so we're compounding those problems in a way that i think is unnecessary and unfortunate. >> jonathan capehart's >> simon, you were at the imf? >> yes, he was. >> yeah. so how does the rest of the world look at what's happening here in the united states and how we go from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis not every couple of years but seemingly every quarter, does the rest of the world think that we have become completely dysfunctional? >> yes, although they've known that for some time now. it's remarkable that the u.s. dollar and u.s. government debt is still the primary safe haven. that's where people put their rainy-day money. and yet at the same time, these are sophisticated people around the world. i'm sure many of them watch your show. they understand fully the kinds of problems that we've created for ourselves. now, if you form -- if we continue down this road and if you bring those two thoughts together, the u.s. dollar is not such a compelling reserve asset. foreigners are not as willing to buy u.s. treasury debt in the future at low interest rates. then we have a much bigger problem comin

let's bring in the managing editor of the brio.com and jonathan capehart and kevin cunningham starting the petition to bring national attention to the trayvon martin case. thank you all for joining us. jonathan, as i mentioned, we know that george zimmerman and attorneys have a website where they have accepted donations and taken to the internet to respond to editorials and comments out there specifically yours, jonathan. they quite a couple of editorials you wrote in the month of february and in response to one of them, they say, regarding you, he must also overlook the significant forensic evidence that supports george's claim of self defense and the fbi documents related to the civil rights investigation showed no evidence george acted in a racially motivated way. mark o'mara is still fighting the public perception that this is about race as much as it is about the stand your ground law and he cites your editorial specifically, jonathan. >> well, look. i mean, if anyone has read all of the things i have written, i have not talked about directly the racial aspects of of this case. wh

joining us now is jonathan capehart of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst the great karenhan, given that karl rove spent $300 million of their money and predicted a dead certain romney victory, it's hardly surprising that republicans are not happy about his latest project, is it? >> no, you're right. it's not surprising that they're not happy, but i would have to say that what karl rove is undertaking and whether he's the right messenger here remains to be seen but the project he's undertaking is vital for the republican party's survival. they want to continue being a national party as opposed to a regional party coming out of the south, then they're going to have to elect candidates to the house, to the senate, and ultimately to the presidency who can win national elections. >> well, karen, karl rove's victory project is barely off the ground, but it seems they've already got their first target in mind. it's iowa congressman steve king. in the words of a top aide to mr. rove, quote, we're concerned about steve king's todd akin problem. all of the things he said are going

and with us in new york is jonathan capehart and jimmy williams.gressman, if i might start with you, as our correspondent pete williams just made clear, the voting rights act may be one of the nation's best laws in history, but it had a rough ride at the supreme court today. in fact, justice scalia said that the law is -- and i'm quoting him -- a perpetuation of racial entitlement. what on earth does he mean by that? >> i can tell you this reminds me of some of the things that governor romney was saying during the campaign. clearly it's not any kind of racial entitlement. our constitution says that everybody has a right to vote. and those votes should be counted. and i believe that very strongly. and the voting rights act was put in force because there were so many people being discriminated against. and so i disagree with him wholeheartedly. then there was something else that was said by one of the justices -- conservative justices. they said they didn't believe that the congress should -- are in a position to decide the question regarding section

they never trusted him, as jonathan capehart said.e had come in 2008 to announce that he was dropping out and in 2012 he announced that he was a real severe conservative, to convince those folks that he was one of them. they never bought it. this is just a real surprise. i don't know why he's doing this. he's been very quiet over these last months. if you look at where the republican party is, no one is clamoring for mitt romney. no one is saying, oh, boy, if republicans were just more like mitt romney, then maybe they would have a chance to win going forward and to rebrand their party. so it will be interesting to see what he says. he'll be there. sarah palin will be there. it will be a whole cast of characters there, as conservatives try to figure out where they want to go. >> it certainly will be a clown show. john, i want to show you what happens to a republican governor who works with the president on matters like hurricane relief. his name is chris christie and he has a 74% job approval rating. what do you think the reaction is

angela rye, ryan grim, and jonathan capehart, you have destroyed them all but thank you all.ing up, the ashley judd for senate rumors keep ticking. we'll ned we'll head to kentucky for more. r on may 18th, five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risk

from washington kelly o'donnell and jonathan capehart.or the man now nominate d to be the next head of the cia, john brennan, the architect of the obama administration's drone program strongly defended their use saying strikes only take place to prevent terror threats not to take punishment for them. >> i think there is a misimpression on the part of some american people who believe we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressions. nothing could be further from the truth. we only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there's no other alternative to taking an action that's going to mitigate that threat. >> democratic senator ron wyden who has demanded more insight into the legal justification for drone strikes pressed brennan on the issue. >> do you believe that the president should pro-vlade an individual american with the opportunity to surrender before killing? >> any american who joins al qaeda will know full well that they have joined an organization that is at war with the united states and has killed thou

. >> joan walsh, jonathan capehart, thank you both for your time this evening. >>> ahead, the nra justesponded to president obama. they deserve a vote. and it was nothing short of disgusting. >> first, the right wing talkers have no issue with a 102-year-old woman waiting in line for hours to vote. she's a lhero, but not to the right. my response is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] start with a groundbreaking car. good. then invent an entirely new way to buy one. no. no. no. yes! a website that works like a wedding registry. but for a car. first, you customize it. then let people sponsor the car's parts as gifts. dad sponsors the engine for your birthday. grandma sponsors the rims for graduation. the car gets funded. then you pick up your new dodge dart at the dealership. and all that's left to do is say thanks. easy. ♪ all your important legal matters in just minutes. protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. and launch your dreams. and you wouldn't have it any other way.e. but your erectile dysfunction - you know, that could be a question

for a reality check, jonathan capehart, columnist for "the washington post," jared bernstein, former. gentlemen, good to see you especially on a weekend. we know how difficult it is to get you out on saturdays and sundays. >> thank you. >> you've done a lot of by the numbers fact checking on what the president has proposed and i want to start with education. he said in his speech that he wants to work with states to make a high quality preschool available to every single child in america. he stressed that again yesterday in chicago. take a listen. >> study after study shows that the earlier a child starts learning the more likely they are to succeed, the more likely they are to do well at hyde park academy, the more likely they are to graduate, the more likely they are to get a good job, the more likely they are to form stable families and then be able to raise children themselves who get off to a good start. >> what do we know, jonathan capehart about the coordination when a child starts school and their chances at success? >> well look what we do know from a study that was done a f

. >> i think it's a shame that you repeat that and also jonathan capehart and other journalists like charles m. blow. it relies on this line of "was pursuing." it is not consistent with evidence that george was pursuing. what is consistent and what you did the first time i was on your air was you cut off his phone call when you said, okay, we don't need you to do that, okay. what that means is when someone says, okay, he ran and i can't see him. that means that that person is gone from their sight. that means that the pursuit or alleged pursuit is over at that point and if you really want to -- >> here's the thing, robert, all this will emerge now in the trial. we know that. i'm very aware it's a very complicated situation. but clearly we can only go on what we heard in the public domain where your brother was clearly told to not follow and clearly ends up following. >> no, that's absolutely -- that's a falsehood and it is absolutely not true. what you should be understanding and be apprised of are the actual facts. when you say you understand, that implies that you were there someho

you recently had had an opportunity to reflect on your son's death with jonathan capehart.that people in general trying to justify why this adult male went after this teenage, young man. you can't justify it. as you look back, what is justice to you at this point? >> initially our focus was to get an arrest and that's why they had so many rallies. i think if they initially arrested him for the murder of trayvon martin, we would not have had so many rallies and so much support from people because they were upset because he was not arrested. >> i think the language of murder is what's being debated and will be debated through the trial and whether or not this was something with the stand your ground law certainly going to be discussed. tracy, you have witnessed how people in many pockets of the country galvanized over this issue about your son's death. i want to play what president obama had to say after the passing of trayvon. take a listen. >> my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son, he would look like trayvon and i think they are right

joining me now is jonathan capehart, opinion writer for the washington post and an msnbc contributor brock, founder and ceo of media matters for america. >>> david, has hillary clinton beaten the vast right wing conspiracy once and for all? >> well, yes, i think she has. it's clearly the case that the vast right wing conspiracy was a real thing. you showed the clip from the 1990s. there was a lot trumped up them. what we've seen now is that with hillary clinton leaving the sfat state department, an effort to tarnish the legacy in these last three months. what you have is a vast right wing conspiracy. it ended up being a clown show. so i think she has led them to a point where the charges were just absurd, for example, the idea that she faked her concussion and blood clot. this was being said by serious right wing people. they were completely embarrassed that it ended up her doctors were kwoeted on the record, she's now wearing glasses for medical reasons. so, yeah, she's been incredibly resill yent and i think she's beaten them back. >> now, jonathan, we've seen them toothless as dav

so jonathan capehart had a piece in "the washington post" that brought up one thing the president didot address. "advocates wanted president obama to say a word about poverty in his state of the union. he did four times, but he didn't say the magic words. he didn't call for a new national commission on children to combat child poverty in the united states." do you think the state of the union went far enough in addressing the true issue of poverty? >> when you look at the fact that the president to most people surprised came out for minimum wage being raised to $9 an hour, he talked about pre-k and how to bring poor kids into a level of educational pair dirks he talked about how he we bring poor people into the middle class, clearly i think he addressed the issue of poverty. now children's poverty and the issue and the mammoth problem it is is something we need to address. a lot of people were saying he had given so much that clear ly he would have covered another hour. i think he clearly put on the national agenda that we have a problem with poverty in this country and his administra

jonathan capehart joans me now. >> andrea. >> i want to ask you about sports because i love it when you bowl! >> talk about guns, though. >> okay. >> the president is minnesota and next 24 hours this is beginning to gain traction. white house pushing hard against any suggestion as jay carney was on air force one any suggestion to give up on the assault weapon ban. >> right. the president is to speak around 2:30 indianapolfrom minneapolis. this is the out of the beltway trips to keep pressure on congress to get things done on gun violence. >> we will have to watch that and carry it live presumably in the next hour. and we will talk to you tomorrow, i hope. thank you very much. >> great. thank you. >> and my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." tamron? >> hi, andrea. the president will be live in the hour for the first time president obama taking his message on gun control out of washington making live remarks in minnesota. about 30 minutes from now. bringing it to you live comes as "the wall street journal" reports senate democrats are working on a ban. we'll

let's bring in professor james peterson of lehigh university and msnbc contributor jonathan capehartthe "washington post." professor, republicans love to use the word "sequester" without ever referencing what that means in practice, but the president is absolutely clear. take a listen. >> they recognize that the sequester is a bad idea, but what they've suggested is that the only way to replace it now is for us to cut social security, cut medicare, and not close a single loophole. i believe the american people understand that, yes, we need to reduce the deficit, but it shouldn't just be on the backs of seniors. it shouldn't just be on the backs of young people. >> professor, do republicans not realize that they are protecting the interests of massive oil companies and their profits and potentially throwing the poor into abject poverty? >> if they look at the data and look at the facts, i would say they would absolutely have to acknowledge that. you know, this is kind of a tricky situation, right, because the sequester was never meant to be put into policy. it was meant to sort of thr

jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for the post and luke russert who caused ted nugent to soil himself luke. >> you had the interview of the night potentially of the year. ted nugent who was at the state of the union speech. how would you characterize mr. nugent's responses to you last night? >> well, martin, i asked him the question right off the bat which is what was it like being in the chamber next to victims of gun violence? i met a number of them yesterday including one girl who was just 16 years old, a guest of debbie wasserman shultz. a lot of dramatic stories in that chamber. i asked what was it like being in that chamber? he went on this rant as you heard in that interview about how it was the fault of the government that there was not enough done for those who were mentally ill. i then pushed him because he once referred to democrats as coyotes that should be shot and whether or not that type of -- saying that type of thing would then in fact make him perhaps mentally unstable. and he took great offense to that. that's why you saw the back and forth there. what was very inte

maria teresa kumar, and jonathan capehart, thank you both. >> thanks, martin. >> do stay with us.ed a contractor before and didn't know where to start. at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. no company can pay to be on angie's list, so you can trust what you're reading. angie's list is like having thousands of close neighbors where i can go ask for personal recommendations. that's the idea. before you have any work done, check angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust. i love you, angie. sorry, honey. but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth! get younger looking skin fast. with new olay regenerist micro-sculpting cream. with 2 new anti-aging ingredients. visible wrinkle reduction starts day 1. see younger looking skin before you fini

joining us are my colleagues toure and krystal ball, co-hosts of "the cycle" and jonathan capeha capehar capehart writer for "the washington post." the president there was emphatic on the role of fathers. he spoke of the fact that it's not an achievement to prove that you're a man because you have the ability to conceive a child but the courage to raise one. have you ever heard him recently speaking in such a direct way about the responsibility of fatherhood? >> no, not quite like that. talked a little bit in a very personal way about family, wishing that he'd had a father, and recognizing the importance of having a father in the home who is a positive role model. a lot of black families, unfortunately, don't have that. and it's a very sort of black history month appropriate speech to me. it's about reminding young people and other americans but definitely black people but the role models we have, the historical figures we can think about were beautiful and brilliant and additive to america. >> and we can seek to emulate those figures. >> white people have those sort of role models all the time.

capehart, i am happy to see you. >> that is right, taking over. >> jonathan, lapierre almost seems like he was invented by the gun controlby. if he didn't exist they would have had to create him to carry on this campaign. because if you watch him, you do not think this is a sober group of people you want having significant power in the american political system. he makes the nra look terrifying. >> he makes the nra look terrifying. but you know what? the message that he has been spreading since newtown has been working for him and for the nra. it is frightening for the american people to hear what he has to say. the fear-mongering since newtown. but the flip side, we hear the next day or week, the best fundraising numbers they have had for a long time. and gun sales going through the roof. if he didn't exist we would have to make him up. he is this lightning rod for both sides. i mean, both sides get benefit from it. >> but is that actually working for the nra, this is what i always wonder, you have groups in american life who manage to fundraise off the american extreme. and there it always the deal of pushing it throug