. >> let's turn to sam stein with the "huffington post." sam, reading this as a gist journalist and looking at this stuff and the president's presentation to charlie rose last night, is he closing the door on the fact that -- is he proving to the american people that everything is on the up and up here? >> it's a tough call. on the one hand, you know, it would be -- it's logical this program is effective. you're collecting so much data that if it didn't turn out that it resolved or prevented any terrorism attacks, it wouldn't make any sense. on the other hand, if you look -- if you step back and you look at the numbers, you begin to wonder how effective it actually truly is. general alexander said 50 potential terrorist attacks were thwarted. ten of them could have been domestic terrorist attacks. this is a program that took place over a seven-year period of time. it leads to the question, is it what we're doing? is it worth the cost? is it worth the potential infringement on privacy? i'm not sure the president's made the case yet. i think h

sam stein not with us? there is sam and calendar model sam stein. it up post any more. they are calling it buff post, because sam and some of the nerdiest people in all of the internet have decided to do a calendar. look at that. it's just straight out of -- i mean, he's a dartmouth guy. >> the raise for women challenge. sam, thank you for doing that. >> let's go to san francisco. it is 1:30 morning out there probably. robert gibbs is awake. i wouldn't wear a tie if it were 4:03 where i were as well. the president's numbers came out. you want to dig into it and everybody wants to dig into it. they ask, you know, do you trust the president more or less because of ben ghazi and because of the irs and -- by the way, those are leading questions. what are people going to say? o no. i trust him more because that have. you look at the overall approval rating the president is holding up pretty well. 48% approval rating is actually above the average of where he has been. why? >> well, i think, you know, if you dig as you said deeper into this poll, there's a

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steve rattner and wes moore still with us, along with sam stein in washington.tor of columbia university dr. jeffrey sachs. he's author of the great new book, "to move the world, jfk's quest for peace." and in washington, we have the host of msnbc's "hardball," chris matthews. his book, "jack kennedy, elusive hero." we've got the kennedy authors on this morning. so, chris, it's always so fascinating how americans respond and how political parties respond to issues involving national security. basically, if their guy's in the white house, they're fine with it. if the other guy 's in the whit house, it's suddenly a scandal. these latest revelations really point to -- and that skit on colbert -- point to the fact that we've had the continuation of policies on many fronts, and americans seem to be fine with it. >> yeah, i think so. i think it comes down to this. if we get hit hard like a 9/11, the question people ask is what could have been done that wasn't done? we had the technology to pick up on this information, we could have stopped it, but because we thought i

sam stein. come on. >> what's ridiculous? conservatives were disproportionately targeted, were they not? >> do you know that? >> exactly. what makes you know that? >> sam? >> first of all -- >> sam -- >> hold on a second, here we are a month or two after this broke and now you are suggesting or the irs is suggesting that progressives were targeted as much as conservatives? what do you mean, do i know that? i've been reading articles saying that for two months now. do i -- are all of those articles wrong? is "the new york times" wrong? >> you've been reading articles with half of the information that's out there. what happened yesterday was that the irs and democrats in the house ways and means committee released 15 of these lists, these be on the lookout lists, those bolo lists which show which groups the irs screened as potential problems for applying for tax status and in these lists were progressives as well as occupy and groups that were advocating for medical marijuana -- >> just as many? >> territorial expansion in the m

joining me now, msnbc's joy reed and sam stein. i can't pretend to say with a straight face a special election in october. it is just as ridiculous as it could possibly get. >> no, and it is three weeks before the other election! i mean, it's insane. look, chris christie has never been somebody that could be accused of being selfless for his party. he could put somebody in there until 2014, he didn't do that, the party is mad. he could have let the parties choose someone that would be anti-democratic, he didn't do that. he split the difference. he will allow the public to speak and allow the voters to choose someone. but he doesn't want to be on the ballot with cory booker because all of his supporters may lkt barbara bono. yeah, you can vote but then you have to vote again in three weeks. i think the newspaper had it right. >> it is his attempt to fatigue democratic voters. like okay, vote for a real contested election, which will be the senate seat, and then we're hoping few of you will show up a couple weeks later, we're hoping

sam stein's the reporter from the "huffington post" and michael steele a former rnc chair. are msnbc contributors. sam, let me start with you. i always thought of you as pretty objective about this stuff -- in fact, very objective. we don't know everything. what we know now it seems to me suggests that this wasn't just a tempest in a teapot but there was no tempest at all and no teapot. there was nothing. >> well, yes. like you i'm cautious because we've dealt with selective release of information. so i'm taking things as they're coming. but the revelations yesterday were pretty ground-breaking i thought because for the first time we saw documents, internal irs documents which listed progressive groups, groups that advocated for medical marijuana, other groups on the left, the political left, who were also targeted on these be on the lookout lists that the irs put together. what that means is when they're applying for tax exempt status, much like these tea party organizations, irs officials wanted to categorize them. they want to give them extra scrutiny, so to speak. and s

because one of the things that we're expected to hear according to sam stein's reporting is that thepeline would only be approved if it can be proved that it would not have a net increase in greenhouse gases. >> the keystone pipeline has been such a critical issue on capitol hill for a long time, and they've tried to pass it themselves without the president's approval, haven't gotten quite there yet. there is some expectation talking with senators here that the president's outline today gives him a bit of room, if you will, to go ahead and pass, approve the keystone pipeline, which would soften some of the concerns on the right, but it does raise some issues. one of the things we've heard from progressives on capitol hill is they've had to wait in line when it comes to climate change behind some other important issues the president has devoted his time to. "don't ask, don't tell," immigration health cai immigrati immigration, health care, and tomorrow's supreme court ruling, not defending doma. the president has had a lot of critics on capitol hill within his party who've wanted this

we have to leave it there but richard wolfe and sam stein, thank you very much for joining me tonight. coming up, would you say no to this man? the other national incident we learned about over the weekend involving vladimir putin, the new england patriots and a super bowl ring. >>> also ahead, the supreme court weighs in on voter suppression laws. and the gop revealed this weekend exactly what the party has learned since its losses in 2012. hint. nothing. that's coming up. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. where over seventy-five percent of store management started as i'm the next american success story. working for a company hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it,

joining me today, white house correspondent and editor at "huffington post" and the msnbc contributor, sam steinek, joining us is democratic senator from oregon, senator, thanks so much for joining us today. i have to say the president is scheduled to speak in san jose, any moment now. so we may have to interrupt our conversation to go to these remarks. i want to start out talking of the story of today. this is the revelations regarding the nsa and here comes the president, we'll be back to you shortly, senator, president obama in san jose.ç >> nor, i think we have a couple of minutes, i'm getting conversationi i conflicting statements from the control room. regarding the breadth and depth of the surveillance. as someone who has called attention to the civil liberties issues at the raert of our counterterrorism operation, do you think we have have a broad public debate about this. the debate over this will inevitably happen behind closed doors, how do the american people have a say in this? >> we have in the law a requirement that the collection of data is tangible things the standard for how t

sam stein, huff post politics reporter. the strategist at gray bender cox.ynet. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having us. >> you know how it works. jump in if you have anything to add. start with you. >> this program is 25 years old. it's always one person for an hour. this is how far it's swung in 25 years. you had five guest there is on a huffington post website encouraged to interrupt. >> on a hangout. using the google hangout. >> yeah. for where web video is, they do a good job at it. that is that is certainly one approach, kind of hyperactive, lots of guests, tweet us your comments. we're going to read tweets on air. interrupt, interject, it's lively and dynamic. i do think, though, i think the media world has to offer a lots of different plays for people. so you have that, your show. you have espn which is also hyperle active. charlie rose. i think people gravitate towards what they like. it's geared towards a younger more news junkie individual. and then inthink that -- you know, huffington post and other organizations also offer more in depth s

sam stein is an msnbc contribute were "the huffington post." thank you, gentlemen. i guess my question is as we go into this, we have gotten past cloture day. we're going to have a vote in the senate, deal with this issue and probably pass it. are we headed towards a bill that's going to enforce immigration like any other country in the world including mexico or are we going having to laws we are proud to enforce? >> i'm mildly optimistic, chris, that that will be the case. there's momentum to get something done in the senate and the actions will shift to the house. that's more challenging for all the reasons you suspect. but i would say this, and you've seen this before and talked about it. if this is a situation where one side or the other demands a whole loaf, nothing will get done. but if they're willing to take 2/3 of a loaf or 3/4 of a loaf, then a bill can get done. i hope that's the spirit, the reagan, the tip o'neill. >> president obama held only his second official event on this issue today. compare that to as many as 80 held on gun control for example. he

joining me, michael steele, maggie haver, man, sam stein, and jon meacham, author of "thomas jefferson, the art of power." also joining us from capitol hill, democratic congressman from texas, joaquin castro. congressman, we ended that long speech of mine that i just did with the precursor, there is the house insanity that awaits america on the subject of immigration reform. and i look at what is happening in the senate, and to some degree there is this widespread acknowledgement that political kabuki theater is part of immigration reform's passage. i wonder how optimistic or pessimistic that makes you feel over there in the lower chamber? >> well, certainly the 82-15 vote to move forward on debating the bill was very promising. but you're right -- from day to day now we are getting conflicting signals about where the republican party will go. to be clear, the president and democrats want to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and we believe that the nation wants us to do that, also. i even think that there is enough republicans to get this done to join with democrats a

sam stein with the "huffington post." thank you, gentleman.on is as we go into this, we've gottenen past cloture today. the senate is going to deal with this issue, probably pass it. are we headed towards a bill that's going to enforce immigration like any other country in the world including mexico or are we going having to laws we're proud to enforce. >> i'm mildly optimistic. there's momentum to get something done in the senate and the actions will shift to the house. that's more challenging for all the reasons you suspect. you've seen this of about, if this is a situation where one side or the other demands a whole loaf, nothing will get done. if they're willing to take two-thirds of a loaf or 3/4 of a loaf, then it will get done. i hope that's the spirit. >> here's president obama. he held his only second official event on this issue today. compare that to as many as 80 held on gun control for example. he was flachked by key allies which include the presidents of the alf and cio. he took direct aim at ted cruz of texas who said he doesn't

sam stein covers politics for the "huffington post." joy reid is the managing editor of the grio. both are now msnbc now veteran contributors. thank you, both. i tell you, sometimes i wonder why you have to pay for a report. i want to start with sam. i mean, sometimes, you know, what's today's date? going to put out a report and have somebody come back for the information? you know, we do know that the republican party based upon its performance in the last campaign blew it for the young people, meaning people in their 20s and late teens. >> yeah, this report, it's sort of, as you said, stating now what is the obvious. mitt romney lost by 5 million votes, estimated among voters under 30 years old, which is a huge amount to make up for any candidate. and the conclusions here are pretty self-explanatory. the republican party, as you mention, is there to accept people when they've made success of themselves but won't help people make success of themselves. it goes through a litany of the data points to show there's image problems, but more importantly, i thought, was that the main ta

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we have to leave it there but richard wolfe and sam stein, thank you very much for joining me tonight. coming up, would you say no to this man? the other national incident we learned about over the weekend involving vladimir putin, the nungtd patriots and a super bowl ring. >>> also ahead, the supreme court weighs in on voter suppression laws. and the gop revealed this weekend exactly what the party has learned since its losses in 2012. hint. nothing. that's coming up. and we're out of milk again. [ banker ] mike's younger brother, kevin, had his college degree, his first real job, and needed to establish his credit history so he could rent a place of his own. mike helped kevin find ways to build his credit -- like any good big brother would do. now kevin has his own place, he's building his credit history, and mike has his apartment back -- for the most part. so i may be able to do this. yeah. [ female announcer ] let's talk about ways to help you establish and build your credit history. when people talk, great things happen. to help you establish and build your credit history. i got