michelle bernard, i think you'll be back later in the show. jamal hill, thank you for your reporting. and thanks to tmz for having us know about this stuff. sometimes without the tape, you don't believe it until you see it. >>> coming up, we elected president obama to end wars. can he now sell anti-war americans on his battle plan against isis? can he take us to war with the anti-war crowd? and we'll meet a jury in the mcdonald corruption trial that delivered that verdict against the former governor and his wife. >>> plus, if 80% of life is about showing up, look who showed up to say goodbye to joan rivers. deborah norville is going to join us. she was inside, she spoke at the funeral. that's all coming late in the show. finally, let me finish with quid pro quo politics, getting something personally for what you give a politician. this is "hardball," a place for politics. >>> we have new nbc news. polling in three key senate races. check the scoreboard. first to arkansas, tom cotton leads mark pryor by five points among likely voters. it's cot

i don't know these things. >> me, either. >> you've got michelle bernard here.york magazine, you wrote for the times, you first. >> well, yeah, class act -- total class actor, as you say. and i speak of somebody who always cheered against the yankees. >> what's your team? >> the pirates. so i don't care that much about the yankees. but i do cheer against them. and, yeah, he's great. last night, it was absolutely unbelievable. >> so he singles in the bolt tom of the ninth and win it is game. >> yeah, he's really like a throwback to those great yankees and he really connects that thread of history. you can't say anything bad about that. >> my wife loves the yankees. you can't even tell them apart ethnically, sometimes. they have that same look. you've got the red sox with the smith brothers look, or whatever you want to call it. where are you on that? >> can't make a call here. >> i'm a short-hair, so, obviously, i'm not a big fan of short hair. >> but in baseball? >> no, i agree with you on the beards. i don't know why some of these -- they look like those dirty

joining me, the sports editor of the nation and michelle bernard for women politics and public policy. i want to start with my friend michelle. this is bigger than sports. this is how power works in the united states. we are a pecuniary society. money is our language. when big professional teams which exist to make money are told, you ain't getting some, all of a sudden at 2:00 in the morning they had this epiphany. we were wrong. we got it wrong. the verdict here is coming with a dollar sign. your thoughts? >> i agree with you. i can't agree any more with anything that you said. it is very sad that they could not be moral leaders. the vikings have had more players arrested for misconduct than any sports. it wasn't until sponsors began to say we have a very serious problem. >> you're an attorney. you've bone a lot of programs in your life. how do they get to these people? is it the board of directors? is itwise in some cases of the people in the board of directors? women on the board of directors? how do you think this seeps through? the values that are only now being reflected into d

michelle bernard is president and ceo of the bernard sent for public policy. robert has been covering the story for the post. why did the instructions here basically screw the defense? because i think they did. i'm an lawyer, you are. >> that's the conventional wisdom that jury instructions screw the defense. basically anything in the governor did in his official capacity is. equally important at least in my opinion is the fact that judge also said to the jury give any weight that you want to the character evidence. you know, we will assume we have a highly educated jury pool that will say, that will sort of look at this from a reasonable man's standpoint and say, did he really commit an act that's illegal when every governor in the country does the things that governor mcdonnell did. with the exception of accepting these lavish gifts. >> here we have a if the cat hanging around the governor, his wife especially, does favors. gets him a watch for 7 or $8,000. trips new york to buy designer clothing, whatever. all these little favorites, things he is doing for

michelle bernard is president and ceo from the bernard center for women, politics and public policy. reports from people in the courtroom tonight depict a highly dramatic scene. the former governor was sobbing with his head back. his family howling with their own tears. his wife maureen crying, too. we'll get a report from someone inside the courtroom. here is mcdonnell composed leaving the courtroom this afternoon. let's listen. >> all i can say is my trust remains in the lord. thank you. >> he put his trust in the jury. this guy could have walked away with a minimal admission, a minimal plea. you're the attorney. >> absolutely. >> his wife would have been off scot-free. he chose to face a jury. pete has his assessment of the law. my assessment is american politics. >> yes. >> i don't think you want to face an american jury today if you are accused of misbehavior. i think they will hit you with everything as they here. 20 years they are facing. >> going into it, i expected the exact opposite. never expected a jury to find them guilty on all conspiracy charges. we have a congress tha

jonathan capehart, michelle bernard all joining us. the pentagon said today last night's air strikes were very successful. among the targets, isis training camps, head quarters and command and control facilities. the u.s. military released some remarkable video showing several strikes against isis, like this strike on a vehicle staging area. another video shows a strike by a u.s. aircraft to a storage facility used by isis. and yet another one shows a u.s. air strike on the isis compound near the group's headquarters in northern syria. the scope of the strikes caught some by surprise, referring to the initial strikes of the iraq war. one u.s. official said about last night's campaign, it is shock without the awe. today president obama praised the military's effort, but cautioned this fight won't be short or easy. >> last night on my orders, american forces began strikes against isil targets in syria. the effort will take time, there will be challenges ahead, but we'll do what's necessary to take this fight to the terrorist group. for t

to the fox biz all-stars, michelle fields, bernard whitman and caylee mcinerney, alive and well. >> one of the rare times you hear me defend the president. prism is a measured program, it is all about targeting foreign nationals overseas. neil: what about going through the companies that don't comply. >> that is okay with me. yahoo! did not comply with a fisa court order. the government wanted them to comply with a measured program. neil: wasn't as if they said you want to help us out and yahoo! said take a walk. they followed up with the fisa court and said you are still not helping and we're going to come down like a ton of bricks. you are for that because you want to give up all personal freedoms. >> i think so. neil: michelle? >> a perfect example of government overreach. i understand if they came to a private company and we have this one person who is a national security risk. we believe he's a terrorist. will you help us out? they're going in there and saying give us all of this data. if you don't do it, you're going to be charged over $200,000 a day. that to me is a threat. and t

bernard? >> michelle obama is a powerhouse, incredibly popular and often happens in the second midterm election for presidents, laura bush was you the there on the stump when george w. bush's presidency was sort of in the toilet in 2006, michelle obama extremely popular, resonates with people, connects with people emotionally, done a lot of amazing work to help stem the rights of childhood obesity in this country and she peak speaa way the average americans connect with. i think the president will be out there where he can help and michelle obama, kay hagan and michelle nun's -- >> the president maybe out there but up to the candidate whether or not they want to be seen. >> always should you can. >> with the president. and by the way, bernard, you're 2-2 you somehow brought president bush into both of your topics today. david and bernard, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> a second security incident in as many days at the white house. one of them involving a man with a three-inch knife who made i inside -- almost inside the executive mansion. the secret service now working on secur