workers and are laboring hard fighting for economic justice i'm joined now by congresswoman eleanor holmes norton u.s. delegate for washington d.c. and one of the organizers of the good jobs nation campaign congresswoman holmes norton welcome to our program glad to be with you this evening it's great to have you so congressman what is the good job. nation campaign here we have low income low wage workers who work in federal buildings here and around the country are standing up for themselves and in the process standing up for the entire middle class the economy as i speak and for low income workers all around the country except they're going to be more hope high profile because they were in buildings owned by the federal government for wages that are minimum wage with no benefits we're going to so shine a floodlight on these workers. who work for a retail or commercial establishment to be sure but these establishment enjoyed the prestige of the federal government because they're working inside of a federal facility the smithsonian institution union station where we were today. the ronald reagan b

s and senior executives not the average workers congresswoman eleanor holmes norton what she is doing to make sure that low wage workers get the compensation they deserve in just a month also on tuesday a federal court in washington d.c. struck down yet another important protection for american workers looking to unionize what's behind this big and workers' rights and since when do corporations have a right to free speech about this and more and tonight's won't.

. >> john: i'm pleased to be joined by eleanor holmes norton who represents the district of columbia and took part in today's hearing. thank you for joining us. >> good evening. >> john: what did you expect from this hearing today? >> i have to tell you it's over the top four of five days with everything but trailers. i really had every reason to expect any revelation the likes of which we could not possibly imagine. but as i speak i'm having a hard time pinpointing anything that came through today that i did not already know. i remember that mr. hicks who was in tripoli he said he was stunned when he heard susan rice mention her firstty ration of what had occurred around the muslim world. there was reaction to language that had-used but he was in tripoli. hundreds of miles away. how did he know what happened? what we know is that general petraeus said that the talking points that were used were scrubbed a little bit to eliminate reference to al-qaeda because they didn't want those terrorists to know that they were under investigation. but there was no stand give to it. we know there

delegate eleanor holmes norton, thank you so much. >> always a pleasure.r 2013 has a message for the great gatsby. i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours. ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. >>> 1922. the tempo of the city had changed sharply. the buildings were higher. the parties were bigger. the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper. the restlessness approached hysteria. >> shall we? >> who is this gatsby? >> who, indeed? because gatsby is back. and i'm not just referring to the new movie released today, because while the film may seem like perfect escapism, you might be interested to learn that income inequality of late is now approaching that of the jazz age. a huge and hea

s and senior executives not the average workers congresswoman eleanor holmes norton about what she is doing to make sure that low wage workers get the compensation they deserve in just a moment also on tuesday a federal court in washington d.c. struck down yet another important protection for american workers looking to unionize what's behind this big it and workers' rights and since when do corporations have a right to free speech about this and more and tonight's liberal rumble.

. >> listen to eleanor holmes norton, listen to what she and he had to say. >> did you find any evidence that anyone in the white house in particular suggested that the irsuzy8m targets conservative organizations or played any role whatsoever in selecting the criteria? >> no, congresswoman, but in all honesty we didn't look at the white house. we didn't question anyone as to whether or not they received any direction from the white house. >> that is the question i asked? >> that's correct. >> eric: why not ask that question? >> of course it was an audit and not an investigation. inspector general's report is incomplete and certainly damaging to the irs but the fact never asked the white house anything. his statements about what the white house did know or not know is meaningless under law. >> eric: why do you think that question wasn't asked? was the appointment by the administration that specific inspector general? >> i think what they were looking for was exactly who was in charge. who made this decision. he wasn't looking at influence. they are trying to find out exactly who is respon

joining me now, house oversite committee member, democratic congressman eleanor holmes norton, representing district of columbia, and msnbc's joy reed. congressman norton, i can't tell you how much joy you brought to me when i heard you making this distinction about the law says exclusively and the irs misinterpreted it to primarily, and if the irs had never done that misinterpretation, i submit to you, we wouldn't be discussing this tonight, no one ever would have been getting political organizations 501(c)4s. >> lawrence, if the irs had simply taken the plain meaning, what we call it in the law, the plain meaning, none of this would have happened by changing the law. that's what happened here, changing the plain meaning of exclusively to primarily, this was a disaster waiting to happen. it began in 1959, almost 50 years ago in the eisenhower administration, a republican commissioner apparently under his -- on his watch, that got changed. i must tell you, i am so curious how that happened, i don't think it is legal, i don't know who has standing to sue, that's another question, but an admi

just for a second, want you to listen to eleanor holme norton on that subject. >> a full week's buildup for a while i thought they would have trailers before we not there, and then what is the big deal here? i dare anybody who covered the hearing to tell me what new we heard. >> well, spell it out for me. what is new? why is it a big deal? >> well, i'm afraid that miss norton must have been a sleep. and that happens frequently on the democratic side, she may not have realized, this is the first time that people who were actually on the group and work that night testified, with the exception of are in nordstrom, who testified before. and in fact the chief of mission mr. hicks, my client, mr. thompson, actually on duty that night, mr. hicks was on the ground in benghazi. he became the acting ambassador when ambassador stevens was murdered. my client was in the counterterrorism facility at the department of state. the committee had never heard from them before and they revealed all sorts of new facts about how information was not shared, about how the military standdown -- they learned abo

. >> megyn: we saw eleanor holmes norton, democrat from dc, trying to get mark thompson to admit thatism group wasn't completely cut out of the meetings, that they did have a role and that they were in discussions after that attack on 9-11. and she wanted him to admit that because i think it's his boss submitted a written letter saying i was involved -- i wasn't in benghazi or libya on the night this happened, but i was involved in discussions there after. we saw mark thompson push back on her and say, look, my part of the counterterrorism bureau, he said, the part that responds to crises was kept out. not the whole bureau. i never said it was the entire counterterrorism bureau. i said my part which responds to crises, and that was the part he said that would have been the most effective. and it's interesting because you see sort of these democrats who are trying to rehabilitate the state department and so on and yet, wind up sparring with these guys who are experts about what actually did happen in the wake of benghazi and maybe walk away, you know, a little stunned at the line of qu

i now see that our colleague from washington, d.c., eleanor holmes norton, is here. thank you for joining us. mr. clyburn, if you'd like to stick around, we'll engage in conversation. i think you have other meetings to head to. mr. clyburn: thank you very much. i appreciate the time. ms. norton: i want to thank the gentleman from south carolina, e of our leaders and my good friend from california for his leadership on -- his actual weekly leadership on this issue. both of my colleagues have discussed what are long-term declines in the middle class. much of it owing over the last decade to the policies of this congress and the federal government. the last thing you would expect congress would do in the face of recovery that is still in the throes of the beginning is anything to hurt it. i wanted to come to the floor to discuss the early warning signs we are seeing so that we can do something about it now. if you looked at the -- well, indicate -- sket let me indicate the best statistics i've seen in a long time and why we are stepping on hese statistics with each day.