how did cynthia mcfadden do in her questions to the former president? >> you're going to accept an interview when you get incredible access. in the media business, pictures tell 1,000 words. it is important for the clintons to frame the way that this is shaped. he's also on the cover some magazine i saw at the airport a couple of days ago, "giving" magazine or "fill an not tlop-- " "philanthropy." don't forget the footage of -- when they talk about children getting hearing aids for the first time, you'll see that in campaigns. they'll talk about the good things the foundation has done to deflect any criticism. >> cynthia mcfadden and her questions? >> you know, i thought she did all right in the circumstances. and they're standing in the middle of this backdrop. it's a hard interview. you're not in a controlled studio environment. the way they set it up it was also clear that she couldn't ask everything that she could possibly ask. >> i think they were undoubtedly timed -- i don't know for a fact. i was also struck michael, by the i got to pay our bills

and legitimate news media stories, all the major organizations, including our own, cynthia mcfadden's interview, raising questions, peter schweitzer acknowledges now that there's no smoking gun, but he has become sort of like an opposition research playbook for any news organization taking off from "clinton cash," the book. >> i think, andrea very few people who don't already have an opinion of hillary clinton, so a lot of what this does is reinforce things and mike huckabee, of course one of the blos blib guys out there and going to be able to make these jokes, but hillary clinton was never going to win the presidential election if it was just a referendum on hillary clinton. she is going to make the election a choice. that's what you do when you have the kinds of negatives that she has amassed over the years. i don't think any of these polls, while i agree with ann, all the polls i have seen are legitimate show her leading, i don't think that means that much. it is all going to be about the execution of the campaign. we have 18 months to go we are crazy people. wither following this

as was said in 2008, he is rusty, and he thinks he can go out with cynthia mcfadden, who he knows four-year and he feels comfortable with, and say whatever he wants. he is still the best in the game. and i cannot understand the things he said, complaining about paying the bills is the last thing. john: knowingly inappropriate. when he is on his game, he is the best in the business. he is over there. he is far away. he starts to free-form, and when he starts to free-form, he gets in trouble. mark: he has got the tanzania blues. mark: and two former top allies of chris christie pleaded not guilty to benghazi, and here is a question. will the governor himself eventually get a subpoena? this is what a lawyer said about that, followed by another himself doing his rest impression of new jersey's favorite son, billy joel. attorney: i'm going to subpoena anybody i feel necessary to establish my clients innocence. that can include anybody, and i want to know after we are found not guilty who gives her the apology. i am an innocent man. and that is why i turned over thousands and thousands of pages o

i think it's good. >> to see more of cynthia mcfadden's one-on-one interview with the president, stay with us at 6:30. >>> and then there was a name. from london the royal baby has a name and the royal title. the duke and duchess of cambridge announced they have named their daughter charlotte elizabeth diana. the baby will be known as her royal highness princess charlotte of cambridge. >> a salute to the newest royal princess royal guns were fired to celebrate the birth of the princess on saturday. bells rang out in london to celebrate the birth of the royal baby. onlookers gathered outside taking pictures and listening as the bells chimed. >> this princess is the most powerful princess we've probably ever had. >> such a beautiful baby too. princess charlotte of cambridge is fourth in line to the british throne. she falls behind big brother george. her father william and grandfather charles. >>> take a look the a this now. massive waves are pounding parts of the california coast. some waves are up to 14 feet high. life guards are warning people about dangerous rip currents. simply sta

if he thinks he can go out with cynthia mcfadden and say whatever he wants, that that interview -- i it expenses -- advances hillary clinton's chance to stop he is the best in his game and i can't understand the thing he says -- complaining about paying the bills. john: when he is on his game, he's the best in the business. but in settings like this, he is in africa, he's far away, he just serves to freedom are meant he free forms, he gets in trouble. mark: he's got the tanzania blues. john: bill baroni and project kelly two allies of chris christie pleaded not guilty to know goodery. will the governor himself eventually get a subpoena? this is what kelly's lawyer said following bill baroni himself doing an impression of billy joel. >> i'm to subpoena anybody i feel necessary to establish my client's innocence. >> i want to know, after we are found not guilty who gives the apology? i am an innocent man, and that's why i turned over thousands and thousands of pages of my own documents to both the prosecutors and the legislature. that is why i will testify on my own behalf as soon as t

cynthia mcfadden. >>> even with controversies swirling over the funding. hillary clinton still leads the top republican candidates for 2016. in a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll. fewer people believe she's honest and straightforward. that number dropping from 38% last year to 25% now. this comes as clinton's lawyers say she's agreed to one day, not two of testimony before congress later this month about benghazi and her private e-mail server. >>> the republican side of the race got more crowded today with two more candidates jumping in. carly fiorina, the former ceo of hewlett packard. who ran a race for senate in 2010 became the first official female gop candidate for 2016 today. retired neurosurgeon ben carson announced he is joining the republican field. >>> jurors in the penalty phase of the boston marathon bombing trial saw something they haven't seen since the trial began. a show of emotion from dzhokhar tsarnaev. as his relatives from russia took the stand. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams was in the courtroom. >> reporter: after

recently raising eyebrows in an interview with nbc's cynthia mcfadden. >> she's now running for president. will you continue to give speeches? >> oh, yeah. i got to pay our bills. >> reporter: campaign officials note that clintons paid federal tax at a 30% rate last year and argue hillary clinton's policy positions favor working class americans. a message she'll try to focus on instead of her finances when she campaigns in iowa next week. kristen welker, nbc news, washington. >> and this will no doubt be a big topic tomorrow morning on "meet the press "when chuck todd speaks to republican presidential candidate senator rand paul. >>> when "nightly news" continues on this saturday, mitt romney is no stranger to bruising battles. but his latest opponent is a real heavy hitter. >>> up next, how luck lucky the elephant is living up to her name. >>> we're back with an elephant named lucky overcoming obstacles. her story from cambodia. >> reporter: slowly but surely lucky the elephant is striding back to fitness, though nick marks had feared for the worst. >> the really bad times i was thinking

bill clinton strongly defended his wife in his exclusive interview with cynthia mcfadden. >> not a single, solitary fact has been introduced that she has done anything wrong. people should live to be as honest as she is. >> reporter: but when that other former arkansas governor, republican mike huckabee, announced he was running for president today, he did it with a dig at clinton. >> i don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer-funded paycheck to live off of. >> reporter: the pounding is taking its toll. her numbers in our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll have gone down on trust and honesty. 25%. only 25% think she is trustworthy. >> that's part of why we have got to answer back and show people what really are the facts. >> reporter: but clinton's polls are holding up against potential republicans. she remains ahead of all of them. the democratic party announced today it will hold six primary debates. hillary clinton tweeted she looks forward to a real conversation, but so far, not about money. lester? >> andrea mitchell tonight, thank you. >>> overseas tonight, a major humanita

cynthia mcfadden is traveling with the former president and getting answers. >> reporter: former president bill clinton said he had no regrets about taking millions from foreign governments for his foundation. >> i don't think there's anything sinister in trying to get wealthy people and countries that are seriously involved in development to spend their money wisely in a way that helps poor people and lifts them up. i don't think there's anything bad with that. >> reporter: even while the criticism rumbles, the heart warming stories in africa are undeniable. their goal a million people will be fitted for hearing aids by 2020. this boy will hear for the first time. >> good? >> reporter: the former president chalked up most of the criticism to heart knuckle politics. >> there's has been a very deliberate attempt to take the foundation down. >> the foundation has said it will only accept money from six foreign governments. do you think it was a mistake to accept the other donations? >> no. it's an acknowledge that we're going to come as close as we can during her presidential campaign to fol

this week bill made it sound like they are just scraping by when nbc's cynthia mcfadden asked him would giving those $500,000 speeches while his wife runs for office. >> reporter: will you continue to give those speeches? >> oh yeah. i've got to pay our bills. >> the former president has made more than $100 million in speaking fees. they need to be careful not to be disconnected from average americans and should apply the same standard to those in politics. >> howard, thank you. >>> should the entire baltimore police department being under investigation following the actions of few? we'll tal >>> today, the department of justice is opening an investigation into whether the baltimore police department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the constitution or federal law. >> baltimore is a minority/majority city as far as its government is concerned. it has a well-integrated police department and i think it was a mistake to use every time there's a confrontation between the police and an african-american. >> the attorney general talking about the investigation into the bal

. >> you can see more of cynthia mcfadden's interview with president clinton on "nbc nightly news." chuck? >> thanks aaron. >>> i got this great picture on my twitter feed yesterday from susan o'brien. this is at garrett county. wisp mountain. that's not a sand trap. that's still snow not quite 100% melted out there. most everywhere else around the great state of maryland though is snow-free, just the way we like it. temperatures in the mid-30880s. full sunshine around here. the weather system will stay to our north tomorrow but it will drag a chance for showers and thundershowers down here tomorrow afternoon. thunder not out of the question. seven-day forecast next time i see you. >> testimony in the colorado theater massacre trial. jurors have heard from several people in the aurora theater as well as police who responded to the massacre. testimony ended on a grim note last week when graphic crime scene photos of the ten victims were entered into evidence james holmes has admitted he's carried out the attack but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. the trial could last up to

this week bill made it sound like they are just scraping by when nbc's cynthia mcfadden asked him woulde $500,000 speeches while his wife runs for office. >> reporter: will you continue to give those speeches? >> oh yeah. i've got to pay our bills. >> the former president has made more than $100 million in speaking fees. they need to be careful not to be disconnected from average americans and should apply the same standard to those in politics. >> howard, thank you. >>> should the entire baltimore police department being under investigation following the actions of few? we'll talk about it with the panel, next. now? can i at least put my shoes on? if your bladder is calling the shots ... you may have a medical condition called overactive bladder ... ...or oab you've got to be kidding me. i've had enough! it's time to talk to the doctor. ask your doctor how myrbetriq may help treat... ...oab symptoms of urgency frequency, and leakage. which may mean fewer trips to the bathroom. myrbetriq (mirabegron) may increase your blood pressure. myrbetriq may increase your chances... ...of not bein

recently raise ageyebrows in an interview with cynthia mcfadden. >> she's now running for president.give speeches? >> oh, yeah. i got to pay our bills. >> from an appearance perspective alone, ann, how might the campaign handle this? do you think advisors makes it more difficult for hillary clinton to be a champion of the working class? >> but they've known all an along that there duality not only exists but would continue to exist probably they would not have preferred that bill clinton look quite as cavalier about it. but yeah, i mean, he's been giving speeches for hun$300,000 and up for many years and since hillary clinton left the state department, she's joined in. the speeches she gave that we knew about last year we never knew exactly how much she was getting paid for. so part of the news in the disclosure is that she's kind of up there in the same ranks as her husband in terms of what she's getting paid. starting at about $100,000 per speech and moving up to $350,000 for one speech which is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. >> i mean but at the same time, she's trying

ruth you have an op-ed, your comment on the bill clinton factor, bill clinton's defense to cynthia mcfadden in that exclusive interview. >> that's a word -- >> and the interview of chelsea clinton in morocco. what you wrote in part is that some important perspective here none of this is remotely criminal, the cash issues from the book "clinton cash," but not remotely criminal is vastly different from being smart politically. hillary clinton needs a better defense and candidly a better defender. bill clinton is a terrific explainer and chief, just not when it comes to explaining his own behavior. truth? >> that's all i have to say about that. i thought it was -- an exclusive interview. good for nbc. it was also i thought from bill clinton and hillary clinton's point of view an ill-advised interview. one again we see this absolute really toxic combination of tone deafness from the clintons and not being in touch with the concerns of ordinary americans. when president clinton says he's asked are you going to keep on giving speeches for 500,000 a pop. he says, well of course yeah. we have -- i

things complicated for her, as we saw in 2008 as well as just a week ago in his interview with cynthia mcfaddenso it cuts both ways tamron but for him to be the champion for her, testifier in chief, talking about the clinton economy in the 1990s, that's probably better terrain in a general election. >> mark thank you very much. have a good morning, we'll see you tomorrow. >> thanks tamron. >>> a high school principal in georgia is apologizing for remarks she made at the school's graduation ceremony on friday that many in the audience found to be racially insensitive. it was all caught on cell phone video, so they end of the graduation ceremony the principal and founder of the tnt academy, nancy gordeuk, accidently skipped the valedictorian's speech. when the crowd started leaving the church where the ceremony was held she tried to regain their attention. >> you are being so rude to not listen to this speech. it was my fault that we missed it in the program. look who's leaving, all black people. >> okay at that point many people started to walk out. nbc's sarah dallof joins us live now from ston

our next guest calls these spots blue zones and cynthia mcfadden visited along with him. >> reporter:ue zones, the diet here is plant based. when these folks grew up, meat was a twice a month treat. then there's the wine. >> it's any old wine. >> a grape wine three times the level of antioxidants than any known wine in the world. they grind up the skins and seeds and the wine ferments for 15 or 20 days. >> reporter: delicious and good for you. >> how you can live a longer life without having to more to sardinia, new york times best selling author ever the blue zones exclusion. >> great to see you. >> we love looking through this book all day. this really sounds like the opposite of jumping from one diet to the next. this is really how you approach life differently. give us the secrets to starting to live a happier, healthier life? >> well this project really set out to reverse engineer long he havety instead of coming up with a diet in a laboratory or off the cuff. what we did is found 155 dietary surveys done over the past 100 years in places where people live the longest then dissti

what was striking in that interview is he was definitely getting frustrated with cynthia mcfadden.even more it's the kind of thing that can blow up. >> they're going to step into the crucible of heat versus light when hillary testifies before the congressional hearing about what this was and wasn't. they'll get plenty of chances to poke at her. >> patrick, maggie thank you. >>> one programming note cnn's chief international correspondent christiane amanpour will sit down with former president bill clinton and we'll have that interview on "new day" tomorrow. >>> we're following breaking news this morning. and there's a lot of it. so let's get to it. >>> isis claiming responsibility for sunday's attempted ambush in garland, texas. >> both of them had assault rifles. >> one of the two gunmen had been on the fbi's radar for years. >> i am antijihad, i am antisharia. i am concerned that the media whitewashes and scrubs this. >> concern grows as the baltimore city prosecutor moved too quickly. >> she acted too provocatively, when she said i hear you -- >> my job is to seek justice. >> wh

nbc's cynthia mcfadden went one on one with the former president. hia, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning from nairobi, matt. as hillary clinton's campaign for the white house intensifies, so does the criticism of the foundation that bears her name and that of her husband and her daughter. she stepped down from a role at the foundation when she announced she was running, but some have questioned whether her independence was compromised by the foundation's large foreign donors. i've come to africa to see the work of the foundation and to talk to bill clinton about the criticism. former president bill clinton is making no apologies as he tours some of the african programs his foundation has raised billions to help fund. >> i don't think there's anything sinister in trying to get wealthy people in countries that are seriously involved in development to spend their money wisely in a way that helps poor people and lifts them up. i don't think there's anything bad with that. i think it's good. >> reporter: but his wife's run for president has t

bill clinton's exclusive interview with cynthia mcfadden and decision to continue giving the high-paids with the clinton foundation. take a look. >> she is now running for president. will you continue to give speeches? >> oh yeah. i got to pay our bills. >> if your wife is elected president, will you step down from the foundation? >> well, i will decide if it's the right thing to do i will. >> all right, if it's the right thing to do and of course they have bills that they need to pay. but do you think that it's okay that president clinton would continue to do with this hillary clinton as a candidate? >> first of all, it's absolutely okay to continue the foundation work. they have helped 485 million people around the globe in the last -- since the existence of the foundation. not a single republican candidate that can say anything like that. for us to be criticizing the existence of the foundation, whether president clinton is involved or not is nuts. so it's definitely not the right thing to do what he does have to be careful about, should hillary win, is where that money comes from,

our own colleague cynthia mcfadden and christiane amanpour. so in the same time since hillary clinton announced her candidacy, the clinton that has taken more questions is bill, not hillhillary. 39-9. i think that's something they need to figure out how to correct. >> and i guess 39 questions would be a regular morning for jeb bush but he's found that answering some of those questions hasn't been very good for him recently. >> no, look i think there are two things that i take away from this week watching jeb bush's candidacy and watching him mishandle the iraq question. number one, i can't believe how flat footed he seemed to be on this iraq issue. you want to say you misheard the question first time, fine. but the fact that it took him three tries to clean this up is a head-scratcher. it makes me wonder does he have the infrastructure around him, does he have people saying to him -- prepping him or is he just handling this on his own and are his aides having too much of a hands-off approach. the second development that i think on this story i

in an exclusion sif interview with cynthia mcfadden the former president insisted those donations werey fact has been introduced that she's done anything wrong. people should live to be as honest as she is. >> reporter: republican candidates are pouncing, questioning the clintons trustworthyiness trustworthiness. >> bill clinton is saying what hillary clinton has said on many occasions, just trust us. just trust us. and unfortunately, trust is earned through transparency. and i think they have not been particularly transparent on a whole host of things. >> reporter: with the new book "clinton cash" officially released today analysts say the controversy is not going away. >> it looks really really bad and it's more than i think what bill clinton says it's not just a perception problem, it's a reality problem. >> reporter: and still on another front, clinton's lawyers now say that they have told the house committee investigating benghazi that she will appear once to testify on both benghazi and all those missing e-mails and the private e-mail server but not -- she'll stay as long as they

and i will tell you, chuck todd when he got out there and cynthia mcfadden going all over the place,the best that's ever been as far as politicking and everything. he's lost a few steps. and he walked into a couple of traps that he shouldn't have walked this to walked into. >> you get the sense nobody prepped him about oh, you don't need to prep a former president. he doesn't need prepping. he knows how to answer all these questions. he's the greatest living politician going he can handle this. that struck me as shall be not prepared. what are you going to say when you're asked about paid speeches? i bet that you back and forth never happened. >> you can companykcan go back to 2008 and how we talked about how undisciplined he was, apologizing that he couldn't make his wife taller or better looking. and then the nightmare that was south carolina with an up disciplined line here or undisciplined line there. hillary was cleaning up after him the entire campaign.undisciplined line there. hillary was cleaning up after him the entire campaign. >> he's still better than most but he has beco

he sat down with cynthia mcfadden and here is what he told her. >> you know there is a perception thathe clintons play by their own rules. e-mail account -- the mistakes on the tax forms for the foundation. bill clinton: tell your viewers the facts. tell them what the mistakes were. >> where foreign government contributions were supposed to be, they were put in a different location. bill clinton: the guy who filled out the forms made an error, he put it on the wrong line. it was a mistake. it was all in their. i cannot expire in why they did not do it. >> it is his own. 11 speeches for $500,000 or more , while his wife was secretary of state. >> if your wife is present will you continue to give speeches? >> yes. i have to make a living. i also donated to the foundation. host: cindy mcfadden from monday. this is ruth marcus's column shiny new baguettes, she says this about the last part, that you heard from the former president. " oh, my, god," as if the former president had not reagan more than $100 million on the speaking service. -- not rate in. host: that is ruth marcus'piece. an in

nbc's cynthia mcfadden went one-on-one with the former president. cynthia, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning from nairobi, matt. as hillary clinton's campaign intensifies, so does the criticism of the foundation that bears her name that of her husband and daughter. she stepped down from her role at the foundation when she announced she was running, but some have questioned whether her independence were compromised from donors. need to talk to bimll clinton. former president bill clinton is making no apologies as he tours some of the african programs his foundation has helped fund. >> i don't think there's anything sinister in trying to get wealthy people and countries that are seriously involved in development to spend their money wisely in a way that helps poor people and lifts them up. i don't think there's anything bad with that. i think it's good. >> reporter: but his wife's run for president has triggered new scrutiny and criticism. >> there is a deliberate attempt to take the foundation down. and there is almost no new fact on it.

in an interview with cynthia mcfadden, the former president insisted those donations were not influenced and he defended his wife. >> not a single solitary fact has been produced she's done anything wrong. people should live to be as honest as she is. >> reporter: republican candidates are pouncing questioning the clintons' trust worthiness. >> bill clinton is saying what hillary clinton has said on many occasions. just trust us. just trust us. and unfortunately, trust is earned through transparency. and i think they have not been particularly transparent on a whole host of things. >> reporter: with the new book "clinton cash" officially released today, analysts say the controversy is not going away. >> it looks really, really bad and it's more than, i think, what bill clinton says. it's not just a perception problem. it's a reality problem. >> reporter: and on another front, clinton's lawyers have told the house investigating benghazi she will appear once to testify about both benghazi and her e-mails. but she will not appear to testify at two separate hearings as the republicans have b