coakley now calling for congressional hearings and attorney general martha coakley is our first guest today. if you were to walk us through in brief, the intent of your suit, what do we have to understand about what it is you are trying to achieve in. >> well, we have two clear goals here. first, we do want accountability on the part of the banks. now we haven't had it yet, even though over a year ago, dylan, they admitted they were involved in robo signing. the second thing we want is real relief for homeowners. we know there are a lot of people for whom a refinance, a loan modification would make a big difference and stay in the home and frankly protect the cities and towns and the economy, so our suit alleges all of those things you just talked about, and i think it's particularly ironic for ally given that they are taxpayer run, they reached agreements when they were bailed out under t.a.r.p., and all we're saying is they really should be following the law here in massachusetts. >> there is an interesting dynamic at work that factors into both money and politics and the political

of thing that franklin says clients are terrified of but really fascinating what i heard was when coakley made this announcement she was actually in the courtroom right next to the one where occupy boston got to have their stakes tended over they got their get a court order to resist sort of a police a los angeles a new york style police raid so she was actually right next door when she made this announcement and yeah i think it is exactly what frank luntz is really terrified of because you know for those who don't know the story there were about fifty attorneys generals they were going to sort of make a deal with the bank the settlement to get a very small dollar amount from him and now actually bring any sort of criminal penalties against the players in the financial mess and slowly these attorney generals start to peel off you know california has peeled off eric schneiderman in new york's been a big hero and now coakley you know is coming out and saying you know i want to take a lawsuit directly to these people and i'm going to go after them and i think that's exactly what they're terr

. >> reporter: today, massachusetts attorney general martha coakley accused five big banks of making the foreclosure crisis worse. deceiving homeowners about loan modifications, unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices, and pervasive use of fraudulent documents, including robo-signing, to speed foreclosures. >> this suit seeks be accountability for the banks cutting corners and rushing to unnecessarily foreclose homeowners without following the rule of law. >> reporter: the lawsuit comes on the heels of complaint by county property records officials, including john o'brien of salem. he accuses the banks of turning his office into a crime scene. so why do you call it a crime scene? >> because this registry has been infected with fraudulent documents. >> reporter: his office identified 26,000 foreclosure filings signed by robo-signers. one involved carol, who has lived in this home all her life but lost her job and fell behind on her mortgage. >> hi, lisa myers. >> reporter: the day we visited she just received a notice. what did it say? >> it said that the house was going to be auct

coakley said she's tired of waiting. >> even if the banks think they are too big to fail, we believe they're not too big to have to follow the law. >> reporter: the ceo of one of the banks said he's disappointed by the lawsuit and still hopes a settlement can be reached. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. >>> now we turn to the presidential campaign trail and the wild unsettled race going on within the gop. the newt gingrich that a lot of folks will remember from his speakership days back in the '90s was back on displaymaking statements about controversial issues that left some of his critics slack jawed. our report from nbc's chuck todd. >> reporter: former quintessential newt diving into issues that haven't been front and center like child labor laws and the poorest work habits. >> really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. >> reporter: those remarks came as he tried to clarify his claim at harvard two weeks ago that child labor laws are truly stupid. >> you have kids who are required under law to go to school.

joining us here tonight and it's great to be here thank you massachusetts attorney general martha coakley sad day. just blew this thing out she sued the bank of america wells fargo j.p. morgan chase citi group in g.m.a. see for allegedly seizing properties filing fraudulent foreclosure to documents and failing to help struggling borrowers who could've stayed in their homes if they had made lower you know if there had been. the. a fix you know their mortgage. allowed me to lower mortgage payments isn't this exactly the kind of thing frank wants his clients are terrified of it's really fascinating what i heard was when coakley made this announcement she was actually in the courtroom right next to the one where occupy boston got to have their stakes they ended up really got to get a court order to resist sort of police los angeles and new york's police raid so she was actually right next door when she made this announcement and yeah i think it is exactly what frank luntz is really terrified of because you know heard those who don't know the story there were about fifty attorneys generals the

the state's attorney general martha coakley today sued five major banks, alleging deceptive foreclosure practices. >> susie: tom, the suit comes as talks drag on between major banks and attorneys general from around the country. it targets bank of america, j.p. morgan chase, wells fargo, citigroup, gmac mortgage, and foreclosure processing firm mers corp. >> tom: in response, the banks said they believe a broader, coordinated settlement is better for consumers. wells thinks today's suit would do little to help massachusetts homeowners, while j.p. morgan chase believes a broader settlement could "bring immediate relief to massachusetts borrowers." >> susie: this suit surprised real estate experts, including our guest, susan wachter, professor of real estate at the wharton school at the university of pennsylvania. >> susie: thanks for joining us tonight. >> my pleasure. >> susie: put it in perspective. why is this lawsuit so important? >> this was going to be a blanket agreement that would help put behind us the robo signing controversy, the delays that are blowing up, and what is going t

lawsuit filed by massachusetts attorney general martha coakley.ly in reaction to this lawsuit filed. coakley sued the nation's five biggest mortgage services, bork, jpmorgan chase, wells fargo, citigroup, and allied alleging the foreclosure practices were unlawful and deceptive. now coakley says she proceeded with a lawsuit after the settlement talks with other state attorney generals failed to yield progress. a spokesman for gmac's parent company said the firm would honor all commitments made through today, but that "litigations costs" have made mortgage lending in massachusetts no longer viable. >> barney, what do you think about martha's lawsuit? >> i think she did the right thing. i think that the banks have refused to recognize their culpability. we made a mistake, there's an important political science point. when we did the t.a.r.p. and advanced the money to the banks, all of which has been paid back, we made this mistake. we should've asked them for more of a equipment with regard to averting foreclosure. and we have this political problem

time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think massachusetts attorney general coakley just announced lawsuits against five of the nation's biggest banks here's today's question will the bankers get their day in court your choices are yes these banks fraudulently foreclosed on american homes and didn't provide assistance for loan modification or no we won't hold bankers accountable log on to dot com to let us know what you think the pole will be open until tomorrow morning. coming up at the big picture the clock is ticking down on capitol hill of the g.o.p. seems completely unconcerned their latest game of chicken may well cost you over a thousand dollars. drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it through to be made who can you trust no one who is you in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. republicans are still hell bent on screwing over middle class americans by letting the payroll tax cut expire at the en

. >> if warren who i really like because i think she's not the martha coakley, they don't have the elitewith her. she's a regular democrat, if she can keep running in that middle and not forego the kennedy tradition up there like coakley did, i think she can win. and that's a big upset to knock off scott brown. >> there's talk about trying to get john kerry to run again. that's unlikely. looks like that seat will go republican. do you think the senate will go that way? >> we've been all very focused on the presidential race, but look, there's been upthought, maybe the house will swing back. if i was a betting woman, which i'm not, i don't know, senate going republican seems, you know, with nelson and as chris outlined a very likely possibility. and the repercussions and the implications of obama if he is reelected going forward -- >> it's interesting, ben nelson if his real motivation was he thought it was going to be almost an impossible race to win, i think he's wrong because how many republicans have filed or said they're filing? seven or eight. ben nelson could've gotten harry reid l

massachusetts attorney general mar martha coakley is filing a lawsuit.ing, those participating in the upcoming occupy our homes movement will be striking back against. the united states congress wants to mandate that any noncitizen accused of terrorism be detained without a trial, we just passed the national defense authorization act included a raft of provisions, including one to this thors u.s. military to operate within the country's borders in possible violation of the act. we know the politics of this are insane. the american civil liberty union is on the same side in opposing the bill in handling the military and detainees. 93 senators from both parties are on the other side. the white house renews the veto threat. i don't know if we'll use it. now know the sublime ecstatic joy of holding your own child in her arms. i know i want the world she inherits to be better than the world we have. and i don't know any real way that that wish will be fulfilled, but somehow i have faith that it will. so what do my guests now know we didn't know when the week

martha coakley filed suit against the banks alleging they engaged in unfair and deceptive foreclosure deceiving borrowers regarding foreclosure procedures. an ongoing financial disaster grinding families into misery. it is under these conditions that direct action and civil disobedience are most called for. that's why i am so struck by the power of the images from "occupy our homes" as potent as zuccotti was deep in the heart of financial complex, its power was solely symbolic. it wasn't actually bringing wall street to a halt. "occupy our homes" is a whole new paragon. it has made a concrete improvement in actual people's lives. from the sit-down strike in flint some of the greatest progressions in history come from occupying a place where they tell you you have no right to be in and simply stating we shall not be moved. we have victoria day frances cosoto and returns to the program. victoria, good to see you again. >> i want to get started with you for the following reasons. after you were governor of louisiana, a congressman, then, you started a community bank. you are now a banker

attorney general martha coakley is here with us.ncredible job in getting things ready for today and i want to mention paul ramey, chris cole, jay mccarthy and the person who pulled all of the things together both last night and today, lisa mcburney. thanks to all of you for the incredible work you have done. [applause] a dear friend of the senators, they think of everybody in this room, man who makes things happen at the statehouse, the speaker of the house. [applause] >> thank you very much peter and another big day today is opening day by the way. let's not forget that. the red sox are going to start a winning streak today is a matter of fact. [applause] off course by last prediction was that peter and i were going to retire so so much for my prediction by thank you peter for that kind introduction and it's a pleasure for me to join with my partner in the legislature, senate resident murray and offering the resolution and to be with all of you today to bring the greetings and best wishes of the massachusetts house of representativ