Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20150531

Information. Im chuck todd. Joining me for inside analysis on this busy sunday morning are msnbc chris math hes. Former white house political director under president george w. Bush sara fagen. The cook political reports amy walter and politico ranu roger. Its sunday, its meet the press. Good morning. We start with sad news f beau biden has succumbed to brain cancer at the age of 46. He was first diagnosed with the illness in august 2013. He received treatment. That was initially successful. The cancer recurred and this month he was admit to a hospital right here near washington. Many viewers will remember this photo from 1973. It shows a bedridden beau watching his dad being sworn in from his hospital bed after a tragic car crash that killed his 1yearold sister amy and his mother mila. Here is beau remembering that event introducing his father in the 2008 democratic convention. One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, my dad always at our side. We, my brother and i, not the senate, were all he cared about. Saturday night Vice President biden paid tribute to his son. In the words of the biden family, beau biden was quite simply the finest man any of us have ever known. He is survived by his wife halle and two children natalie and hunter. The heartaches for the entire biden family this morning. Overseas, there was a scare for secretary of state john kerry after he was involved in a bicycling accident in the french alps near the swiss border. He had to be airlifted to a hospital in geneva where doctors found he had broken his leg, his thigh bone. Hell return to boston later today for further treatment. This comes at a hugely sensitive time for secretary kerry. He was there in europe making a final push to secure a nuclear deal with iran ahead of the deadline at the end of june. Owe had just met with the Iranian Foreign minister. We move to the story that stunned official washington. The indictment of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert over allegations he paid millions of dollars to coverup Sexual Misconduct when he was a male student when he was a High School Teacher in illinois. Pete, lay out what we know now. This is not where the government is still investigating. Theyve done their investigating, they made their case. Number one, the government doesnt claim that mr. Hasterts payment of this money was illegal. He is not charged with whatever happened 30 years ago. That is not anything the federal government could bring a charge on. Two, its well beyond the statute of limitations of the state. What the federal government says once the bank said what are you doing with all this money, he started reducing the payments to come under the reporting threshold helping the banks evade credit reporting requirements. When the fbi came knocking on his door he said he wasnt paying the money to anybody, keeping it for himself. Thats what the federal crime is. The federal government says we are not charging individual a with extortion. One is, you have to have a victim and mr. Hastert never claimed he was extorted. Secondly the several officials said they are satisfied this was a cooperative agreement they had that. There was an element of agreement, not just flat out shakedown. So why is this illegal . It is his own money but because of this technical violation of the credit reporting rules, and secondly the lie to the fbi. Remember, he is not charged with what he did 30 years ago to this victim. Hes charged with something he did more recently. When will we see him in court . We dont know for sure. Normally, you would have to be brought before a federal magistrate and have the right within 48 hours. Obviously, there is a lot of agreement between his lawyers and prosecutor. Thanks very much. Want to turn to tom davis, former congressman from virginia. In some ways you were a key lieutenant back in the hastert ten yufrmt i have to get your initial reaction. Was there a whiff of this . Dennis hastert became speaker of the house because of scandal that impacted gingrich, bob livingston, both in some ways associated with sex scandals. Was there a whiff of this . Not a whiff. Behind closed doors, and a lot of things happen behind closed doors, Denny Hastert never got close to the line. He would bring the conversation back. At least as he conducted himself in office he appeared to be a pillar of integrity. Explain how shocked you are. You could have knocked me over with a feather. And other members who served on staff are shocked. No clue to this. Im thinking about the impact this has on the Image Congress has which is poor with the public. Kevin tibbles talked with folks. I wanted to play this one remarks from a yorkville resident at Dennis Hasterts hometown. This gets to the core. Its the norm with politicians running wild with sex scandals, money scandals, you know, just basic thievery overall. People say the whole place is full of crooks and creeps and i say no, its just a few bad apples. Now its hard to say that. Everything i can tell, thats the way he conducted himself in office. This isnt going to help the reputation of congress or politicians, in general. Certainly illinois had its problems. I know illinois had itself i guess the question is why are we seeing, it feels like we are seeing more of this . Do you feel like there is something in the water . Is it just something about the way Congress Makes people think theyre indestructible to bad behavior. Communication is ubiquitous today. Very hard. 24 7 news cycles, people leaking, tweeting. There are very few secrets. Getting into politics, you have to look at your life and say, what is going to come out . Everything is offlimits. In the old days, this is stuff nobody talked about. Today its news. Let me go to the panel here. Chris matthews, sarah, amy. Chris, youve been around this town a long time. When you get to this town you wanted to hold members of congress up in high esteem. I want make the case to say mama, i want your kids to grow up to be politicians. 9 approval rating. A big part if congress had gotten something done over the last 40, 50 years, since the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights act, what have they really done . I think people are willing to forgive a little bit of misbehavior on this side though this goes beyond that. This is probably criminal at some point. Then theyll forgive. They may forgive babe ruth for drinking too much when he hits 60 homes runs. Where are the 60 home runs . Just like the assumption in the movies, its been congressmen and people are all rich. They dont all problems. Remember that group of 20 liberals, barbara boxer, leon panetta. They were all married people with solid marriages. Though hugged together to keep everything together. They were all good people. So theres a lot of really good Straight Arrow members of congress who are loyal to their families and wives and husbands. Its a very clean operation. Prudishoperation, most of it. Cases like this pop out. I go with the old rule, i think its better than it looks. I know it is, too. I understand why the public doesnt believe me. It creates a vicious cycle for the institution of congress which is more and more of these scandals come out. Fewer and fewer really great quality candidates want to run for office. Thats what we are seeing s, i think, in Public Office today. Being a member of congress is no longer honorable in most parts of the country, which is sad. It is. That will have a recurring cycle. Amy, i want to get to one thing about this hastert thing. How is a guy who had a net worth less than 500,000 in congress end up with 12 million. How did he get so much money that he could pay out millions of dollars. It exposes the revolving door. Denny hastert went downtown and became a speaker and cashed. In he quietly made tons of money which became central to this case. Members use their influence in congress to cash in. Can i make one other point . To move itsway from politics one second. The sadder part of this story, we spend time talking about how bad congress is and bad the bill cosby case was. We talk about the men we dont talk about the victim. Thats where we have to spend a little more time and a little less time about them. This victim tried very hard, sounds like doesnt want to be if you want to be out there would have been out there. Clearly doesnt want to be out there. We dont know the whole story, but we do, i think we love to focus on how bad congress is, how bad this person is, we just spent more time talking about the people are affected. Obviously, thats the primary victim here. A lot of the victims are Good Congress people who lead good lives. Absolutely right. Our 2016 campaign special. 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We monitor Network Traffic worldwide, so we can see things others cant. Mitigating risks across your business. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. Our viewers lead busy lives, even on sundays. Sometimes you cant be in front of the tv to see meet the press live. If you are at church, having brunch or sleeping late, we are always available on demand or record this on your dvr. If its not sunday, its still meet the press. When we come back, Bernie Sanders. Why hes probably a bigger threat to Hillary Clinton than you might think. You probably know xerox as the company thats all about printing. But did you know we also support hospitals using Electronic Health records for more than 30 million patients . Or that our Software Helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure email every month . Or how about processing nearly 5 billion in electronic toll payments a year . In fact, todays xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. With xerox, youre ready for real business. If youre looking for a car that drives you. And life gets lived. And takes the wheel right from your very hands. This isnt that car. The first and only car with direct adaptive steering. The 328 horsepower q50, from infiniti. You are looking at can you spot the difference . No . You cant see that . Alright, lets take a look. The one on the right just used 1 less fuel than the one on the left. Now, to an airline, a 1 difference could save enough fuel to power hundreds of flights around the world. Hey, look at that. Pyramids. So you see, two things that are exactly the same have never been more different. Ge software. Get connected. Get insights. Get optimized. We are back. If you believe some people, the race for the democratic nomination over. Hillary clinton has it won. As our colleague tom brokaw likes to say, there is the theory of ufos, unforeseen occurrences. Yesterday Martin Omalley announced his candidacy. Before him Bernie Sanders of vermont. He just might be the kind of ufo weve seen in the past. We are going to build a movement of millions of americans. Could a rumpled 73yearold become Hillary Clintons most dangerous opponent. . He has a powerful weapon. He can puncture clintons aura of inevitability by beating expectations. I dont look upon this campaign one which you are trying to pick up delegates. Eugene mccarthy mobilized a volunteer army of students who flooded into New Hampshire, shaving their beards, to get clean for gene. Mccarthy surprised second place finish with 42 of the votes was a stunning repudation of president Lyndon Johnson and his vietnam policy. It changes the political picture in america for 1968. Mccarthys upset drew then senator Bobby Kennedy into the democratic race. It pushed johnson out. In 1984, it was littleknown senator gary hart who beat expectations and finished second in iowa to then go on to New Hampshire and stun walter mondale, beating him by ten points. Boy, did New Hampshire come up with a surprising finish tonight. Harts candidacy collapsed, but his victory exposed weakness in mondale. In november, Ronald Reagan carried 49 of 50 states. In 2012 mitt romney beat Rick Santorum, but never recovered from santorums bruising. A populist insurgent is poised to become the latest protest vehicle, pushing Hillary Clinton to the left, and potentially exposing vulnerability that could help republicans in the fall. And the democratic president ial candidate senator Bernie Sanders joins me now. Welcome back to meet the press. Let me start with an issue you are going to be dealing with in a few hours. I know youll be flying back from minneapolis to washington for this special senate session, nsa, patriot act, session 215. I assume you are a supporter of the usa freedom act. Is that where you are going to be voting . I may well be voting for it. It doesnt go as far as i want it to go. I voted against the patriot rack and reauthorization of the patriot act. We have to be vigorous protecting the American People but we have to protect the Constitutional Rights of the American People. Im very, very worried about the invasion of privacy rights that we are seeing, not only from the nsa and government, but from Corporate America, as well. We are losing our privacy rights. Its a huge issue. The government is going to be asking Corporate America to keep this data under the usa freedom act. Are you comfortable with that . No, im not. We have to look at the best of bad situations. The question is whether the nsa keeps it. The question is whether its transferred to the phone companies who keep records for an extended period of time. You served under two democratic president s, bill clinton and barack obama. Which one has been a better progressive champion, in your view . Well neither one of them have gone as far as i would have liked them to go. Thats one of the reasons why we are seeing the disappearance of the middle class in this country, and a huge increase in income and wealth inequality. That is why we are not dealing with the fact we have 45 Million People living in poverty and why we are still the only major country on earth that doesnt guarantee health care to all people. I have a lot of respect for president obama. I consider him a friend. I disagree with him on issues like the tpp or the extension of tax breaks that bush initiated. I think history will judge president obama a lot better than many other contemporaries, given the fact he came into office at at time when this country was in terrible shape. You singled out president obama, but not president clinton. I think bill clinton did a very good job. I disagree with him strongly on nafta, permanent normal trade relations with china. Im a strong opponent of these disastrous trade agreements which loses millions of decentpaying jobs. I also very strongly disagreed with deregulation on wall street. I opposed that. When you allow the greed and recklessness on wall street to go unchecked, you are going to end up where we are today and eight years ago. When you watch your chief primary opponent right now, secretary Hillary Clinton on some key issues, she has changed her position to a more progressive view. On samesex marriage, immigration, this is over the last ten years. Nafta, on trade, on the iraq war, on cuba. She has moved from a position basically in disagreement with you to a position that comes closer to your view. My guess is, do you take her at her word and do you think rhetorically thats enough . I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I have enormous respect for her and i like her. What i hope is that the media will allow us to have a serious debate in this campaign on the enormous issues facing the American People, which is why for the last 40 years our middle class has been disappearing. Why 99 of all new income generated today is going to the top 1 and why we have this grotesque level of income inequality. People say youve been saying the same thing 30 years. Its kind of true. Maybe its bad. I think we need a Political Revolution in this country. I think we need to take on the greed of the billionaire class, on Disastrous Campaign finances. Do you trust these changes Hillary Clinton has made or do you think she is doing it for primary politics . I think thats for the American People to decide. I know where i have been on trade agreements. I know where ive been on wall street. I know where ive been on the keystone pipeline. And secretary clinton will obviously explain her position to the American People. This week you found out what its like to become a nationally recognized candidate for president , and potentially a threat to somebody. The leaking of an essay you wrote in the 70s for an alternative weekly. Your campaign described it as satire. Its uncomfortable to read. You wrote this in february 72. A fantasy of men and women. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man as she fantizes being raped by three men simultaneously. Can you explain this essay . Sure. Look. This is a piece of fiction i wrote in 1972, i think. That was 43 years ago. It was very poorly written. If you read it, what it was dealing with gender stereotypes. Why some men like to oppress women, why other women like to be submissive. Something like fifty shades of gray. Very poorly written 40 years ago. What im focusing on right now are the issues impacting the American People today. On border issues, when we talk about issues, we need more debates in this campaign. I hope very much that we can begin with a Democratic Candidates as early as july, and have some republicans in those debates, as well. There you go. Senator sanders calling for july debates. We are ready to host them here on meet the press. Stay safe on the trail and see you back in washington. Stick around two. Candidates in that crowded republican field. Former senator Rick Santorum of pennsylvania and Governor John Kasich of ohio. The network that monitors her health. The secure Cloud Services that store her genetic data the servers and software on a mission to find the perfect match. And the mom who gets to hear her daughters heart beat once again. Were helping organizations transform the way they work so they can transform the lives of the people they serve. Seaworld wed like you to know. We dont collect killer whales from the wild. And havent for 35 years. With the hightest standard of animal care in the world, our whales are healthy. Theyre thriving. I wouldnt work here if they werent. And Government Research shows they live just as long as whales in the wild. Caring for these whales, we have a great responsibility to get that right. And we take it very seriously. Because we love them. And we know you love them too. Something we do to show resolve. To defend ourselves. To declare victory. So cvs Health Provides expert support and vital medicines. At our Infusion Centers or in patients homes. We help them fight the good fight. Cvs health, because health is everything. When youre not confident you have complete visibility into your business, it can quickly become the only thing you think about. Thats where at t can help. With Innovative Solutions that connect machines and people. To keep your internet of things insync, in realtime. Leaving you free to focus on what matters most. You are looking at can you spot the difference . No . You cant see that . Alright, lets take a look. The one on the right just used 1 less fuel than the one on the left. Now, to an airline, a 1 difference could save enough fuel to power hundreds of flights around the world. Hey, look at that. Pyramids. So you see, two things that are exactly the same have never been more different. Ge software. Get connected. Get insights. Get optimized. And were back with the race for the white house. How crowded is the republican field . This past week two people jumped into the race. This coming week, two more expected to join in. Former texas rick perry and South Carolina senator lindsey graham. Add to that the six who officially announced and the crowd is building here. But wait, theres more. There are six others out there either sure to run or thinking of running or perhaps are just toying with the press. By the way we have new numbers on the race from the latest Des Moines Register bloomberg poll of iowa caucus goers in that important first state of iowa. Scott walker topped the field with 17 . Next four, rand paul, ben carson in double digits, jeb bush and Mike Huckabee followed by marco rubio and rich santorum. The rest of the field, ted cruz leading second tier there at 5. Ill talk to john kasich down at 2 in this iowa poll. First up is senator former senator Rick Santorum of pennsylvania. The last man standing against mitt romney in 2012. Welcome back to meet the press. Thank you, chuck. Youre at 6 in a poll of iowa caucus goers in a state you won four years ago. How do you not look at that and say, geez, i probably have 100 name i. D. And im in Single Digits are you concerned you dont have the same support as years ago . We have a tremendous group of volunteers. We signed up 100 volunteers just this week online which brings our total to well over 500 across the state. I didnt announce until after that poll and weve been sort of not in front of tv for a long time, three years. I was off providing for my family and making money to send kids to college. We Just Announced this week and well wait and see how those polls look as the months go on. I want to go to foreign policy. Youre very much want to see no changes to the patriot act at all. If you see the changes that are made with this usa freedom act likely to be the new law of the land where the Tech Companies hold the data, do you think that is going to somehow make us less safe . Look, i would i think the patriot act has worked very well. Not aware of any abuses of the patriot act that caused undue fear of invasion of privacy. At this point its likely what the house passed is the only version, viability, and i would vote for it and as president i would sign it. Im encouraging everyone to let that bill become law. And we can move forward from there and judge to whether that provides us sufficient security going forward. I want to get to a few other issues here. Its short, but well have you back a lot. It is necessary with so many candidates in the race. Mike huckabee said that the Supreme Court cant overrule the other two branches of government and suggested that if the court rules that the 14th amendment requires states to recognize samesex marriage, that the states should act to disregard the ruling. As you know this ruling will come down in perhaps three or four weeks. Could happen as early as next week. Do you agree with Mike Huckabee on that one . Well, i think the Supreme Court has an equal branch of government the ability to overrule congress and the president , they do it all the time. Its the role of the congress and president to push back. Its important that they are understood to be equal branches of government. Ive done it before. We had a situation when i was in the senate where the Supreme Court ruled a bill unconstitutional and we went back and passed another bill, almost identical and made the case that the court got it wrong and passed it. And the Court Reversed its opinion. Its important to understand the Supreme Court doesnt have the final word of the. It has its word but its important for congress and the president frankly to push back when the Supreme Court gets it wrong. Will you accept the Supreme Court ruling, if they legalize samesex marriage for the entire country, do you accept that ruling or do you fight it . Well, of course id fight it. Roe versus wade was decided 30 some years ago and i continue to fight that. I think the court got it wrong. I think if the Court Decides this case in error, i will continue to fight as we have on the issue of life. Thats the role of a citizenry. Were not bound by what nine people say in per pid tudty. We need to rally the American Public to overturn what the court wants to do. Youre not advocating states ignore the ruling . I dont advocate civil diso beadance but when a court makes a mistake and gets an issue wrong. Youre known more as an economic populist than any other republican in the field. Its interesting while a majority of the country favors a candidate who supports say, raising taxes on wealthy or raising minimum wage, the Republican Party itself isnt there. Do you worry that youre out of step with the republican primary voters even if youre in step with general election voters . I just worry about whats doing best for america and American Workers who have been left behind by both political parties. But particularly by this administration. The wealth gap as Bernie Sanders says has risen. Its not like weve passed a bunch of conservative policies. The bottom line is these liberal policies end up helping those who have resources. If youre an investor and someone an owner, youve done very well under president obama. If youre a worker, youve seen wages flat line. What does this president want to do . They want to bring in more people who are primarily unskilled and have them compete to keep wages down. For one reason the democrats wants to do that because they believe its politically good for them and they can win more elections. That is not wait a minute, you think that the democrats are for immigration for more immigration simply for politics, for votes, looking for votes . If you go back and look at the history of the democratic party, they have not been the party of proimmigration. You can go back to the latest report, barbara jordan, not a rock Group Conservative said our immigration policy should be in the National Interest and should have controls on immigration because of that. We have to look at the interest of American Workers. And for decades democrats looked at the interest of the American Workers until it became important for them to be on this other side because of the politics of it. No one is standing for American Workers unfortunately in either party. Big business wants cheap labor cost and Hillary Clinton wants more votes. I want to make sure the American Worker has an opportunity to see wages rise. Ill leave it there. Ill expect to check in with you again. Stay safe on the trail. Thank you. Well be back in a moment with another republican hopeful or potential hopeful john kasich. Kasich. Cy. Kasich. Cy. Seven out of ten Power Outages in the us are caused by weather. But utilities can now predict where the power will go out, within a few city blocks. Working with ibm, theyre combining micro weather forecasts with detailed data from local sensors. To predict where outages are likely to occur. And send crews exactly where theyre needed, when theyre needed. Ibm analytics from the internet of things is making energy smarter every day. If youre looking for a car that drives you. And takes the wheel right from your very hands. This isnt that car. The first and only car with direct adaptive steering. The 328 horsepower q50, from infiniti. As the company thats all about printing. But did you know we also support hospitals using Electronic Health records for more than 30 million patients . Or that our Software Helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure email every month . Or how about processing nearly 5 billion in electronic toll payments a year . In fact, todays xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. With xerox, youre ready for real business. Revolutionary by every standard. And that became our passion. To always build something better, airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. That redefine comfort and connect the world like never before. After all, you cant turn dreams into airplanes unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. Unless your passion for innovation is nonstop. Staying with the battle for the republican president ial nom nation. Join by john kasich who is expected to enter the president ial race later this summer. Welcome back to meet the press. Im not former, im still government before you get into the questions, we were talking earlier in the show about the quality of people in public life. Let me say i dont always agree with him, but joe biden is a special guy. You think about this. He lost a wife, a daughter, and now a son. He continues to serve. We start thinking about the quality of people, joe biden, whether you agree with him or not, hes a real guy, a real standup guy. Im going to pray for him because hes had a lifetime of tears. God bless you, joe. Couldnt say it better myself, governor kasich. Let me ask you where you are in this time table. Youve been here before. You said you were exploring. Sounds like you want to announce at end of the month. Why wouldnt you announce at this point . Why wouldnt you run . If i think i cant win, chuck, i wouldnt do it. I dont want to burden my family and my friends. We have internal metrics both on organization, and im pleased former senator john sununu agreed to help. Its recourses, too. I raise money the Old Fashioned way. I go out and tell people what i think. I say if you hire me, im a ceo and ill listen to you. At the end of the dashgs im going to make this decision. Something ive done throughout my whole career. Im optimistic where we are. Im optimistic on the resources. Im becoming more optimistic on the organization. I dont need to do this to have a good life, but i think i can help serve my country. Ive got the most unique resume and a terrific record. I have a great team of people around me. Well see. I love my country. If i can really step up and help it, i intend to do it. A lot of people put you in the same, if you divide up these candidates, there are so many of you that may be in the race, that many put you in the jeb bush heat. You said Something Interesting to an interviewer earlier this week. I dont know anything about jeb bushs theme. I never listened to him whats right to rise, getting up in the morning . That was snarky. I take it to believe jeb bush has done nothing to convince you he is a better candidate than you would be . I like jeb. Might have been one of those days where i wanted to Say Something that was, you know, kind of funny. Maybe you didnt take it that way. Heres the situation. I was the chairman of the Budget Committee when we balanced the budget in washington. That was the First Time Since man walked on the moon. I did it with the Clinton Administration and we got it done. I was also on the Armed Services committee and involved in military reform, including the most significant reform of the military that many say in 50 years with the Goldwater Nichols bill. I went into the private sector and i was governor of ohio. Weve gone from a state that was dead to a state optimistic and growing. We Just Announced on friday amazon locating a big facility here in the midwest. We are growing jobs. Weve cut the most amount of taxes. With that resume, National Security, success in washington and success as an executive, i think its the best resume and a terrific record. Let me ask you something that happened this week in other midwestern states. The state of nebraska decided to stop the Death Penalty all together. Theres Different Reasons why they did it. You have had a temporary moratorium in ohio. Want to read you something that a former predecessor of yours wrote, bob taft wrote this december last year. The Death Penalty is very costly to administer, lengthy trial be appellate procedures put a burden on county and state governments. It may be time to ask the question whether Death Penalty in ohio is a dead man walking. Do you agree no. I dont agree with that. We are just looking for the drug wees need to administer it. In this debate we forget the victims. I review all these cases. Some people i said we will let them stay for a life in prison if i wasnt certain of who did what, but ive had these grieving families come to see me, chuck. People who had their mothers, who have been gunned down. Look, its about justice. It isnt about revenge, its with justice. I support the Death Penalty and will continue to do that because a lot of times families want closure when they see justice done. We are in a tricky situation here because of a lack of drugs, but no. I think you administer it sparingly. Frankly, at the end of the day when it comes to me, everybodys had a look at these cases and i get the final say. I try to remember i dont try to, i remember the victims when i consider this. I know you are deeply religious man. Your catholic faith. Do you struggle with where you are on this and where the church is . No, i dont. I said it as clearly as i can. I think it is about justice. I think its consistent with my faith. At the end of the day, im the secular official, right . Im also the governor. It doesnt mean my faith doesnt influence me. I have a job as administrator of the state of ohio. Governor john kasich, i will leave it there. When you are an official candidate, come back and well go through all these issues. Cant wait. Thank you, sir. Stay safe when you travel. Lets discuss the 2016 race, guys. Sarah, what did you hear . I heard three candidates of what appear to be at least 20 that are going to run. So you are going to have a busy two weeks ahead of you. To me, the most interesting thing that i hear from Bernie Sanders is that hes going to be able to really challenge her on the left. He is going to make this race very difficult for Hillary Clinton. The challenge Hillary Clinton has is the republican field is so strong and she needs a general election to get here. She is running against herself right now and losing. Bernie sanders will make that harder. I wonder, the made it harder to pivot him to the center. Does Bernie Sanders pull her too far to the left and make it harder to pivot back . That is a problem. She has to be herself. This positioning is why people hate politicians. If Hillary Clinton is a lefty, i didnt know. She is a centrist politician. I would say go with the general election. First of all, im not her strategist. If i were, i would say go for the big win. Win with 54 , 55 . You have a shot bringing the house. In amy knows more than i know. Impossible. Possibly bring in the house if she walks into a senate that is still republican and the house that is heavily republican, she will get nothing done. Ive got to win. She can win with a center left strategy. I thought it was interesting john kasich, first thing he says about his candidacy, he brings up people that signed up with him in New Hampshire. Wasnt that interesting. Good place for him. A lot of individual voters. Kasich on the wrong side of primary voters on common core, maybe in the medicaid thing. Problemsolving conservative to independent voters in New Hampshire might be interesting. This is the interesting thing to me about john kasich. He is running as a great general election candidate. You have to win a primary. I dont hear his success pulling in conservative voters in a primary. Scott walker is his biggest opponent. If you are a conservative republican, you see in scott walker everything that you want to see, especially on conservative issues like labor, on the medicaid expansion. He is a midwestern governor, too. He is a blue state governor. The other thing about the iowa poll that was interesting to me is scott walker at 17 today in a strong position. When you look the a the field, its hard to imagine that anyone is going to get higher than 17 until right before the caucuses. He is in the worst position because he is leading. Leading significantly. He doesnt have 100 name idea. Thats the part of this striking to me about a huckabee santorum. I think the other question is, where is the money going to come from for these guys . Will Rick Santorum get a white whale to help grow this Campaign Like did he last time . Can they win the money race . Ill do a quick subject change. Turn to this heated debate over privacy. Midnight parts of the patriot act are likely to extend. The issue of the ability of the National Security agency to tell Telecom Companies to giving over the phone records of millions of americans. Lets say the government suspects jane doe being involved in terrorism. Jane calls 10 people. The nsa using the vast amounts of data they already collected contract the numbers of whom she called, when those called happened and how long the calls lasted. Then if the nsa can prove a link to terror, it can access phone calls some of those 10 numbers made. All of a sudden, you can have information for dozens of people, even though you were only targeting one person. In theory, with all that data, the government could connect the dots and quickly trace jane does terrorism network. The problem . The government winds up scooping up lots of information about people who have nothing to do with terrorism or jane doe. Talk more about this, im bringing in annula oconnor, an expert from the center for technology and security. Democracy in technology. What else expires tonight besides the ability of the government. Its limited provisions of the patriot act. We are not calling for the end to nsas involvement in our lives entirely. We want to see a really limited government that really only knows about people under suspicion what happens right now under 215, all of the telephone calls, all of whats called the mota data, but its your phone call records, who you called, when you called, how long you talked for. Every call in and out of america. All available. Not only available, goes to the nsa for their records. Thats too much. The new law here, the u. S. Freedom act, everybody assumes it will pass wednesday. It will now compel the Telecom Companies to hold this multiple senators do not think the Telecom Companies have to do this. If they dont, then where are we . We have lots of legal processes for companies to provide legitimate information to the government. Thinking institutions. The hastert scandal has to do with banks recording to the government about cash transactions. Transactions over 10,000 might be suspicion. Banks record that. The government decides whether there is a level of suspicion. We do not need wholesale mass surveillance on you and me and our grandparents and every telephone call we made. We are moving into a world where we use our smart phones for everything, our email. What if the Telecom Companies say no . They are already providing or rather collecting information for their own records. The attorney general and director of National Intelligence already said we have enough data. My beloved old boss tom ridge says more data is not better data, its just data. We need limited, legitimate Law Enforcement searches. Appreciate your point of view on this and explaining this to americans to get a better understanding. Appreciate it. Well be back with endgame and discuss why the Death Penalty in the United States might find itself on political death row. You can collect rainwater to shower with, but there are easier ways to go green. Like taking shorter showers, which conserves water and lowers your bill. Youll sing long ballads in the rain and short ditties in the shower. The more you know welcome back. It is endgame time. We are going to discuss potentially the slow death of the Death Penalty wednesday. As i mentioned earlier to governor kasich, nebraska became the first red state in more than 40 years to get rid of it. It brings down the number of states with reduction in the use of capital punishment, permanent or temporary moratoriums to 26. Polls show a majority of americans, while they favor the Death Penalty, its been slowly eroding in support, 55 down from around 80 in the mid 90s. Amy, it is this started as a modern effort. George ryan in illinois. He was a highprofile moratorium signer here. Public is still, when you ask them, they think they are pro Death Penalty, but when you add in life in prison. It becomes so much of what this is about for many law makers is about cost. How much it costs to administer this. Thats what part of the case was in nebraska. What is interesting about this issue you show the slow decline, there is one issue that has moved faster. When we compare this to the gay marriage issue. This is public ahead of politicians. Politicians might be ahead of public in this case. Fiscal and lethal. The issue of the drug. Its interesting, largely shows a divide within the Republican Party over the criminal justice issue. Folks are pushing for more softer type ofs proech. Then you have people that are still very for more aggressive, law and order approach that they advocated for in 1990s. Something playing out in the campaign trail between rand paul and john kasich on this issue. Like with the abortion debate. Some has to do with science and technology and dna testing has advanced. Several people have been on death row and found to be not guilty. When there is a shred of doubt in a case like this, it causes people to stop and think carefully about, is this the right thing . This movement has been happening almost exclusively among democrats. I am shocked on the sort of sea change. Bill clinton had to use the Death Penalty as a way in 1992 boy, three strikes and youre out. George pataki, hes only a threeterm governor because of the Death Penalty. Mario cuomo was against it. This is one of the few areas i have no opinion. My opinion is so divided on this, i dont have one. The way kasich talked about it, showed why we wouldnt a governor to be president. You take adult responsibility in a life and death situation. It separates you from the bs artists on capitol hill. There was an honest way that may be seen as conservative or tough, but people you could hear that guy talking about decisions hes made. I still believe the Republican Party is dying for a midwest governor whether its walker or him, they want a grownup. They have to carry ohio. They do. You are going to be working all day today on capitol hill, the senate. How did Mitch Mcconnell get himself in a position like this where he had no plan b or is he just convening the senate to give Rand Paul Campaign a boost . Its surprised. Mcconnell strategizes, hes always got a plan. This is unusual because he stuck his neck out on this issue. He sits back, lets the caucus debate the and decides which way to go. He really does not believe the house passed usa freedom act will be workable and came out strongly against it. The party is so divided on this right now. There is no way forward. It looks like mcconnell will have to do a back flip except the usa freedom act. The question for rand paul is whether he drags this out all week, which is very possible. Rand paul is against usa freedom too. That is what people may not be aware. This has been good politics for him. Good politics with a small segment of the Republican Party and libertarian wing of the Republican Party. Its bad politics for the Republican Base overall. Its risky because god forgive something happens. Hes done. Its all over for him. People who dont own a car, dont have a house, they are not married. They have this thing. All right. I want to pause because i want to pay tribute to a friend. I want to say a few words about bob shaeffer. I want to thank bob being a great representative of what we inspire to do in journalism and here in washington. When i came to washington, the first i met was his daughter sharon. The type of person she is tells you a lot about the type of person bob is. When you meet a shaeffer, you learn they are simply good people. One thing, bob, the one time im not going to miss you is as a competitor sunday mornings. When bob announced he was standing down, i promised to emulate him by wearing purple socks on his last sunday. Well, bob, im a man of my word. Im wearing these purple socks. They dont watch, but who cares . Thats all for today. Well be back in two weeks. Enjoy the french open next sunday, but if its sunday, its meet the press. It a championships. One home. Nbc sports championship season. Yesterday at roland garros, it was business as usual, the spain ard whosese dominance her has earned him nine titles and the nickname king of clay, easily advanced. As did the current world number one. The women had an epic battle. Not without controversy, and the american survived with her quest to reach a career milestone with 20 career grand slam titles still