they want and it didn't affect their operation in any way while they waited to be granted that tax status officially. you don't even have to apply for that status to claim it. i could go on and on. that's what they call targeting. what would they call it if they

were being arrested? what would they call it if they were being sent to jail? what would they call it if that was happening on the basis of the color of their skin? that is happening in america. that's happening in america tonight and washington doesn't care. that's next in the "rewrite." [ indistinct conversations ] [ pizza dodging man's mouth ] ♪ ♪ [ camera shutter clicks ]

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there's much outrage about so-called targeting in washington these days, as in the irs targeting political groups' applications for 501(c)4 status, applications all of which should have just been denied, but in fact all of which were actually approved! congress heard from the so-called victims of the so-called targeting today. you heard them lying about it in the last segment about their suffering, about the notion they live in tyranny, which they don't. they lied to congress without any inhibitions about their so-called suffering. it is important to remember not one of these so-called victims

suffered anything, none of them lost anything. in fact, they all got exactly what they wanted from the government. they got their approval of their fake 501(c)4s. washington can summon fake tears for fake victims of government, but washington completely ignores real victims of government, including the millions of victims of government described in a new report, proving how america's war on marijuana targets black people in this country. here are the arrest rates for marijuana possession for the first decade of the 21st century in the united states of america. what you're seeing there is that black people who actually consume somewhat less marijuana than white pple are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. this huge racial bias in marijuana arrests exists in all

regions of your country. these marijuana arrests are ruining lives, making it impossible for people to keep their jobs, making it impossible for some people to go to college. american law enforcement urge to arrest marijuana users marches on even as some states move closer to legalization of marijuana. so why are cops doing this? you know by now most police officers in america have probably at minimum tried marijuana themselves. we know the president of the united states used marijuana and enjoyed marijuana in high school and college, like pretty much every high school and college kid i've ever known. we know plenty of members of the cabinet and federal judges and members of congress and senators have admitted to marijuana. and people nominated for federal confirmation have admitted to marijuana use in the fbi background checks, before their confirmations, in the united states senate, and many of them

confirmed unanimously. what we know, what all those things tell us is that marijuana possession and use should not screw up anyone's life in any way, but in this country where the president and so many other distinguished high achievers have proven marijuana use is a right of passage for young people, far less harmful in heavy usage than heavy use of tobacco. the states spend over $3.6 billion a year enforcing marijuana possession laws. this isn't dealing we're talking about here, this is possession! states that have trouble funding university systems and public schools are wasting over $3.6 billion a year arresting people for marijuana possession. that is a crime against sanity, no matter who they are

arresting, but it's also a racist government enterprise, operated in plain sight by local, state and yes, the federal government. police officers all over the country are incentivized to keep arrest numbers up to meet their quotas, and the easiest way for many of them to do that is to simply drive into black communities and stop and frisk black people, which they do in new york city as an official sanctioned policy of the department. there's money in those arrests, big money, federal money. the federal government has a program specifically directed at funding to enforce drug laws. all drug arrests, including misdemeanors, such as marijuana possession, must be reported to the federal government in order to receive the funds. in other words, the more arrests, the more money a police

department gets from the feds. professor philip goff of ucla told "the new york times" whenever federal agencies encourage law enforcement to meet numerical arrest goals instead of public safety goals, it will likely promote stereotype based policing, and we can expect these sorts of racial gaps. that's a very polite way to put it, racial gaps. there's a way to stop the war on marijuana possession, to stop this overtly racist government program that's supported by every level of american government, local, state and federal, and the way to stop this racist program dead in its tracks is to have american law enforcement distribute a fair share of marijuana arrests to white americans. black people are 13% of the american population according to the census, white people, 78% according to census.

there are more -- six times more white people than black people in america. if white people were actually six times more likely to be arrested than black people, if white people were just doing their fair share of suffering in the war on marijuana, then young white people who take to the streets the way they took to the streets during the vietnam war, they would end that war on marijuana. they would march on congress. they would be heard by congress. they would testify to congress. their parents would testify to congress. they would shed tears over how unfair the punishments are in the war on marijuana, and american police departments would have to find another way to make money from the federal government. white america would not allow the government to do that to its children. they would not allow it to do what this government is doing right now, doing tonight, to black america in the war on marijuana. white america's protests would drown out the fake tears that

republican congressmen are shedding for fake sufferers in the irs scandal. white america would make it washington's first order of business to stop ruining their children's lives with pointless, cruel marijuana arrests. but american law enforcement knows, they know, they know that, that that's exactly what would happen, and they don't want to upset their federal government cash could y"countdc cash cow. so washington's fake outrage about targeting will stay confined to the fake irs scandal and washington will do nothing to stop the racist targeting of black people in the war on marijuana for possession. a war that we can only hope one day soon we will be able to look

back on in shame. i think farmers care more about the land than probably anyone else. we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations. people should make up their own mind what's best for them. all i can say is it has worked well for us.

last night we told you about michael douglas's cancer and the link to hpv. there was a lot more to say, we kept the cameras rolling after the show ended. you can go to our facebook page to watch dr. hilda hutcherson,

we talked about it later after the show, she explained the reason for the skyrocketing number of hpv related cancer cases. you can see it on our facebook page. up next, john mccain says the military is not a safe place for women. (announcer) scottrade knows our clients trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time. plus, my local scottrade office is there to help. because they know i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade. voted "best investment services company."

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just last night, a woman came to me and said her daughter wanted to join the military, and could i give my unqualified support for her doing so. i could not. i cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over the continued reports of sexual misconduct. >> the six members of the joint chiefs of staff went before the

senate armed services committee to answer for a pentagon report showing 26,000 people in the military were sexual assaulted in 2012. just over 3,000 were reported. senator claire mccaskill is concerned that the military doesn't even get the reporting right because crimes like rape are in a category with minor incidents. >> unwanted sexual contact is everything from somebody looking at you sideways when they shouldn't to someone pushing you against the wall and brutally raping you. success is going to look like this. more reports of rape, sodomy, and assault, and less incidents of rape, sodomy and assault. >> under current law, senior officers decide whether charges can be brought against service members accused of a crime under their supervision. some of them can even throw out guilty verdicts. senator jill brand put forth a

bill to take those decisions out of the hands of military and give them to lawyers out of the chain of command. that bill co-sponsored by four republicans, 13 democrats. the commanders agree the military failed to stop the problem, but are not convinced that commanders should be taken out of the process. >> making commanders less responsible and less accountable will not work. it will undermine the commanders in the force. >> the individual accountable for the welfare of his or her sailors should be preserved. >> the goal should be to hold commanders more accountable, not render them less able to help us. >> joining me, bridget mccoy, former army specialist, survivor of military sexual assault. brigitte, what's your response to what the joint chiefs had to say today? >> well, my response is that they have already not been

taking care of handling it in chain of command. so just the military and justice improvement act, set to remove it from chain of command, allowing them to not have the responsibility legally, so i think that, you know, the fact they don't want to relinquish that control is a problem, especially with a situation where they're not prosecuting appropriately anyway. >> you testified to the committee and you told them about your experience where you were raped more than once and one of them, their remorse was expressed by driving by you and rolling down the window of the car and saying "sorry." >> in that case it was sexual harassment. i never reported the rapes that happened. i only reported actual sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, so yes, in that case he did, that's what he did, he rolled down the window, said sorry.

they didn't put me in a team to work with him after that, but that was only at my request because before that, they were going to absolutely put me on a team to work with him alone. >> senator mccain brought up a thing going through my mind from the start about this when i first saw the documentary about this, and it's how can you knowing this allow or advise any young woman to go into our military. >> you can't. you can just inform them that, you know, what's going on, but really i have lots of people who have served who say, you know, absolutely not, they would not allow their daughter or son to go in with the amount of sexual misconduct going on in the military currently, and that there's no ramifications for that misconduct. no one is following up, no one is being prosecuted,