hall meetings across the come. >> we all to the judged on how many laws we repeal. >> to explain to their constituents how exactly democracy works. >> i'm not going to have you moderate the republican debates. >> why not? >> you're not actually interested in the future of the republican parties. >> a number of -- want to be for something, not just be against everything. >> harry reid and president obama would scream and yell. >> i see mea colleagues say, by god, it's now or never. >> will you vote to defund obama care? i want a yes or no. >> no. >> they want to get as many americans hood to the sugar. >> the other day you're not wanting to kill the hostage. that's okay, kill it. >> cooler heads prevail over time. >> there are more effective ways of achieving that goal. >> one thing i've tried to do is not overreact. ♪

the bell has rung, and congress is out for summer. members fanning out to their districts to hear the heated opinions of constituents at town hall meetings, and with less than eight weeks to go before the official launch of new health care marketplaces until the afford kabul care ac, backers of the law are out in force encouraging people to sign up. then, of course, there are the law's opponents. you remember these guys. >> who do you want to die so that we're on the par with the english system? >> if this thing goes into effect beginning october 1st with the exchanges and mandates kicking in, it will do irreparable damage to our economy and our country. >> the house of representatives should pass a continuing resolution that funds the federal government in its entirety, every aspect, except for obama care. >> that idea has been called dumb, dishonest, feckless, and

just plain silly, by senator cruz's fellow republicans. back in republican districts, the most sensible are being forced to explain why it won't work. >> having a young lady walk into my office whose husband is over in afghanistan, who can't pay her mortgage, because i'm shutting the government down, because i don't like the health care law, and she looks at me and says, sir, i don't care. >> 60 votes in the u.s. senate. we only had 12 votes. w why. >> that's the question that could be asked 40 times over. when republicans are not fending off calls to shut down the government. some who would defend the law came face-to-face with those who need it most. >> i'm 63, my wife is 63, and without obama care, we would have no health insurance. why do i not have a moral right and access to health care if you

want to defund ointo mania care which is by law and policy going to save billions over the next ten years? >> look out, there's an educationed voters. >> is the man lead -- says he does -- ending discrimination on the basis of preexisting conditions, though he's voted repeatedly with his colleagues against the president's health care law. i want to go right to the white house and nbc's kristin welker. kristin, we've been talking about the tensions around the health care law, particularly in constituencies, but of course there's no shortage of tensions at the moment between the white house and the kremlin. so can you give you the latest on that? >> reporter: i can, martin. certainly a lot of tensions abroad. during today's press briefing jay carney wouldn't go so far to say the restart with russia that president obama had been hoping for is over.

however, he did say that this really marks a new level of deterioration in terms of the u.s.'s relations with russia. of course, coming in the way of president obama cancelling his meeting with vladimir putin that was scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the g-20 summit in moscow. of course, it was precipitated by the fact that russia granted edward snowden temporary asylum, but the white house is really stressing this idea that that was one of a number of tensions that exist right now between the two countries and really was a precipitating factor. take a listen to what karney had to say a little bit earlier today. >> we have a lot of -- obviously some snowden was a factor, but far from the only factor. >> reporter: one of those factors, martin is something

that you and i have spent a lot of time talking about, syria, the united states feels as though putin has been prop up the assad regime. other issues have been the russians basically ending the united states's abilities to adopt russian children. one more very issue, the 2014 olympics set to take place in sochi this has been an issue because of the anti-gay law that is exist in russia. president obama spoke about that earlier this week. and today during the press briefing carney went so far to say that the president condemns those laws, a number of lawmakers say that the united states should actually boycott the olympics. at this point in time, though, it doesn't appear as that's going to happen. we should stress there will be discussions between secretaries kerry and hagel with their russian counterparts. >> yes, that meeting is still going ahead. we've also just got word of

the president and first lady's travel schedule. what can you tell us about their mr. holiday, which i believe begins this weekend. >> reporter: it does begin this weekend. first they are going to stop off in orlando. they're going to be speaking to disabled american veterans at the national convention there. then they'll be flying into the cape cod coast guard air station, and from there to martha's vineyard for their annual summer vacation. the president didn't take one last year, because he was out on the campaign trail. i have traveled with the president on a number of hi vacations, martin. they're usually not that restful, at least for the press corps. >> indeed. thank you very much. turning to the congress, i want to bring in senator sheldon whitehouse. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon. >> we've spent two years being told that the affordable care act is in fact the four horsemen the apocalypse that will bring death, destruction, famine upon

the nation. is that right, sir? >> i think the exact opposite is true. we've seen families across the country enjoy the benefits of added coverage. we're about to see fair, level, transparent markets for insurance that give consumers a real short, start to open up. across the country we've seen the delivery system reform parts of the bill save lives and improve the quality of care. each year we hear another collision in the constituency between a republican and the voting public. do you thinks this is where the argument over affordable care act will ultimately be won, regardless of whether speaker boehner tables his 600th vote against it? >> yeah, i think so. the whole obama care issue has become a sort of targets for the far right.

the discussion about obama care in the far right is completely unhinged from the reality of the bill. it's just another way to express scorn and contempt and hatred for the president and for his policies. if ire not in that discuss, not all revved up. this is a very helpful bill for the ordinary american family. and so the public. >> this has proven so difficult for the president and the administration. i mean, given that the affordable care act provides coverage to adults under 26 lieutenant provide preventive care, will not allow insurance companies simply to ignore

people with preexisting conditions. can you tell us -- >> and unwinds the doughnut hole for seniors. >> absolutely. so for all of those reasons, can you tell us what the republican alternative is that would provide all of that coverage if this law were repealed? >> they have never had one, one is that we like certain parts of the bill, and we're going to keep them, but they won't really define which ones those are. second, we're going to cut off a lot of the enforcement mechanisms that make it affordable, and three we're concerned about the debt and the deficit.

>> rhode island is a leadership state for these reforms, everything from eliminating infections in our intensive care units, which saves a bundle of money, and in some cases the tragedy of a hospital-required infection to being the lead state at setting up the insurance exchanges, to being i think the first state in the country where all of the payers got together, so a doctor could go into a program and realize that all the payers were going to be submitting the same forms and paying for the same things, to having the whole medical home model really be -- i think we've got more doctors in rhode island following the medical home model than anything else. all of that adds up to better case, and amazingly, and very happi

happily. we'd like to head back to the white house and kristin welker for some breaking news. kristin, what have you heard? >> reporter: martin we are just learning from the president himself, he will be holding a press conference tomorrow, friday, which of course is the day before he leaves to go on vacation to martha's vineyard. we learned this action because president obama held a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of greece when reporters came in bakley to take some pictures of the president and the greek prime minister.

this is smm that president obama does typically before he takes off for vacation, and of course i'm not a mind reader, but i would guess some of the questions will resolve around, of course, the president's decision to cancel his meeting with putin, the nsa program, and then i also assume he'll get a number of questions about immigration and of course the fiscal fights that are coming up in the fall. martin? >> kristin welker, thank you for the news. we'll come back to you tomorrow for you to report on that press conference. >> all right. coming up, two steps forward, one step back, as the 50-year anniversary on the march on washington beckons. it starts with something little, like taking a first step. and then another. and another. and if you do it. and your friends do it.

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the president has been on something of an august speaking tour of late, at a high school in phoenix, online, and then before troops at camp pendleton in california, but perhaps one of the most important speeches of his presidency will be delivered toward the end of this month in washington, because it's just been announced that to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the march on washington for jobs and freedom, the 44th president of the united states will give a speech, a speech that will be from the same spot on the same steps of the lincoln memorial, from which dr. martin luther king spoke of the fierce urgency of now and uttered those immortal words "i have a dream." joining us is -- and mar more diel.

professor peterson, the stakes are different from 50 years ago, nevertheless they are very high, are they not? racial profiling, voters suppression, and like 50 years ago, the question of jobs for the poor. how important is this speech for this president? >> i think one of the important speeches over his two terms as president. if you look at the excitement in the media and in the public around this announcement, i don't think people really expected this. some folks claimed he had to do this. others will claim that they pressured him to do this, but the most important piece here is he is commemorating the 50th anniversary. my hope is he will speak to jobs and economic inequality, pick up on some of the themes he's touched upon in what he's been talking about the last several weeks, but i hoe he speaks to

racial inequality as evidence by the gutting -- the erosion of -- the prison industrial complex and a range of other issues that deeply impact -- >> mark, to professor peterson's point, during the "i have a dream" portion of speech, he calls out states and governments for failure on civil rights. how pointed can this president be, when he comes to discuss in this speech, if he does as professor peterson said, issues like i.d. laws, and the deliberate and willful attempt to suppress voting in this country? >> i think the president has to do exactly what dr. king did 50 years ago. he's got to call those measures out, unfair measures, measures which would turn the clock back, while at the same time appealing to a broad swath of america. dr. king's speech was a pointed

speech, but a healing speech. dr. king's speech was an important speech, because it charted a vision. i think for the president, and for all of us that are going to participate in after the the activities, we call it a continuation, not just a commemorative series of events, for all of us and for the president i think especially it is about the future. it's about 21st century america, but it's also about a recognition of what i call sinister forces, martin, that are at play in this nation, the discussion about repealing health care, the voter suppression laws that exist, all of this in the face of a great recession in the aftermath of a great recession, when what the nation should really be about is building the kind of bridges we need to build economic prosperity for all. it's important, but it also is a chance action i think, for the president to think beyond his administration, and think beyond his term as president, to set a course which may last for decades to come.

>> professor peterson, mark moriel talks about the future, but is it not a truthfully depressing fact that in many ways, this speech will be delivered at a moment when this nation is going backwards on issues like the voting rights act? >> yeah, and i would add toe that also the war on women and all the attempts to roll back women's rights. >> absolutely. in so many states throughout the country. >> we talked about this before, martin, but there's a slate of issues, i think one thing we have to be very, very clear on is that dr. martin luther king was a prophet, president obama is a president. for him to govern, and we've seen the obstruction and the challenges, and we want the president to be more assertive, but in order to get things done, he's got to give the kind of speech that allows him to go back into the sort of has of washington and do the work that's required at the executive level, but also at the sort of

lobbying of congress level to effect real change. so it's a very, very complicated task that the president has. >> he's right. >> because dr. martin luther king was not in the position of president. >> king's speech was the most memorable, but it was one of many, many speeches which took place on that day on the saturday before, we're going to hold a civil rights continuation march, a broad coalition of organizations, your colleague here at msnbc and my friend and colleague s. reverend al sharpton and martin luther king iii are -- we'll be hosting a redeem the dream summit, which is a conversation about public policy issues that you have mentioned here on this show, public policy issues and how we should respond to the assault that's taking place across the nation. so there's going to be a whole

series of activities which is it willy the 50th anniversary of the march, but i want people to focus on the fact that there are a wide swath of activities taking place, and 63 people remember the speech, but remember it was a quarter of a million people who traveled by train, by plane, by bus, by car, who walked, who came in 1963 to washington and we hope we'll have at least that many people on the 24th. >> let's hope so. i was actually born in 1963. professor james peterson and mark morial, thank you so much. the secret recording that may throw mitch mcconnell's campaign into a bit of a tailspin. you'll have to hold your nose for this one. told ya. t-mobile's got the samsung galaxy s iii.

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stay with us today's top lines are coming up, including a primer on playing hardball with russia. >> if the president really wanted to hurt putin, he would have said he was coming, then just stood him up. trust me, that hurts a lot more. or -- or if you wanted to be more passive-aggressive, the president could have said let's meet somewhere that's not technically in russia like, i don't know, moscow airport. ♪ [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health

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the beach on your tv is much closer than it appears. seize the summer with up to 50% off hotels at travelocity. from high drama to low comedy, here are today's top lines. how does he keep up with the news like that? >> protects the party and our candidates from networks that are not in the business of

promoting our party. >> the rnc has issued a bold ultimatum. >> keep it fair. keep it fair, will ya? >> it makes my chose of moderators much easier. >> the tenacious whining. >> i'm not going to have you moderate the republican debates in our primary. >> pet ulens that we wouldn't -- >> why not? >> because you're not interested in the future of the republican party and the nomineeses. >> so -- >> no, no, no. >> it looks like those clowns in congress did it again. >> president obama giving president putin now the cold shoulder. >> what a bunch of clowns. >> is this diplomatic diss the d.d.? >> this is to russia, this is a -- >> a reset in relations between the united states and russia. >> without question, our number one geopolitical foe. >> russia, not al qaeda. the 1980s are now calling asking

for that you are foreign policy back. >> when you sit down and negotiate with someone like putin. >> isn't is embarrassing -- >> who is former kgb, i would add. >> poke us in the eye this way after the president bent over backwards. >> they slipped back into cold-war thinking, and what i consistently say to them and what i say to president putin, that's the past. >> let's get right to our panel in the presence. joining us is jimy williams and ryan grimm, who is washington bureau chief for the hefton post. jimmy, the president tried a reset thanks to toward snowden and the russian leadership that doesn't seem to be working so well. tell me why we should blame the president for this, and not mr. putin. >> well, because republicans like to blame someone. >> thank you. >> barack obama could get him to get rid of all nuclear warheads

and we could keep our -- listen, it is what it is. america should just get used to the fact and move on from it. the bigger problem is putin has not moved on from that. that worries me. we are -- ryan's probably in his late 30s, i would assume, something like that, but i remember distinctly growing up in a cold war meant. >> yes. >> knowing there were nuclear warheads out there, et cetera, et cetera. we went through they drills in grade school about what to do if there was a nuclear bomb. bomb shelter signs in our schools, et cetera, et cetera. parent the republicans like that, it's back, and they enjoy the fact that the cold war has restarted and they can blame barack obama for it. the problem is they might forget when medvedev was the president of russia, we had a great relationship with them. so my problem is no matter what he does, he can't win. so what? i want ryan, aside from the fact that you just received a delicious compliment about your age, the president has canceled

his summit with mr. putin, but again, that's not likely to appease his critics who probably want, as you know, a return to the bush doctrine, i guess. >> what was the bush doctrine? remember, he stared into putin's eyes, or stared into his soul, i think he said. >> that's right putin is not the kind of figure you would see warmth there, and truth worthyness, but one reason, you know, they're going to continue criticizing him is just tactically they didn't play this very well. i don't think they thought through what they were doing when they stopped his plane in russia. okay. so what have you done at that point? you stop his plane, don't let it take off and then force it to land. then when eva morales leaves

russia and they think edward snowden is on the plane, they force that down, so now russia knows that if they let him leave, the u.s. will try to force the plane down and it would look like they got pushed around, so they did back putin into a corner. whatever you say about putin, he's not the kind of figure you would want to back into a corner. you want to give him some kind of way to get out of it with some honor. he's the kind of guy that that's what he cares about more than anything. i think they'll continue to get hit for it. >> he also care being his magnificent torso. can i switch gears for a moment. to kentucky, and jimmy you love the south, the senate race there and substantial controversy. it began with a post on the economic policy journal that featured a recording of mitch mcconnell's campaign manager jessie benton.

mr. benton action who used to be rand paul's manager, is married to rand paul's niece, here is what mr. benting had to say when asked what he's up to these days. take a listen to this. >> between el and me i'm sore of holding my nose for two years, because what we're doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in 2016. >> there has been a statement who says in part it is truly sick that someone would record a private conversation i had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me. i believe in senator mcconnell, and i'm 100% committed to his reelection. hold my nose? >> i think this is just rich. i mean, look, i think it's terrible that he was recorded. i think that's kind of bad, but now that it's there and this is

out of the closet, and jesse benting kind of sort of hates his boss, mitch mcconnell is like the darth vader of the senate. his staff will even say that to you. if i'm mitch mcconnell and this is the guy running my campaign, i'm going to walk in a room and look and say, wait a minute, i'm supposed to trust you, especially when my numbers are in the tank? more importantly mcconnell is talking about being backed in a corner like putin. he's screwed in kentucky, especially with the tea party folks. he can't do anything about the fact that his campaign manager thinks he sucks. that's a terrible place to be in if you're a senate in a reelect. >> probably many, many think he was speaking the truth. >> he certainly was, anything that knows him pretty much assumed that that was the case

to begin with, and mcconned i'm sure actually knew that to begin with. benton is the aide more closely associated with ron paul than anybody else. he went from ron paul and then to rand paul, was with both of them for a long time. since this has been with rand and, as he said, he'll tend to be with rand paul after that. getting his connection to rand paul, you know. paul has not endorsed mcconnell's tea party challenger. he did not encourage anybody to run to his right. so, you know, if dealing with an incident like this, it's kind of a small price to pay if you can keep some of the tea party, you know, in your tent. >> absolutely. ryan grimm and jimy williams, thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up, the impact of the

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program, something that disproportionately affects the poor and minorities. it's black defendants who are overwhelmingly denied the equal representation they're required to receive until law. black defendants comprise just 19% of clients who can afford to hire their own attorneys. if sequester is the new normal, this imbalance could ultimately proof unconstitutional. >> for now i'm priced so sea we're joined by representative jerry nadler, and the man behind the project and co-host of "the cycle" my colleague ari mel bett ber, in the run-up to the sequester, it's not a problem, it's not an issue. is that true as far as the criminal justice system is concerned? >> well, no, unfortunately it's certainly not true. it's cutting something like 30% or more of funding for the

public defender systems. that means that people don't get adequate defenses or have to wait for trial for months and they're in jail, having been convicted of nothing. you're waiting longer for raiments for trials, months, even chief justice roberts, no bleeding heart liberal, complained recently that the sequestration would really very much harm the criminal justice system, and has a disproportionate effect on the defendants, it will reduce d.a.'s also, but the prosecutors at the federal left are funded out of the department of justice, and has some leeway, they can switch funds around, whereas the public defenders are funded out of a much smaller operation, almost all of which goes to staff salaries for defenders, and staff assistance and rent, they have little leeway, so it hits the defense

much more than the prosecution, and you're going to have a situation where you're going to -- you may start seeing the courts order prisoners freed, as they are being in california, just for lack of trials. >> gives going to mention that. ari, hasn't this sequester simply amplified all the biases that currently exist within the criminal justice process, particularly when it becomes apparent, as the congressman just said, 30% of the defendants who cannot afford counsel are african-americans? >> i think it does reinforce a lot of problems, the difference here being the sequester may not have been set up to be racist, but it is certainly racially unfair in its impact. as we've been reporting over the long run, but for right now, as the congressman said, you have 27 billion there sitting on the doj prosecutor side, and one of the most ridiculous parts of this, even from a conservative

perspective. that's why many former prosecutors, and now the chief justice have spoken out, is that the nature of these cuts punish the parts of the government that are already the most efficient. our reporting showed that about 90% of public defender budgets go to people, go to staff, so there's nothing to cut but people. when you're dealing with a procurement program or something that has waste and overhead, they are fine. it's not logical from even a conservative perspective. >> congressman, when you add the economic pressures to the judicial reverse on voting rights act, aren't we moving in the wrong direction in terms of civil rights and equality in this country? >> well, in many ways we are and we have been for quite a while. the sprupreme court's atrocious decision overturns the real protections we've had, and you saw right away in texas. >> within hours. >> within hours, texas had

enacted a reapportionment plan that a three-judge federal court in washington declared not only was in effect, but intentionally rachellely discriminatory and therefore illegal, as soon as they threw out the fact that texas had to get such laws clear, texas announced they would institute -- they would effectuate the all right declared racially discriminatory redistricting plan, and states are coming up with all these different voter suppression items. so yes, that plus the effects on the judiciary, and another thing, we've had increasingly in the last 20 years draconian minimum -- mandatory minimum sentences, which means that a prosecutor, not a judge, really hat the negotiating leverage. the prosecutor says to a defendant if i don't plead guilty, i'll give you a 30-year sentence. if you ploo ed guilty, we'll make it six months. and the odds -- the disparity is so great that there's tremendous

pressure, especially when there isn't adequate legal representation on innocent defendants to plead guilty, rather than risking a 30 or 40-year sentence. >> indeed. thank you for your work in this area, and of course my colleague ari melber. can you find more on our web side at presum presumedguilty.msnbc.com. coming up, reading writing arithmetic and race, a critical conversation with the school year just around the corner. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is betsy. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. all aboard. ♪

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sdplo dunbar high school in washington, d.c. first opened its door in 1870 as america's first black public school. operating under discriminatory segregation laws and a racist congressman who controlled the school's budget, dunbar more

than defied the odds, producing a number of pioneers who were among the first bar remember-breaking african-americans in their respective fields. the school is a subject of a new book called "first class." the legacy of dunbar, america's first black public high school. i'm delighted to say that the author joins us now. welcome back. >> thank you so much for your interest. >> i mentioned the pioneers all alumni. the list includes wesley brown, the first black naval academy graduate, edward brook, the first black politician poplarly elected to the u.s. senate. normal johnson. that's just to name a few. how do you in the book account for this school, this first school produces such a group of limbnaries. >> it's an amazing story, and a school that had to fight to exist in washington, d.c., even

though this was a dedicated, small community full of extremely educated teacher. many of the first blacks to go to competitive schools like am overland, brown, got out of school and couldn't teach anywhere. so first of all, the students were hyper-educated. the next thing they were armed with the most important things, armed with excellence. they were brilliant kids. they were taught the most amazing, amazing curriculum, which they had to fight for regularly. sometimes they would get notes from the board of education, for example, they were asked to trade out shakespeare for robinson carewo. caruso. >> dunbar high school is a completely different story with many students now struggling with the very basics. how and when did things begin to change? >> it's a difficult story, and i really had a hard time writing about the modern story, because

i didn't want to pick on current dunbar, because it's like so many schools that struggle with all the difficulties. it's just because of what it was that makes it a sad story. once integration happened, was sauce do so clumsily. if you read the notes, you can feel the panic on the page, and i think the story is less about that dunbar stopped being a segregated school, it stopped being a magnet school, because there were only a few choices for black students. it became a neighborhood school and absorbed all the problems of the neighborhood. i will say, though, in interviews dunbar graduates through all the decades, there was always that seed, that little bit stayed with the school about the school's history. there was always a little pocket of it at the school. >> this is sadly, as you know, a common story through the country. in 2010 the graduate among african-american students were

66%. having studied and renown formitt and and wonderful school, what lessons can we draw and apply to schools today that might make a difference, it can larry in relation to high african-american communities. >> i think that public schools specifically are holistic entities and have to be treated that way. it's about the community, about parents having a job, it's about teachers being invested in the students. one of the things dunbar teachers used to do, they used to write to universities say i have a requested negro candidate for you. they wouldn't take no for an answer. i think we need to get back to the idea of the public school being -- the public school is sick, then the community is sick. so i think we have to think about the economics. it's what the president talks about a lot. the middle class, that helps bring our public schools back. >> but also, as you say, the commitment of teachers. >> they were pretty spectacular. >> alison stewart, thank you so

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phillips'. i dumb counsel do the studio, and it's never been difficult for me to record. that's like water running down the sink. i was like, not today. that was probably the first moment in the life of the superlative george duke that his musical genius was temporarily silenced. yet after absorbing the grief of losing his beloved wife corinne, all of his talents emerged with the release of his latest album last month. little did we know it would be his last. there wasn't a single music at boundary that could -- he would play and compose for a vast array of highly talented artists from miles davis to frank zappa, from jazz, funk, soul, rock.

he would play it all over a 40-year professional career. when asked how many abums he had recorded, george duke said, in all seriousness, that he couldn't remember. it all started when he began taking piano lessons at the age of 4, after seeing duke ellington perform. i don't remember it too well, wrote george duke, but my mother told me i went crazy, saying get me a piano, get me a piano. of course, his mother did. and there many did by, granted the world one of the finest musicians of the modern age. george duke, who died on wednesday, at the age of 67.