joining me for our "daily fix" chris cillizza, and mark murray, our deputy political director here at nbc. chris cillizza, first to you, the fact she's not seeking reelection, she was a shooting star in the last campaign cycle. to 9 heights of the straw poll in ames, and then also the depths, as she stumbled along the way. >> right. andrea, look, you noted it. june 13th, 2011, the first republican presidential debate, new hampshire, bachmann sort of the star of that debate in many ways. august 13th, 2011, michele bachmann wins the ames straw poll. two months, two great months in which she rose to become -- and we saw this happen time and against, she is rose to become the mitt romney alternative. what happened on that same day, rick perry, the governor of texas entered the presidential race. he sapped momentum from bachmann. she trueled to unite conservatives behind her and her penchant for speaking off the cuff, comments about vaccines, food stamps, ultimately fact checkers found them to be false, that ended up dragging her down as much as anyone else. she was her own best friend. sh

the more you know. >>> let's bring back our gaggle, mark murray and m.j. lee. chafy, a lifelong republican who became an independent is now a democrat. and it seems that these northeastern republicans, they're a dime -- they don't really exist much anymore. we've always talked about them sort of being absent, but you parlay that against what's happening with southern democrats, very regional parties now. >> yeah, absolutely. you see it just -- the election results after 2012, we saw it on the congressional level too, just how many house members, republican house members are in new england anymore. there are a couple in new york if you even count that as new england, but basically you have a couple of senators and that's it. it really is regional. as we talk about regional politics, i think it's important to look forward too. i don't think this is going to be in cement necessarily as we see a lot of migration, especially among minorities to the south. >> it's a good change. that's chuck's whole idea, mark, that perhaps you'll see places like wisconsin and pennsy

joining me live, nbc political editor mark murray. s of cower the irony of all this here. mark sanford had his victory lap this morning but he is in court tomorrow. it is the yin and yang of his political career. >> this is mark sanford dating back to 2009. he was considered as someone who might challenge president obama in 2012 race. then he had the appalachian trail, the affair with the mistress and as after couple months ago, people thought he would not win the republican run-off to get the republican nomination. he won that and faced adversity against democrat elizabeth colbert bush, he ended up winning. one thing for sure, he will be back in washington, d.c. >> one thing is for sure, his relationship with his party will be interesting in that the republican establishment pretty much abandoned him as far as money and support. he was asked about that this morning by matt lauer on the today show. let me play it. >> democrats took shots at you, your own party walked away from you in terms of support for your campaign. so who are your

we'll get the first read with nbc political editor mark murray and the update on the benghazi hearingsts from the white house and speaker boehner. steam? ♪ now you can give yourself a kick in the rear! v8 v-fusion plus energy. natural energy from green tea plus fruits and veggies. need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. need a little kick? ooh! before tori was taking her kids to lunch in her new volkswagen... before her passat had passed 30 different inspection tests, and before several thousand tennesseans discovered new jobs on volkswagen drive, their cfo and our banker met for lunch. together, we worked with a team that helped finance construction of the world's first leed platinum auto manufacturing plant. that's the impact of global connections. that's bank of america. >>> a critical day for the immigration reform bill being offered in the senate. the senate judiciary committee began considering efforts to change the bill crafted by the so call bipartisan gang of 8 senators. senators have offered 300 amendments, 200 by republicans. >> no one can dispute tha

mark murray, live in washington.ou. >>> the immigration bill survived its first eight hours of debate in the senate judiciary committee yesterday. >> senators fought off republican challengers to the proposed bill in the first full day of mark-ups. members of the gang of 8 were able to be back efforts by conservatives to make substantial changes to the legislation. the committee is expected to approve the measure within two weeks and clear the way for an epic showdown on the senate floor in june. joining me now for more is arizona congressman raul. thank you for being here. >> it's a pleasure to be with you again. >> now yesterday's senate panel was pretty contentious and i want to play something for that you senator cruz said about the prospects of the current bill with provisions for a path to citizenship were to reach the house floor. let's take a listen. >> in my view if those provisions are insisted upon and the majority has the votes to insist on those provisions, it is likely to scuttle this bill and cause it

joining me now live, senior political editor mark murray. mark, good to see you as well.political implications here as an improving economy. this is what you and the first reid team wrote today. the improving economy and improving economic confidence has a couple of consequences. first, it changes the oppositions issue matrix, after all, the gop's, where are the jobs, question has been replaced by what did the president know about this irs or benghazi. >> craig, the thing to note in the 2010 mid terms, the summer before elections wht republicans picked up so many house seats, a lot of senate seats, they flipped a lost governor masks, unemployment rate was the 9.5%. that gets lost in the president's law and health cap legislation they are debating. if you are looking at 7% unemployment rate this summer, that gives democrats the chance to do better. certainly bet are than 2010. if we remain on this current projectry where most of the economic news is positive rather than negative. >> let's talk about the political news we learn bed a few hours ago. vermont's governor decide

joining me live now with all of the details, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. oes hillary stand against her republican rivals, if the election were held right now? >> well, craig, it's important to know first of all this is very early. we have a long way to go before 2016. but because they have these numbers from quinnipiac, they show hillary clinton is up eight points among two potential republican opponents. that would be jeb bush and also rand paul, the kentucky senator. these are down a little bit from a march poll against marco rubio and paul ryan when she led both by more than double digits. and so, eight-point lead versus double digits, you're still ahead. >> yeah. >> there is a little bit of notice that her numbers have come back down to earth. >> what's driving the narrowing of the gap there. >> according to this one poll, a couple of things. one, it seems republicans have come back home. hillary clinton support among republicans has gone down a little bit. that should not be surprising. as soon as she turns from being secretary of state to more of a do

should you reject these voices. >> joining us live, mark murray.name the nra specifically in that clip but obviously the language of tyranny, certainly language that we hear a lot from the nra leaders. that was a direct shot. >> that was a shot. you do see in a particularly partisan lens that the democrats are going after the national rifle association. the national rifle association in turn is returning fire of and this has turned into a political game right now where it used to be the national rifle association had reach within both parties. marchly democrats from the rural states but it was noted that howard dean, the 2004 presidential democrat was once an nra member. getting an "a" rating. now you would see future howard deans, future candidates for any type of office don't want to be associated with the national rifle association. >> politico is saying how not a single democrat spoke at last week's conference. saying that the" r could go for republican. they feel as if they need to take a far back approach. >> that is what seem to be the case.

senior political editor mark murray.e beating the war drum on issues like the sxirs bengha irs and benghazi. >> short material, beating the war drum on these trio of controversies affecting the obama administration, it is smart politics. you want to nick it to have a bad week or two for the obama white house. however, long term it might be a problematic strategy. that poll shows 73% of americans say the economy is a bigger priority than those trio of controversies. and at the end of the day, when it comes to november 2014, those mid terms or even 2016, or the elections going forward, the party that will win is the one speaking to voters. it is making the case. here's what matters to you. here are the pocket book issues we're good on. that will be the biggest task for the republican party. whether they can be able to speak to american voters that way. >> there is another stat out of that quinnipiac poll. this one involves ranging which is more important to them. 44% of americans said that the irs situation was most import

joining me live, nbc news senior political editor mark murray.usly, we're keeping an eye on mr. holder here. he said it in regards to his recusal. he said, i guess it might have been helpful to have written it down. he said he recused prior to the ap subpoena and the white house had no knowledge, he said. >> tamron, he's trying to walk this tight rope saying he had recused himself but at the same time being up to speed and trying to answer questions. it is a tricky situation for him. of course, this is a hearing that comes into this. we're going to be having a lot more congressional hearings not only on this matter, but also the investigation on the irs, singling out conservative sounding groups. and the congressional testimony goes on. >> but you pointed out in "first read" that this is sidetracking from a number of issues. i would imagine that we normally perhaps would be talking about the markup of immigration reform and some other things. work does continue, but to deny that this has certainly taps the brakes would not be honest. >> well, it

joining me live, senator political editor mark murray. drop but i was on with bon jovi and chris christie. you see him there and he was talkative and engaging. people were stopping him. he is incredibly popular. he says this is about his family. but we as journalists have to ask the other question that goes along with that. >> people are always looking for clues to 2016. we don't know if he will run for president yet. but this sign, the weight loss surgery often sends these 2016 signals. this happened in the lead up to 2012. remember, former miss governor haley barber, if i lose a bunch of weight, you know i'm running for president and he didn't run. people are looking for this for a potential sign that he runs. perhaps the biggest hurdle he has, he's running for re-election in new jersey. 2016, his ideology. some conservatives don't think he is conservative enough compared to all the other republicans who might be running in 2016. >> we know cpac didn't invite him. some big name were at the nra event in houston. we would not see him at a

mark murray is here now with this morning's first read. mark, nice to visit with you. >> morning. >> give a us a sense of the challenges that marco rubio face. times have clearly changed in terms of the position and the standing. >> there's two dynamics that play this immigration debate. the one is that all of a sudden marco rubio is joining on to comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform. conservatives don't like that. people see that as helping the president and the united states, but rubio, paul ryan, john boehner all on the camp of recognizing the party needs to do something when it comes to latino voters. they lost by 70% in the election. if marco rubio is able to get this done, despite the flack he is getting from some conservatives, he will have two feathers in his cap. one on having bipartisan, something to point to, an accomplishment. the other thing, if he runs in 2016, look, i stood up to part of my party. i'm an independent voice, just like barack obama was able to do in 2008 when it came to education reform. >> i want to read

nbc's senior political editor mark murray will join us with the first reading.here are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the busses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution to the earth. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment. your children's health can affect their gpa. yes, exercise and education go hand in hand. so make sure your kids are active 60 minutes every day. you'll help them feel good and even perform better in school. the more you know. >>> as mentioned, the white house confirmed president obama will travel to oklahoma on sunday to survey damage done by monday's deadly tornadoes. preliminary estimate put the total cost of the damage at at least $2 billion. homeland security secretary janet napolitano is already on the ground, helping with efforts for clean-up and get fema assistance for those whose homes were destroyed. the mass destruction on the ground, there are a lot of people taking a hard look at building codes in the state of oklahoma. here is tom costello. >> repor

mark murray, nbc's senior political editor. lee, let me start with you. the virginia electorate. here we are five months out. what was most striking to you over all in sort of the ultimate, one of the ultimate three and four most important swing states in the country. it looked like a swing state in the country, didn't it? >> absolutely. virginia is the pivotal state, then we look at the governor's race for that same kind of indication of what's going on in the electorate and right now, we're seeing two not particularly popular, nor well-known candidates. kuch nelly has some built in advantages because he is the attorney general. he's getting 51% in numbers. but by no means has close to sale. this is a very, very close race. in some ways, it's a consultants dream. there's two candidates waiting to be defined. we'll wait and see which campaign can find the other. i think this is a still still to develop. we're so used to five months out, and you're used to sort of feeling as if you know in a big race like this, everything that's going on, but it is surprising how undefined this ra

. >> nbc senior political editor is mark murray. he's here with the first read. nice to visit with you right now. i want to pull up a quote in the "washington post" story. this is from david who says it has become a washington spectacle. he said they were sort of figure skating judges say wreg going after minutiae on this a but it has left a americans with a soechbs what does the white house know and what are they perhaps hiding? it. >> has become a pr mess. it is important to know the most damaging story for the white house or the president is that the white house or the president was involved in the criteria for targeting these conservatives, sounding organizations for tax exempt status. the white house went out of its way to say we had no association. the president had no association. what has been problematic for them is the story about who knew what about when regarding that inspector general's report. it has taken the white house several days and has taken them several stories which has gone to their credibility. as we saw in the clip from white house press

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joining me, senior political editor mark murray.to detail on what you mean by that. >> that has to do with the fact that there is now a full-on media feeding frenzy going on. when you are just dealing with the benghazi e-mails, that was one thing. you end up dealing with the irs investigation. now comes this story about the justice department, wanting phone records for a.p. reporters and editors. and it turns into a feeding frenzy. it is very important that we don't have all the facts. my colleague chuck todd just reported that one of the big talking points regarding the benghazi e-mails from the white house, from very senior white house official ben rhodes, the national security adviser ended up saying according to some earlier reporting from last week that he wanted to help address the state department's concerns in drafting these benghazi talking points. chuck todd got the e-mail. and it never addressed that at all. so bottom line, we don't have all the facts on any of these three stories. there is a media and feeding frenzy goin

nbc's senior political editor mark murray is here and joins me for more. a few things that jump out at me here. hillary clinton it seems that some of this mud that was being thrown during the benghazi hearings trying to attach her to this controversy seems to have res mountainado wi resonated with some republicans who say we don't like obama but hillary is doing great on the world stage. >> you can actually see that. i think it was inevitable the republicans would always come back home and hillary's numbers kind of come back down to earth a little bit. it is important to note this is just one poll showing her favorability numbers going down. a recent "the washington post"/abc poll had her approval rating at 62%. it is interesting to see if this quinnipiac poll is part of a larger trend or it's just one survey that's out there. >> an interesting thing that i got from that ann romney sound bite where she said, well we're kind of partial to paul ryan, we were talking yesterday about ted cruz and he sort of said, the future of the party is in people like rand

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with pastor arnold murray if you would like to receive more information concerning shepherds chapel you may request our free introductory offer our introductory offer contains the mark of the beast audiotape monthly newsletter written bible study tech catalog list of reference works available for shepherds chapel to request our free introductory offer by telephone call 1-800-643-4645 24 hours a day you may also request introductory offer by writing to shepherds chapel po introductory offer by writing introductory offer by writing to shepherds chapel po box introductory offer by writing to shepherds chapel po box 416, gravatt, ar 72736 once again shepherds chapel po box po box 416, gravatt, ar 72736 we invite you to join us for the next and at bible study each weekday at the same time thank you for watching today's program and god bless you he's got the whole world in his

murray may have been motivated by money. >>> a week away from a special congressional election in south carolina, and republican candidate mark find himself pictured on a controversial billboard. an ad for a website that arranges extra marital affairs. sanford's face featured, he had an affair with a woman in argentina who he is engaged with. he is not commenting on the billboard. >>> the race for john kerry's senate seat is set in massachusetts. former democratic congressman ed markey facing political newcomer gabriel gomez. markey is the top fund raiser and has kerry's backing. kerry gave up the seat when he became secretary of state. >>> a california couple has been reunited with their baby after losing custody following a hospital visit. this all started when anna and alex nikolayev took their 5-month-old son, to a hospital with flu-like symptoms. against medical advice, they took him to another hospital for a second opinion. the next day, child protective services took sammy away, citing severe neglect. the judge stepped in and gave the child back to his parents. >> we can hold him in our arms. we don't have to be scary

mark consweulos. >> there is more creative freedom. not only the way young people watch, but for any creative soul, that's why bill murray can do anythingwhen there's no studio involved or network executive involved. that's what they're dreaming of. >> the other thing that is great for the stars, if the pilot is picked up and people have to watch the download, which i should stress is free. when we shoot another 12 episodes, if we do, if it's picked up. then it will be on ama zzon pri. right now it's free. the stars when they look, if it's picked up. i'm not locked in for 22 weeks. it's flexible. his schedule with online television is much more flexible. >> which is only good for your show. >> it's great for us. and we also, we have the ability to let people into the process, which i find kind of exciting. rather than suits in hollywood on the basis of focus groups deciding what everybody is going to see on television. amazon calls this, you call the shot. >> horrifying initially. >> who wants to be troll bait. you know, i thought just to hang the show out there and let people at it. the more i thought about it. really, i have been trol

mark udall and saxby chambliss are the two best golfers in the senate. >> the course was lucky. >> we have these 16-20 republicans. this is how the process is going to go. patty murraynd paul ryan have their budgets and they have done what they have had to do. this will be between a group of you now the president? >> everyone will be involved. nothing happens behind closed doors in this town, and that's ok.this needs to be something that is transparent. at the end of the day, this will affect the lives of millions of americans. it's going to be a process for everyone involved. patty will be involved. paul will be involved. it requires presidential leadership. if you look about whether it is tax reform in 1986, social security reform in 1983, or the last two examples when we try to do something significant to improve the economy and deal with a huge debt and deficit problem, which seem small relative to what we have now, it always involves present -- presidential leadership. it must. the president must be supported in order for it to become enacted. the resources of the omb, a so on,ry department, and are critical to this. the president has to step up and show leader

mark udall and zaxby chand i chandlkiss investable offers him a world. >> the course was lucky. >> we have 16 to 20 republicans. this is how this process is going to go. patty murrayaul ryan have their budgets and done what they have to do. >> between a group of u.n. the president. >> in this town nothing happens behind closed doors which is okay. this needs to be something that is transparent. at the end of the day this will affect the lives of millions of americans in fundamental ways so it is going to be a process, patty murray will be involved, paul ryan will be involved and it requires a presidential leadership. if you look back whether it is tax reform 86 or whether it is social security reform 83 the last two examples where we did something significant to improve the economy and deal with what seemed to be a huge debt and deficit problem which by the way seems small relative to what we have not always involve presidential leadership. it must. the president had ultimately been in support in order to have it become effective and inactive but the resources of management and budget and the treasury department are critical to this. the president has got to step