joining me kay hagan and msnbc's joy reid. senator hagan what would this bill mean to the women of north carolina if it becomes law? >> well if this is a health care bill about women i am glad any state legislature in raleigh is not my doctor. when i look at what the leadership and the general assembly is doing, under a sneak attack, they put forward -- they forced a sweeping anti-women's health care bill that -- with no public notice, no transparency and that doesn't pass a public scrutiny test in north carolina. those are not the values that we hold. this is certainly a distraction. what we've got to be focused on in north carolina, everybody tells me, the number one issue is jobs and the economy. and what is our general assembly do? it once again right before a holiday weekend, with no public notice, no transparency, this is the kind of legislation they put forward. they have been working on anti-middle class legislation, anti-women and anti-voter rights and it is wrong, it is not the values in north carolina. >> joy reid, d

joining me now, democratic senator from north carolina kay hagan, and msnbc's joy reid. senator hagan, what would this bill mean to the women of north carolina if it becomes law? >> well, if this is a health care bill about women, i am glad any state legislator in raleigh is not my doctor. when i look at what the leadership and the general assembly is doing, under a sneak attack they put forward -- they forced a sweeping anti-women's health care bill that -- with no public notice, no transparency, and that doesn't pass a public scrutiny test in north carolina. those are not the values that we hold. this is certainly a distraction. what we've got to be focused on in north carolina, everybody tells me the number one issue is jobs and the economy. and what does our general assembly do? you know, once again, right before a holiday weekend with no public notice, no transparency, this is the kind of legislation that they put forward. they have been working on anti-middle class legislation, anti-women, and anti-voter rights. and it is wrong. it is not the values in north carolin

senator kay hagan tells msnbc's lawrence o'donnell what the bill means if it becomes law. >> if this is a health care bill about women, i am glad any state legislature in raleigh is not my doctor. >> texas governor rick perry expected to announce monday on whether he will run for a fourth term or make another run for the white house. however, the latter idea isn't sitting well among his constituents. a new ppp poll has perry in sixth when lone star republicans were asked their preference for president in 2016. among texas republicans, senator ted cruz comes in first. >>> and former illinois governor george ryan is a free man this morning. he was released from home confinement wednesday, ending more than 5 1/2 years in federal custody for wide-ranging corruption offenses. his successor rob blagojevich is still in the big house. that's going to do it for your morning dish of scrambled politics. >>> nbc's dylan dryer joins us now with this july 4th weather. >> everybody wants to know if the fireworks are going off without a hitch this evening and most of the country they will. we're not

. >> michael: five years ago, north carolina elected barack obama, they put kay hagan in the senate, they have this right-wing legislative agenda going on. how did that happen? >> kind of the host of jesse helms. the state has always been divided, but what tipped the balance was this outpouring of political money. not all in the traditional campaign donations, a lot of it going to these new think tanks. this soft money that has just been dumped into north carolina, and that's one of the implications of citizens united on these smaller races, big money can make a big difference. >> michael: yeah, and that's where they are putting that big money on those small races. you in your recent article you list all of the parties and events that lobbyists have been putting on for the governor and the republican legislators. is that different than it has ever been? or it is just business as usual. >> lobbyist always sort of party. but in the last six months alone there have been over $100,000 spent on these parties going to nice clubs, really just showering these newly elected lawmakers and the

you have mark in alaska and kay hagan in iowa and mary landry in louisiana. republicans need to do their damage if they're going to win back the senate. unless they can put one or two of those seats that doesn't look competitive right now into play, they're going to have to win six of these seven seats, six of the seven red democratic seats to win back the senate and even that might not be enough. because two opportunities for democrats to win republican seats next year. one we just talked about. in kentucky with mitch mcconnell and the other one is in georgia. red state of georgia where saxby is retiring. attracted no shortage of far right candidates to give democrats a chance of winning. just this week, in fact, good news in georgia. where michelle and her father represented the state for fours terms in the senate, she announced she is going to run for her father's old senate seat in 2014. democrats can win in kentucky or georgia or win in both, that would blow up any chance that republicans have of taking back the chamber in 2014. so, we're going to talk a

kay hagan is five points up.crory and look atom tillis and the senate race and everything has been happening in north carolina. how do you think this has affected the way those two politicians are viewed in the state and in the republican party in general? because we have these giant protests we talked about playing out every monday at the state capitol. is this spilling over beyond the protests to the average -- >> the legislature is very unpopular. they tend to be unpopular almost regardless but there is a widespread understanding in north carolina that the legislature has sort of been off the rails. it probably will affect tillis some. right now tillis, i'm sure, has very low name recognition, even speakers of the house generally tend to. it has started to affect mccrory's numbers but even though he's tried to distance himself from it as much as he can but eventually next year the republicans are going to have to run on this record. >> and, donita, you were sort of talking about this, the idea of the lesson th

i also want to thank senator blumenthal, senator jeanne shaheen, kay hagan and lisa murkowski who have been working with us steadily on the committee from the very beginning as well. today i want to thank senator rand paul for being here, for deciding to take a leadership role on such an important issue to really take this crisis head on. i also want to thank senator ted cruz for his very steadfast vote in the armed services committee and helping us lead this new amendment going forward. i think both of them are going to add deeply to this extraordinary issue that needs dramatic leadership and bold action. i also want to thank senator grassley, again, for being with us on the first day, for being the lead sponsor amongst the republicans with senator collins. that early leadership made all the difference in the world. now, our effort now is to bring -- to build a very strong bipartisan coalition that is going to end sexual assaults in the military. and the way we want to do it is create an independent, accountable military justice system that is not partisan, that is not ideological, th

i also want to thank senator blumenthal, kay hagan, and lee some housekeeping -- and lisa. today i want to thank rand paul for being here, for deciding to take a leadership role on important issues, to really take this crisis head-on. i also want to thank senator ted cruz for his very steadfast votes in the armed services committee and helping asleep this new amendment going forward. i think both of them -- i think both of them are going to add deeply to this extraordinary issue that needs radical leadership and bold action. i also want to thank senator grassley again for being the lead sponsor amongst the republicans with senator collins added that early leadership made all the difference in the world. collins. that early leadership made all the difference in the world. way we wanted and sexual assault in the military is create an independent, accountable military justice system that that is not partisan or ideological. it can create the kind of accountability and trance parents he that our men and women who serve in the military need, so that they can receive justice. our

the bill, the keeping student loans affordable act, was introduced by senators jack reed and kay hagan. it would drop the rate on direct student loans back down to 3.4% for one year, retroactively as of july 1, and give congress time to develop a plan to do the three things we really need to do -- reform student loan debt interest rates on the new loans, refinance a trillion dollars in existing debt, and lower college costs for all of our kids. republicans have a different approach. despite the obscene profits of the current program, they propose to make even more money from students. their current proposal would bring in an extra billion dollars in profits off the backs of our students. listen to the numbers. new loans will produce $184 billion in profits for the u.s. government over the next ten years. that includes the 6.8% interest on direct loans, all the borrowing costs, all the administrative costs and all the bad debt losses for the program. let me say that again. the new student loans, including the direct loans at 6.8%, will make $184 billion in profits from the government ov

senator kay hagan and senator reed are leaders on the bill we will be voting on tomorrow. senator warren; so many others. senator boxer who has spoken out so many times. senator sanders, the presiding officer, we all care passionately about creating a long-term interest rate for students to keep costs low so we can keep dreams high and success high in achieving those dreams. i'd like to read two of the many, many e-mails, thousands of e-mails that i received that i want to thank so many for signing petitions and sharing their stories with us, and i'm -- i would urge folks to get involved in the competition, or the conversation, i should say, by joining us on twitter with the hashtag don't double my rate. there's a lot of conversation going on, information folks can find out what we're doing. i want to read two e-mails from constituents of mine in michigan. the first is corey, a student at central michigan university who sent me an e-mail about how this would make it difficult for him to continue his education. and he wrote, "as one of the taxpayers that you represent, i'm

all of those -- senator boxer, senator murray, others who have come to the floor, and senator kay hag hagan, who is leading this fight with senator jack reed and what we intend to do tomorrow, which is focus on a very, very simple issue which is let's not do harm to students as it relates to student loan rates going up while we fix the larger problem of the affordability of college. let's be very clear. the majority of the senate voted on june 6 to keep student loan rates at 3.4%. the majority. now, when we run for office, it's a -- you know, you get one more than the other person you and win the election. that's a majority. and so it's unfortunate that a majority could not have ruled here but because of the rules of the senate, because of the rights of the minority and the filibuster and so on, there have been objections from republican colleagues and so we've had to now go through this other process to overcome a filibust filibuster. we had the vote. the majority of the senate voted to keep rates low for students and let's make that very clear. so in order to overcome a republican filibus