thanks, chris cillizza.in durant's moving speech to accept the mvp award had more than just the oklahoma city thunder star in tears. >> you made us believe, you kept us off the street. put clothes on our back and food on the table. when you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. you went to sleep hungry. you sacrificed for us and you're the real mvp. >> and now we are hearing from that real mvp, durant's mother wanda pratt who shared this inspiring message for other single moms this morning on the "today" show. >> never give up. to always put your children first, to always commit yourself to their dreams, their aspirations and goals, even when it gets, when you have those lonely nights and you're crying to yourself, remember that it's for them. and they will get that. they will receive that and i've realized that is what children really want. they want to know their parents are 100% behind them and they'll give you everything you expect. you love this game. more than your wife... more than your kids... more than

jeanne cummings and chris cillizza and kristen welker. is that does it for us a busy edition with the president and angela merkel. follow the show online and on facebook and twitter. "ronan farrow daily" is next. o. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. ♪ (woman) this place has got really good chocolate shakes. (growls) (man) that's a good look for you. (woman) that was fun. (man) yeah. (man) let me help you out with the.. (woman)...oh no, i got it. (man) you sure? (woman) just pop the trunk. (man vo) i may not know where the road will lead, but... i'm sure my subaru will get me there. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new

both men, reid in 2010 and mcconnell have won very good campaigns so far. >> thanks, chris cillizza ithat does it for us and "ronan farrow daily" is up next. >> i'm bill karins, we're watching warm conditions finally reaching all the way up to the northern plains. warmest day of the spring, 80 in minneapolis today. unfortunately with the warmth will come a chance of thunderstorms late and a few could be strong, from iowa into areas of indiana and ohio. have a great day. where villages floated on water and castles were houses dragons lurked giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real avo: whatever you can imagine, all in one place expedia, find yours the was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com that little guy cleans, brightens and fights stains. so now i can focus on more pressing matters. wow! isn't it beautiful? your sweet peppers aren't next to your hot peppers. [

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joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza and "washington post" editorial columnist ruth marcusirst to you. tom tillas is more or less the establishment candidate but that doesn't always work in republican politics. you have a rand paul backed candidate and mike huckabee factor and it is north carolina. >> i'm excited because your intro, six weeks straight of primary, i missed this. tillas is the candidate that national republicans think has the best chance to beat hagen in the fall. if they can get the nomination without a runoff and it would be a july runoff more time spent and idealogicallydy advicive, it would be a real victory in a state where they have a good chance of winning. this is a big test. if he's able to get over 40%, it's a real win for establishment republicans who have struggled to get their candidates, the candidates they want rerhyme time. >> and kay hagen is one of the democrats who could win or lose, help decide who keeps control, whether the democrats keep control or lose control to the republicans of the senate. >> absolutely one of many endanger eed demo

welcome chris cillizza back with us.ill be in the rose garden this afternoon and deliver the main message about this troop withdrawal and what he's hoping for troops, 9,800 troops to remain. and at west point tomorrow for a broader speech on foreign policy. what do you think he is loping to achieve? >> andrea, the news may be today, the sort of broader vision tomorrow at west point. look, i think the recent asia trip highlighted this. what exactly is the obama doctrine? and even bigger, what is the role of the united states and obviously in a changeable and changing world, situations like syria, ukraine, when do we intervene whether do we not. president obama has struggled to do that. i think this is an attempt to do so. a lot easier in your second term on foreign policy than domestic policy to make an impact. maybe this is the start of something. >> another big story we'll be monitoring in the next 24 hours, the first clips of brian williams' wide-ranging interview with eric snowden. tonight on "nightly news." and tomor

joining me now, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and editor of post politics.com.ed at the primary calendar and one of big stories of the 2010 and 2012 election was republicans not getting their preferred candidates ending republican incumbents, you would have circled, june 3rd, long time appropriator, the kind of member who hasn't had a real race in a long time and may not have the apparatus ready to go. chris mcdaniel, tea party backed uniting tea party folks. i think had this nursing home issue not come up and essentially the add touches on it. this is a story that someone who sports mcdaniel, he has no real contact with but someone who sports mcdaniel snuck into the nursing home in which cochran's wife has been for a decade, and took footage of her and posted it on the internet. had that not happened, i think we might be talking about thad cochran losing this race. i think it will probably still be close but this is engulfed the last two and a half, three weeks of the race. i think cochran has a little bit of an edge now. they think it's a cutting issue because

joining me now, chris cillizza and julie pace, white house correspondent for ap. let me go first to you at the white house where this announcement is coming. julian castro, rising star, does bring political strength with hispanics and seems to indicate if you wanted to get him ready for a place on a ticket in 2016, what better place than a cabinet. because it would be hard for a democrat to win statewide office in texas. >> he's young and vibrant speaker and there's a lot of talk that in 2016 he could be a smart vice presidential pick for whoever the democratic nominee ends up being, particularly if that's hillary clinton. he's hispanic and who democrats think could help them appeal to hispanic voters but he's in san antonio, not really a hot bed for national politics. the idea is he coume to washington and build his profile and expand his experience beyond local politics. >> chris cillizza, let's talk about the shuffle, sylvia matthews burwell replacing sebelius and now donovan, going to omb. how does that affect the white house? >> we're getting to the second ha

joining me now for more, chris cillizza, managing editor of postpolitics.com and susan page and "washington post" ann gearan and white house correspondent kristen welker. kristen, first to you, the president moved today but it seemed very reluctant. there was a personal connection there. and just quickly, why did this finally reach critical mass the boiling point, however you want to describe it today? >> that's a great question. you're vutly right. you you can hear the president's respect for secretary shinseki when he made those comments. i'm told that after he got that preliminary ig report that the situation just became untenable and president and other top officials were stunned by how widespread the misconduct is within the va. and the fact that secretary shinseki who had said he wasn't aware of how widespread it was, he said of course that he thought these were isolated incidents. you heard secretary shinseki himself said he was misled about that. that was one of the key factors and then you have this course of mounting voices from capitol hill, more than 100 lawmakers, including a f

. >>> new reaction is pouring in over the surprise firing of jill abe ramson, chris cillizza, thanks both of you for joining me. paint a picture of the shock waves that went not only through the "new york times" newsroom but newsrooms across the country. >> the thing that it immediately occurred to me it reminded me of is when the post announced that don grim was selling the washington post to jeff besos. and no one in the newsroom knew much about it. it certainly seems that way with the new york times. look, the new york times, they have fractured and have less power but they remain a gigantic news gathering industry and seen as the standard by many people. and a change at the top, a top -- certainly doesn't seem cordial, it big, big news. across every news rooms. >> i'm going to get you pick up on that very point. we're getting a couple of different theories about what was behind this. "the times is pointing out there is a fair amount of friction between abramson and another from buzz feeds just moments ago that an internal report found that "the times" was struggling to add just t

maine justice and manning editor of the washington post politics section and author of the fix, chris cillizza. you have been doing exhaustive reporting on this scandal. i guess knowing what you know about the christie administration, does it sort of stretch the imagination that the governor's chief council was looking into his senior most aide, whether or not his senior most aides knew about a traffic scandal, i'll call it. the governor wouldn't know, nobody in that chain of command would have mentioned something to the governor. >> no, it doesn't seem credible. i mean, the interesting thing, i caught a bit of the testimony today and state nor was pressing on the fact he had this conversation with mckenna. mckenna was a prosecutor. he was a high ranking prosecutor and kevin o'dowd as well, who is also in the office came from the office. they know what it means when someone talks about potentially illegal activities. the question is, you know, of course, the bridge closed in a way that abused power. a prosecutor who knows what is supposed to happen in a case like this would make a comment like

and some of the other stuff that's not kentucky senate today, political reporter amy walter and chris cillizza. >> i was told we were talking kentucky senate. >> very quickly i want to jump to some of the other house races but in idaho there's been an interesting player in these races and it's been mitt romney. mitt romney has been enormously helpful in his endorsement of mike simpson. he jumped out for monica webbe. it's interesting that romney has been so comfortable doing that, being and acknowledging that he's the symbol of the establishment, right, chris? >> i agree with you. and i think for a party that really -- if you say who's the leader of the republican party right now, probably by default it's still romney. >> that's what consultants have noticed, right? when you have to prove somebody is a republican, they had to go grab romney. >> so particularly in a state like idaho, i think he is to the extent there's a party elder or party leader who's visible to the rank and file, it's him. >> '90s flashback, amy, i know you listen to the '90s station all the time on sirius xm, pretty much t

joining me for our big journalist panel, chris sill list saturd cillizza and kristen welker and bob shrumtalk about at the white house. there's been a big divide despite what the white house says between merkel and rest of europe on how tough to be against vladimir putin. there's talk the incremental sanctions have not been working and the other issues, the confusion and disagreements over intelligence and eavesdropping that still have yet to be resolved. kristen? >> reporter: right, a lot to talk about today, andrea, but certainly the key issue we'll be talking about is ukraine and