. >> mark murray, nice to see you. thanks so much. >> thanks. >>> in this week's office politics, alex sat down with matt lauer and talked about what he thinks of the iconic jingle "where in the world is matt lauer" and he shared road stories. but she began by asking about one of the most memorable interviews when going face to face with george w. bush. >> i did and interview with president bush on the fifth an verse i of 9/11 that was contentious. the two of us were standing in front of the desk and we started talking about secret interrogation of terror suspects and he got very animated to the point where he was basically jabbing me in the chest. >> you can't expect me and people in this government to do what we need to do to protect you and your family if we don't have the tools we think are necessary. >> okay. which is always a difficult scenario when you have the leader of the free world in the secret service so you really can't do it back.

let's bring in expert senior political editor mark murray.ansfm the race? >> i'm not sure we have an answer to that just yet. there are a lot of different theories, on the one hand, you can argue that this energizes democrats and liberals that were looking for some good -- you have republicans who have been trying to stop this health care law for the past two or three years now, were unable to do so. and there's a third after here, we're going to be talking about something else that this supreme court decision goes against everyone's minds and hearts and we're going to talk about something else. >> we have called this the roberts court, because justice. but he put his -- he's the decider, not kennedy, it's truly the roberts court. talk about how you would assess the roberts legacy from here? >> and this did throw everyone for a loop, for the longest time, justice kennedy has been the swing justice. but this is just one opinion, and of course, this is the biggest opinion the roberts court has issued on in a political lens. but it is just one o

let's bring in the political director mark murray. mark, do you find that analysis too simple? >> dylan, having a lot of money and having more than your opponent always helps in contest. but it is not the only thing. if money were the only requirement to be able to win, howard dean would have won the democratic nomination in 2004. mitt romney had more money than anyone else in 2008 would have been able to win on the republican side in that cycle. and people like steve forbs and also phil gramm might become president one day. >> what are the intangibles. >> the one thing that was the nature of the recall, when you dig down into the exit polls, there is a big concern by wisconsin voters that recall went too far. 60% said that a recall should only be when there was official misconduct. and another 10% said that recalls should never end up occurring. so that was a big hurdle or organized labor and for tom barrett. not o only did they have to say, look, i'm better than this guy, but you need to fire scott walker two years before he is up for reelection in 2014. >> let's talk exit po

i want to bring in mark murray quickly. mark, the president so far at least starting these remarks and not talking about this decision out of arizona. he did, however, release a statement as we know earlier today, does that surprise you? >> it doesn't surprise me right now that the president hasn't remarked on today's supreme court announcement. precisely because the speech he's giving today is similar to remarks he gave on friday in florida where he is trying to set up two duelling economic visions in his economic hit against mitt romney. this is almost just right out of what he said on friday, it is possible he might mention the supreme court decision later in his remarks today. but mainly what he wants to talk about are the two different economic visions between himself and mitt romney. >> all right, mark. we'll talk with you after a break regarding the other supreme court decision. campaign finance, as it relates to obviously the conversation we had about a lot of big money donors having what many perceive as great inter

let's go to mark murray, let's dig into the numbers because you have some people who believe that theber of negative ads against the health care law made a difference as to how people view this law. >> to the second point you were talking about, when you look at the individual components of the health care law, it's actually rather popular, when you encome pass either -- the liberal columnist for "the washington post" actually put this very well. where the health care law has almost been caught in this vicious cycle. it was somewhat unpopular right after passage in 2010, and because of that unpopularism, the democrats have not wanted to talk about it. and romney and other republicans are talking about it a lot. so when democrats are not really touting its achievements, and republicans are doing all the talking, that creates a vicious cycle that all of a sudden the law becomes more unpopular and unpopular. >> does that also dig into people seeing the overall health care laws something not appealing to them, but when you break it down for their families, are we seeing a difference there

we have mark murray joining us. you have been able to get a response from the romney campaign. an interesting time. he is hitting the road on the bus tour which should give media more access to him. >> when you talk to republicans, they say that there is transparency with the romney campaign. they have the f.e.c. reports that if somebody donated $250 or more, you can see it in those reports that the federal election commission. tamron, that is the bare minimum. that was the thrust of the article that came out yesterday about the transparency or lack thereof. they are doing the minimum. only what the law requires and nothing beyond that. that raises questions how a mitt romney presidency would operate. would they release the bundler lists as george w. bush did and president obama does. would they release the logs as the obama administration and obama white house has done. those are relevaatevant questio. >> he talks to the media and recently he compared his approach to governor chris christie. romney's reply was they want to hang you with the details here. this is very interesti

nbc senior political editor mark murray joins us. s is the first major poll sense the announcement. what else have we learned? >> well, tamerron, it is important to know this is just one poll right now. that it does show that right now this policy does seem to be a little bit of a winner. i would note that the independent numbers backing by a 2-1 margin so you essentially have everyone breaking in favor of this policy, except for the republican base. your conservatives, republicans who won't vote for barack obama in any respect, but i do think that aside from all voters, this is going to have the biggest impact on the latino electorate and whether or not the -- those people will actually go out to the polls right now. public polling shows they back president obama by a 2-1 margin over mitt romney. maybe higher than that. the question is whether these people will turn out in november. >> there was an argument, mark. specifically one on real politics. 10% or more of the electorate and n only seven states, including swing states, colorad

they help you a lot but sometimes can get you off message. >> mark murray, thank you very much. r glance at first read there. thank you, mark. >> thanks. >> the outcome of the wisconsin recall election is widely seen as a major blow to organized labor, particularly the nation's public sector unions. conservative columnist rich lowry writes it may be remembered as the death rattle of public sector unions in the state that first created them. joining me, democratic strategist contributor jimmy williams and a.b. stoddard with us as well. jimmy, is that the death rattle we heard yesterday for unions? >> i don't think it is the death rattle. i will say that i think labor unions have been on the decline in the last 10 to 20 years, ever since ronald reagan busted the strike of the air traffic controllers back in the early 80s. we have seen a steady decline of labor membership throughout the country. you now have more right to work states. i did labor issue when is i worked in the united states senate. one thing that i remember the most about having to do with issues is every single time

nbc news senior political editor mark murray is in washington.ou, the people coming into this retreat calling it republican palooza. >> you have donors from all 50 states coming in for this, as many as 300 of the rain makers in the republican party. basically if you were able to pony up a check of $50,000 or more for the xanl campaign or y were a bundler, you got an invite. the attraction is not just the face time with the candidate but also an opportunity to sit in and learn from and listen to folks like karl rove who is going to be holding a panel about media, john mccain, condoleezza rice talking about foreign affairs. that's one of the big draws for the sort of rainmaker top class of republican donors. >> we'll talk a little bit about the money, about the president and the money efertihe was able raise last month. is his campaign in trouble? as we look at the numbers, apparently president obama and the campaign burning through more money than what they're pulling in. "the new york times" writing this week about the differences though, the sta

for naught if the supreme court decides to strike down the whole thing tomorrow. >> all right, mark murraythank you very much. greatly appreciate you joining us. thanks again. up next, my conversation with nba legend, your vin magic johnson about his brand new tv network. plus, what he said about lebron james. >> it's done. it's done. he proved, look, this man is the best basketball player in the world. >> but first, there's a lot going on today and here's some things we thought you should know. senator claire mccaskill of missouri says she is skipping the democratic national convention this year. she faces a tough re-election fight and told "morning joe" that's the reason she's staying in her home state. >> i've never gone when i've had a contested race. i think you know, you've got to say to people at home which is more important, going to a place with a bunch of party hon closes and having cocktail parties or being at home talking to them. so this is never been a hard call for me. everybody's trying to make this a big deal. it's stupid. >> has nothing to do with the president not being

let's bring in mark murray to talk about this. it's interesting.s article in "the new york times" about the latino growth not fully felt at the voting booth and it says that hispanic leaders are frustrated and democrat leaders are worried as they increase efforts to rally latino support. >> it's one of the biggest challenges for the obama campaign is turning these people out. you look at any poll out there including the most recent poll that shows that latinos are overwhelmi overwhelmingly breaking for president obama but the question is will the people turn out to votes? "the new york times" on sunday wondered how many of these latinos will vote that their registration numbers are down vis-a-vis other ethnic groups. so it is going to be one of the biggest stories, one of the reasons why the obama campaign is putting so much money registering people to vote. >> the numbers according to "the new york times" more than 21 million latinos will be eligible to vote this november. over 10 million of them are registered and even fewer turn out to vote. is

. >> mark murray is nbc's senior political editor and joins us now. and mark, yesterday mitt romney's speech, that to me, it struck me as the tone the romney campaign wants to have. serious, in control, appears like a leader, not making awkward jokes, not trying to make awkward interactions, saying here is the alternative to barack obama. i'm not going to give a lot of specifics here, but i look serious, somber, looks like i know the challenges ahead. >> luke, in addition to him talking about immigration, he also focused on the economy, too, the issue he thinks is going to be his trump card in this election. but what really struck me was the change in the tone. mitt romney in 2011 and much of the 2012 republican primaries and also remember in his first presidential bid in 2007, 2008, sometimes use illegal immigration as a weapon to kind of hit his republican opponents, as well as kind of establish his conservative credentials for a guy who is a massachusetts governor. yesterday we saw a rhetoric from him we certainly didn't see during the republican pr

. >> mark murray, cnbc's political editor joins me now with our first read of the morning. and mark, a lot of stuff going on with obama talking about the eurozone crisis, mitt romney in michigan. it comes on the eve of a new poll from bloomberg showing barack obama 53%, mitt romney 40%. awfully high for the president, his best showing in quite some time. why is that? >> luke, it's one poll. and it's important to note, we don't know what's actually happened. maybe the immigration announcement we saw on friday has moved the needle a little bit. i will say from my reading of this survey, it actually had 33% of the surveyors and is likely voters were nonwhites. that's a little bit higher than you see in typical polls where the number is usually around 25 to 26 to 27%. but obviously, the obama campaign is going to take this as good news. we, of course, have been seeing a lot of polls in the last three or four weeks showing a very tight race between obama and romney. >> the big story yesterday was marco rubio. my colleague, jon karl from abc reported yesterday morning that marco r

mark murray is at the faith and freedom coalition's annual conference in washington, d.c., where mitt romney will speak to social conservatives tomorrow. mark, i know you're on site and we'll get to the faith and family convention but i want to ask, this is obviously big news. no decision, i always maintain, made this close to an election, doesn't have political calculation and consequences. what are the calculations and what are the consequences? >> i think this is about latino turnout. our nbc/"wall street journal" poll said 68% of latino registered voters said they were very enthusiastic and interested in the upcoming election, compared to 81% of all other voters. so this is i think an effort to really get latino voters, young people fired up about the election, and so you look at that -- in that political lens. also, one of the arguments of mitt romney and republicans when it comes to immigration, this president hasn't done anything with the latinos, he hasn't delivered. there's no reason to vote for him. so i think those are the political implications here. >> right. this is not

host: mark murray of nbc news in washington.raig gilbert of the "milwaukee journal sentinel' joining us from wisconsin. gentlemen, thanks very much for being with us. guest: thanks, steve. host: quick note of what a lot of you might be reading from "the new york times" bestseller list, number one this week is "the amateur" by edward klein, "the passage of power" is number two. and "the president's club" co-written by nancy gibbs and michael duffy is at number 10 this week. they were featured on c-span's "q&a" program and the interview is available on our web site. coming up in a couple of minutes, we'll turn our attention to the euro and the future of the european economy with an expert from george mason university and later, mona yacoubian of the stimson center will be joining us to talk about the developing story in syria. but with the help of our partners at cox communications cable, all week long here on c-span 2 and c-span 3, book tv, a look at programming from american history tv and book tv, our look at wichita, kansas an

joining me now to talk about the facts, nbc news senior political editor mark murray.ook at what is fact, what is spin. i don't even know what some of the categories we can call these things these days but nevertheless, let's talk about the obama ad here and what it charges. a case of hypocrisy. >> here are the facts. when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts from 2003 to the beginning of 2007, massachusetts as ranked with all the other states in the country was 47th out of 50 in job creation. on the sunday shows in particular romney campaign senior adviser ed gillespie said the first year of romney's governorship it ranked last, 50 out of 50, but by the end of his tenure in 2006, massachusetts was essentially in the 30s or so and, therefore, there was progress. now, that whole obama campaign video and the response you're hearing is basically saying, well, if you guys aren't going to count the first year of mitt romney's governorship, then if we're holding the same standard, 2009, at a time when the economy was -- when jobs were being shed hundreds of thousands of

. >> nbc's senior political edi or mark murray is live at the conference. set the tone for us. other big issues on the table they're discussing besides beating up on barack obama and trying to get him out of office come november? >> well, there is a lot of antiobama rhetoric but a lot of it is actually targeted to the social conservatives here in the audience. some 1500 social conservatives have gathered here in washington, d.c. hearing from a lot of republican elected leaders as well as people who might be mitt romney possible vice presidential running mates. yesterday marco rubio the senator from florida as well as ohio senator rob portman addressed the group. tonight virginia governor bob mcdonald addresses the group. a loft the rhetoric has been talking on social issues, abortion, and also talking about how morality mixes with fiscal conservativism. take a listen to some of the things kentucky senator rand paul said earlier this morning. >> i think it's immore to pass on debt to another generation. i think our problems, though, are worse and deeper and more profound than ju

mark murray, thank you very much. we'll see what happens in the week next week.hank you. >>> developing news from egypt. thousands of protesters packing tahrir square once again to denounce the military's power grab. we'll have a live report as egyptians await the results of its presidential election. so bre a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. [ male announcer ] aggressive styling. a more fuel-efficient turbocharged engine. and a completely redesigned interior. ♪ the 2012 c-class with over 2,000 refinements. it's amazing...inside and out. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. through mercedes-benz like, keep one of these over your head. well, i wasn't "supposed" to need flood insurance, but i have it. fred over here chose not to have it. ♪ me, i've got a plan. fred he uh... fred what is your plan? do i look like i have a plan? not really. [ f

mark murray, thank you for your time.thanks. >> also another developing story the outcome of the elections in greece created only a brief sigh of relief today on wall street. right now the markets are slightly higher the dow up one point mainly because of new concerns about the debt problems in spain and elsewhere in europe. cnbc's bertha coombs joins us live now. as i mentioned, everyone is talking about going into the weekend, what would happen in greece, and the way that the world really wanted it but now the bouncing ball of stress and worry has gone to spain and italy. >> yeah. for investors a lot of it is very much what have you done for me lately. certainly the markets relieved that greece's pro bailout new democracy party came out on top in the election there. the leftist party had vowed to undo the austerity measures that had been demanded by the european commission, european central bank, and the international monetary fund as part of that big $170 billion euro bailout package. but that new greek government stil

. >> tomorrow, mark murray of nbc news will speak about tuesday's wisconsin recall election between scott walker and thomas barrett. then, one commentator from george washington university will talk about your's debt crisis. then, an update on that the situation in syria and whether or not anything can be done to prevent further massacres. "washington journal," live sunday at 7:00 on c-span. tomorrow on "newsmakers," and sec overseer will speak about his efforts to prevent another wall street crisis and prevent word -- fraud schemes like that of bernie madoff. "newsmakers" ayers sunday on c- span. >> writing is a transactional process. it goes

host: we are joined by mark murray. your other title is a new dad, congratulations. guest: thank you. host: craig gilbert is joining us from ohio. thank you for being with us. guest: nice to be with you. host: what do we expect on tuesday? in terms of turnout, we have seen the polls show that governor walker is slightly ahead in some polls and democrats say it will attend -- will depend on turnout tuesday. what can we expect? guest: there has been amazingly little public polling so we just don't have a lot to go on especially given the national interest in this race. people are expecting a big turnout. this is a political conflict that has consumed the state for 60 months and everything is building toward tuesday. the same two candidates in 2010 had 50% of voting age adults in the state them out to vote and a presidential race in 2008 was 70%. we have not had -- and a governor's race where the turnout reached 53% in 50 years or 60 years. it can be fascinating to see how much higher than 2010 turnout goes. most people think it will be higher and democrats think the cl

joining me, political reporter for the "washington post" felicia som ez and mark murray. thanks for joining me. mark, we'll look at this day in november and say this tipped the election. might it be that powerful a step? >> alex, it is a potential game changer. one reason why has to do with enthusiasm. you look at a lot of the polls out there and a lot of parts of the democratic base aren't as enthusiastic about the election as republicans. in our may wall street journal poll, 68% of latinos were interested in the upcoming election, compared to 81% of all other voters and 90% of key republican voting blocs. if president obama's campaign team can get the 68% into the 80%, that's a difference between winning and losing a presidential election in these key battleground states. >>> generally speaking on the heels of all of this, how did mitt romney respond to the move? >> it's something they would really rather not talk about and that was clear both in mitt romney's response and also among national republicans more broadly. last night the faith and freedom coalition had their

nbc's mark murray joins me now. 's look at the drama surrounding all of that this week. >> reporter: well, right. it's important to note that that eric holder story probably was maybe the third or fourth biggest story of the week. it probably shouldn't be a coincidence that the vote was actually held at the very same time, at the very day of the health care ruling by the u.s. supreme court. people arg gured that this was politics. that's what democrats have been contending, and that is a little bit backed up by the fact, thomas, thatç the national rif association, which is one of the most powerful lobbies in washington, d.c., ended up putting out a score record where they wanted people -- they were going to score people's votes, yes or no, on the holder cont t content. when that was going on it flagged to a lot of people that this was politics. >> let's listen to some of the d.c. chatter again about this being not politics, but it's hard to cut through it all. take a look. >> i don't take this malter lightly, and i

. >> joining me now is senior political editor mark murray.several pat battleground states. the latest poll looked at michigan, new hampshire and north carolina. what did you find? >> we show a very tight race in the battleground states indicative of what we are seeing across the country. one thing we had in our nbc wall street journal poll, we did another subgroup of 12 complete battleground states and show president obama with a 50 to 42 advantage over mitt romney, much larger than the 47-44 margin in the poll. one of the things going on is that mitt romney is getting pummelled in the battleground states. his favorable unfavorable rating is worse in the patle grounds than nationwide. attitude about his business experience at bain capital are worse than nationwide. the ad interestingly enough is ç response to the she lacking that the obama campaign ads are having on mitt romney now. that's one of the more interesting developments as we get into the dog days of summer where obama has tough ads defining mitt romney. >> 30s and 40s for mitt romn

. >> and let's bring in nbc's senior political editor, mark murray. pet of all the sound coming from every direction, mark, regarding wisconsin. but today, the president held this news conference perhaps trying to end the week on a high note, leaves a message to the american people. he talked a lot about europe, the global situation, what's happening in greece. but, you know, the headline, at least the republicans would like to see today is this private sector is fine comment. >> you look at the entire week, tamron, i think the white house was on the defensive along with the obama campaign. it just wasn't the loss the democrats sustained in wisconsin. it was that they were still reeling from the after effects of that jobs report on friday and then, of course, the news conference where republicans picked it apart, jumped on what president obama said about private sector jobs are fine and that they, i think, have had a very, very good week so far. and in addition to the wisconsin recall, the jobs numbers in today's news conference, you look at some of th

senior political editor mark murray joins us.we talk about the totals and break down a lot of numbers that are baffling. let's talk about this big event or retreat in utah. their goal is to get romney in the white house. >> the biggest goal is to have a lot of campaign bigwigs, big time donors to rub elbows, to schmooze with romney and his top campaign officials and the person who becomes romney's top presidential pick. this is a donor event in utah in a way to make sure these folks are able to donate big, big money to fund all of mitt romney's ads and grassroots operations through november. >> let's talk about "moneyball" where things stand right now. the president outraised romney in the month of may but that's only part of the story line. >> that's right. so obama out raised romney but the rnc, the republican national committee out raised the democratic national committee and the romney victory fund which is just another committee, presidential candidate can have raised the obama victory found. what's going on here is big time

. >> mark murray, fan of the oklahoma city thunder. >> the u.n. says the syrian conflict is now a civil war. gun battles are being reported in the capital damascus in four main provinces and for the first time, washington is accusing moscow in helping assad with the brutal crackdowns on civilians. >> we have confronted the russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to syria and we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from russia to syria which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically. >> richard engle is nbc's chief foreign correspondent and he's live in cairo and richard, give us a state in play in syria now. do you believe the citizenry there is aware of the russian influence and how big a role russia will continue to play in this conflict? >> the people across syria are certainly aware of the russian position. there have been anti-russian demonstrations along with anti-bashar demonstrations and also anti-iran demonstrations so they're certainly aware of this dynamic. in

joining me now senior political editor mark murray. is the message, james carville and a few other democrats may not be too happy. >> well, tamron, it depends how you took that memo from james carville and stan greenberg. one of the points they were making is what barack obama and the democrats seemed to do is look forward to the future and say who has the best ideas to making the economy better to improving it in the long-term. and so i wouldn't be surprise fundamental that is what is what president obama talks about tomorrow. the only guidance we have from the campaign is he's going to contrast his vision with mitt romney's economic vision. we've seen that before. president obama talked about his economic vision in a speech in kansas in december 2011 and before the associated press news editors in april of this year. and so i don't know if it will be anything different but what would probably be different is that mitt romney would be the focus rather than republicans and the republican ideologies president obama is talking about in t