in the bush administration in two thousand and four comey took over for his boss attorney general john ashcroft when he became sick despite pressure from the bush administration comey refused to reauthorize the n.s.a.'s warrantless wiretapping program at a senate hearing in two thousand and seven komi described how senior administration officials came to ashcroft's hospital bed to try to get his approval for the spying program as he laid back down he said but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general there is the attorney general and he pointed to me and i was just to his left the two men did not acknowledge me they turned and walked from the room he goes on to describe standing up to high ranking members of the bush administration for this call me has received praise from both republicans and democrats but civil rights advocates point to other dark spots on companies record b. a.c.l.u. says quote as the second highest ranked justice department official under john ashcroft call me approved some of the worst abuses committed by the bush administration just when we need a real brea

robert mueller komi was a former senior justice department official serving under attorney general john ashcroft for many bod comey as a good public servant under bush he doesn't come to the table without controversy privacy be advocates question his ability to protect civil liberties considering recent allegations about the obama administration's policies regarding wiretapping and surveillance. well serving as deputy attorney general comey approved the n.s.a. warrantless wiretapping policy so what can we expect from an f.b.i. with comey at its helm artie's liz wall looks into it. it looks like president obama will nominate james comey to lead the f.b.i. has a resume that has garnered both praise and controversy between two thousand and three and two thousand and five komi you served as deputy attorney general in the bush administration in two thousand and four comey took over for his boss attorney general john ashcroft when he became sick despite pressure from the bush administration comey refused to reauthorize the n.s.a.'s warrantless wiretapping program at a senate hearing in two thousand an

it was march 2004, the attorney general was john ashcroft, and as attorney general, john ashcroft is being asked to sign off on some bush administration surveillance program. he was supposed to sign off, as to whether or not he thought that program was legal. and he thought that program was not legal. and so he was not going to sign off on it. and that led to the late-night car chase, hospital-room swearing standoff that was up with of the most dramatic things ever described in a congressional hearing, on tape, ever. and this is the guy now. watch. >> this was a very memorable period in my life, probably the most difficult time in my entire professional life. and that night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life. so it's not something i forget. >> okay. were you present when alberto gonzales visited attorney general ashcroft's bedside? >> yes. >> and am i correct that the conduct of mr. gonzalez and mr. card on that evening troubled you greatly? >> yes. >> okay. let me go back and take it from the top. you rushed to the hospital that evening, why? >> i'm only h

general eric holder, former attorney general john ashcroft, university of chicago law professor geoffrey stone and jack fuller editor of restoring justice and former special assistant to edwin levy. this is about an hour 20. .. and i know that day he imparted some kirchner and his consideration, but i can only remember one thing that he said. i remember as if it was yesterday. he said for years from now, 40% have you won't be air. last night and i looked last i looked right insulting my chair because i knew he was looking right at me when he said that. the irony of it was that four years earlier he wasn't here because president ford had called him to washington to the justice department brat after that catastrophe, the devastation of watergate. one of the things attorney general stopped to do to restore public trust in the justice department system of justice was to set up a public integrity unit in the justice department. one of the young recruits for the public integrity unit was the man i have the honor of introducing today. eric holder served there for 12 years and prosecuted some hi

staff andy card and white house counsel alberto gonzalez tried to bully an ailing attorney general john ashcroft into extending the warrantless wiretap program put in place after 9/11. the rmitted eavesdropping on u.s. citizens suspected of having contact with terrorists. ashcroft, then hospitalized in intensive care, had already decided the program was illegal and gave comey the power to block white house efforts to extend it. in 2007 senate testimony, comey said he and ashcroft were prepared to resign over the power struggle that took place in ashcroft's hospital room. >> why did you decide to resign? >> i just believed -- >> or to offer your resignation is a better way to put it. >> i believed that i couldn't stay if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the department of justice had said had no legal basis. i simply couldn't stay. >> reporter: comey did stay after president bush relented and the justice department placed limits on the wiretap program. comey also prosecuted martha stewart and oversaw the prosecution and conviction of top white house official scooter libby in

>> former attorney general john ashcroft shares my birthday. >> somehow they left him off the list toowhat happens to conservatives. left off the ap list. >> i think the fact that she shares a birthday with ghost face killa would explain her earlier raping. rapping. >> she did pronounce it correctly. >> let's talk more about dead white males like john ashcroft and ghost face. >> one of those is not dead. >> i think two of them are not dead. >> really? ghost face and i haven't talked in awhile. >> students forced to listen to anti-frackig rap. people were said to set their tap water on fire. what happens is there were methane pockets in the ground and if you happened to live near one of those and if your well wasn't dug too well, no pun intended you could in fact light your tap water on fire. >> okay, andy. that makes sense. it is perfectly, environmentally normal to light your tap water on fire. >> no, but it is not caused by fracking. >> it has to be caused by fracking. in an area where they frack it happens. >> do the math. >> i did do the math. two plus two is 4. every time they sho

. >> reporter: comey was attorney general john ashcroft's deputy, and with ashcroft very sick, comey was the acting attorney general when then white house counsel alberto gonzales and chief of staff andrew card visited ashcroft's hospital room, a last-ditch effort to get his endorsement of a warrantless eavesdropping program he thought was illegal. comey caught wind of it and ordered his driver to speed through the streets of washington, sirens blaring, and beat them there. >> attorney general ashcroft then stunned me. he lifted his head off the pillow, and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent and said to them, "but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general." >> reporter: cnn contributor fran townsend was one of president bush's top national security advisers at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong sense, internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate, and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> reporter: as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the khobar towers

it includes attorney general eric holder and john ashcroft and geoffrey stone and jack fuller this is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> good evening. i want to welcome you to the university of chicago i'm so pleased to be cosponsoring this program was in law school. i came to this camp is 41 years ago and on the very first day, i went to an assembly and was up on the podium on that day he imparted some encouragement. .. and one of the things that attorney general trained to did to restore public trust in the justice department was to set up the public integrity unit in the justice department. one of the young recruits for that integrity unit is the man i have the honor of introducing today. eric holder served there for 12 years and prosecuted high-profile cases, including some from the celebrated apps can't investigation of congress. he was appointed by president reagan to the superior court of the district of columbia and later served under president clinton as the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, where he led the successful prosecution of dan rostenkowski before rising to

general. and he had some concerns about it. so he testified that when he heard that these white house officials were on their way to try to get john ashcroft lying in the hospital to re-authorize it. comey went up there and blocked it. and ashcroft rose up in his bed and said, i'm not the attorney general, he is, you need him to get him to do it. and comey also indicated that he and the fbi director, robert mueller, were felt so strongly about this that they were willing to resign over this issue. and as you know, the director of the fbi, comey met with president bush and the white house and the white house ultimately made some changes that the justice department then said satisfied them. >> i want to take you to also the whole controversy with eric holder which is really heating up. between eric holder and the house judiciary committee. obviously the house judiciary is being accused by holder supporters as being partisan in this regard. about you this was eric holder in previous tmt and this is what they're all talking about today. this is holder testifying about what role he did or did not play in the, leak investigations involving journ

ministration stick that worst abuses" while he served under the justice to permit under then attorney general john ashcroft. comey had previously signed off on the spy program when it began allowing the national security agency to eavesdrop on the phone calls and emails of u.s. citizens without court warrants. his objection to reauthorization focused on an unspecified element of the spy program. he ultimately gave his backing dr. the bush a ministration agreed to make changes in a statement, the aclu also criticized comey for approving u.s. torture techniques including waterboarding as well as for helping oversees the prolonged -- helping oversee the prolonged indefinite detention of u.s. citizen jose padilla without charge or trial. the aclu concludes -- thousands of protesters with the havevist movement blockuppy blocked access to the european central bank in frankfurt, germany and a protest against european austerity. the demonstrators were confronted by scores of police in riot gear. the unemployment rate in eurozone tons to wrote -- new record of a 12.2%. more than 19 million people in europe were out

the chief spokesman for former attorney general john ashcroft told fox news, quote: there is no way we would have allowed that subpoena to go forward. others agree. >> you had to get sign off from the public affairs office that i headed up. then you had to get signoff from the criminal division which mike chertoff at that time headed up. then the deputy attorney general's office and the attorney general's office. and at each point you were always asking a lot of questions of the fbi agents and the prosecutors who would come and ask for the subpoena. >> it appears that the holder himself is undergoing soul searching about the targeting of media records. the web site daily beast today quoted a holder advisor, look, we get it it we understand why this is so controversial and we are ready to make changes to find the right balance. after his remarks today, at a naturalization ceremony. holder was asked by reporters about the daily beast reported and whether he had regrets. holder replied off camera, quote: i'm not satisfied. i'm not satisfied. holder added that invitations to media organiza

also the birthday of general john ashcroft and grammy winner songwriter william martin joel turns 64 today. next to organized labor goods made in america and thriving middle class billy joel is the popular comeback we would most like to see. this is "viewpoint." >> john: good evening i'm john fuglesang. this is "viewpoint." thank you so much for joining us tonight. if you think medical bills in this country are insane, you my friend are correct. but just how crazy really began coming into focus this week after a massive data dump from washington's center for medicaid services. now nobody is disputing the life saving health enhancing work that medical professionals here in america perform or their remarkable drugs technologies and techniques they use in hospitals every day. no one's criticizing the quality of care. but any attempt anyone who can count up to ten on their fingers has to be blown away by the out-of-control, beyond belief cost disparities between different hospitals and that's revealed in the data which these hospitals have also kept secret up until now. or as white house

controversial eavesdropping program involving then white house counsel alberto gonzalez, attorney general john ashcroftrew card. in 2007 comey testified before a senate hearing about that incident. >> this was a very memorable period in my life, probably the most difficult time in my entire professional life. that night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life. so it's not something i forget. >> okay. were you present when alberto gonzalez visited attorney general ashcroft's bedside? >> yes. >> and am i correct that the conduct of mr. gonzalez and mr. card on that evening troubled you greatly? >> yes. >> nbc's peter alexander is at the white house for us. peter, we know that comey is a big presence in washington, d.c., from past administrations and not for the mere fact that he's 6'8", but do we know whether or not he truly is the president's first choice and how republicans are reacting to that? >> reporter: it's a good question. we reached out to the white house a short time ago and they say at this point they have no comment on that. they will not confirm. but we do hear from so

bush's chief of staff andrew card in 2004 when they were reportedly trying to convince attorney general john ashcrofty sick in a hospital bed, they wanted ashcroft to sign an extension on a controversial warrantless domestic eavesdropping program. comey told the story in a senate judiciary hearing in 2007. >> i raced to the hospital room that mr. ashcroft was lying down in the bed. the room was darkened. it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked mr. gonzalez carrying an envelope and mr. card. they came over and stood by the bed and mr. gonzalez started to discuss why they were there to seek his approval. attorney ashcroft stunned me. he lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter and as he laid back down he said but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general. there is the attorney general and he pointed to me. >> of course comey's record civil libertarians point out is much more mixed than that one anecdote might suggest. he has prosecuted everybody from the new york mob goss john gambino to martha stewart so it is an

the panelists include attorney general eric holder, former attorney general john ashcroft, university of chicago law professor geoffrey stone and jack fuller editor of restoring justice and former special assistant to edwin levy. this is about an hour 20. ..

john ashcroft, the attorney general then, was very ill and in the hospital. so ill that his deputy comey was the acting a.g. this was the night before a warrantless wiretap program was set to expire. the then white house counsel alberto gonzalez and chief of staff andy card went to ashcroft's bedside to get him to endorse this program that he and comey felt was illegal and comey actually caught wind of it and ordered his driver to the hospital. sirens blaring, so he could head them off. in the end, ashcroft didn't sign on to this but it made for one of the most remarkably dramatic scenes of the entire bush administration, christine. >> he was praised, widely praised foreseeing past politics in that event when he came to the aid of the very ill attorney general john ashcroft. what was that legacy? >> yeah, that is certainly part of his legacy. i think that's something that you see a lot of democrats and republicans pointing to when they say that they expect that he's going to be confirmed rather easily or they think that this is someone that a lot of democrats

to get guns off the street and then became the number two official, the deputy attorney general under john ashcroftnt. that's when that dramatic episode happened that you were talking about, march 2004. we never knew it at the time. comey ended up testifying about it saying he rushed to the bed side of john ashcroft who was in the hospital with pancreas trouble as officials were asking ashcroft to sign off on the government's warrant list surveillance program. something ashcroft had done several times before. but there had been new objections raised by comey. and at this dramatic scene at the hospital bed side, comey said the attorney general said, don't ask me. i'm not going to sign off on it. comey is now the acting attorney general. and comey said that he and the fbi director robert mueller offered to resign, said they would resign if they get ahead with it without justice department approval. that was all diffused when president bush made some changes in the program. >> any chance that that is something that becomes an issue at his senate confirmation hearings? >> yes. i think the answer is yes

at the time he was acting as attorney general in place of john ashcroft who was recovering from emergency gallbladder surgery. he, of course, stood in the way of more eavesdropping to be done in the administration. we'll see what happens in confirmation. >>> lincoln chaffe expected to change the letter next to his name from an "i" to a "d." he also had the "r" as well. his staff says it is not a political move. he will face a hostile re-election against other democrats. president obama in a statement welcomed him to the party, and said he enjoyed working with chafee when he was a republican in the senate. according to "the boston globe" the move reflects a broader regional shift with three elected officials changing their affiliations since 2001. some republicans acknowledge a different tact in the northeast because of a progressive evolution that left the area at odds at times with the national party. >>> it is considered one of the worst atrocities in the war in afghanistan. 16 civilians brutally massacred in their sleep by a u.s. soldier who snuck off his base. now attorneys for staff

former attorney general john ashcroft joins us this morning.rs on health care. bill and i will see you right here at the top of the hour. from the brand doctors recommend most. preparation h. don't stand for hemorrhoids. >> alisyn: welcome back. we are putting you to the test today. as we have been reporting, 42% of americans are unaware that the affordable care act, also known as obamacare, has actually become law and is law and it exists. this is according to the kaiser health tracking poll. >> brian: so that's not the only poll america flunked. we're putting you to the test. in fact, i have two of my finest reporters, steve doocy and anna kooiman out there to find out from the people and some of the questions about the identity of the vice president, can they name a supreme court justice are some of the answers that america can't seem to get. >> steve: that's right. 41% of the people in the united states of america cannot identify the vice president. let's come here to this guy right here. what's your name, son? >> i can't tell you. i'm on a

he served in bush administration as acting attorney general when john ashcroft landed in the hospital. but comey fought against a bush white house plan for warrantless wiretapping, something that may win over democrats. >>> let's take a look at money now. stocks set to open this morning. shrugging off numbers that came off worse than expected. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. >> stocks can't keep going up forever. the dow has been losing steam lately. closing lower in three of the past five sessions. but stock futures are pointing to a higher open when the bell rings in 20 minutes. despite a huge sell-off happening in asia overnight. in japan, main stock market index, nikkei 225 lost more than 5%. an almost 8 00-point drop. the focus on wall street, on economic data. you mentioned jobless claims rising and economic growth in the first three months of this year, ticked down a bit. not affecting stock futures. carol. >> alison kosik, reporting live from the floor of the new york stock exchange. tv talent competitions make it or break it for the lucky few that get to compe

reauthorize the bush a ministration sworn the spy program of serving as acting attorney general in place of john ashcroft, who was recovering from surgery. comey alerted ashcroft after two top white house aides rushed to ashcroft's's hospital bed in a failed bid to win his approval for the spying. in 2003, comey came under criticism from the civil-rights attorney lynne stewart who accused him of pure vindictiveness in pursuing her and two co-defendants after the judge in the case threw out terrorism charges. law-enforcement officials have admitted a chechen man questioned for his ties to the boston marathon bombers was unarmed when fbi agents shot him dead in florida last week. ibragimere questioning todashev at his orlando apartment when he allegedly tried to attack them. but the washington post is reporting he had neither a knife or gun. the council on american islamic relations is asking the justice department to review the killing. the news in florida comes as a bipartisan congressional delegation is in russia to conduct what it calls a fact- finding investigation into the circumstances that led up t

. >> comey was attorney general john ash kroft's deputy. and with ashcroftck, he was the acting attorney general. with then white house council gonzalez visited the hospital room, a last-ditch effort to get signature. comey caught wind of it and ordered his driver to speed through the streets of washington, sirens blaring, and beat them there. >> attorney john ashcroft then stunned me, he lifted his head off the pillow. and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter. and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spentd and said to them but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general. >> cnn contributor fran townsend, was one of bush's top national security advisors at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate. and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility in saudi arabia that killed 19 service members. he also took on the mafia, putting

white house chief of staff and the president's council went to the hospital room of john ashcroft, the attorney general, to get him to overrule the justice department and comey and bob mueller and some others physically stood there and said "no, this is our ruling, we're sticking with this ruling." ashcroft stood with them. and to stand up as a mid-level civil servant against the chief of staff and the white house, that takes enormous courage and if anybody wants to see how to testify before congress, go on youtube and watch this testimony. it's exemplary in how he presents himself. >> woodruff: is this a slam dunk in terms of confirmation if he's nominated? he still hasn't been nominated. >> if he isn't nominated i don't think he will be confirmed judy, that's the way it works. (laughter) it was an inspired and brilliant choice, i do. on substance and politically. chuck hagel, who is a republican, had been a friend of barack obama's, even a supporter. james comey is not political at all. there's nothing partisan about him. he is a republican, he's a registered republican but he's most of all a public

counsel alberto gonzales and white house chief of staff try to persuade the attorney general don ashcraft -- john ashcroft- host: a little bit of news for me from page of "usa today." we will dig more into the papers. in the meantime, we're asking you how you get your news. democrat caller from florida. caller: i get my news from the newspaper, from the internet, from television, on my iphone. some traditional ways, others more recent. as far as what that one man was saying about robert mueller leaving the fbi -- i think the reason for that is because they have term limits on the fbi directors, which are 10 years. he has been there for 12 years. that is probably because of the way the terrorism situation -- but they only serve a certain amount of time. that is most likely why he is retiring. more let's look at some from the pew center for the people and the press. we see a graphic that shows where those polled got their news yesterday. this coming to us from september. you see in blue those who watched news on tv. how that has changed over time. the most recent from 2012. this is from .10 and 2008. -- 201

. >> john: i would say in the world created by former attorneys general ashcroft and gonzalez, it is arguably legal. we'll see how much the tea party cares. rick, what do you think of the three scandals or kerfuffles? will we see our republican friends make the most hay from? >> right now they're all going to get all three of them in the barrel. i agree with what sam said. we don't yet know that the behavior of the justice department was legal. the only thing we really know at this point is that the subpoena was clearly overbroad as compared to anything we've seen before. that doesn't make it illegal. it makes it odd. it remains to be seen. we have to wait and see. the i.r.s., you know, you may have seen i wrote a piece about this today. calling for people to be jailed. we still don't know if there was a crime. we have absolutely no indications. so, you know, they're just pushing this for all that it's worth. benghazi is turning against them. it is turning against them. it is going the wrong way. you watch, in the next seven days, darrell issa and his band of merry people will start

between 2003 and 2005, comey served as deputy attorney general in the bush administration. in 2004, while his boss john ashcroft ill, comey refused to re-authorize the administration's program of warrant-less wiretapping. that led to a confrontation with white house chief of staff andrew card, and white house counsel alberto gonzales at ashcroft's hospital bedside. comey recounted the incident at a senate hearing in 2007. >> i was very upset. i was angry. i thought i just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. >> woodruff: a year later, comey tried, unsuccessfully, to limit waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods used on terror suspects. since leaving the justice department, he's served as a corporate attorney, first at lockheed martin, and later at the hedge fund bridgewater associates. those ties to business may raise questions for some. in a statement last night, republican senator chuck grassley of iowa said: comey is also sure to face confirmation questions about how he would handl

general. >> the president can handle that, pat. what if this were john ashcrofteorge bush was the president, in your opinion? >> no one would be saying anything. >> the decider would decide. >> the decider would decide. >> we have to disagree about something here. i mean, quick -- >> nobody would say anything. >> yeah, nobody would say anything. >> and you are sticking to that? >> yeah, i'm stick to go that. >> i appreciate your honestly. holder has to go. the president should fire him. >> i think it would be better -- i think the right thing would be for eric holder to tender his resignation on his own without being forced, without the president doing it or congress forcing it. >> why not what libby got? >> first of all, we don't know the facts on that and i really don't believe he did. i just don't think dethat. >> i think the evidence is overwhelming. >> now we are disagreeing. >> now we are disagreeing. all right. good to see you, my friend. god bless you. >> good seeing you, pat. >> coming up next, a special hannity investigation into the obama's administrat

. >> john ashcroft who was attorney general stepped aside the whole thing. his deputy appointed patrick fitzgerald to investigate. gregg: we'll see what happens here. byron york, good to see you what happens. >> thank you, gregg. heather: gregg in the wake of these investigations a top democrat announcing a new "gang of eight" of senators will take a closer look government will investigate he is leaks. to strell what is being called the media shield bill. >> what i will propose with lindsey graham and with four democrats and four republicans another "gang of eight", i love these gangs of eight i guess. to set up rules, if a government wants to go to a member of the press, saying you have to divulge your sources and information they first have to go to a judge. that judge will impose a balancing test. heather: republican senator lindsey graham is cosponsoring the legislation with senator schumer. this same bill was under consideration four years ago but never made it to the floor of the senate. gregg? gregg: unintentional consequence of the irs targeting scan

john ashcroft was u.s. attorney general under president george w.now ceo of the ashcroft group, and, sir, welcome back here to "america's newsroom". >> delighted to be back with you. bill: based on what we're learning day by day, sometimes hour by hour, to those who believe these were knockoff jihadis or lone wolves, what would you say to them now at the moment? >> well it is always too soon to conclude that and the big risk if they were acting in concert with others or getting assistance from others or connected to others that is where we have additional jeopardy of something else happening somewhere else. and the transcending responsibility we have is to prevent or default additional acts. so what's going on now and what should be going on and i'm sure is, that the communications, the connections, the various things that would relate to these individuals are being examined, mapped and explored. there's a process sometimes called link analysis where you're finding out who they were talking to, who they were related to, what kinds of things they had

john ashcroft. eric holder, president obama's attorney general is under fire now on capitol hill, republicans say he has not been straight with them on his participation in these leak investigations and the targeting of reporters. >> reporter: absolutely not. republicans are saying they feel misled by holder. when he was on the hill a few weeks ago that basically he said he would never condone reporters being prosecuted, but they're now saying they've revealed information that he signed off on a search warrant targeting a reporter who was suspected of receiving classified information. justice officials say there was never any attempt to prosecute that reporter and that holder would never do so. they say they were targeting the government leaker, george. >> any sense his job is in jeopardy? >> reporter: none whatsoever. just yesterday white house press secretary jay carney says the attorney general has the president's full support. >> okay, pierre thomas, thanks very much. >>> now to that severe weather outbreak overnight, twisters roaring through the plains states and millions in the path of more po

general. he wouldn't remember any of this happening. >> it was al, not freddy. >> whatever. >> we called him fredo. >> you miss john ashcroft, don't yous? >> do i ever. i spent 20 minutes on him. >> he can sgling oh, can he? >> let the eagles soar. >> remember that. great record. >> not since the pope have i zoomed so high. >> last week people said they'd rather lose a thousand bucks rather than gain 20 pounds. you questioned whether the food information council foundation was real or not. it is. i believe one is part of the other. who gives a damn? >> adding the word foundation that was a big meeting you can imagine hours long. >> all run by big stationary. >> i wonder if it was catered and if they had italian, greek. mexican gets cold. >> and there are a lot of breaks after. that you have to run. >> i go chinese. >> i would too. >> good choice. it always stays hot. >> it smells in the conference room. >> chicken wings drive me crazy. >> what is wrong with good old-fashioned american food? >> it makes you fat unless it is apples. i think little sliders. >> i love sliders. they are just your size. >> oh! >> she's little. >> i'm done.

when john ashcroft was hospitalized in 2004, he stopped in to stop officials from convincing the very sick attorney generalming national geographic killing kennedy. he says the story centers around the assassination of our 35th president, and it is set in conjunction of the 50th anniversary of that tragic event later this year. we're back with more show after the break. stay with us. ♪ cenk off air>>> alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air>>> i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air>>> you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics any

the deputy attorney general was a critical player in 2004 in the dramatic hospital room episode in which the white house counsel and the chief of staff try to persuade john ashcroft, who was ill and disoriented, to be often wise -- to reautri

john ashcroft was in the hospital. he could ree place robert mueller this fall. >> the list of snubs growing by the minute for embattled attorney generalust declined his meeting today as he tries to smooth things over about spying on reporters. here's the latest. wendell, the list is growing. >> it's unclear still if the meeting will be held today and it's unclear who will attend. the a.p. and new york times say they will only attend if the meeting is on the record. the huffington post agrees. fox news channel says, quote, at this time we are considering whether we'll attend or not. politico and the washington post will attend. reporters routinely use material they can't tribute to a specific person or a specific agency within the administration. but in this case when the issue is the use of classified information it makes sense that everybody should know precisely what the rules are. that's part of the reason some news organizations are insisting the meeting be on the record. another part, of course, is that the justice department's decision to subpoena the phone records of fox news chief washington correspondent james rosen is still

the deputy attorney general was a critical player in 2004 in the dramatic hospital room episode in which the white house counsel and the chief of staff try to persuade john ashcroft, who was ill and disoriented, to be often wise -- to reauthorize the program. to becomey that's announced at the next character of the fbi. we will keep you posted as more news becomes available. here's what's ahead on c-span. next, new york city lease commissioner raymond kelly who talks about defending u.s. cities against terrorism. in a debate on how changes in the nation's immigration laws will affect the economy and the federal budget. later, a look at public opinion on legalizing marijuana. the house and senate are out this week with a couple of political stories in washington and elsewhere today looking ahead to 2014. michele bachmann, representative of the sixth district in minnesota, announced she will not seek reelection in 2014. there is word that the current governor of rhode island, and independent, will announce tomorrow he is switching to the democratic party. reports say he has told the national democratic leaders in the president of his intention to become a democrat.