joining me, member of the senate armed services committee, senator claire mccaskill. are back here on this subject in this way once again. >> yeah. i think what we're seeing here is how far behind the military is in terms of changing their culture and recognizing this is a serious crime and that we need to prioritize going after the criminals, need to focus like a laser on that. clearly the people in these jobs are not the right people for these jobs. that's why we draw up legislation to codify requirement that they retrain, rescrub, reprioritize this particular line of work in the military and put strong leadership there instead of obviously folks that are being put there to end their careers or tread water. >> senator, the military is all about career advancement, all about moving up the ranks. >> right. >> how do you make this job something that people should actually seek in order to move up in rank, if they do it well? >> that's exactly at the heart of this, how do we change the culture that the folks that go to the jobs are not seen as the ones that have an uppe

her nomination to that job is being blocked now by senator claire mccaskill of missouri. senators put a hold on that general's nomination for promotion because this general apparently did the same thing as the other general. this is a previously unpublicized case, but apparently this general, yet another three-star intervened to, again, overturn a jury verdict on sexual assault. to ignore the recommendations of legal advisers to overrule and throw the conviction in this case a captain who was convicted of sexual assault. claire mccaskill announcing a hold on that general's nomination happened on the same day that we were all treated to this mug shot. this mug shot shows the lieutenant colonel who was in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the whole u.s. air force. he's the guy in charge. on the left, you can see what he looks like in uniform and happier times. on the right, that's what he looks like after himself being arrested for attempted sexual assault. allegedly in a drunken parking lot encounter late saturday night with a stranger. a stranger who fought

i want to play a clip here by claire mccaskill.g against todd aiken. claire mccaskill won the election and we alluded to this in the flow, susan helms was on track for a nomination. turn out she nullified a sexual assault allegation. >> this case, frankly, did not get out in the public domain until i discovered it through conversations with a lot of different prosecutors in the military. and then i said to my staff let's check and make sure she's not going through on a promotion and sure enough we found her name. we'll withheld her nomination for now and i've had an opportunity to visit with her and looking at the specifics of the case. it's a tough situation she's had an outstanding career but she did decide to overturn the decision of a jury she hand picked over, you know, whether or not there was sufficient evidence and who was telling the truth. frankly that's what we got to stop. >> just to raise two new issues. one is the political question will the obama administration go forward with this nomination. my reaction is, there's

say on behalf of all the middle-aged, overweight women in america, just shut up. >> that was claire mccaskillfeatured in my ka's new book and joins us now from capitol hill. >> looking beautiful. >> the author of the book "salt, sugar, fat." mike and i will present the other side of the case. so, yeah, the bacon sandwich. bacon and bacon sandwich. so, claire, you are portrayed in this book, pretty importantly and between the time of that speech and the time mika started writing this book, you underwent some pret the ty dramatic chang your life, too. >> yeah, i just decided that i didn't want to have insulin shots when i was my mom's age and i needed to get healthy and quit focusing on what size i was and focus on feeling better and moving more and with the help of a great weight loss coach by the name of charles deangelo in st. louis, we were able to knock off 50 pounds in about a year. >> wow. >> so, claire -- >> that's great. >> that is an incredible story. your friend diane also lost an incredible amount. >> 75 pounds. >> it's very interesting. we need to talk about this. forget about the

democrats and republicans have co-signed -- signed on to xco-sponsor the bil led by missouri senator claire mccaskill> "forbes" magazine just released its list of the most powerful women in the world. among the top ten, facebook's coo. sheryl sandberg shared her ideas on what companies still need to do to help women unlock their full potential. she is ranked number eight on "forbes" list of the one 00 m10 powerful women in the world. >> women still hold very few positions on boards or ceo positions. whether it's in congress, where only 17% of the house of representatives is made up of women, we still have much to do. >> more than 4,000 women attended the one-day conference. in case you were wondering, according to "forbes," the most powerful woman in the world is german chancellor, angela merkel. >>> today california's population from the mid-70s has grown 70%. >> that means more people inside but more family members on the outside. dedicated to helping them. story. >> reporter: you can quickly make a laundry list of things that children who have a parent in jail are more likely to do. drop out of :é

. >> learn from claire mccaskill. >> pay her $2 million like claire mccaskill! did have ashley judd's grr grandmother doing the work for her. miss judd comes from a democratic family in the state of kentucky and people know the name a little bit. >> i like her hat. mitch mcconnell this illustrates how difficult it's going to be for mitchell mcconnell to breeze to election like most majority leaders breeze to election. kentucky? for clinton a couple times it's a quirky state like arkansas. it's not deep red and mcconnell is sort of not -- >> he has been there a long time and i think alex hit it on the head. we sawed this happen with reed when the majority leader, democratic million leader had a tough race and it drives you to the extremes. we are not getting anything done in washington as it is and i think even less likely if the minority leader is facing a tough race. >> okay. i'm going to move on. >> now to new york city where anthony weiner is ticking up in his bid to become the next mayor and still trailing city council leader christine guinn. >> stop it. >>

. >> claire mccaskill voted for billions in waste and spending projects. >> the $44 trillion budget tammy baldwin voted for was too extreme. >> john tester votes to raise taxes on montana families and small businesses. >> elizabeth warren sides with extreme left protests. >> tim kaine loves taxes. >> we are a long way from neighborhood beautification. all of that, that social welfare. and here's why the carl rove move was so brilliant. those 501c4s, the welfare organizations, helping the unemployed or building stadiums, not only do they not have to pay taxes, they don't have to disclose their donors. carl rove figured out how he could have his cake and eat it too. went around the country looking all of us straight in the face telling us he had started up a social welfare organization. never mind it was dumping $70 million into partisan campaign ads. it's not just carl rove, it's also bill burton on the progressive end, they also have a 501c4, which is supposed to be a social welfare organization. pretty much every super pac has its own exempt 501c4 group fueled by secret donors. and this,

when senator claire mccaskill was on our show a week or so ago talking about this subject, she said, this is not a problem the military can train its way out of. right. there was no magic military-specific answer here, sexual assault is a crime, but apparently, in the military, it is a crime that not enough people are afraid of getting caught for. the military's own efforts here, so far, are a terrible failure. can they fix it? can congress make them fix it, since apparently military thus far at least has not been able to do it themselves? joining us now for the interview tonight is democratic senator barbara boxer of california. senator boxer is cosponsoring a bill in the senate that would change the way sexual assault cases are adjudicated in the military, she introduces that bill in the senate tomorrow. thank you for being with us tonight. >> i'm very happy to be with you on this very difficult topic. >> this bill you're cosponsoring with senator kirsten gillibrand of new york, i understand you're proposing that sexual assault cases be, essentially, taken out of the chain of comma

me ask you about the whole question of the rise in military sexual assaults, also a case that clair mccaskill in where she's putting a hold on a promotion for a woman general. this is the second instance we know of unilaterally overruled a jury verdict of rape, letting an accused rapist convicted in a military court, off. which is becoming an increasing issue. this is a message, a video blog that general dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs sent from afghanistan to the troops. >> that trust is the foundation of our profession, and yet sexual assault erodes that trust. sexual assault is a crime, but it also has such an adverse effect on the trust that binds the profession together that we must deal with it. >> congresswoman, legislation is being introduced that would prevent generals from overruling jury verdicts of rape or sexual assault. do you support that. i think it's a house bill, a bipartisan bill? and what more needs to be done to get a handle on this? >> as the president said the other day, this has -- this problem is deep-seated, severe and goes beyond creating more awareness an

claire mccaskill had the u.s. senate pass a resolution saying that john mccain's eligible.here need to be actually claireity? does congress need to step in need to be in the constitution? what's necessary here? what you will end up and we are getting to already a consensus relating to things like the resolution of john mccain, editorialists, the major media outlets, you will have discussions like this one in which it's going to be hard to find somebody on the opposite side. you will have that consensus that develops in an organic way and doesn't require the courts to get involved, the only reason that there's an -- that there's an argument here even is that the courts have not definitively resolved this with question and something they are unlikely to do. there will always be just a little bit of a door opening for political opponents to make these kinds of arguments in cases like this it's a little bit of a door opening. i think ted cruz's candidacy will be decided on other grounds. i think there will be some general acceptance he is eligible to serve for the presidency. >

a number of the men and women on the armed services committee, claire mccaskill, dick blumenthal, everyonefocused very intently on this issue now. and as the chairman of the committee, i held the first hearing in ten years on this issue. that's too long. this is nothing new. this has been going on for a very long time. but i think the advocacy brought to bear through the "invisible war" really matters because they put a face on the victims and told their stories. we're hoping other victims will feel more comfortable to tell their stories, whether they report it or not and why they didn't report if they didn't. another disturbing thing. when we had the hearings a couple days ago and the secretary of the air force testified along with the chief of staff, i was very disturbed that the chief of staff said that part of the reason why you have such a high incident rate is a holdover from the hook-up culture of high school. this has nothing to do with a date that has gone badly. what we are worried about are predators. predators within the military who are often resid visits who will not only tar

. >> arecoke land says am claire mccaskill may cover a couple of more states in the midwest.errick tracer says wrong, wrong, wrong, bill. sarah palin or condi rice are the only women well qualities. they have faith, honesty and patriotism. >> we saw what she did. she took us into the war in iraq. sarah palin is so unqualified, she, herself realized how unqualified she was and she quit after a year and a half as alaskan governor because she couldn't take it and do the job. so, no, no no. you will joann from florida tuning in. what's up? >> caller: well i am a it south boston massachusetts, native. >> bill: okay. >> caller: a life long democrat. >> bill: ready for elizabeth warrem? >> caller: i certainly am but i would be very much hard-pressed -- excuse the joke to decide between elizabeth warren and hillary, because hillary -- i'm sorry. i mean henry kissinger, a staunch reagan republican has pointed out on cnn that six former secretaries of state have become presidents of the u.s. so was this henry giving an unofficial endorsement? >> bill: that's interesting. thomas jeffers

. >> until you were in office and claire mccaskill and your women colleagues, this issue has not beensed in an open forum. so thank you very much. >> and that's why we need more women in congress, it's one of the reasons why i focus in my off the sidelines campaign. if women's voices are heard, you're going to have different solutions being offered. >> thank you very much, to be continued. thanks, senator. >>> in moscow today, secretary of state kerry met with vladimir putin to talk about possible political steps for the opposition to bashar al assad. russia has been the main supporter of assad. kerry did thank putin for russia's assistance on the boston bombing investigation. live pictures from the white house east room. we're seeing the east room where as you sigh from the flags, south korean president, park gwuen hye will be speaking. north korea has taken its missiles off their launching pads, that could be signaling a step back from the recent escalation. nbc's chief white house correspondent and political director chuck todd is live at the white house for us and on the phone, nb

you are seeing senator claire mccaskill, kelly ayotte come together, getting tough on this issue.'s an agreement that something needs to be done. most lawmakers think that it should really address victims and how they are treated and how they are getting support in the instance of a case of sexual assault but center kristin gillibrand of new york really has the boldest plan under her bill. prosecutors, instead of military commanders would handle, investigate, and prosecute issues of sexual assault, this is a more controversial idea, though, because it would essentially break the chain of command and allow victims to go outside of the military to report cases of sexual assault. alex? >> very interesting concept. thanks. >>> it doesn't added a up. two of the three latest polls has president obama's approval rating at or about 50%, despite controversies that some have said are the toughest of his presidency. joining me is ed rendell and chip saltzman. governor, do these approval numbers make sense to you? >> sure. it's basically democrats rallying around the president and again it's

effort to bring this problem to the attention of the congress and the mfrn people so has senator claire mccaskill of missouri and carl levin has been there on this. but despite all of the attention, the hearings they have held and despited all of the promises of the military we found outed yesterday, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. the latest numbers. the pentagon sends out a surfvay to 108,000 people. what they got back from this survey showed 26,000 cases last year of sexual assault -- we are talking sexual assault am this is more sirius that section annual harassment. sexual assault, to me at least, means physical assault, touching. not just word play. 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year. >> that's up from 19,000s in the year 2010. again, despite all of the pressure, despite all of the news, despite all of the hearings, despite all of the efforts the military say that they are making and leaders of the military and told us we are making progress. this is sirius. we are on top of that. bs. the numbers disprove that and made all the worse a couple of days when c

this debate starting with senator claire mccaskill is just over an hour. >> mr. president, i raced to make unanimous consent motion. i want to make a few remarks first-period at the risk of being patronizing to my colleagues about the constitution, i would like to give a basic lesson in the constitution this morning. my understanding is founding fathers devised a system for the house of representatives house of representatives and the senate. they have to agree before something becomes law. this is an amazing decision that our founding fathers make. it requires that the senate for all the circus and presented whole state has to reach an agreement with our colleagues in the house who have much smaller constituents these therefore targeted more towards one specific area than some of us are. i listened to lecture after lecture from my colleagues across the aisle. it's almost as if some of you think you're the only one that's rad are the only one that understands that. well, you're not. here's how the constitution works. when we pass a bill, we go to conference and w

senator claire mccaskill. sir, you referred to the asi, the irish company -- as will be just a couple minutes in the second round. a three-minute second round. is having dashwood evening by having an ocean? >> again, we have not seen tax returns. i have tried to be very careful in my testimony. but it would appear as though the asi, which has substantial sales with very low tax rates in ireland, they may well be allocating what is attributable not to the irish business. since it's not resident anywhere else. if that were the case. i mentioned in my testimony that that is something that the taxpayers prefer to as income. i have seen it occur in at least one other case. but it does not come from no tax residents. including the other countries in the least at that point, there were two that they could have resolved the issue. the structure is different. it is the most polite way that i will put it. >> thank you. this is an additional question for the panel. we are we're going to move now to the second panel. [ina

now, this is -- this has led one of my colleagues, claire mccaskill, democrat of missouri, to say that the program is ripe for fraud with a -- quote -- "history of extreme waste and abuse." closed quote. and that's what my objections are all about, rampant waste and abuse and a general entitlement mentality that i think has gone too far. so my amendment at the desk, my amendment on this bill would simply and completely end the program with regard to free government cell phones. now, mr. president, you have an argument that, oh, these problems are being fixed, we're making great strides. i -- i was interested in -- in seeing how far we have come and so this very weekend, i was talking to a friend of mine back in louisiana, clarence. he was interested in that, too. so monday, yesterday, he decided to go to one of these outlets that advertises free government cell phones and just see what his experience was. he walked in and he said the truth -- he was interested in getting a free government cell phone. he was asked, do you -- are you on any government benefit program like food stamps now

i also want to commend senator claire mccaskill. the bill would provide a special victims' counsel to assist them through the process, strengthen the military prosecution system and assure the guard and reserve have response coordinators available at all times regardless of duty status. we have to ensure each service has a robust investigative team with real expertise when it comes to sexual assault. these are just some of the many reforms the pentagon must work on with congress to make a difference. i'm committed to working with secretary hagel and the entire pentagon leadership tony sure every service member can serve free from incidents of violence and the trauma like that reported this week. i urge all my colleagues to support these reforms for our service members. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: is there objectio

other members of congress at the eeting, included girlly brand, and claire mccaskill and representatives susan davis, ichael turner. both chambers of congress are back in session this week. the house returns for a brief session monday. business resumes on tuesday. legislation calling for the full repeal of the 2010 health care law and a bill requiring the security and exchange commission to do a cost analysis before implementing new business. no roll call votes are expected. they will work on the water infrastructure bill, authorizing dozens of sewage projects around the country. live coverage of the house on c-span, the senate on c-span2. >> post 9/11, a whole lot more people cared about national security issues than was the case before. then all of a sudden there was a folk --or former c.e.o. c.i.a. folks and all the guys who were used to operating in the shadows saw a market for their services as common taters, book writers. so there was this somewhat uncomfortable, you know, kind of interaction between the agencies and these former employees. >> at the time i felt water boarding was