i'm joined by ari melber, kelly goff, and republican strategist ron christie. rst. why isn't anyone offering common sense gun restrictions in the wake of the shootings in colorado? we wring our hands time and time again when this occurs but nothing moves the needle in terms of legislation. >> i think that's the question. and it's partly because we have a systemic problem in the way we deal with these tragedies. i would propose like a different set of ground rules. i would say you have the right to treat this as a period of mourning, absent any policy reform, and you have the right to respond to this tragedy by looking at what we can do as a country to change the underlying policies. the nra has a right to get up and talk about how they don't think basically any rules should ever be added to the way we regulate guns, and they do not have a right -- this is important -- they do not have a right to shut the rest of us up when we look at this tragedy, which echos so many other tragedies and figure out ways we can regulate in this area. and the last thing i'll say on

we are back with anthea butler, ari melber, ed rendell and barbara lee.out the -- are the surrogates for the campaigns off message, whether the democratic surrogates, are they off message? the message isn't what is the message good or bad, but are the surrogates off message? this idea that utter answances themselves news. does that take away of what we should be talking about in the political world? >> we make a huge mistake. campaigns make a mistake to demand 100% of the message. i'm not a surrogate because i work for nbc. even when i was chairman, i looked upon my role as talking to the people who have yet to make up their mind. and if i say the other side is all devils and demonize the other side and we're all angels, never make a mistake, they will tune me out. i want to say, and you see this with what president clinton says, mitt rom nooi is a substantial guy. a very successful business person. that's not the rub against mitt romney. let's focus on these things. the obama folks, you know, absolutely go nuts when we say anything that -- other than mit

for more, let's turn to "new york times" columnist charles blow, mark simone, and ari melber. mark, let me ask you first, why is it? why is it that the republicans want to continually protect the top 2% in the country? >> i don't trust either side on this. it's not going to be great either way. the bush tax cuts were only for the wealthy, just for the rich, but 98% of it went to the middle class. that's become obvious from this. when you have an out of control spending problem, is the solution to figure out a way to pay for it or cut spending? we have plenty of revenue right now. >> but the republicans still want to protect the top 2% when we need more money in the treasury. the democrats have said you want to go big, we'll go big on spending cuts and they backed off on that. the republicans won't serve it up and they're going to protect the top 2%. how else do we read that? >> we have the most expensive politicians money can buy, literally. you have democrats playing games. you have an economic record for the past four years you can't run on. jennifer reuben the great washing

. >> and ari melber, this raises a problem for the republican convention.ho can you allow on that stage? there's already problems with -- and normally, people who ran in the primaries and lost, they get positions to speak, and there was only one woman in that field. you'd kind of want to give her a position. but she's out of her mind, so you can't let her get up on the stage. let's listen to newt gingrich today talking about the possibilities of sarah palin speaking at this convention. >> should sarah palin be given a speaking role at the convention? apparently she has not been invited to the convention and it looks like some people are trying to keep her from speaking. what do you think? >> no, she -- governor palin absolutely should have a speaking slot. she motivates and arouses an entire base, and i think she absolutely should have a speaking slot. >> you're going to be speaking, right, newt? >> well, that's up to the romney people. i'm glad to do it if they want me to. i would strongly support governor palin being given a chance to speak to the country

dionne and ari melber, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> good to be withng up, over $1 billion will be spent on this election. none of it will be spent to get my vote, because i don't vote in a battleground state, and much more importantly, i am not undecided. polling indicates the undecided don't like what they see in this campaign so far, but they really, really don't like mitt romney. that's coming up. >>> and next in the "rewrite," bill o'reilly loves to talk about the loony left, but his confusion about gun control this week has even bill o'reilly proposing new gun control laws, even though he says only the loony left wants more gun control. of course, it doesn't make sense. this is bill o'reilly we're talking about. play in the same sandbox as luxury s.u.v.s, it helps to have an interior full of hand-selected wood trim and soft premium leather... and it doesn't hurt to have a selec-terrain dial that truly performs. ♪ with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta

ari melber -- >> hire these people for habitat for humanity. >> ari melber will be in for me on thursdayt noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. i will not be there. he will be joined by patricia murphy, richard wolffe and kurt anderson. until then, find us on facebook. "andrea mitchell reports" is next live again from the aspen ideas festival, where presumably there are no nails being hammered. good afternoon to you, andrea. >> no nails, no wood. happy independence day to all of you. we will be live from the aspen ideas festival right here in a few moments with a big cast. we've got jane harmon from the woodrow wilson center, plus i will talk to ron howard about andy griffith. all that and more on "andrea mitchell reports," next. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too. learn where to find your number at drscholls.com. we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have on

who joins us live from washington, also, in the nation's capitol, and here with us in new york, ari melberf the nation. chastising the president, mitt romney, as if to try to take the shock of this incident to get him to take this more serious. both have taken this more serious with regard to gun control. will this work? >> you would hope so. mayor bloomberg is being very characteristic mayor bloomberg. blunt, to the point. he didn't just make these comments willy-nilly on his own. he was there in the radio studio for his weekly friday show. when you have something this tragic in the news and something involving guns, which mayor bloomberg is leading this effort. i can't remember xakly the name of the group, mayors against guns, it includes 600 mayors across the country who have been working hard to try and change gun laws and so what you saw there in that clip and what you're hearing from mayor bloomberg is a frustration of many, many years of trying to get washington to do something about this and having nothing come of it. >> yeah, and he came out very early and strongly. karen, one of

ari melber who did math yesterday said 1 out of every 40 bills the house has taken up is to repeal theordable care act. >> there was an article, this morning or yesterday, when they calculate what it costs to run the house of representatives. $50 million. the 32, 33 efforts to repeal, you know, quantify, it's $50 million of taxpayers' money to go through what they knew was a futile exercise from the start. the situation here is, people need to understand that any increase above $250,000 on these people, your first $250,000 stays just the same. you're fine. when they keep screaming small businesses, the republican party is not telling the american people, they're talking about anyone who has 500 or fewer employees. big businesses. the repercussions on the middle class by maintaining the tax cuts and increasing on those whose net revenues are plus-$250,000 is minimal. this is a political exercise and somebody needs to call them on this big-time. >> we know the president was meeting with democratic leadership in congress yesterday. richard, there have been dueling prescriptions for expira

ari melber, joey reed and michelle cottle, good afternoon to all of you. president is headed to ohio and pennsylvania on his first bus tour of 2012, thursday. he's ahead of romney in both states. seems as if romney's window of opportunity is getting smaller. even as the public's understanding of bain capital ge gets larger. >> there have been some signs that the bain cal tall attacks are working and the president's had a good run this week. >> and immigration. >> we're still along way out, so he's got to hit the road and get out there and make his argument in the swing states. he's very smart. he got e-mail frs the campaign saying the fund-raiser dinners were petering out and it was bus tour time. >> joy, do you notice a difference behaviorally in these two men? the president is going to be on the road when the jobs numbers come out. he confronts the public. mitt romney on the issue of health care reform makes a short statement and disappears. >> yeah and it's a trang strategy for the candidate who has to define himself. they feel like the president's bran

joining me today, msnbc contributor, ari melber of "the nation."tein of the huffington post, mar

joining me today, msnbc contributor, ari melber of "the nation."tein of the huffington post, margaret talev is white house correspondent for bloomberg news and our favorite american with a british accent, msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe. president obama may want to send a thank you card to the romney campaign today. on the daily rundown this morning, romney's senior advisor appeared to veer off the gop script, agreeing with the president that the individual mandate portion of the affordable care act is not tax. >> the governor believes that what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty, and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. but again -- >> he agrees with the president, he agrees with the president that it is not, he believes that you shouldn't call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine? >> that's correct. but the president also needs to be held accountable for his hypocritical, contradictory statements. >> richard wolffe, we talk a lot about moments in this cycle, perhaps

i'm ari melber in for alex wagner.resident barack obama says mitt romney is afraid of rush limbaugh. the jobs report says that unemployment is stuck at 8.2%. mitt romney says the president is out of ideas. it's friday, july 6th. this is "now." joining me today is "time" magazine deputy washington bureau chief, michael crowley. erin mcpike, patricia murphy joining us of citizen jane politics and contributor to the daily beast and of course, buzz feed editor in chief, ben smith, also known as theeart and soul of the internet. the presidential election is exactly four months away and today, there are some new responses from president obama and governor romney about these disappointing june jobs report. basically, the president said that these 80,000 jobs that were created last month is a step in the right direction, but not go enough. >> we can't be satisfied because our goal was never to just keep on working to get back to where we were back in 2007. want to get back to a time when middle class families and those working

i'm ari melber in for alex wagner.resident barack obama says mitt romney is afraid of rush limbaugh. the jobs report says that unemployment is stuck at 8.2%. mitt romney says the president is out of ideas. it's friday, july 6th. this is "now." joinme

let's bring in our ari melber of the nation magazine. alex wagner, and michael medved. great panel coming up. stay with us. especially you, michael, because you have to tell me off the bat, how does romney's tax plan hurt waiters and waitresses? go figure. >> it doesn't hurt waiters and waitresses. >> he wants to raise the taxes on them. >> it helps -- it does not. that's simply not true, ed. mitt romney's tax plan calls for a 20% across the board cut in all tax rates. and that's accomplished without reducing revenue by getting rid of exemptions and deductions particularly for the wealthy. he has acknowledged many times there are many wealthy americans who would end up paying more because you get fewer deductions and exemptions. >> you're telling me i'm wrong when i hear and read in the tax plan that mitt romney wants to raise the taxes on people making under $30,000 a year? >> you are absolutely wrong. >> i am not wrong. ari? >> i'm not wrong. >> it's a smear. >> it's no smear, it's the truth. >> take a look at the tax plan as it's laid out in mitt romney's website or

ari melber, maybe, would such logos have helped the italians in their game yesterday against the spanisht. >> the answer's no. >> the answer is no. apparently. apparently the answer is no. i think that it's fun. i don't know if it counts as an in-kind contribution. this is another murky area. >> what a waste of money. a semi'pro soccer team in new york. >> we don't know if it's new york city or upstate. i don't know. long island, i'm being told by the control room. >> when people start competing for the semi-pro soccer fan vote in ohio, pennsylvania and florida, and when governor romney is out there for the opening singing "america the beautiful," we will know they have hit on something. >> that's the demo. >> every vote counts. >> mexico awoke to a new president-elect today, marking a return to power for a party once called quote, a perfect dictatorship. but that appears to be of little concern to many mexicans, particularly women, who call their new president bon-bon. richard wolffe, would anybody call -- do we have any elected officials people would dare call bon-bon? maybe roberts by

i'm ari melber.hington bureau chief and columnist at the chicago sun-times, lynn sweet. msnbc contributor and managing editor of the grio.com, joy-ann reid and "new york" magazine columnist, jonathan chates. governor romney and his advisors are trying to answer questions about bain's record during a disputed time at which romney claims he was on leave, but was still officially the owner and ceo. >> i just want to clarify this. after february of 1999, you never attended a single meeting for bain, a business meeting, even by phone attending a meeting regarding bain or bain controlled entities? >> you've asked quite a few questions there so let's go through. i didn't involve myself in any way with bain capital's enterprise after february of 1999. >> even when he was on leave, does he stand by business decisions that were made by the firm he created? >> actually he retired retroactively at that point. >> does the governor think those were good deals for bain? >> those deals were made -- those decisions w

i'm ari melber. joining me on the program, "new york times" political reporter, nicklas confessore, washington bureau chief and columnist at the chicago sun-times, lynn sweet. msnbc contributor and managing editor of the grio.com, joy-ann reid and "new york" magazine columnist, jonathan chates. governor romney and his advisors are trying to answer questions about bain's record during a disputed time at which romney claims he was on leave, but was still officially the owner and ceo. >> i just want to clarify this. after february of 1999, you never attended a single meeting for bain, a business meeting, even by phone attending a meeting regarding bain or bain controlled entities? >> you've asked quite a few questions there so let's go through. i didn't involve myself in any way with bain capital's enterprise after february of 1999. >> even when he was on leave, does he stand by business decisions that were made by the firm he created? >> actually he retired retroactively at that point. >> does the gove