first, here is jonathan carl's report. >> for months, even before romney secured the nomination, marcoop of everybody's list of potential running mates. what i have learned is he has not been asked to do even the first step. he has not been asked to fill out any questionnaires, not been asked to turn over personal documents by the romney vetting term. that is exactly the kind of stuff you begin to do. >> con serbtives heard this report and went nuts. they we want absolutely crazy. marco rubio is a darryling of the right. a lot of conservatives believe he is the party's hope for recapturing the hispanic vote. they went crazy and by late afternoon, mitt romney was forced today issue -- i don't know know. what do we call this? a clarification? listen. >> what mitt romney said, he said the story is entirely false. >> the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. he is being thoroughly vetted. what does that mean? joining us, yahoo political reporter from news.yahoo.com. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me on. >> you are welcome. go

yesterday morning as we told you on "morning joe" jonathan carl with abc news reported that marco rubio, who's been rumored to be on romney's short list for vice president had not been asked to provide financial documents or fill out a customary questionnaire, had not been vetted. in an interview with fox news mr. romney sidestepped questions about whether rubio was up for consideration but a few hours later romney disputed that abc report and says yeah, we're looking at marco rubio. >> i can't imagine who such people are, but i can tell you this, they know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not. and that's beth myers and myself. and i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> abc standing by its reporting of yesterday morning saying at the time rubio had yet to be asked to turn over any materials. as of now rubio the only person to be publicly identified as a possible vp c

but, jonathan carl, we talked about this yesterday morning of abc news, reported that rubio has been rumored to be on the short list, had not been asked to provide financial documents or fill out a customary questionnaire, he wasn't being vetted. romney did an interview with fox earlier in the day yesterday, sidestepped questions about whether or not rubio was being vetted a few hours later at a public event, romney disputed the abc report. >> can't imagine who such people are, but i can tell you this, they know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not. and that's beth myers and myself. and i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> let's -- >> gone right now they're going through his baseball card right now. i mean, abc standing by their story and, of course, mitt romney can say he's thoroughly being vetted but they, of course -- it's good politically. willie, did you wa

take a license to yesterday's exchange between republican senator lindsey graham and abc news jonathan carl the taxpayer finds. >> i think -- i think dib -- i think the pledge has done a great service in the sense we are talking about a more entrepreneurial tax code but when you eliminate a deduction, it's okay with me to use some of that money to get us out of debt. >> that's where i disagree with the finds. >> can you believe it? j.d. you have a republican senator saying he disagrees with pledge. i am standing up to applaud. lipped see graham -- lipped see graham because it means he is willing to compromise. >> yeah, but remember, jen the way he couched that. remember lindsay and joe lieberman and john mccain were hanging out together withwing in 2008. there is an m.o. to this. lieberman would use it when he would back into republican arguments with a word of praise but then a little bit of a different take. now, the lindsey m o. is like we have a found an here in fountain hills, arizona. once every 15 minutes, it goes off kind of like a man-made old faithful and you can basically set you

you had a report on abc news by jonathan carl this week about the status of one senator, marco rubio, which is romney campaign reacted to rather quickly. let's roll it. >> abc's john carlos learned one of the most highly tout and popular choiced, florida senator marco rubio is not even being considered now by the romney team. >> that's right. this is a surprise. >> the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> dana milbank. when abc said rubio had not been asked to turn over hundreds of pages of paperwork on financial and other interests, romney comes out and says he's being vetted. all depends on vetted. did he knock down that story? >> i don't think so. this is the reason why it's preposterous for us to speculate on the vice president. there's one person who knows this. maybe one person. that would be romney. maybe he shares it with somebody leading his search committee. we have no ability to report on this sort of thing. maybe it was true when abc reported it. but romney can instantly make that untrue. we have no power over this. in

that's according to jonathan carl down there at abc. said republican source tell me he's not being vetted. he has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or asked to turn over any documents. rubio appeared on cnbc this morning and wouldn't even comment about the process, but let's listen to him not commenting. >> have you heard from the campaign and are you someone who will be the vice presidential candidate? >> as i've said repeatedly, i won't discuss the process out of respect for governor romney. i know he's going make a great choice. >> later, he asked romney himself about news that rubio hasn't been vetted. >> what did you make of the abc news report this morning that said rubio wasn't being vetted, but tim pawlenty was? >> i get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on and i'm not going to comment on the process of course, but i can tell you this. only beth myers and i know who's being vetted. >> okay, first of all, that's wrong. maggie, anybody who's being vetted, there are accountants, lawyers, probably their spo

abc's jonathan carl reporting this morning it's not going to be him. the romney campaign is not vetting him, they have not asked for financial information or given the questionnaires they've given other candidates. look for someone outside washington. that's why i think tim pawlenty of minnesota is at the top of the list. >> portman? >> yeah, i think that's right. governor romney has said his number one criterion is somebody who could do the job. rob portman, senator from ohio, who has worked both ends of pennsylvania avenue could immediately step into the job. >> this is a point that catherine made in the first segment, our friend mike murphy has been making for years, you've got to broaden the demographic base for the republican party or you become a dead party very quickly. >> when gay marriage became instrumental in so many states in 2004, remember we're going to make sure there's an issue to bring out a conservative audience. there has been a long concerted effort to roll out this vote, what i call a voter suppression move. you look at all the dif