deanne stillman "desert reckoning" caitlin rother "lost girls" and david mcconnell "american honor killings." this is live coverage. >> as well as the fire bread which came out in 2003. his short fiction and journalism has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies in his new book "american honor killings" was released this year. david lives in new york city and beside david is deanne stillman and deanne wrote "desert reckoning" based on stones peace. that book won the 2013 spur award for best contemporary nonfiction. her previous book, mustang with l.a. times best book of 2008 and won the california book awards silver medal for nonfiction. her book twentynine palms was an l.a. times best book 2001 and it has just been reissued and she lives in l.a.. and beside me is caitlin rother. rother has written a hoax fiction and nonfiction. a pulitzer prize investigative journalist. rother worked for nearly 20 years for daily newspapers and made scores of tv and radio appearances as a crime expert. her latest book "lost girls" came out last year and she lives in san diego. welcome to all of you. l

angeles times festival of books, a panel discussion featuring deanne stillman, caitlin rother and david mcconnell. it's about an hour. >> welcome to all of you. looking forward to a spirited discussion. the forpat will be i will --le o format will be i will ask a couple questions of all the panelists, and then i will havea a couple questions for each of the panelists about their specific works after which we will take some time for questions from all of you who are with us today in the sessionment so, first i would like to ask all three of you, your genre of nonfiction true crime differs quite a bit from mine and from several other stories of nonfiction. mine is typically called current affairs of sociology, biography being another that comes to mind related to this sort of work you do in a certain way. but current events and current affairs types of approaches have a fair amount in common i think as all nonfiction with the work you do, specifically the work requires a lot of research. and we write about real people, real events and we try to do that in a way that has -- and that is quite compell

inaudible conversations] >> you have been watching authors deanne stillman caitlin rother and david mcconnell. we are live on the university of southern california south of downtown los angeles. as you can see it's a picture-perfect southern california day. the chamber of commerce could not have ordered a nicer day. our live coverage continues. over here on our set next to the c-span bus we are joined by beau kilmer who is one of the co-authors of this book, "marijuana legalization" what everyone needs to know. mr. kilmer is with the rand corporation. mr. kilmer if you would start by making an argument for legalizing marijuana and against legalizing marijuana. >> guest: there are a number of arguments that could be made on either side. some folks who want to legalize marijuana aren't happy with the fact that there are 800,000 arrests every year for marijuana possession. they are unhappy that people are being put through the criminal system for a substance that they believe is safer than alcohol and some people argue that if you were to legalize marijuana he would be able to pass it and that w

or hear it live, so to speak, and to see how mitch mcconnell reacted or actually didn't react to the key parts of this conversation. >> remarkably, david objects to his wife being impugned on the basis of her race, and yet he allows his friends in that meeting to impugn someone else's psychiatric illness. well done, mitch mcconnell. david corn of "mother jones" magazine. another scoop. congratulations, sir. >> thank you, martin. >>> coming up, the lionization of an american baroness. wait, sorry, she was english. stay with us. [ coughs ] [ angry gibberish ] i took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] a lot of sinus products don't treat cough. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope, but alka seltzer plus severe sinus does it treats your worst sinus symptoms, plus that annoying cough. [ breathes deeply ] ♪ oh, what a relief it is [ angry gibberish ] since aflac is helping with his expenses while he can't work, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. kick! kick... feel it! feel it! feel it! nice work! ♪ you got it! you got it! yes! a

david corn is a man that brought us the 47% tape. now you come back here with the real mr. mcconnell as he prepares to filibuster gun control in this country. david corn, krystal ball, thank you for your time. >> thanks, rev. >> thank you. >> catch krystal on "the cycle" weekdays at 3:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. >>> ahead, we are a step closer to justice for our children today. there might be a plan for those political cowards who want to stop a vote on gun safety. >>> and look out! falling poll numbers ahead. i know it's shocking. but if you do unpopular things, you'll become unpopular. >>> and why marco rubio and the right wingers are ginning up a fake scandal about beyonce and jay-z's trip to cuba. it's not about cuba. it's not about the cuban people. it's about smearing the president. stay with us. >>> have you joined the "politics nation" conversation on facebook yet? we hope you will. our facebook family had tough words for mitch mcconnell and his gop colleagues threatening to filibuster the gun control bill. hagatha says blind obstructionism has done nothing but harm debate a

mcconnell. >> reporter: david muir, abc news, new york. >> that is great stuff. >> just loose. >> must have professionalrs. the jokes are way too good. >> he is so much looser this time around. he knows he doesn't have to butter up to anybody. it is his last term. he is just going to have fun with it at this point. by the way. don't know if you saw pictures at the correspondents' dinner, lots and lots, hey. of celebrities. like john. >> nice. >> i want the michelle hair. wish i was there. looks like a great time. >> next year, right? >> yeah. right? ke a great time >> next year, right? >> yeah. i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me, relationships matte

mcconnell. i'm joined now by the reporter who broke this story, david koran an msnbc political analyst. us someone didn't bug mitch mcconnell's headquarters of his campaign in a nixonian news? >> we were providing the tape mother jones just about a week ago, we had nothing to go wido the making of the tape. but in response to mitch mcconnell's wild charge that this is a nixonian bugging case. whatever happened it was not a watergate style break in, bugging operation. >> so it had to be somebody in that meeting. >> i can't get into it beyond that, i just spent a kim of minutes of chuck todd off the air. he has a lot of great theories and i just sat there nodding saying that's interesting. i can't get beyond that, but we're still waiting for mitch mcconnell to release a statement about the substance of the meeting. no matter what he was asked he came back to the same point that it was watergate and he was the victim. but he was dodging if he was right to talk about a potential candidate's past struggles with aggression as part of an ongoing research strategy. >> let me play that part of t

that mother jones reached out to mcconnell's senate and campaign offices for comment before publication so they were tipped off to this, but they didn't hear back. also, david corn goes on to say that the article makes it clear that mother jones was provided a copy of the audio from an anonymous source. karen? >> still speaks to mitch mcconnell having a real serious problem that he would even have to resort to this kind of behavior to try to go after someone who had never announced they were running. i think we're focusing on how the tape got here, not on what the substance is. >> they haven't denied the authenticity of the audio. >> saying this was illegal. >> our power panel for today, my thanks to all three of you. >>> a programming note. david corn, the writer of that mother jones piece, will join martin bashir coming up at 4:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. >>> just ahead, rutgers opens another investigation into its basketball program. and is it taking a few further steps as well? we will talk about that. >>> plus, from near tragedy to triumph. louisville's kevin ware gets to celebrate the championship with his team. look at that image. next, why college

mcconnell? >> those were good. so joining us now is davidamura, white house reporter for "the washington post," who covered the dinner. good morning to you, david. >> hi, betty. we're recovering. >> i'm sure you are. you attended nerd prom, as it's called. and given the criticism last year that the event had kind of lost its focus and was catering to celebrities, was it a little bit more toned down. i didn't see lindsay lohan or kim kardashian there this time around. >> i didn't see them either, but it was still pretty chock-full of celebrities. proponents of the dinner say, it raises a lot of money for young journalists and stuff. but there were a lot of celebrities and there is always criticism of this whole thing being too cozy. there was psy, the gangnam style rapper, nicole kidman and all other kind of big-style hollywood celebrities. but the president went over pretty well and conan o'brien did too. i think it's another event that the critics can hold their hat on. >> i thought the president had some really good jokes. and besides him

johnny isaacson, ron johnson mike lee, mitch mcconnell jerry moran, rand paul, pat roberts, marco rubio jeff sessions david vitter, roger wicker. these are guys who had a chance to stop killing now the democrats who decided their senate seats and pensions of nra ratings are not getting primaried are more important than you max baucus, heidi high camp and sorry of the massacring of names. harry reid also voted no only because that means he can bring the vote up again but he gets honorary mention for

when i went down to participate in a program that senator mcconnell set up by -- i took david mccallum with me and he loves those louisville cardinals. today he has more reason to like them. and tonight even more reason because in the championship tonight at the university of connecticut playing the louisville cardinals for the women's championship. so, mr. president, i'm very mindful of how strongly senator mcconnell feels about his louisville cardinals. mr. mcconnell: will the majority leader yield for an observation? mr. reid: i'm not going to get into the politics of sports in kentucky because i don't understand them. mr. mcconnell: one of the things we enjoy talking about is sports, and he is a big unlv fan as well. and i would just report to my friend through the chair that it was a fun evening, absolutely exciting to be there, and i was also grateful to you for coming down to the university of louisville a few years ago, and it was -- i was glad i had a chance to be there and and to see it in person. basketball in a football facility is a little ode. -- is a little ode odd. i am

david corn here, two real pros. why did the media go for the second game of the double header. the big story is what it's going to say about the story of mitch mcconnell. everyone went after the red herring. by whom? mitch mcconnell. the story here is what's going on in the room and he turned it into who told you. >> two ways, and the media went for it, by and large, because the magic letters "fbi," they carry a whole lot of weight. that's number one. the other thing he did and his aides did is scream about the left conspiracy. >> but the key thing there is, and i wrote a piece for huff post about this just now, talking about my sources in kentucky, mitch mcconnell still, even to this day, has a problem with the conservative base. >> losing the primary. >> of the republican party in kentucky. at the bottom of the transcript david got, there's a throwaway line the aides say, don't worry, boss, we're going to look at the primary challengers, too. >> let's go with that, is this whole -- i'm bringing the fbi in, by the way, these hard ass conservatives, we don't like the big government coming in and intruding, first thing he does, calls in the fbi, not th

. >> i'd like a debate between mcconnell and reverend al sharpton on this network. he'd outthink and outtalk this guy. thank you, david, thank you, joy. we'll be right back. aaah! aaaaah! theres a guy on the window! do something, dad! aaaah! aaaah! what is happening? they're rate suckers. their bad driving makes car insurance more expensive for the rest of us. good thing there's snapshot from progressive. snap it in and get a discount based on your good driving. stop paying for rate suckers. try snapshot free at progressive.com. >>> let me finish tonight with margaret thatcher. let me repeat what i said on "morning joe" when i first got word of the former british prime minister's death. i don't like the way hollywood makes movies about people they don't agree with politically. ronald reagan comes off as an aimable dunce. margaret thatcher gets hers on a dementia. if you disagree with someone politically take on their strengths. do what they did in that little british film. take your shots, hit them where they're strongest and you disagree with them the most. don't come off trying to be so-so compass nat, so balanced w

. >> i'd like a debate between mcconnell and reverend al sharpton on this network. he'd outthink and outtalk this guy. thank you, davidk you, joy. we'll be right back. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪ blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly! [ male announcer ] bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. [ male announcer ] bengay zero degrees. and every day since, two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned

chuck todd reports that the mcconnell campaign hired a security firm to search their headquarters for a bug, so they say. they found nothing. mother jones editor davidthat released that tape today told msnbc this. >> we did not make the tape. we were provided the tape and that it is our understanding the tape was not part of any watergate style bugging operation as mitch mcconnell has claimed it to be. >> mitch mcconnell is the most unpopular senator in america according to public policy polling. only 36 approve of his job performance, 54% disapprove. joining me, karen finney that will soon host a new weekend program on msnbc and ana marie cox from the guardian. we expected they would be doing some kind of opposition research on ashley judd as ashley judd moved toward a decision on running, but these guys were obviously going to play it as ugly as could be imagined. >> oh, absolutely. and look, on one hand whereas i do not condone what they were doing and if i were part of a campaign, wouldn't feel comfortable with that line of attack, we know that's the way the game is played. we both worked in politics long enough to know that's part of the unfort

david corn said we obviously used it because it was newsworthy. mcconnell'sance of what was said. it is basically a tape of them disemboweling ashley judd, politically. the dirty tricks they're going to use. speaking of dirty tricks, that's the real dirty tricks. [ ♪ "world news tonight" ♪ ] >> stephanie: secret tape waging judd's mental health and religion as ammunition. a recording of a private meeting between the senate g.o.p. leader and campaign aides revealed how far they were willing to go to defeat the actor and activist. >> apparently corn is the one who reported on the 47% tape. >> stephanie: see? flapping wires in my head. pulled that out of there. he's broken so many great stories. that was the one i thought. so anyway, during the strategy session, a recording of which was obtained by mother jones mcconnell and his aides considered assaulting judd for her pass depression and religious views. they were reading parts of her autobiography, mocking her outloud for going through struggles. he hasn't, frankly. mcconnell says i assume most of you have pla

. >> stephanie: the point of the piece, david the current election season should be springtime for democrats in kentucky, but sadly mcconnellh defeat out of the jaws of victory in situations like that. not always but frequently do. this is part of what being a democrat is. it's messy. we're not organized. i belong to no organized political party. i'm a democrat. >> stephanie: yeah. >> that remains true a hundred years later. all i can tell you is that mitch mcconnell remains vulnerable. he is -- if i were mitch mcconnell, i would be very very squared -- >> stephanie: politically a turtle without its shell is your point? >> yes. he looks like mr. mcgoo don't you think? >> stephanie: i hope -- because it's interesting the way they end the piece, they say a moment that should have been rage-based activists demanding a strong candidate to emerge to take down mcdonal instead provided the message jump in at your peril, we won't have your back. so thus no serious candidate to challenge him. >> i'm still not convinced of that. there is some time. the news that broke yesterday that max baucus in montana is retiring -- >> stephanie:

, mitch mcconnell still even to this day has a problem with the conservative base -- >> losing the primary. >> of the republican party in kentucky at the very bottom of the transcript that davidthere's a throw away line where the aides say and by the way, don't worry, boss, we're going to look the a the primary challengers, too, and that's something -- >> let's go with that. is this whole -- i'm bringing the fbi in, i'm doing my comments at the end of the show. he has a little spat and calls in the fbi, for the the local cops, and all of a sudden the fbi. what is this? they must love big government, don't they? >> i can tell you because we at "mother jones" brought the story. >> by the way, congratulations. and who's the guy that gave it to you? just kidding. >> we send it out at 7:00 in the morning. >> we? who are these other people involved? >> people who work for me. >> so you came in overnight? >> we had it for a week or so. you have lawyers vetted and all that stuff. we put it out and send it out to the bloggers and tweeters and all that and we see some interest and people are saying at 10:00 in the morning, mcconnell said fbi, everything exploded. you know, the requests

david piper, thank you. >> we have breaking news just ahead on reports that someone bugged the campaign office of the top republican in the u.s. senate. senator mitch mcconnellng reaction from senator mcconnell and we will have that for you. and plus, a rival network says where liberals want to take america as they attack, quote, the idea that children belong to their parents and instead call for a larger community to take charge. rush limbaugh already comparing that to communism. stay tuned. >> for the next hour, your kid is going to mow my yard and after that, my trash needs taken out. and after that, i need somebody to go to the grocery store for me and my kid is tied up. i'm claiming your kid. how did this work? ori was takg her kids to lunch in her new volkswagen... before her passat had passed 30 different inspection tests, and before several thousand tennesseans discovered new jobs on volkswagen drive, their cfo and our banker met for lunch. together, we worked with a team that helped finance construction of the world's first leed platinum auto manufacturing plant. that's the impact of global connections. that's bank of america. and i have a massive h

mcconnell. >> chuck grassley. >> sue me. >> a good story dominating the summed talk shows yesterday, of course, what do we do about syria? why hasn't the president already acted? david martin for cbs news joins us on our news line this morning. david has been doing excellent report okay this story as on everything else with cbs news. hey, david, how are you? >> good morning. >> what is the evidence we have and what are the options that we have, david? >> well, the evidence is the most convincing evidences are so-called physiological samples. those are blood and tissue samples at these attacks and analyzed in two separate laboratories. they both showed signs of exposure for the nerve agent serin. >> does that mean we had some cia agents in there? or how did we get the samples? >> that's the problem. a muddy chain of custody on these samples. there are basically smuggled out of syria so they go through many different hand before they actually reach the intelligence community. you cannot be sure that they haven't been somehow contaminated or degraded in their travels. >> uh-huh. >> so i don't think of this yet because no have an air tight case and i have been if you ha

it tells a lot about mitch mcconnell and he can wine and he can, you know, squeal like a stuck pig. he's been exposed as a dirty player of politics and kudos to davidand mother jones for putting this out there. political flap to get us started, 866-55 press. >> this is "the bill press show." i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections tuberculosis lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. before starting enbrel your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an inf

bellman, kaitlyn rother, lost girls and david mcconnell talking about american honor killings. our coverage continues with beau kilmer of the rand corp. taking your calls tweets in facebook comments regarding erdogan or legalization. and then a panel on culture of wars. karen sternheimer talks about celebrity culture, aired deggans who wrote race bader and finally nancy collins talk about the politics of sex in america. then we will wrap up today's coverage with larry elder well-known former radio talkshow host and columnist with his most recent book autobiography about his early years. dear father, dear son, two lives, eight hours about his early life in l.a. growing up with his father and learning about some of the things that his father went through during the period of jim crow. that is our live coverage for today and we hope your life again tomorrow. right now we are going to go to the hancock foundation building and this is where the history panel here at "the los angeles times" festival of books is just beginning. you are watching booktv on c-span2. [inaudible conversati