claire mccaskill called this a culture of cover-up. mccaskill brought up the story of mark hood. he's that engineer hired by the family of brooke melton, the woman who died on her birthday in 2010 in a 2005 chevy cobalt crash. mark hood testified in the civil lawsuit last year that he essentially appears to have uncovered the complicated technical details of this ignition switch problem. several weeks ago, the nbc news investigative unit first spoke with him and he described how gm appeared to have changed the ignition switch part, that key part in 2006 without telling anyone, and now his investigation, mark hood's analysis of the whole issue, has really become central to these congressional hearings. >> one point about this, just the sort of -- the look of this whole thing, and what general motors might have thought with mary barra, the first female ceo of a major auto maker. the fact is that she went up there and two days in a row, we're seeing that it is the women and many of them are former prosecutors who are just going after her and citing a lot of details that she may not

george polk awards ceremony friday, poitras and greenwald were joined by their colleagues you and mccaskill of "the guardian" and barton gelman of "the washington post," who share the award with them. this is laura poitras followed by glenn greenwald in their acceptance speeches. >> i am incredibly honored to be

whistleblower edward snowden who shared nsa files with journalist laura poitras, glenn greenwald, you and mccaskill, and barton gelman. the group also won a george polk journalism award last week. in a statement, snowden honored the journalist involved saying -- and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!,

senator mccaskill, claire mccaskill asked her why has she not fired the engineer who was in fired of the cobalt ignition system? >> has mr. giorgio been fired? >> as the investigation has only been going on for a couple of weeks we've made process steps as i return to the office we'll start to look at the people implications. >> so he has not been fired. >> no, highways not. >> there is a document that he signed under his name mr. day di giorgio, he signed it approving of the change. now, it is hard for me to imagine that you would want him any why where near engineering anything. >> specifically why these ignition switches had been changed and not changing the part number. here is dean heller. >> it is incredibly unusual for a car company to change the car part and not change the car number. government investigators requested that g.m. provide any documents chronicling the switch change and who in company provided it. >> heller pointed out that g.m. had asked for and received bankrupt protection to bail it out and keep it in business and provide it from protection from past mistakes

just said, mary barra may be in for an even tougher day today, mccaskill accusing a gm design engineering under oath about authorizing an ignition switch change back in 2006. >> he's still working there today. it took them almost a year to issue a recall, and that's all the new gm, so i think there's some tough questions that need to be answered that she's not going to be able to avoid by just saying, i'm waiting for the investigation. >> barra was hit repeatedly yesterday with questions about why it took more than a decade for gm to issue a recall over an ignition switch defect already linked to 13 deaths and 32 crashes. gm says they are conducting an internal investigation and the company will share their findings with the public. let me bring in renee and phil trautwein, the mother and brother of sarah trautwein, who was killed in a 2009 accident involving a 2005 chevy cobalt, one of the cars involved in the recall. thank you so much for being with us. and first of all, our sincere sympathies to you. i know all of this is coming back with what's going on now. i just want to play a l

. >> in terms of where claire mccaskill went on the change of the part number. i have gone through a lot of quality audits and the reason you have different numbers for different parts is traceability. >> number of reasons, that being the key one. >> if there's a problem or a defect in the manufacturing process you can trace back exactly where that happened. you call that not good engineering principal. it is a total violation of a total quality management system, correct? >> correct. >> total quality management has been part of gm for how many decades? >> it has been improving along the way. >> the engineering departments in particular are totally focused on those principles. correct? >> correct. >> when you change a part there is going to be an awful lot of engineering the goes into changing that part. there will be some parts that go with any part. >> depends on the change. >> how many? there are multiple parts to ignition switches. so when you read designs that there will be different parts combined with that part. >> and the part number general motors uses

senator claire mccaskill. >> reporter: mccaskill is talking about engineer ray degiorgio who's still at the company today. this memo showed degiorgio signed offer on a new ignition switch to replace a faulty one in 2006, but the part number was never changed, so there was no way to differentiate between old switches and new ones. barra had few answers. >> i don't have the complete facts to share with you today. i became aware of the defect and real of january 31st. >> reporter: when the key is inserted into the ignition, the problem was in the back of the ignition switch assembly. this part called the detent plunger was too short and didn't fit snuggly into the splot. it could turn the switch turning the kaur after and the safety procedures. the replacement plunger is 15% longer than the defective one, fitting snuggly into position and holding the key in place. senator ed markey. >> we now know the difference between this switch and one that would have worked was the difference between life and death. >> reporter: we also now know at least 17 employees, including digiorgio and execut

angie, in our cover story, missouri senator claire mccaskill accused general motors of having a "culture of cover-up" during the time faulty ignition switches were linked to at least 31-crashes and the deaths of 13 people. it's also led to a current recall of 2.6 million g-m cars and a showdown in a senate hearing room. in more combative questioning by senators than g-m ceo mary barra faced in the house, a senate subcommittee demanded to know who was responsible for the installation of redesigned ignition parts numbered the same as those they replaced on compact chevy, pontiac and saturn cars. with the same number, the change was untraceable to owners and federal safety regulators and averted a mandatory recall. "in late 2006 or 2007, gm replaced the ignition part but did not tell anyone." subcommittee chairwoman claire mccaskill of missouri on documents that show a g-m engineer who authorized a redesigned ignition in 2006-- then denied it in a court deposition, last year. she had a phrase for that. "a culture of cover-up that allowed an enginer to lie under oath, repeatedly." barra vowe

: mccaskill is talking about g.m. engineer ray digirogio who is still at the company. the memo shows digirogio signed off on a new ignition switch to replace the faulty one in 2006 but the part number was never changed so there was no way to differentiate between old switches and new ones. barra had few answers. >> i don't have the complete facts to share with you today. i became aware of the defect and the recall on january 31. >> reporter: when a key is inserted into ignition, the problem was in the back of the ignition switch assembly. this part, called the detent plunger was too short. it didnt fit into it's slots. the looseness meant the key could spontaneously switch turning the car off and disabling safety features. the replacement plunger is 15% longer than the defective one. snugly fitting into position and holding that key into place. senator ed markey: >> we now know that the difference between this switch and one that would have worked was the difference between life and death. >> reporter: we also now kno

it is outrageous. >> that was senator mccaskill of missouri. helped "the new york times" identifying one of the 13 victims that they believe are in that 13 list who died as a result of the ignition defect. i want to ask you, joan claybrook, michael moore wrote "i'm opposed to the death penalty, but to every rule there is usually an exception and in this case, i hope the criminals at general motors will be arrested and made to pay for their premeditated decision to take human lives from lousy $10." can you talk about criminal liability here over these years? >> we have been trying since 1966 to get, no penalties into the department of transportation safety statute. we have always failed because the auto companies have opposed vigorously. but i think the time has now come to put a requirement that if an auto company knowingly and willfully covers up or refuses to disclose a safety defect or noncompliant safety standard, that they're liable to criminal sanctions. that would include jail time as well as a dollar amount. it is really passed time for

they won the george polk award along with you and mccaskill of "the guardian" and barton gelman of "theashington post." the pulitzer prize will be announced today. glenn greenwald and laura launched thetly intercept along with jeremy scahill. when we come back, another george polk award winner will talk about the elections in afghanistan. stay with us. ♪ [music break] salimd ho and dr. washington. fred ho died on saturday after a long battle with cancer. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we and the show with another recipient of the george polk award, matthieu aikens, who was honored for his rolling stone article, "the a-team killings." it uncovered convincing evidence that a u.s. army special forces unit till 10 afghan civilians and wardak province. he spoke friday at the george polk award ceremony in new york. >> i want to highlight the difficulty of the lives at the other end of the scale, you know, what they call a great ability, people whose lives pass bymournig and whom the balance is legitimized. this is the role, illiterate poor

claire mccaskill, democrat from missouri, chairing this hearing today. we'll be watching. >> thanks. >> you got it. >>> up next, we'll speak to the father of a young woman who was killed in a crash caused by these gm ignition issues. and we're going to be keeping a close eye on hawaii, where we're minutes away from the first waves triggered by the massive earthquake in chile, will be hitting. the good news, it looks like hawaii will be fine as long as people stay out of the water. >>> first, a look at today's "planner." the president goes back to the university of michigan. he spends a lot of time in ann arbor. it's a favorite place for him to go. this time, talking minimum wage. we'll be right back with more tdr after the break. ♪ ♪ mattel started in a garage. disney started in a garage. amazon started in a garage. ♪ the ramones started in a garage. my point? some of the most innovative things in the world come out of american garages. introducing the lighter, faster cadillac cts. 2014 motor trend car of the year. ain't garages great? so, what'd you thi

mccaskill: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: you know, madam president, every once in a while it is probably a healthy thing for all of us to sit back for a moment and reflect on why we're here. what is the united states senate supposed to be about? why do we come to the senate? why did our founding fathers lay out a constitution that had these branches of government, and in the branch of government that we reside in, we are called the legislative branch. so what is that about? i think what the founding fathers wanted us to do is to make our laws reflect the values and priorities of the american people. and the paycheck fairness act is a simple step towards making our laws reflect two of the most important values we have in the united states of america. i guarantee you if i walked up to any of my colleagues that intend to vote against this and said do you believe in equality and justice, they would say of course we believe in equality and justice. then why would you not support this legislation? because it is just tha

this is the exchange with senator claire mccaskill. >> someone at general motors had switched out the unsafe ignition switches in several car models and covered it up by using the same part number for the same switch. when there cooper confronted general motors, mr. ray digeorgeio, their lead switch engineer with the evidence of the part switch, he lied. he said he didn't know anything about it. >> now, barra said she simply contact--she assumed that the g.m. legal team had been informed about that disclosure, but mccaskill showed a piece of paper that showed digeorg digeorgey'digeorgedigeorgeio's h the switch of the part. who knew it, when did they know t and where did that evidence go to what level of g.m. and if this was all part of the old g.m. the g.m. that proceeded it's bankruptcy, or the new g.m. which is what barra has been calling it, a company that she said is now dedicated to consumer culture. a lot of congressmen were asking, well, what kind of culture did the old g.m. conduct? and i think that is the gist of the kind of testimony and scrutiny that g.m. will be undergoing

so thank you, chairman mccaskill. aske.. so it is my responsibility to resolve it.when we have answers we will be transparent with you with our regulators and customers. while i can't turn back the clock as soon as i learned about the problem we acted without hesitation and told the world we had a problem that needed to be fixed because whatever mistakes were made in the past we will not share from our responsibilities in the future. gm will do the right thing. this begins with my apologies to everyone affected by the recall especially the families and friends of those who lost lives or were injured. i am deeply sorry and the men and women of general motors are deeply sorry. i've asked the former attorney to conduct a thorough investigations of the actions of general motorgeneral motors andd updates and he tells me his work is well along. he has the free reign to go regardless of outcome. the facts will be the facts. once they are in my leadership and i will do what is necessary to ensure this doesn't happen again. we will hold ourselves accountable. however i want

claire mccaskill, thank you very much for joining us.tragedy is really unspeakable, but it remains to be seen, is this something that the base could have prevented given access to weapons surrounding the base? >> it's very hard to see how, andrea. this young man was active and had the right to be on the base. he was in his camouflage uniform at the time. and clearly he had mental issues, he was under mental health care. so you know, there was some really good things that happened yesterday, but it doesn't really take away from the incredible tragedy that the families endured and that the army once again finds itself in a posture at ft. hood where they are in deep grief and sympathy for human life. we have ignored it now for a long time, that there are people out there doing violent things not getting adequate services. >> within the military, we've been talking to iraq and afghanistan war veterans as i know you have as well. they are suffering and these are the combat veterans. this man was not, this soldier, we understand had been in ir

chairman mccaskill, ranking member heller, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. to begin, i would like to say that on behalf of everyone at nhtsa we are deeply saddened by the lives lost of the crashes involving the general motors switch defect. the victims, families and friends, several of whom i know at the hearing yesterday and some who maybe are today have suffered greatly. and i'm deeply sorry for their loss. safety is nhtsa's top priority. our employees go to work every day trying to prevent tragedies like these are our work reducing dangerous behaviors behind the wheel, improving the safety of vehicles, and addressing safety defects has helped reduce highway fatalities to historic lows not seen since 1950. in the case of the reseller recalled general motors vehicles, we are first focused on safety and ensuring the general motors identifies all vehicles with defective ignition switch, fixes these vehicles quickly and is doing all it can to inform consumers about how to keep themselves safe. we are also investigating whether general

mccaskill appeared sunday on c.b.s., comparing student rape cases in colleges to those in the military. >> i see a lot of similarities on college campuses in terms of a closed cultural environment, where victims are so worried about how they're going to be viewed if they come out of the shadows. so i think the first step is to >> woodruff: meanwhile, women are increasingly filing cases under the federal title nine law that requires schools to prevent assaults and protect victims. more than 50 campuses have on- going investigations into whether they are complying. >> woodruff: we're joined now by three people at today's event who have all taken leading roles in dealing with this problem. carolyn "biddy" martin is the president of amherst college. the school came under scrutiny when students filed federal complaints about the campus' handling of sexual assault reports. alison kiss is executive director of the clery center for security on campus, which works directly with schools. and andrea pino is a student at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. she is an assault survivor h

claire mccaskill sort of set the tone for today's hearing. >> we don't know how many people crashed becausef this cover up. we do know that many died, including miss melton, and at least one of my constituents. >> now the ranking republican member of the committee senator dean heller of nevada said that he is a stock car driver -- his father is a stock car driver and he pointed to what he called a troubling practice of gm of using the same number for different parts. >> government investigators have now requested that gm provide any documents chronicling the change and who within the company provided it. i'm also requesting that gm provide this committee with that same information. >> what he is talking about there is when gm discovered it had a problem with the ignition switch it replaced the device, but used the same number, suggesting there was probably a cover up. and he is also concerned about gm's bailout, supported by the federal government which allowed it to have bankruptcy protection and presumably shields it from any liability from any problems prior to the bankruptcy. including

for our audience an exchange that happened only a few minutes ago between committee chair claire mccaskill and mary barra just a short time ago. i think we have it, let's play it for our audience. >> what i want to know is, what investigation began after that deposition? >> that is part of the investigation -- >> so you don't know whether or not anything happened after that investigation? >> i don't have the complete facts to share with you today. >> okay. well, that is incredibly frustrating to me that you wouldn't have a simple timeline of what happened once you got that knowledge. >> greg, your reaction to this, not only senator mccaskill's heated words there, but when you hear the family members say she was scripted, that they didn't get any answers, and now we're on day two of mary barra having an opportunity to share more details, even with their internal investigation going on right now. >> well, they are right, she was scripted, but the lawyers have instructed her on what she can say, what she can't say. there are lawsuits pending, so, you know, in fairness, yeah, there's not much

. >> melbourning cas kill said -- mccaskill said the company swept it away for many weeks, that the ignition stopped, and brakes and airbags failed to act. >> we know the difference between this switch was the difference between life and death. do you know the other difference? the other thing we now know? that it would only cost $2 to repair. >> senators challenged general motors suggesting they put profits over people, deciding it was more cost effective to settle lawsuits than fix the parts on millions of vehicles. >> do you know if g.m. used this cost benefit. >> the documents shared, if they are true, will demonstrate that it's completely unacceptable. >> i didn't ask you that. i said do you know if gm used the cost benefit analysis in its history. not for a safety item. it would be unacceptable. >> mary barra has been with general motors for 33 years, bust insisted she did not know about the cobb alt issue before becoming c.e.o. three months ago. >> as a woman to woman's, i'm disappointed, because the culture you represented is a culture of the status quo. a key question, why general m

senator claire mccaskill of missouri, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we heard from gmc, mary barra, that she is going to get to the bottom of this with her investigation. you talked about a culture of coverup. do you trust her? >> well, i think we'll see how the investigation goes. but the facts are pretty clear. you don't need an investigation to understand that they had a defective switch, and someone at gm in the engineering department changed that switch and didn't change the part number. there is no reason to keep the same part number unless you're trying to hide the fact that you have a defective switch out there that in fact ended up killing a number of people on our highways. >> as you clearly demonstrated in that hearing, this was a coverup. this was an outrage. people died. is anybody going to jail for this? >> that's a good question. we have the citizens united case where the supreme court said corporations were people. that's hard to get our arms around, if they are people, there needs to be some criminal accountability. depending on the facts of the investigation

mike barnacle, you and claire mccaskill. >> great time was had by all.he is great and legitimate baseball fan. >> she's great. coming up next, the top stories but first here's bill kairns with a check of the forecast. what's it look like? >> that's coming. spring fever is on its way. first we have a rough morning. eastern north carolina 12 were hurt by a tornado. but not these two gentlemen. they did the opposite of what storm chasers do. they floored it when they saw a tornado forming behind them while they were leaving work. this tornado was on the ground for awhile in eastern north carolina. you can see they high tailed it out of there. let's show you what we're dealing with this morning. heavy rain right over the top of new york city as we speak. there's a thunderstorm, lightning strikes with it. moving over long island, into connecticut shortly. i-95 into new york city, it's going to be a slow drive over the next hour. north florida drenched from jacksonville all the way from the florida turnpike from about gainesville. and eventually into the tampa

but senator claire mccaskill showed he approved the change in 2006. listen. >> has he been fired? the investigation has only been going on for a couple of weeks, we have already made process steps as i return to the office we'll start to look at the implication. >> is he still working there every day? >> yes. >> have there been any other instances where gm is changing a part and fixing a defect and keeps a part number the same? because this -- this to me is not a matter of acceptability, this is criminal deception. >> i am not aware of any, and i -- it is not an appropriate practice to do. it is not acceptable. >> i am very disappointed, really as a woman to woman, i am very disappointed, because the culture that you are representing here today is a culture of the status quo. >> the more i hear and see in these documents, the more i learn about what happened before the reorganization and in connection with the reorganization the more convinced i am that gm has a real exposure to criminal liability. >> the senate is not buying ceo's apology, and neither is heidi moore. good to see

and we'll be back in one minute with the top democrat claire mccaskill. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done. everin a day is building up layer, upon layer, of bacteria. and to destroy those layers? you need listerine®. its unique formula penetrates these layers deeper than other mouthwashes, killing bacteria all the way down to the bottom layer. so for a cleaner, healthier mouth, go with #1 dentist recommended listerine®. power to your mouth™. also try new listerine® naturals. the only mouthwash that combines the power of listerine® with naturally sourced ingredients. >> schieffer: we want to go now -- we want to go now to senator claire mccaskill about a variety of things, including this new survey that you're launching to try to find out about a sexual assaults on college campuses. but i have to ask but this thing that's blown

former prosecutor turned senator claire mccaskill. >> here's a document that he signed under his name, approving of the change. >> reporter: but the part numbers remained the same for both new and old, making any change hard to track. >> is he still working there every day? >> yes. >> reporter: meanwhile, a house investigation has turned up more internal gm documents that cited high costs as a reason for not ordering fixes way back in 2005. one saying the cost of the ignition switch would go up by 90 cents. ceo barra promised action if gm's investigation finds wrongdoing. >> if that means that there's disciplinary actions up to and including termination, we will do that. >> reporter: all of it too painful for the family of sara troutwine. they now believe her fatal accident in 2009 may have been the result of the gm defect. >> i don't know how they sleep at night. i really don't. there's many people out there that lost loved ones for a $2 fix. >> reporter: while gm has an internal investigation under way, the justice department has launched its own criminal investigation. tom costello

>> if there's a safety issue on the vehicle -- >> do you support a proposed law by senator mccaskill and myself i would say recalled cars like yours can no longer be rented or loaned do you support outlaw? >> i would like to read the whole bill. >> you haven't read it? it's been out a long time to read are you aware they can be rented or loaned? you can send your owner to a rental place or get a loaner and they could get a defective car. are you aware of that there is no law that says -- >> i checked here but they are grounded. for this specific issue one of the things we did is made sure -- >> i am asking do you support the law senator mccaskill and i and others have proposed that would say if the car is recall that it cannot be pleased or loaned. >> my understanding is the community is voluntarily complying. >> do you support the law yes or no? >> it makes sense. i would like to understand. >> conceptually it's not a problem. do you support the bill? >> i haven't read it. >> since you were the ceo when we got an e-mail from your organization that you are a part of in the auto manuf

. >>> this week senator claire mccaskill is serving 350 colleges and universities on how they handleide "an unprecedented look at how colleges and universities act or sometimes fail to act to protect students and bring perpetrators to justice." >>> john mellencamp is not happy with wisconsin governor scott walker. the conservative republican used mellencamp's song small town during a recall campaign which prompted mellencamp to let walker know that he supports collective bargaining and union rights and thinks walker should consider that before using his music. >>> check it out. ray band aviators that belong to who else, joe biden. the first ever posted to the vp instagram account. that's pretty cool. >>> hours later, biden posted this photo with president obama and tweeted it out with a caption calling it "the first selfie." >>> that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. that was a pretty good picture. it's thursday. that means we're joined by syndicated columnist and self-proclaimed selfie king himself, bob franken. good morning, bob. >> we've had cutbacks here. i'm operating m

we continued to look into that and we are pleased claire mccaskill joined us in the efforts. i'm also pleased jay johnson looked into this. secretary johnson put charles edward on leave. complete' repair the office of inspector general but let's also get to the bottom of what's wrong with the secret service. martha: most people would be encouraged that there is bipartisan interest in cleaning this up. this is all under janet napolitano. do you know who was pressuring him to move these deadlines and change these reports? >> in our initial investigation from september, may of 2012 until the past election we just hit roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. those folk are gone. they got out of dodge as the posse was coming. charles edward resigned three days before we had a scheduled hearing on his office's performance. these people resigned ahead of our investigation. i'm suspicious of their activities. martha: can you give us figure examples from your report of what you found particularly troublesome? >> in the original report investigations there were people involved in tha

mccaskill: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: you know, madam president, every once in a while it is probably a healthy thing for all of us to sit back for a moment and reflect on why we're here. what is the united states senate supposed to be about? why do we come to the senate? why did our founding fathers lay out a constitution that had these branches of government, and in the branch of government that we reside in, we are called the legislative branch. so what is that about? i think what the founding fathers wanted us to do is to make our laws reflect the values and priorities of the american people. and the paycheck fairness act is a simple step towards making our laws reflect two of the most important values we have in the united states of america. i guarantee you if i walked up to any of my colleagues that intend to vote against this and said do you believe in equality and justice, they would say of course we believe in equality and justice. then why would you not support this legislation? because it is just tha

so next would be the senator. >> thank you very much, senator mccaskill.arra, the -- one of the families involved in this is a young woman who was killed, named natasha from elbert lehman, minnesota. i met with her dad doug yesterday. i talked to her mom -- or to her mom's husband yesterday. and this young girl was in wisconsin. she was in a cobalt with some friends and suddenly the ignition went off and the car barrelled 71 miles per hour into trees and two of the girls were killed, including natasha. and she was a hockey player, young girl, and one of the letters that her dad gave me that she wrote to him just a few months before she died. she talked about this is her words, i wouldn't be the good goalie i am now if it wasn't for you, dad, standing behind the net, behind the glass. just knowing you were there made me trust myself better and i definitely felt secure to know you had my back. and i think you understand that these families need someone to have their back. they want to have the backs of their kids, at loose the memories of their kids. i think

claire mccaskill, who also endorsed barack obama six years ago, has publicly gav given her support of clinton. and as the democrat port begins to coalesce about her campaign clinton is not saying much about plans or encouragement she's getting. one activist that hangs in the air is clinton's health and age. if elected age 69, clinton will be the second oldest president in history. she seemed to dismiss those concerns and said it would an mistake to dismiss older women in any capacity. >> an army of women, and frankly a very large group of older women who could make a real difference to america's corporations, businesses, academia, politics, you name it. >> politics, is that a hint? now the republican presidential race, jeb bush is considering the campaign. and he'll make a decision by the end of this year. bush's mother, former first lady barbara bush said last fall there had been enough bushes in the white house, but family members now say president jw.h. bush disagrees and he's encouraging jeb to run. >>> nearly every moderate republican is facing a challenge. house boehner supports

this week senator claire mccaskill of missouri announced what she called an unprecedented survey center350 colleges and universities to collect information on how the handle sexual assault. and a radio journalist robert knight has died. over the years, he cofounded the investigative news series "contra gate." he won the george polk award for his radio reporting on the 1989 u.s. invasion of panama. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. one of the greatest novelists and writers of the 20th century has died. colombian author garcia marquez 's masterpiece, "100 years of solitude," won the nobel prize for literature, passed away thursday the agency 87. columbia's president has declared three days of mourning. >> as a government and in a mosh, i declared a state of national mourning for three days and ordered all public institutions to fly the national flag at half mast. we also hope colombians will do

we're seeing the same game plan as mccaskill.the majority leader running ads attacking tillis and attacking tillis on essentially a sex scandal that doesn't involve him personally but his aids, which he fired and gave golden parachutes to. it's the sort of thing that might offend some of the voters. so even if it doesn't defeat tillis and nominate branen, it's designed to force the runoff. so the opposite are playing in republican primary. we have seen this before. this is a very old tactic. so it's an old tactic in politics. what's happening in the primary is a microcause kos m. so it's representing three segments of the republican party. this is not the republican a team. there's no richard byrd or jesse helms. none of them are topnotch candidates. the reason tillis is having a hard time sealing the deal, he should be getting 40%. he's the majority leader, he led the legislature, which was moving the state's policies from a modern state to a conservative state. he should be very popular. he's not rusted by a lot of movement con

. >> well, i honestly think claire mccaskill is more qualified to be the nominee than hillary clintonither of them. >> she'd be thrilled to have your backing. what a powerful endorsement that will make. >> there are people in new york state that have said that if hillary doesn't run, then gillibrand run. but there are a lot of really good qualified candidates. i think, though, elizabeth warren is going to have something in 2016 that both parties are going to be hungry for. and that is somebody outside the washington establishment. she scares people in washington. she scares people on wall street. and you get that candidate in the democratic caucus in iowa with a little bit of wind behind her, and -- >> my lord. >> it's a prairie fire. and the same thing is the case on the republican side too. people that are sitting three years out saying it's bush versus clinton do not understand washington. they might understand washington, they don't understand where the country is right now. >> think about her trajectory too. she created the financial protection bureau, got kicked out of washingto

senator claire mccaskill called g.m. out for what she called a culture of cover-up. >> even under the new g.m., the company waited nine months to take action after being confronted with specific evidence of this egregious violation of public trust. >>> this just in. the supreme court has removed ban on individual amounts donors can make to campaigns. this could have an immediate impact on congressional mid-terms. they did not change limits you can give to an individual campaign. what this ruling affects is the total amount you can give spread out over all campaigns. if you are very well think, you can give to a large number of campaigns with no limits. >>> president obama leaves from michigan this hour. he is said to make a pitch for raising the federal minimum wage. he wants it raised to $10.10. he has been pressing business owners to unilaterally raise their own wages if congress does not act. >>> we have some sad news. the confirmed death toll on the washington state mudslide has now risen. that number is now 29. agai

senator mccaskill. >> thank you. secretary mchugh, the defense finance and accounting services was set up by the secretary of defense back in '91 in an effort to try to better manage the business systems at the department of defense. and since its inception, they have consolidated more than 300 installation-led offices and denying sites, reduced the numbers of systems from 330 to 111, and obviously, they work off a working capital fund where they charge their customers. there's not a direct appropriation. i was a little concerned when i saw you launched an army financial management optimization task force pursuant to your directive that would move from the dfas some functions directly in the army, and i worry about that and so what i need to ask you is why, and because what we're going to do is if everybody does that, we're back to where we began with a lot of duplication, a lot of one branch not knowing what the other branch is doing as far as systems. as we're trying to get to an aud audit, it seems to me that deci

. >> the company swept the defect under the rudd, said mccaskill.gnition switches on the chevy cobalt can turn off, leaving drivers without engine power, brakes, steering or air bags. >> we know the difference between this switch and one that would - was the difference between life and death. do you know the other difference? the other things that we now know, that it would only cost $2 to repair. >> senators challenged general motors, suggesting they put profits over people. deciding it was more cost effective to settle lawsuits than fix the pardon millions of vehicles. >> do you know if g.m. used this kind of quest benefit analysis in its history? >> the documents shown to me yesterday, if they are true as we go through the time lime demonts that it's unacceptable. >> i didn't ask you that. ied do you know if -- i said do you know if g.m. used this cost benefit. >> not for a safety item. it would be unacceptable. >> mary barra had been with general motors for 30 years, but insisted she did not know about the cobb alt issue before becoming c.e.o. t

. >> thank you chairman mccaskill and thank you for holding this hearing and thank you ms. barra for being with us today. i want to begin by offering my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those affected by these tragedies. i also want you to know that we will get to the bottom of why it took so long to get these vehicles off the road. as many of you know general motors has issued a recall of over 2.2 million vehicles due to problems with the ignition switch that gm has admitted to knowing about in some form as early as 2001. these faulty ignition switches are links to 13 deaths. gm has now recalled chevy cobalt pontiac g5 saturn ions the chevrolet h. h.r. in the pontiac solstice and the saturn sky. last friday was reported that sometime in 2006 or as late as 2007 general motors change the ignition switch part. a whole new part was manufactured and sold but gm kept the same part number for that new part. now my hometown of carson city we have an engineering company that builds pistons in rods were nascar teams. i've talked with him and talked with owners and t

claire mccaskill suggests there's blame to go around. >> i don't get a sense that you're paying that close of attention to these cases. >> we reached out 98 times to follow up on various claims, death and injury claims associated with these vehicles. >> some republicans are asking why the obama administration didn't investigate these safety issues during the $50 billion bailout when some called gm government motors. bret. >> mike, thank you. >>> the dow gained 40 to finish at its highest close this year. the s&p 500 gains 5 and finishes at a new high. nasdaq was up eight. >> we're following breaking news out of ft. hood. on the other side of the break, we'll bring you the latest from the pentagon as we'regretting it. it's breaking, a possible shooting. we believe the shooting is occurring and there's a lockdown in place at flt hood, texas. we're gathering information from our affiliates and from our sources right now. >>> up next, president obama tries to bring his health care momentum to another divisive issue, but here are some of the fox affiliates covering other issues across the

but democratic senator claire mccaskill, who chairs this committee, in the hearing said let's call thisious violations of public trust, to give you a sense of the tone in the hearing room. senators just like members of the house wanting to know why general motors did not come forward for a decade about a problem that they knew about that in 2004 if not earlier. what we do know is gm created a new part, a new ignition switch part that didn't give that part another number. that is very abnorm for this company or any auto company to do. that was the real focus of the questioning, is was this a cover-up or was this just extremely sloppy work and a lack of communication? i want you to listen to what kelly ayotte had to say. >> the fact that there would be two identical parts, in other words, one's defective and one isn't, and you didn't change the part number strikes me as deception. and i think it goes beyond unacceptable. i believe this is criminal. >> it is not an appropriate practice to do. it is not acceptable. it is crucial. it's engineering principle 101 to change the part number when

there she gets challenged in the senate by claire mccaskill leading the way, former prosecutor, demolishingamy klobuchar and the women were leading the way on those committees. >> it's the end we don't have token women anymore in most parts of our society. which is a great thing. no longer judged as a gender by what one woman does, whether she screws up or does something terrific. there are all of these other women doing other stuff. i do not want to be a paranoid person saying gm would right now -- >> it has occurred, right? >> it has occurred. >> gloria steinhem, there's gloria before her 80th birthday, but i think back to the 70s when i covered her march in houston at the international women's conference and all of what she has accomplished and for her 80s birthday she went to butz juana. >> i love that period naturally because it was -- so many changes were happening. women had to fight so hard. you had all of these tensions within the women's argument and sorts of arguments and fights, it's so great to see these terrific leaders and they are so tight and so close. they've come together

so senator mccaskill said at the senate hearing last week he is lying. that appears to be the case. gerri: changed his stories on the record it would appear. tell me about gary altman? >> gary altman was the product engineer manager on the chevy cobalt in the 2004-2005 time frame. it was his directive to close general motors consideration of making any changes to the ignition switch to correct the problem. and the main reason given in the directive was cost. it was a business decision. and by the way that cost i heard figures of 57 cents or 90 cents per vehicle. that apparently was the corporate culture to be monitoring costs. so frankly i wonder, if mr. de giorgio was suspended for lying and if mr. alt man was suspended for telling the truth, really putting in writing it is a cost consideration that they weren't conducting a safety recall for a safety defect. gerri: alan, a lot of people are asking tonight, i asked if they would be scapegoats. the other question obviously is this going further? will other they're being paid while they are off and will this go higher? wouldn't be go

missouri and in montana, there were senate races in those states, jon tester's senate race, claire mccaskill'sce, where it was thought that they didn't really necessarily have a shot. and there were minimum wage issues on the ballot alongside those candidates that year that won by megamargins. 50- and 60-point margins. when you have two points on the ballot and one is winning by that much more, does it drag others races along with it? >> i think it does if you have one candidate on one side of the issue and another who's on another. >> right. >> it's a simple way of saying not only whose side you're on but whose side your opponent is not on, that being the working people of the state. it also provides a valuable organizing tool. it provides a tool you can use when you're going door to door, building the kind of ground game that's important to win in a state like missouri. >> well, on that point, from republicans' perspective, if republicans in washington are trying to block the minimum wage and they're seen as being against the minimum wage, president obama clearly making that case in michigan

whistleblower edward snowden who shared nsa files with journalist laura poitras, glenn greenwald, you and mccaskillnd barton gelman. the group also won a george polk journalism award last week. in a statement, snowden honored the journalist involved saying -- and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron matÉ. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. today we dedicate much of the hour to a conversation with award-winning journalist matt taibbi, who you may know from his reporting on financial crimes. now he is back with an explosive new book that asks why these crimes have gone unpunished, as an unequal justice system targets the most vulnerable. the gap between what the poorest make and the wealthiest bring home has reached levels not seen since the great depression, and the drug war has fueled the mass incarceration of the poor and people of color. >> earlier this month, attorney james kinney, who is retiring from the securities and exchange commission, gave a wid

and i want to thank my colleague, the chairman of the subcommittee, senator mccaskill, for enabling us to come together, as well as my other colleagues on both sides of the aisle, senators klobuchar and boxer and senator ayotte, for their very insightful and significant questions and comments on a challenge that should unite on both sides of the aisle. tragic events, death and life-changing injuries to unsuspecting drivers who were victims of a defective ignition switch in automobiles manufactured by g.m. a car defect that should have been fixed disclosed and remedied before these deaths occurred. i want to thank the families of the victims of these directive cars for coming forward and being at that hearing yesterday and sharing their stories with me and others. they are doing a great public service through their courage and strength. i want to also thank mary bauer, the c.e.o. of g.m., as i said to her then and i'm going to repeat now, i admire her fortitude and her service in coming forward to face the questions of our committee and be the face of general motors and the issues that