michael smerconish, always gracious and wonderful. thank you. >> thank you, tamron. >> coming up, was it an accident or murder? a georgia family demanding the truth after their teenage son's body was found rolled up in a wrestling mat. officials ruled the death an accident, but his parents say they have proof their son was murdered. his parents will join me live. >>> plus, a controversial new abortion law in california expands who can perform the procedure, including some nurses. but those fighting the law say it's dangerous for women. this is our "news nation" gut check today. you can join our conversation on any of the topics. you can find me @tamronhall and my team @newsnation. i'm angela, and i didn't think i could quit smoking but chantix helped me do it. i told my doctor i think i'm... i'm ready. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. i knew that i could smoke for the first 7 days. i knew that i wasn't putting nicotine back into my body to

. >> joining me now, sirius xm's michael smerconish, also an msnbc contributor and a great dad. would you have done, michael? >> well, two nights ago our 17-year-old came to us at dinner and said, this summer i want to go in on a senior house. there's nothing new about senior houses. they're as old as time. i have a suspicion -- >> i don't know what that is. i'm sorry. what is a senior house? >> senior house is you've graduated, you hang out with your buddies and throw parties. yes, beer is consumed. my hunch is that the senior house that my son envisions looks very much like the senior house in that picture. so here's the question that i ask as a parent. is my son safer in a house like that where adults are present, as was the case in this circumstance, where they had rules, no hard liquor, nobody drives, and no boys and girls behind closed doors, or is he safer without me there? now, i know the obvious answer is he's safer not being in an environment like that, but this is the reality. this goes on. it's hard to defend this guy if he's now not going to defend himself because "t

joining me now, host of "your business" and michael smerconish. before i get your thoughts on what's happening, i want to play sound we got in. susan collins of maine right after the meeting with the president at the white house. let's play a bit of that. >> it was a good exchange but it was an inconclusive exchange. now he has sent somewhat conflicting signals about what length of a debt ceiling increase he would accept and what might be attached to it or what might not. at least he's talking to members of both sides of the aisle. he may not want to call it a negotiation. that's what i would call it and do view that as progress. >> michael, of course, so senator collins saying the president may not want to view this as negotiations but the reality is, this is a bigger issues between the republicans, joe scarborough said this morning, there are two republican parties right now. >> well, tamron, i'm thinking about the two weeks that the gop could have just concluded, two weeks where they were solely focused on the glitches that accomplished the lau

joining me now mark murray, and michael smerconish. with you, mark, this is fascinating for many reasons. i grew up in the great state of texas like yourself. we've seen a change even in our state which has been solid red depending on the communities that you visit. who are in the center which may surprise people who follow politics? >> you follow american politics every day like you and i end up doing, you almost see a sense of this is red versus blue. democrat versus republican. this segmentation survey which is fascinating broke the american electorate into eight different groups and 51% of the folks are in groups that find themselves in the middle. as someone who follows elections and loves presidential contests and national elections, what was really fascinating, president obama either won or tied in all of these center groups which explains the 2012 presidential election. if you end up winning the center, you win national elections. president obama did well with the mini van moderates and tied mitt romney with the mba middle and

start for prospering in the new economy, whatever the new economic is and zachary karabell and michael smerconish. the dow was up all day, many people thought we might see jitters move through the market but investors knew something we did not. >> i'm no great believe in the wisdom of markets but in this particular week if you look for one rational act or in assuming that no matter what happened that we were not going to default on the debt and that was the only thing the markets are focused on, no great love lost or much care for the government shutdown. that is i think a massive political issue in this country. it simply is not one that is an mating investors right now. the debt ceiling was. >> fitch was looking at downgrading our credit rating, we saw this happen before. what was different this time? >> first of all, when the s&p downgraded the united states in july of 2011, there was always a equity sell-off but rates did not go up. everything people said would happen didn't happen. no matter what a few private rated agencies say, the world really does need u.s. treasury for the financial sys

. >> joining me now, michael smerconish, full disclosure, one of the losers in this, not that they arehey lost the game, i competed against when i was in high school, my school competed against them. the winning team, you are a dad, you love sports. 91-zip. is that bullying? >> well, it's not bullying but it's in bad taste at the minimum. i hold accountable whoever put the two teams on the same cal enl der. one of them seems to be such a perennial power house it was all predictable. tamron, the reaction i had after i watched some of the game film because it's widely available. in this age of concern over concussion, overhead injury and about sport injuries that result from football, you got to worry one of the kids will get hurt out there, being on the receiving end of a 91 thumping that the coach rightfully says could have been 150-0. >> they are there, you have a clock, you have to finish out a game. when you play a sport or anything you do in life, you tell the kids to play to the best of their ability. what were they supposed to do? >> well, he sat the first team guys after only 21

joining me now, michael smerconish, we noted that the officers were on the job and they were not being paid. some people saw that as talking politics but that's reality. this is an example of what is happening where they are put their jobs before their families in many cases and in this case they are not being paid. >> you know, i naively looked at that and said this surely will bring about a resolution of what's going on in washington because the optics are horrible. you've got these police not being paid and members of congress are being paid. i said wait a minute, they'll go back to hyper par san gerrymandered districts an sell this to the pop you lus they represent and it will work. and that's what's taking place. every is appeasing their own base. i called it out as i believe it's on stinance on the part of the gop leadership and the house in the way that stands in the way of a resolution. they'll throw red meat out for the troops and guarantee their re-election. it's a losing strategy for a general election nationwide. think about 2016, not 2014. >> you talk about throwing red me

. >> joining me now, michael smerconish. this has a lot of people talking about this.ative americans were specifically polled about the redskins name, that was nearly ten years ago, only 9% found it to be offensive and 90% said it was acceptable. in april of this year, the associated press found four out of five americans don't think the team should change its name. with that background and that information and now the president weighing in with his delivering opinion, do you think the cause will gain the momentum it needs? >> i'm not sure. you showed footage from davis, former clinton adviser representing daniel snyder in this skirmish. he quoted polling data that suggests that most native americans don't have a problem with the current name of washington redskins. so it seems like there's some conflicting polling data and what matters most is the poll of daniel snyder, because in the end he gets to call this shot. you know, thomas, he has said thus far never. and you can use all capital letters when you spell that out. >> do you think it was wise of the president to

should say restrict the content in their newspaper but i think that's the thing you know i michael smerconish asked me this today on the radio he said you know is this censorship and i'm like i think so i mean we're right to the aren't we to the point on censorship there and you saw the government guy banning one guy it's an editorial decision by a progressive i indeed somewhat of a blinkered and rather provincial progressive but they're mostly like that so why should we worry question is the censorship or is this just i think i'm sure that it's what i mean he reads l.a. times anymore anyway they're just. i didn't know it complicates a legitimate publication but again it's it's a print publication and it's going down is it just you know i think it's when you talk like that there would be you know it sort of sounds like the old gandhi thing you know at first they ignore you then they ridicule you then they fight you then you win i don't think that ridiculing a newspaper is an appropriate response it's the it's the first we used to have to do but they were the only game in town i live in l.a. t