mitch mcconnell is like the tasmanian devil of politics. a real slash and burn candidacy there. i think he's got about $10 million in the bank. you've already heard from his people talking about this new primary challenger, calling him an east coast con man. their i think approach is going to be essentially that bevin isn't from around here, he's not one of them. >> well, you know, nia, we were going with gabrielle union, not the tasmanian devil as the analogy tonight. but you can mix it up. joe, what do you say to that? and tell us a little about the entire strategy because he did get beat in his back yard by the tea partiers and a man named jesse benton and now he's hired them. tell us about that. >> yes. jesse benton is actually rand paul's nephew in-law. he ran rand paul's election campaign. he did not run the primary campaign. that was run by a different campaign manager. jesse only came in after rand paul had beaten mitch mcconnell in that race, trey grayson. but mcconnell's got a problem in that he likes to go hard after his opponent

mitch mcconnell was not part of that.ccain and a number of others senate, whatever you want to call them, frank, who have taken the initiative and it's mitch mcconnell who has been in opposition to them. it seems to me that this is his hands are basically tied in terms of being a leader until and unless he gets through this primary because anything he does that go against the mike lee, ted cruz folks want is going to get him in trouble in this primary next year. >> exactly. john mccain's leadership on issues such as the filibuster and immigration, you know, it's questionable whether or not that will transfer to the fiscal fights that are going to be coming up here in the next couple months. the hard line that senator mcconnell will have to take on these issues will have to align more with what he will have to deal with with this primary. take a more hardline stance on this which will line-up with the more conservative members of his conference. i think we're going to see, interesting to see whether or not this primary is

this is how it's filtered through mitch mcconnell. this is what you'll hear from him and the next year and a half. >> creates a depression in central appalachia that is west virginia and eastern kentucky and also since we have a number of automobile plants and a lot of auto supply plants in our state, it drives the costs of production. of parts and vehicles up. this is a huge step in the wrong direction. particularly in the middle of the most tepid recovery after a deep recession in any one's memory. >> i've been saying the democrats aren't going to pay much of a price because the places you have paid a political price have already largely abandoned them. here's one, perry, you talk about the best thing grimes can do is sort of separate herself from what obama is doing. do you think she's going to forcefully separate herself or find a way to support this? >> i talked to jesse mcconnell's campaign yesterday and he must have used the phrase war on coal ten times. that is the issue they're going to run on aggressively. grimes running aga

it is up to mitch mcconnell. don't know if he will cave because he might be looking at it from his position as running for his seat in kentucky. he might think this actually helps me to nationalize the race in kentucky. for mitch mcconnell, if it means destroying the senate, he'll do it if it means getting elected to it. >> you don't even have to filibuster anymore. you just have to threat ton filibuster. these men can't keep up with wendy davis, right? it is not like they even have to do the work of filibustering. well now it is like i'm going to take your pen. i'm going to take your pen! we'll go off and talk about it. this is folly, this is drama. you might as well go see the new super man movie. this is a washington drama. nothing is going to change. i guarantee it. >> i think it is so crass that mitch mcconnell may use this to fund raise off of as ryan points out a senate staffer said mcconnell actually wants the nuclear option to get put in place? it would help him raise money with the base and not negotiat

i wouldn't expect a whole lot of happy talk from mitch mcconnell. i think you will see a lot of ads from mitch mcconnell. >> what does this end up looking like? we saw what mcconnell did to ashley judd and she never even got into the race? >> it is going to be nasty, it is going to be divisive. one thing allison grimes doesn't have, she isn't that lightning rod coming out of the gate. mcconnell campaign will try to do everything they can. >> biggest obstacle to mitch mcconnell? >> mitch mcconnell. he is someone who has great advocates and great detractors. they'll all come out. grimes is someone who's credible an they can rally around. >> thanks, guys. >>> former representative william gray died monday at the age of 71. the democrat was elected to congress for philadelphia in 1978. gray was the first after can american to serve as chairman of the budget committee and house majority whip. in a statement today, president obama called him a trail blazer whose leadership made our communities, our country and our world a more just place. >>> also, on thi

mitch daniels, now head of perdue, has defended his actions.an e-mail, he wrote -- to talk more about this, we have anthony arnove, the author "howard zinn speaks." ,is family lives in bloomington indiana. also with us is dr. cornel west. we welcome you both to democracy now! this e-mail trail, did it surprise you when ap released them? >> not at all. what daniel has done in indiana is a consistent attack on teachers, unions. he laid the basis for the model that scott walker has been tried to implement in wisconsin, with an early executive order eliminating collective bargaining rights for union workers, making the indiana the 23rd right to work state. it is really the right to disenfranchise workers. consistently going after schools of education. there is a national attack, which they does is part of coming to say schools of education are polluting the minds of teacher educators. right after he said that e-mail, he went after a teacher training program taking place at indiana university in july 2010, and he claims, i was only talking about the

that was all mitch mcconnell needed to hear.ast thursday he cowrote a letter to the nfl commissioner registering his extreme ire. given the unpopularity of this bill -- actually it's a law, it's difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its apolitical brand by lending its name to this promotion. notice the wording. mcconnell's wording of the unpopularity of this bill, and nfl balks. it's a baseball term at supporting health law after gop senator sends warning from the gop spokesman who said of their government, we never made any commitment or discussed any details. today senator mcconnell has secretary of state allison lundgren grimes. she is apparently a strong candidate. joining me from mother jones magazine, that's the great david corn. and of course associate editor and columnist from the hill neighbor, the great a.b. stoddard. i think mcconnell has really been a louse about some of this stuff. we have a constitution. we have a democracy. it's not fragile, but it could be improved in terms of

harry reid and mitch mcconnell are that way. it is a very personal and acrimonious situation. mccain.with him on john there were others, chuck mccain 30lked to john times over the weekend which forced john mccain to come to a deal. [laughter] >> i will do anything. stop calling. [laughter] atthey should try that fourth, mo. the guys will talk every time. democratsits, the happened to be on the right side. on the issue of the president's appointments, he should get whom he once unless they are some .ind of limited -- lunatic on legislation, it is different from judicial. each party always argues against a filibuster when is in the majority. but they always end up in the minority. they ought to be a little bit circumspect. forhe filibuster was killing civil rights legislation in the 1950's and 1960's. that is what it is used. >> republicans keep trying to kill obamacare. the president has started to sell it again. >> i recognize there are still a lot of folks in this town return for the law to fail. >> he had given business's one year's grace before providing coverage for employ

mitch mcconnell or -- your site, "huffington post" has the classic headline mitch slapped. [ laughternd who blinked? >> overall this is a victory for democrats. we're talking about up-or-down votes on seven of the president's long-blocked nominees. >> bill: all are going to get confirmed. >> all are going to get confirmed. that's a big deal given the sort of -- they've been blocked for some of them up to two years. if you're looking at richard cordray. the first instance occurred on september 8th of 2011. that's long in the waiting. had jeopardized the president's signature consumer watch dog agency, you know, senator elizabeth warren is happy. the white house is going to cave and meet the demands. >> she pro-sided over the vote which is great. republicans demanded structural changes to the board. they didn't get any of them. i think what's more embarrassing for her for mcconnell is senator john mccain and republicans who took the lead went around him. he didn't even -- he wasn't even part of the talks really until monday. he had approached senate majority leader harry reid to talk it

until mitch mcconnell gives them a vote, the nlrb is in limbo. now, why would anyone want the nlrb to be in limbo? big business wants nothing more than for the nlrb to not issue decisions, and conservatives want nothing more than to just quietly destroy and render permanently inoperable the government body that oversees labor law. they want to make it disappear without anyone noticing. so far they've been able to do that. today at that news conference, those lawmakers featured workers whose lives are in limbo because the nlrb decisions effecting them are just out to lunch. here's kathleen von eitzen, a baker at panera bread in michigan, who works the night shift, describing the process of trying to organize her fellow workers. >> we had to attend meetings where the boss, a good christian, decided we didn't need a union because he would take care of us. during this process we heard about how we would have open talks, we heard about how they would take care of us and then they started their terror campaign. >> in march of 2012, those workers formed

just look at senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. he's the most obstructionist, bill-blockin'est human law-cork ever to jam up the hauls of congress using the filibuster 413 times since 2007, twice as much as the last democratic minority which earned him the nickname "senator gridlock." yeah, good olsen tore gridlock, the kentucky constipator, the louisville plugger. but even the leader of the do-nothing congress is is now being punished for the handful of times he done did something. >> mitch mcconnell is getting primaried hard. an open letter, this is incredible to me, from 15 kentucky tea party groups said senator mcconnell's progressive, liberal voting record and his willingness to roll over and cede power to president obama and the liberals in washington prove he is no friend to the american people or the citizens of the commonwealth of kentucky >> stephen: i knew this guy was a left wing progressive loon in 2010 when he said this. >> our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny president obama a second t

i think mitch has over 600. and we're lucky that we're in washington, and authors want to come, and publishers want to send their folks to us. we've also been able to build out programming outside the store. so there will be days when we have three author events, one at the store and two at other places. that continues to be a huge part of our identity and a huge part of the way we support our community and, obviously, a huge part of the way we sell books. secondly, we think we were really brilliant when we decided to make our first hire novelist susan call who some of you may know who has been around here today as well. she had a lot of ideas about how to provide courses and classes. she felt there was a market for this. we were clueless. we said, okay, sure. if you really think so, give it a go. and 50, 60 classes later that we sell out routinely that we have waiting lists for and, mind you, this is without a designated classroom space in our store, something we're trying very hard to address, we now have mana

mitch mcconnell has wanted to do president obama and. have to say as a white lady who works with the federal government for 38 years, this is because his black hands. mitch mcconnell, aegon see it in his face, he brings hate -- you can see it in his face. he brings hate into congress. host: it sounds like you are accusing mitch mcconnell of racism. caller: i am. host: what evidence do you have? caller: i have been listening to him the first day president obama was elected. i just recently read up on the history of mitch mcconnell since he first got involved in politics. andody can go out there google "mitch mcconnell" and look at the whole history and how he twists the truth. the man is a weasel. host: the relationship between republicans led by mitch and president obama -- one.: is not a good if hillary clinton were president, i do not think mitch mcconnell would be hating any differently. -- behaving any differently. we see a lot of different approaches. took toward they bill clinton. a charm. in 1994 like he is running for reelection.

he's not able to do his job because of the gridlock by mitch mcconnell.esident not have a right to appoint who he wants in these positions, having won the presidency? >> yes, i would say he does, and he's appointed over 1,000 no, ma'am he's and only four have been rejected. he's batting .999 in getting nominees through. there are protections for minority in a legislative body. even nominees that eventually went on to be confirmed and now holding office, a minority has used that. my party has used that in the senate to get imported documents, to find out the basis of statements the administration has made and to move the departments and beaurocracy toward being responsive to the requests that really any citizen should be able to have answered, much less an elected representative of the united states senate. >> senator, real quickly, i wanted to get your opinion being a member of the armed services committee. senator gillibrand's bill from new york that would obviously take the sexual assault authority from under the chain of command in the military picking

they broke ranks with mitch mcconnell and cut this deal with the democrats. but nen, keep in mind that it didn't pretend to deal with legislation or judicial nominees and also it really doesn't resolve for the long run one demand that mr. mcconnell had made on harry reid that i want you to promise that you will not even talk about making this rule change and reid said, no i'm not going to do that. >> what is the relationship at this point between harry reid and mitch mcconnell? they had some very harsh words before one another before the compromise was reached? where does that leave that? >> it's not good, dan. the two men i think generally have gotten along fairly well with a mutual respect. this is clearly damaged that relationship. it's not the end of the rule. they don't have to get along. but the way the senate worked it certainly would help somewhat. you know, the bigger problem might be for the republicans is that -- now you've got this unrest within their own ranks and, you know, there's a testy meeting on wednesday night, a private meeting in which m

we have harry reid, mitch mcconnell on "meet the press" this weekend.want to see it. don't miss that. they went head to head on the floor. see how it turns out. this is "first look" on msnbc. >>> a teenager is dead. he is dead through no fault of his own. he is dead because another man made assumptions. he is dead not just because the man made those assumptions but because he acted upon those assumptions. unfortunately, unfortunately, because his assumptions were wrong, trayvon benjamin martin no longer walks on this earth. >> the murder trial of george zimmerman winding down. what can we expect as the defense gets set to present its closing arguments? >>> going nuclear? the leaders of the senate in a war of words over the use of the filibuster. >>> and the movie that's sweeping the nation. we're talking about "sharknado" and the twitter response that has sharks all over the world planning their 15 minutes of fame. this is "way too early." >>> hi, everybody. so we'll get wet and wild with "sharknado" in a moment. i'm thomas roberts in for brian shactman

>> michael: coming up, mitch mcconnell has no chance. that made it more ironic that in real life mcmcconnell has no chin. i'm michael michael, and this is "the war room." >> michael: just having a little fun mitch. former amateur boxer harry reid found his misplaced boxing gloves last night and got in the ring with the republicans and talked about changing the rules unless the republicans accepted the come knees. what do you know, it worked. they greeded agreed to the nominees. then there's the long suffering nominee, richard cordray. it's been two years since the president chose him to lead the national consumer protection bureau. perhaps the republicans most hated agency, and he was finally confirmed as director today. the democrats can thank senator john mccain. he played a crucial role in the negotiations. >> mr. president after a required amount of debate we're going to move forward with the cordray nomination, which has been held up for some period of time. i would like to thank everybody on both sides of the aisle who have engaged

>> mitch is going to be on a little later, and i'm -- he's going to defend the status quo. is there anyone out there in the world, real world, that believes that what's going on in the congress of the united states is good? our approval rating is lower than north korea's. it is really, really difficult. and, david, let's talk about what is happening. we're not doing anything that affects lifetime appointments. we're doing nothing that affects legislation. here's what we're doing. a president, whether it's president obama, the new president clinton, or the new bush, whoever is president should be able to have the people on their team that they want. now, the sky is falling. i have been leader for about the same time lyndon johnson was. during the time he was leader, one filibuster. me, 420. during the time that president obama has been president, he's had 16 filibusters against his nominations. during the entire history of this country, the country, there's only been 20. and changing the rules is like the sky is falling. we've done -- during the last 36, we've done 18 times,

congratulations, mitch mcconnell.eek, entertainers including jennifer hudson and amy poehler and kal penn met with senior white house advisers about how they might be able to help educate people about getting health insurance. the group at the white house yesterday included producers for oprah winfrey and the singer alicia keys. and also "rachel maddow show" staff love object bon jovi, who is reportedly going to help get the word out about health insurance exchanges. woo-hoo. no matter the haircut, the idea here is to tell people what they get under the law, to tell people that everybody can get health insurance now and that having health insurance is way more accessible and way more worth it now than it was before. another entertainment world figure who was at that white house meeting yesterday was the production president for a website called funny or die. funny or die is a website whose videos sometimes get, oh, say, 80 million views because they are things like this. >> who's that? >> it's my landlord, pearl. i'm

the leading republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, of kentucky. senator, welcome back to you. having a difficult time hearing you. we'll try to establish that. let me get my first question in. your reaction to hearing your colleague say, look, this is different. changes the rules here is not like it's been in the past with regard to judicial nominations. it is appropriate for the majority to be able to get the work done at once. >> yeah. the reason we call it the the nuclear option, david, is because it's breaking the rules of the senate in order to change the rules of the senate, which the majority leader, as you pointed out, in his book, indicated was something we should never do. look, rather than getting down in the weeds on the rules, what is the problem here? the president has had 1,540 of his nominations confirmed, only 4 defeated. he's not lost a single member of the cabinet. he's getting them faster than president bush was at the same time in his second term. the majority leader needs to bring these nominees up. most of them are going to be confirmed. it really kind o

his opponent. >> who's responsible for mitch mcconnell being in the position mitch mcconnell is in?hould be even or have already won the senate. he not only did not pick up seats in the last cycle, he lost two seats in an overwhelmingly vulnerable senate. he has managed to disastrous elections and he's going to take this one down because i think so far, the lack of any interest in fighting on the republican side finding candidates is not there. north carolina is an example. >> that is true. we already hit a little indicator by 2014 by the fund raising in 2013. democratic senate committee outraising the committee. republicans used to outraise democrats all the time. that's a bad sign. pat eluded candidate recruitment. we're having a hard time recruiting good candidates. now, the most high profile person is a crazy -- gi by liz chien to run gens a good, solid, conservative senator in her father's home state against year. the money and attention is going to go to that primary instead of after these five democrats. >> let's get back to the liz cheny situation. >> her father, i always li

but the point is, if i can be out here in a diaper, why can't mitch mcconnell? snon because that seems beneath the dignity of the senate. >> reporter: you really think mitch mcconnell [bleep] into an adult-sized hugees is less dignified than the way the current is operating. >> john: you've actually got a point there?ç?çwóóo?ó?o?ówçwçí?o >> welcome back. i know that i am not alone and excitedly awaiting the most important event in world history. >> the suspected due date of the royal hare has come and gone here in london and still no baby just yet. >> john: no, no, no, no story. i refuse to wait any longer. we're kicking off our coverage. roll it. okay. okay. so, okay. i guess the key question now is where is my [bleep] baby? >> someone else at the palace said it could be next week, next tuesday. >> by the end of the week he or she will be born. >> john: you're right. we should not be rushing this. it takes nine months just to make a common baby. a royal infant needs to steep for a year, maybe two, maturing like a fine claret before sauntering out of the womb in

i learned allison grimes is the woman to watch as she takes on mitch mcconnell, see if she can take down the big guy. >> interesting to see if ashley judd comes out to support her. >> i learned, thomas, thank you very much for helping out here. you really helped out. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> if it's way too early right now, what time is it? >> time for "morning joe." right now time for "the daily rundown" with a hand some man, peter aleksander. he's not dressed like this. >> how do you know? >> well, i see. >>> good morning from washington. it is tuesday july 2nd, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." i'm peter aleksander sitting in again for chuck todd traveling with the president overseas in africa. you're looking live now at the courtroom in florida where the lead detective who investigated the death of trayvon martin is taking the stand today for the second day. george zimmerman's defense team is going to cross-examination him. they are going to continue that cross-examination, focus on this former detective. his name is chris serino. it should begin any time now. you can see the

>> this is not between harry reid and mitch mcconnell.is about having the function of the senate be what it should be. i -- this is not about us. it's not about democrats and republicans. about having a body that the constitution set up that was supposed to work really well and it has been working well. especially with what is going on in the house, we need to have an effective united states senate, and i think in the foreseeable future, we're going to have one. >> we'll be checking back on those words. hopefully in the future. senate majority leader harry reid. great pleasure to have you this evening. >> my pleasure. >>> after waiting for what felt like an eternity, we have a head of the consumer financial protection bureau. a victory for consumers and a victory for senator elizabeth warren. she'll be here to talk about it next. did my research. my doctor and ih. went with axiron, the only underarm low t treatment. axiron can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18

>> you want to sit down and talk about things with mitch mcconnell? ok. >> the president does not want to have a drink with him. >> no, he does not. politically, this is complicating for democrats in 2014. say that nowsome we can say it will all be taken care of in 2015, not a problem. i think it is. nina's both colby and points are valid. there has been resistance to the rollout of the medicare part b, pharmaceutical coverage, but nothing that approaches this. this is an enormous undertaking and it is a job that is daunting to a lot of people. >> you guys are utterly amazing. the democrats passed a law, a very complicated health care law, pelosi tells us that we will learn what is in it after we pass it, they give themselves 3.5 years to get in place the employer mandate. they then declare on the eve of a fourth of july holiday when everyone is at the beach, on a blog post of the assistant secretary of the treasury, that they are going to ignore the lot and usia -- you guys are telling me because it was republican resistance? you are going to get a c

remember, mitch mcconnell and john mccain have been on opposite sides. think they're buddies. >> mccain had 90 minutes with the president talking about foreign policy last night. chris, always great to see you. >> thanks, andrea. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague tam ran hall has what's next on ""news nation."" >> the parents of trayvon martin urge president obama to go through his son's case with, quote, a fine tooth comb. this as the congressional black caucus is reportedly working on a flurry of bills in response to george zimmerman's acquittal. can they expect bipartisan support. we'll talk with james clay burn. plus, a witness who was set to testify in the whitey bulger case this week turns up dead. we'll tell you what police are telling the victim's family about the possible cause of death. >>> plus, mcdonalcdonald's taki heath for a financial planning guide designed to help out its employees. they argue the guide is not only impractical, they have called it laughable, insulting, insensitive. we'll show you