bicyclists still account for fewer than 1% of all commuters. that will it for this friday edition of rove's conjecture is based on fajts. hillary clinton did go after a concussion in 2012. and she showed strange behavior in her testimony of the benghazi scandal. she had a mastery of facts all while wearing those stupid glasses. these things are like orthopedic shoes for your face. you would have to be brain damaged to wear those. or nearsighted. and hillary's shown signs of mental frailty before. look at these pants she wore in the 1970s.
girl, that is a traumatic fashion injury. >> good morning, everything. it is may 16th. end of the week. with us on set to celebrate, washington anchor for bbc world news america and co-author of "the confidence code," katty kay. and also msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. and associated press's julie. first here's an instagram. >> retiring as always. >> but willie, it's just mind boggling "the new york times" has conducted themselves in this. first of all the firing, and then the follow-up to the firing offering statements that you
would think a third rate politician would offer only to get punctured by organizations like "the times." do they not expect that their faults and misleading statements wouldn't get blown out of the water by people like ken auletta? >> ken auletta we had on after his initial post. he updated that post yesterday. part of the argument from "the times" is said it was not true that abramson was paid less than his predecessor. ken with his sources found the numbers. and it turns out that as executive editor jill abramson's starting salary was $475,000 compared to bill keller's that same year $559,000. >> i'm not good with math with alabama, but what is that? like $70,000? $80,000? >> $85,000 difference for the same job. >> and you dig in deeper, and
doesn't ken also find out that jill actually made less money in earlier positions than men she was supervising. >> ken auletta reports she made $398,000 which was less than that of a male managing editor for news operations. >> go ahead. >> i was just going to say that in the newspaper hierarchy, they're running the news gathering operations and supervising reporters would be expected to make more. it's a more crucial job. obviously the other job is important too. but poorly handled, i'd say. >> and then you go, katty, even beyond the actual firing and the cause for the firing, "the times" puts out a statement from their fearless leader who says, well, her asking for more money had absolutely nothing to do with her being fired.
and then ken auletta talks to the spokesperson for "the times" who at first argued there was no real compensation gap. but then conceded, quote, this was a contributing factor to the firing of abramson because it was part of a pattern. and that incident was jill finally giving up and having to hire a lawyer to go in and try to get equal pay at "the new york times." it's stunning that "the times" all day yesterday were telling everybody inside and outside of the newsroom that this had nothing to do with her being fired, the fact she came and actually asked to be paid the same as a man. and by last night, ken auletta and the new yorker, the spokesperson to "the times" admits this was a contributing factor because it was a pattern.
it's a stunning story. stunning mismanagement. >> stunning mismanagement. and i think that "the times" is going to feel a backlash. i wouldn't be surprised if women subscribers to "the times" are looking closely this morning at their subscriptions to that newspaper. certainly women within the organization i've spoken to say they're blind sided by this. that there's a real sense they've been let down as women in the organization. that there's still an old boys culture at "the times." they are stunned. i had one "new york times" reporter woman saying she was very depressed by what happened. they're very disappointed in the organization. the brutality of the fierg alone. >> how it was handled, the brutality of the firing. two guys sitting together, one guy not liking how a woman inside was treating him. he complains. the other guy fires the lady who
had to get a lawyer to try to get paid the same. who had been underpaid her entire stellar tenure at "the new york times." and then again the most damning blow for the men and women is that "the times" leadership put out statements that just weren't truthful. "the new york times" lied trying to cover up their own mess. saying there's no compensation problem. >> that's not a factor and it is now acknowledged to be a factor. "the times" frankly was being very cute in arthur salzburger's statement about the total compensation. apparently one has to surmise lumping in any bonus she might have gotten any stock. which of course are all dependent on what kind of year the newspaper is having. and so i know, for example, "the washington post" when manager's bonus was cut in half or didn't come at all because of lean
years in the newspaper business. keller, her predecessor was in that office for a lot of lean years. so it's possible you could look at the figures and say her stock options eventually might have been worth more than his. but it's salary to salary. >> they're being too clever. >> yeah. >> when she has to go hire a lawyer, gene, i mean, she has to hire a lawyer to try to get equal pay for the position her male counterpart had. >> if you recall the way the firing was handled, you use the word brutality. and i'm afraid that's probably kind of right. last time arthur salzburger had to fire an executive editor, that was after the worst plagiarism scandal in the newspaper. one of the worst in the modern history of american journalism along with ours of janet cook.
but he was given a sendoff in the newsroom and the staff got to applaud and recitation of many triumphs as executive editor. jill abramson had none of that. eight pulitzer prizes in her years there. >> she didn't want to be there for that. >> you can mention it. >> you could rightly ask how "the new york times" defends now that we have the salary numbers. that spokesperson for "the new york times" says you don't look at salary, you look at total compensation which includes bonuses, stock grants, and other long-term incentives. you can't deny and "the new york times" hasn't denied this yet that the baseline salary was much less. >> but you do look at the salary. the other things, it's not like keller didn't have the opportunity. the paper just wasn't doing as well for the bonuses.
when jill got there the paper started doing better. in large part because keller did some great work and set it on a strong path. but it's not like they gave her -- >> i think there's also the issue, the fact that character has been raised in the case of jill abramson. i can't think of a senior male executive that has been fired on character grounds or where character has been raised as part of the issue. they're fired for competence or lack of success on the job but not for being described as pushy or aggressive. but certainly character has been raised in the case of this woman that are not generally raised. >> in an earlier story it was said she demanded to know why certain stories competitors had were not in "the new york times." shocked. i'm shocked. >> lord forbid. >> i have never demanded that when i was an editor. i never asked my staff why a newspaper had a story.
who would do such a thing? >> all right. so julie, let me go to you here. i think it's stunning that, you know, "the times" first says there's no real compensation gap, but then again said when a woman asked to get the same amount of money as her male counterpart for the same job, that is spokeswoman for "the new york times" would say, quote, this incident was a contributing factor because it was part of a pattern. that's -- men kick down doors and demand raises every day. i've just never heard of any man being fired because he asked to be paid the same as coworker. >> absolutely. the whole conversation is just so tough to even listen to as a younger woman in journalism. i look to people like jill,
other women who have risen through the ranks. it's still a very small number. the combination of the numbers that we're seeing now on salary and as katty said, just the adjectives that are being used to describe her. these are adjectives that we hear come up with powerful women a lot. you always feel there is some sort of undertone there that if they're being used about a man would be used as a positive description. i give "the new york times" reporter who is are covering this story a lot of credit. i think they're doing a really good job in a really tough situation where you're having to cover your own employer doing something that has not been handled well at all. >> except for the fact, julie, that they've got a guy from another magazine that's scooping them. >> sure. but they're trying to get information out of people that are obviously giving contradictory statements or when you look at the original statements using language that
is clearly very precise in order to put a more positive spin on these numbers. >> again, i mean, chris christie had done something like this in his office, "the times" would have shredded him to pieces. >> and "the times" claiming disclosure. they have to do better on transparency. >> to point out one final quick thing, a few years ago i could have listed any number of female top editors in major papers in the country. there was a good long list. they're all gone. there's one i can think of, mindy, editor of "the miami herald." great editor.
but just a bunch of top female editors have either moved on or in the case of jill abramson have been dismissed. >> we need a column on what's happening at national newspapers from you. should we move on now to other news. there's now a potential criminal component to the controversy surrounding the va hospital in phoenix. federal prosecutors are looking into allegations the medical center kept a secret waiting list to cover up for long delays for veterans looking for care. the report claims it led to deaths. those disclosures came from the inspector general followed by the testimony. by eric shinseki. shinseki was grilled by the senate veterans affairs committee. he told lawmakers he's as angry as anyone. >> any allegation, any adverse
incident like this makes me mad as hell. i could use stronger language, but i won't. if any allegations are true, they're completely unacceptable. if any are substantiated by the inspector general, we will act. >> do you believe that you're ultimately responsible for all this? >> i am. >> would you explain to me after knowing all this information why you should not resign? >> well, i tell you, senator, that i came here to make things better for veterans. i intend to continue this mission until i'm satisfied. either that goal or i'm told by the commander in chief that my time has been served. >> willie, he looked mad as hell there. >> maybe he didn't show the fire some people wanted to see. he's a four star general. does he care about veterans?
of course he does. but right now his best isn't good enough. it's clear to me a lot of people think he should step aside, it's not clear to me anyone could fix the bureaucracy at the va. as we saw those pictures yesterday with stacks and stacks of paper that looks like an office from 40 years ago, there's not a system in place to process these claims. we have great doctors working at the va, great medical personnel who in in cases, you know, fore went other careers to make good money. they cannot handle the sheer claims of people coming in and people are dying because of it. >> if you actually get in the system, there are positive things said about the system once you're in it. but it's the backlog. and it's the fact they're operating in 19th century filing with stacks and stacks. >> exactly. there are a few -- we've heard before of a few corners of the federal government that still operate this way in this system.
but the va is a big thing. and with a vital and important mission. you know, that it hasn't had had more of a technological upgrade. and that it didn't anticipate that when, for example, we're going to have two simultaneous foreign wars, we're going to have a lot of veterans coming home, they're going to need a kind of medical treatment that frankly wouldn't have needed in the past because a lot simply would have died in earlier wars. but because of quicker sort of triage that survived with traumatic brain injury and other kinds of problems, that the va needs to handle it. >> you're right. the actual system when you get into it, is one of the most popular bits of the american health care system.
people always talk about european socialism when it comes to health care. but this government-run part of the health care system is one of the bits that people actually like when they manage to start getting into it. >> yeah. they just aren't having good luck getting into it. we'll see what happens. i'm going to ask before we go a break, gene, i'm looking at the front of "the new york times." it is a paper i read every day. if i had "the washington post," i'm sure i'd read that too. but it's a paper i read every day along with "the wall street journal." i don't see any article on the -- >> b-1. >> you say b-1. >> yeah. >> you're right. it's not on the front page. >> it moved back to the business front today. >> to the left. >> "times" seeks to reassure its staff. okay. has a strong -- okay. strong counternarrative that emerged in the news media
including on "morning joe." and "the new yorker." so the question now is, you know, ken auletta, that came last night. if you're at "the post" and you're the editor of the editorial page and you find out the publisher of your news put out a statement that was false, what's the news meeting this morning? >> a little crazy. >> "the times" has been covering up the truth for the past two days about salary. they've been putting out statements that are clever. do you not have a responsibility as a newspaper person to go after your paper? >> i can pretty much guarantee that this conversation is being had and has been had at "the times." and that the newsroom of "the times," no inside information here, but based on my experience
at "the post," they absolutely feel they have a responsibility to "a," get to the bottom of it, and "b," to really do some probing journalism. not an easy thing to do, but they have the mandate to do that or they better have the mandate to do that. at "the post" when we've had horrible, embarrassing things like the janet cook episode in 1981, you know, we set loose no holds barred to do what ended up being a withering indict of management. >> which i'm sure margaret will end up doing at "the times." >> well, i am sure she would. >> but the question is day-to-day how do you -- because you've got the greatest reputation in the world at this newspaper, the greatest reporters in the world at this newspaper and they have been set
up in the words of the grateful dead, set up and knocked down by bowling pins by their own publisher who is playing, you know, ceo coverup games. >> if i'm a media reporter at "the new york times" and i see that post from ken auletta that directly contradicts what the publisher has said and what "the times" spokes people have been putting out, i blow my top. and i begin working -- >> you have to go after them, don't you? >> and you have to go after including those numbers that auletta got from the source. you go after those numbers. and, you know, you do it. i mean, i assume that's what they're doing. >> and it came in time for the front page this morning. >> they certainly did. >> we are reading them last night. it should have been on the first page today. which i why i asked the question. they're telling yesterday's story instead. if this were again coming from
trenton, it would have been on the first page today. coming up on "morning joe," if the nba thought clippers owner donald sterling would go gently into that night, think again. he plans to fight his punishment. also this scene was months in the making. what syrian rebels pulled off against president assad's army. and in news you can't use, idaho gubernatorial debate you won't want to miss. why this primary candidate stole the show and why he was even on the debate stage last night. willie, i may be wearing that after this weekend. but first here's bill kairns with a check on the forecast. >> but not wearing that outfit. >> that's one of the funniest things i've seen. the rain this morning, it is just torrential coming down right through washington, d.c. there's a sheets of rain, it's like a tropical down pour right over the beltway. so if you can wait a bit before you head out, there's a lot of
water on the roads right now. we've had almost 4 inches of rain at dulles. at reagan about an inch and a half. it is pouring as you can see. the green is the rain. the oranges and yell los are heavy rain. again, that's going to be slowly passing to the east during your morning commute. but it's going very slow. next stop will be up towards wilmington, delaware. let me try to break down the timing of all this wet weather for you. flood watches are up from new york to d.c. the red and the oranges show the heaviest rain. still over the chesapeake just entering philadelphia. by 5:00 p.m. entering new york city. as you try to drive home from work and school today. then in boston by early tomorrow morning. it will clear out by saturday afternoon. in other words, it's a soaker. a lot of airport problems expected. especially in new england as we go throughout the day. and out west, fire videos are
incredible. it was 102 in downtown l.a. one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in l.a. still fire danger today. it will be about 90 and then 70s over the weekend. your forecast, today is the worth of it with the travel trouble in the east. by the time we get into saturday and sunday, the weather pattern finally returns to normal springlike conditions. 60s, 70s, 80s. not expecting any tornado outbreaks any time soon. just a bit of shower activity on sunday down there in the southeast. but bottom line, if you're traveling this morning around washington, d.c., this is what reagan international airport looks like. more "morning joe" when we come back. ♪
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welcome back to "morning joe." let's check out some of the morning papers. "wall street journal," growing concerns today that syria is hiding chemicals weapons. john kerry says he has seen evidence although not verified that chemical attacks continue. meanwhile the civil war rages on with new video showing rebels setting off a massive bomb under a military base. 60 tons of explosives were detonated inside a tunnel which fighters had been digging for months. >> are we to take action if they use chemical weapons again? "the new york times," thousands of steel workers are now in control of a city in eastern ukraine re-taking the city from pro-russian militants. employees of the richest man in ukraine fears an economic
slowdown if they lose trading ties with europe. the country's army also launched two bases. >> issues a recall for 2.7 million vehicles. the move comes as the company continues to respond to the ignition switch default which is linked to the deaths of 13 people. gm recalled more than 11 million vehicles this year in the u.s. and 13 million worldwide. >> from "usa today," fast food workers walked off the job yesterday in a call for higher wages. they're asking for a raise to $15 an hour and the ability to unionize without retaliation. at least 17 chains in the $200 billion fast food industry have been targeted including mcdonald's, burger king, and wendy's. >> the summer air travel forecast at its highest level in years. anticipating 210 million passengers will fly between june
1st and august 31st. that's the highest level since before the recession in 2007. nearly 30 million passengers are expected to travel internationally. >> and no upgrades in the airports which means it's going to be chaos. "sports illustrated" reports that donald sterling plans to ignore the nba's sanctions and possibly sue the league. sterling hired a prominent lawyer that says his client has not violated any part of the constitution writing no punishment is warranted. and that sterling's due process rights have been violated. it also says he has no intention of paying the $2.5 million fine. >> and in this weekend's "parade" magazine, guy fieri shares his tips how to prepare for summer outdoor cooking from his new book. now joining us, politico's john
harris. >> hey, willie. i scooted out to see you in the morning with monsoons out there. >> my gosh. look at that. that's a live picture of the white house. it is bad. gene, you made the right call coming up here. it's going to get bad later today too. let's talk business. there's a tight race for the seat once held by gaby give ford. how does ta shake out? >> well, barber used to work for giffords and was shot and nearly killed in that incident in 2011. that at least the first time he ran established a powerful relationship with voters. romney won this district in 2012. what sent our reporters out to tucson. that bond is with the passage of time. he's running against a strong
opponent, former air force pilot. she is saying she is more in keeping with the giffords' legacy of tough independent minded women. this race looks to be very close. >> so her name is martha mcsally. she's an air force fighter pilot and used by a lot of people as a star. >> no question about it. she ran a close race in 2012. we're wondering now with the passing of time with the shooting receding into the past whether she has the upper hand in 2014. >> all right. john harris with a look inside the politico playbook. thanks so much. still ahead, it may be one of the most bizarre debates in american history. paper headlines describing it as magical, surreal, and life-changing. wow. we're talking about idaho politics in news you can't use. coming up, it was do or die for the los angeles clippers. they needed a win against the thunder to extend their bizarre season in this donald sterling world. could they do it and force a
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♪ all right. let's do some sports. a couple of game six matchups. thunders and clippers in l.a. fourth quarter, tied at 72.
russell westbrook gives the thunders their first lead since the first quarter. oklahoma city takes over from there. kevin durant led the way with 39 points. they beat the clippers. ending the clippers season and that saga in los angeles. to d.c. for the pacers and wizards. pacers blow a lead. knocks down a three for the wizards. first lead since the first quarter. but indiana finishes on a 20-6 run. that's david west. he led with 29 points. the pacers beat the wizards, eliminate washington. the thunder head to san antonio. so you have the two best teams in each conference after all the one and two seeds playing in the finals. baseball, couple of tight leads yesterday. yankees and mets in the subway series.
alfonso soriano, runner comes around. the yankees take a 1-0 lead. yankees shut out for the second game in a row. also a couple of walkoff wins yesterday. check them out. >> now the pitch. base hit to right center. one run is in. they're going to try to score. here's the throw. he's in there! >> to left field. suzuki heading around third. he's coming in. aaron hicks is the walkoff runner today. >> out to the left. going back, it is gone! walkoff style. and the angels pick up the victory. >> angels beat the rays in that one. you saw the twins beating boston in extras. and the brewers beating the pirates. to an update on that heroic cat we showed you yesterday. the pet that saved the toddler.
the bakersfield blaze is honoring the cat by having her throw out the ceremonial first pitch. that's tara the cat that saved the boy from the neighborhood dog will throw out the pitch. >> am i allowed to ask an obvious question? >> we don't know how that will go. maybe put the ball on the ground at bat at it a bit? i don't know. zblmplgt zblmplgt still ahead, nike is trying to become soccer's biggest responser. bad for adidas. but first mika's must read opinion pages. we'll be right back. ♪ when sales rep steve hatfield books at laquinta.com,
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not a pretty shot in washington, d.c. and it's coming our way in new york too. going to be an ugly friday along the east coast. with us here, though, tho cheer us up and make everything sunny where every day really is sunshine, with mika's must-read opinion pages we have the current assistant editor and the soon to be u.s. managing editor starting in september for "the financial times." we expect that she will be paid as much as whoever formerly held that job. i want to go to "f" and get your thoughts on your thoughts on what china should do. and tell us what's behind that. because, of course, whenever i give speeches over the past five years and people china's going to overtake america.
i say excuse me, is this 1988? this is the same exact thing we were hearing about japan in 1988 and 1989. how does china avoid making the same mistakes japan made? >> well, what is fascinating is anyone who thinks back to 1988 and '89 remembers this as japan is number one. that was the title of the book. and was exactly the same hyperbole around china right now. and japan faces a huge problem which is a property bubble, a credit bubble which makes what happened in america almost look modest. they face a horrendously difficult job in trying to find a way to deflate that property bubble without creating a real economic recession. frankly people might say what do we care about china? does it matter if they have a property bubble that goes burst? one thing we learned in 2008 is when mortgages went wrong in
america, the impact was felt across the world. if china's property bubble goes bust, believe me, americans will feel it. >> willie, as you like to say when it comes to these property bubbles, if someone sneezes in beijing, they're getting a cold in birmingham, england. >> yeah. as the old saying goes. in birmingham. >> they love the governor. >> we've heard so much over the last few years that china holds so much of our debt, that they have us over a barrel. does that remain true and how big a prob is that for the united states? >> well, what is clear is the united states and china are locked in this very tight embrace. and frankly, neither can afford to see the other economy go down. because they are so inter-dependent right now. so unfortunately what happened in china does matter. the chinese authorities have actually got a pretty good pragmatic plan for dealing with
these challenges. in fact, there was a survey of executives done a couple years ago that suggested that american chief executives have more respect for the ability of the chinese government to come up with a proactive plan than they do for their own congress. the question is can china actually manage these? >> i guess china can come up with a plan and actual implement it. we can't come up with a 40-day plan. >> and we don't have the power to take people out back and shoot them either. >> we have to deal with congress and the other party there is an issue between japan and china. to what extent does the fact we're dealing with the over-population of people consumers who have been given access to markets make the parallels between japan in the '90s and china today not totally accurate. >> it's the size issue. and the question of whether
china has enough resources to deal with any property bubble. but there's something to think about, when pointing out the consumers, americans think of china as a competitive threat because of all those jobs going out there to chinese factories. if china actually does carry on growing and there isn't the property bubble crash, it could be a fantastic source of demand for american-made goods. and that's something everyone should celebrate. >> let's look at another of our must reads. charles krauthammer writing about the sound and fury and tweet. in hash tagging one's indignation about some outrage abroad an exercise in merle narcissism or worthy new way of standing up to the bad guys. it's simply embarrassing when the state department spokeswoman tweets the #united for ukraine. that is nothing but preening
rhetorical fatuousness. it has betrayed both its impotence enindifference. but if you're an individual citizen without power, if you lack access to media, drones, or special forces, then hash tagging your solidarity is fine. >> growing frustration in all corners from an administration that doesn't seem to be able to do anything but lead from behind on the international stage. do you sense a growing frustration in the house that you cover? >> well, there is definitely a growing frustration there, but i think it's more a frustration with what they see as the politpublic and the classes misunderstanding of the foreign policy. there's a lot of work did being done on a speech that the president is giving at west point at commencement there.
they're casting this as a speech that's supposed to explain his foreign policy to the public. at this point in the presidency if you're having to give speeches about foreign policy, if you're in good shape here. this hash tag and twitter is fascinating because people say what's the point of it. i go back to the situation with nigeria, though. i think that without twitter, without what people were doing on social media, we would not even be talking about the options available to the u.s. it simply was not in the public dialogue. >> you know what's so fascinating, preparing for this speech, the criticism of the obama administration from foreign leaders at least over the past five years has been the fact that i've heard one diplomat after another, one foreign leader after another say they think they can give the speech and the speech is the ends instead of a means to the
end. so they go home after they make the speech, that's it. you're talking about a response. they're all prepping for a speech at the end of may. that would provide little comfort to foreign leaders, i think. >> absolutely. this does tend to be sort of the go-to solution for this white house. what they see as the solution is there's a problem, there's a misunderstanding, a misconception about their policy, let's give a piece and explain it. i will have to cover this speech and i wonder how much will be different, how much will be new, and how much it will clarify about a policy we've all been covering for five and a half years already. >> and the next day he'll really turn the focus to jobs. thank you for being here. congratulations on your promotion that's coming up. if you want to make sure you get paid the same -- >> i will ask mika. >> i was go i think to say ask mika. >> exactly. >> have her go in first. it's scary. well, thank you. and congratulations.
coming up, as the gop moves to limit the number of their 2016 debates, we've got a perfect example of why willie thinks there should be more of them. willie, this is good stuff. >> look at the gloves. >> i had those gloves. ent, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today.
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♪ time for a little news you can't use. the race for republican nomination for governor of idaho just got more interesting. it was already interesting. >> a lot of people were saying we were not going to get our act together, that we were going to
have bizarre candidates. i don't think so. you want the answer, you go to idaho. you'll see what the future of my party is. >> i give you -- i give you candidate harley brown. >> i don't like political correctness. can i say this? it sucks. your proverbial turd in a punch bowl. i'm proud of it and i'm going for the voter, the real people out there. not these bondage type people who don't have a clue about picking up strangers at night and hauling them god knows where. i need practice. practice. i don't want to say stuff like sorry if my bombing caused you any inconvenience. and you have your choice, folks. a cowboy, a bike, or a normal guy. take your pick. thank you very much. we're leaving it up to you. >> there it is.
there it is. harley brown, everybody. >> did we hear from the curmudgeon at all? >> it was the repetition of bondage and leather that's disconcerting. >> it struck me as hypocritical to be against bondage but wearing that getup. >> i like everything about the guy. >> he's got gene's vote. >> if that's the future of the republican, joe, i'm good with that. >> harley brown has some off-colored jokes on his website. he was confronted about those because i guess they target a specific group. he said wait a minute, i hate every day. jews, polish, everybody, irish, italians. religious jokes. he makes jokes about all of them. governor butch odder admitted he wanted those lesser known candidates in the spotlight to
share the spotlight. meanwhile the debate was on a 30-second delay because of mr. brown's tendency to curse and use bigoted language. couple things on his platform, i was just reading up on him. he's worried about armageddon. that's number one. and number two, discrimination against biker clubs. which i thought we settled that in the courts a long time ago. >> i thought we did too. wasn't that griswold v. harley. >> but he loves america and freedom. >> he does. my gosh. idaho. the gem state, ladies and gentlemen. >> by the way, contraceptions, those too. but it was about biker clubs. they just threw that in towards the end. coming up at the top of the hour, more bondage. no. we're getting back to serious matters. va secretary eric shinseki says he's mad as hell, but did his testimony yesterday help stem
the calls for his resignation. the chairman of the house committee on veterans affairs, jeff miller, will join us next. "morning joe" is right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ no matter what kind of business you own, at&t business experts can help keep it running... seamlessly. so you can get back to what you love. when everyone and everything works together, business just sings. aswhen i really needit's reto get stuff done,at home. i hide in the laundry room.
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commercials and like kool-aid you love him as a kid, but you got to stop doing that. we're on the air. you can't do that crinkly thing. >> it's like in the cinema. >> it is. >> "morning joe" contributor mark halperin. we've got some questions for you in a few minutes, but first let's go to the news. >> the latest on jill abramson. there is more fallout today after the firing of executive editor jill abramson. "the times" is now waging a pr battle to save face after reports she was dismissed because she complained about receiving less pay than her male predecessor. yesterday they tried to reassure staffers that there was no foul play writing in a memo, quote, it is simply not true that jill's compensation was less than her predecessors. her pay is comparable than that to executive editors. in fact, in 2013 her last full year in the role, her total compensation package was more
than 10% higher than that of her predecessor bill keller in his last full year as executive editor which was back in 2010. it was also higher than his compensation than in any previous year. but the new yorker's ken auletta writes arthur salzburger and abramson had a fraught relationship almost from the start of her tenure as editor. he found her lacking in finesse in management of people in the paper. but clearly a last straw came a few weeks ago when abramson decided to hire a lawyer to complain that her salary was not equal to that of her predecessor bill keller. abe romson's starting salary in 2007 was $85,000 less than keller's at the time he stepped
down. abramson learned she made less than her male counterpart. and salary as bureau chief was $100,000 less than her predecessor in the same position. she hasn't spoken publicly about her firing, but her daughter responded with this photo on instagram highlighting what she calls her mom's new hobby with the hash tag pushy. >> lets get a quick comment from you. i guess the thing that surprises me the most, well, the unequal pay surprises me for jill doing the same work men have been doing. but how clumsy -- let's start at the top with the publisher. how clumsy the firing was. some people think she was pushy. well, they knew he was pushy before they hired her. they knew she was tough before they hired her. they knew what kind of newsroom they were going to run before they hired her.
and then to have a clumsy statement put out and ken auletta chop it to little bits last night with his second post, i don't understand. i'll ask you what i asked gene. don't the reporters inside "the times" now have a responsibility to go after their own publisher and piranhas? and tear away until they get at the truth. >> i'm working on my predecessor and mum. i want those both in my vocabulary. i don't know all the facts. i think there's confusion. i don't think that it's really a problem. it might just be structured differently. >> she hired a lawyer because she was not getting paid the same. >> jill is one of the best journalists of our generation. and jill is a very tough person. and there have been plenty of top editors that rubbed people
the wrong way. i think that ushering her out not making -- giving her honor of worked in that tough job for a long time and doing well, i think that was a big mistake. and i think now they have to engage on the facts of her pay. they have to. they have no choice. the credibility of the paper as a public institution and the credibility of themselves as an employer is absolutely at issue. and they have lost the pr battle. but i'll say again we don't know all the facts. my suspicion is that they could not be so brazen as to not be telling the truth. that her total compensation was greater or comparable -- >> look at the words. the words are of politician training. >> then in the second round she said they overall more than bill. >> they also said in the first statement that her asking for more compensation had nothing to do with it. then in the second article last night they admitted that her getting a lawyer to get equal compensation as men was the last straw.
>> now they've taken that back too. >> oh. >> i'm not channelling ken's reporting and i'm not saying -- but i am saying we don't know all the facts. >> you're telling us nothing here. this is herald ford, i agree with all sides stuff. okay? >> i bet you that she made as much as bill keller did in overall compensation. >> one detail. one factual detail because i was noticing those statements. "the times" refers to keller's compensation in 2010. she took over in 2011. we know from auletta's piece what keller made in 2011. so there is a one-year discrepancy there in terms of comparing these numbers. so again, my question, i would be asking my publisher are we being cute here by saying 2010 instead of comparing to 2011. >> let's move to the next story.
okay. go. >> the other thing that would be interesting to find out is why on april 28th, the ceo sent jill abramson this e-mail saying i'm going to try to convince you to stay on for two more years and two weeks later she's out. what happened in that intervening period? >> asked for salary and then she's kicked out. >> let's be honest about one thing. morale at the paper are not great now. and their digital efforts have not been good under her leadership. so there are other reasons why besides -- >> we could debate this. they're making money off the digital sites now. and that's another thing. the publisher puts his son in to do a hit job on jill abramson and what kind of digital leadership she's providing. >> morale at the paper was not good under jill. >> if only it could be as good as it was under howard raines.
>> he was seen as a bully. neither were fired for character issues. he lost his job after plagiarism. >> he lost it because of plagiarism. not because he was a bully around the newsroom. everybody knew he was a bully around the newsroom. and why did the publisher hire another person that's seen as a, quote, bully around the newsroom if he doesn't like bullies around the newsroom? and then how can he come back a couple years later and say we can't keep her here because she was a bully around the newsroom. when that was her reputation that she was tough as hell. >> i find it hard to find any males fired for character issues. let's move on. republicans are looking to assert ahead of the movement gathered in washington to express concern over the party's future. among them senators ted cruz and
mike lee. along with representatives from a number of national organizations. in many cases establishment candidates are winning the day. thom tillis took down his tea party challenger in north carolina. and more establishment republicans look to be in good shape. in colorado, kansas, and kentucky. in georgia the leading candidates are both considered more moderate than their challengers. conservatives are now worried about a, quote, softened message that could with attempts to broaden their appeal. activists are calling on the party to recommit to principles on lower taxes, same-sex marriage, a balanced budget, and immigration. as ted cruz frames it, quote, some say yea our team is winning. but we win when we stand for principle and we lose when we give into washington status. >> like last fall. the government shoutdown. more moral victories like that.
anyway, the thing is i like at a lot of these candidates wanting republican primaries and they are still conservatives. they're not redefining rape as republican candidates did over the past couple years. none of them are going on tv saying i am not a witch. these are mainstream conservative men and women that could win a general election and send harry reid home. if you were a republican right now, your goal is to send harry reid home and you're not thinking like jim demint once said i'd rather have 30 people in the senate that think like me than a majority. >> there are up to 13 states where it looks like they'll have nominees who are plausible candidates that can win. who aren't so far saying outrageous things and they're plenty conservatives. there are no arlen specters being nominated. so the party, i think at this
point has to be pretty happy. i think a lot of these divisions are overstated. it's a conservative party on economics. that's what the party is running on. >> i have no problem, either, katty kay, with conservatives getting out there and doing exactly what they were doing yesterday and pushing. because obviously i went after establishment republicans forever because they spent too much money and turned their back on core principles. but right now there are a lot of republicans looking to the election saying let's nominate people who can actually win elections. because if we don't win elections, we can't shape the country, we can't shape the court, we can't control the senate. >> the other thing i'm hearing is republicans are specifically looking for people that are seen as people who can get things done. and that actually an element of cooperation and effectiveness is a prime thing that voters -- voters are looking for strategists as well. >> we shall see. okay. >> there is now a potential criminal component to the controversy surrounding the va hospital in phoenix. federal prosecutors are looking into allegations the medical
center kept a secret waiting list to cover up for long days for care. led to dozens of preventable deaths. those disclosures came from the inspector general following testimony yesterday by the department secretary eric shinseki. shinseki was grilled by the senate veterans affair committee. he told lawmakers he is as angry as anyone. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell. i could use stronger language here, but in deference to the committee, i won't. if any allegations are true, they're completely unacceptable. if any are substantiated by the inspector general, we will act. >> with us now from my hometown of pensacola, florida, the chairman of the house committee on veterans affairs, congressman jeff miller.
so good to have you here. >> good morning, joe. >> how's our hometown? how's pensacola doing after the flooding? >> well, folks are getting back to normal. unfortunately it's going to be a long way to go before people are actually some of them back in their homes. your hold house on piedmont was flooded. had about five foot of water in it. >> it's unbelievable. you talk about a river runs through it, gene. it was literally just a river. >> never happened before. >> never had standing water even in hurricanes. let's talk for the reason we called you. that was shinseki's testimony on capitol hill. what did you hear yesterday that you're going act on? >> i saw a very terrible appearance and performance by the secretary of veterans
affairs. i don't know that he is capable of making the change that needs to be made to the bureaucracy that exists out there. they are still in a defensive mode. they're not coming forward and telling all of the facts. yesterday now we hear that three other people have put on leave in gainesville at the va hospital down there for keeping a second waiting list in the mental health area. >> what i don't understand, we had john on, there seemed to be quite a few people, jeff, who are circling the wagons for a system that is just indefensible. for a secretary whose record over the past couple years is indefensible as well. we've been talking about this, you and i privately now for a year or two. you've been talking about the terrible challenges that veterans are facing and what you're doing to try to help out. but things aren't getting better fast enough. isn't it time for a change at the top? >> well, i've said that i'm not
ready to call for the secretary's resignation, but yesterday it's very clear that one of two things are happening. either the secretary is not being told the truth by his subordinates and i think that is probably more so the case than anything else. or he just isn't able to move the bureaucracy of 330,000 employees in a direction that is much more acceptable for veterans that they're supposed to be serving. >> let's bring in our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. jim, you talked about general shinseki just didn't seem to get it. you look at that testimony yesterday and he just almost a flat effect there. and i saw exactly what you were talking about. i'm sure more questions are going to be raised and the biggest question is why does the obama administration want him to stay in this position after
failing as much as he did over the past couple years? >> i must say each time shinseki says he's not going to resign, he sounds more determined as opposed to just saying i serve at the pleasure of the president. you know, as we've said before, the va is the most entrenched bureaucracy probably in the u.s. government. and i talked to several veterans there at the hearing yesterday who said they've become so frustrated at their inability to get access to the va medical system that they've abandoned the system entirely and gone off in an entirely different direction. and i had a very brief conversation with senator john mccain in the hallway up there in the dirksen building. and he said the only solution to this, we can't dissolve the va, we don't have enough money to fund everything that the va needs, is to provide veterans with some kind of alternative.
some kind of federal programs that are alternative to the va. and already one veteran i talked to said that he worked it so he could leave the va and re-enter the military's tricare which in his case provided about the same level of care, but it gave him instantaneous access. and actually lower prescription costs. so i think senator mccain has hit on something here. whether you get rid of shinseki or not may not make a difference at all unless that entire system itself is revamped. >> mark? >> congressman, i know you're not calling for the secretary to accept down, but give us a couple names of people you think could step in today, take over the department and fix this. >> well, i don't think it's time really to talk about people that would replace secretary shinseki. i think the important thing is it is such a large bureaucracy that one single person may not be able to do it.
in fact, we've got the give the veterans an option to get the health care where they want to get it when they want to get it. and the old method of forcing veterans to go where the va wants them to go in giving them the health care when the va wants them to get it is obviously failing the veterans. >> quickly, jeff, you also talked about more problems in central florida. give us a little bit more information about that. >> what the press is reporting down there now is that the administrators at the hospital in gainesville said, look. if there's a list out there, if there's a secret list or second list, come forward. we will give you amnesty, nobody will be penalized for it. which is not their job to give them amnesty. but, in fact, they found a list. the group that was down there that was doing the audit found a list and it dealt with mental health provision. >> man. it is a mess. jeff miller, thank you so much. we appreciate you coming on. and hope to see you very soon in pensacola or in d.c. to talk about this some more.
>> okay, joe. thank you. >> all right. jim miklaszewski, thank you as well. we greatly appreciate it. coming up in our 8:00 hour, six decades after brown v. board was decided, segregation in u.s. schools still a big problem and you're simply not going to believe which state has the biggest problem. education secretary arne duncan is here. he's going to be our guest to explain how it can be that new york state is the most segregated state in america. up next, our political round table with chuck todd, david gregory, and eugene. they'll explain what it means when he says hillary clinton is getting the gop treatment. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪
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she'll be 69 by the time the 2016 election. she will be 77 if she serves two terms. and this ends up being an issue. we don't know what the doctor said about what does she have to be concerned about. we don't know what -- she's hidden a lot. >> yeah, she's hidden a lot. who knows what other diseases we could wonder if she has. scurvy. gingivitis. could she have popcorn lung? >> scurvy. look into scurvy. >> it's a silent killer. >> she could have it. >> we don't know. >> we don't know. she could have it and mitt romney could still win. i mean, you look at the now the way it is right now. let's not jump to conclusions. >> let's count the vote and check the scurvy.
bumper sticker. >> she hasn't come out, karl rove pointed out, and denied she had scurvy. come on. >> what did she lie about? >> what is she hiding? >> madam secretary, what about the scurvy. >> there'll be silence. and then, you know -- >> no questions, no questions. >> we could have the clinton chronicl chronicles 2. the scurvy years. but no. they're not answering questions which makes us that much more suspicious. joining us from washington, d.c. to take a crack at scurvy gate that's now swirling around clinton headquarters, plooil political director and host of "daily rundown" chuck todd. and moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. yew jane robinson writes this. republican panic at the prospect
of facing hillary clinton in the 2016 race has suddenly reached godzilla nearing tokyo proportions. the election is more than two years away and clinton hasn't decided whether to run. but none of this matters to those launching the arsenal at her. they move beyond a record to simply making up stuff. the scurvy thing. >> like the scurvy thing. that's a good example. you're hearing more attacks on hillary clinton now than you are on president obama app and i think the reason is obvious. benghazi has now shifted to being all about hillary clinton. and lindsey graham yesterday up there with his -- demanding to
know thinking it's suspicious saying she was fatigued and didn't want to go on the sunday show after benghazi. because as we all know, she's a woman who never suffers from fatigue. scurvy maybe, but never fatigue. it's gotten silly, but i think it reflects the fact that at this point republicans don't seem to have a candidate who will necessarily give up much of a run if she wins. >> david gregory, there were obviously if hillary clinton we'll learn more about her health as will all the candidates. but if nothing else, this reminds us it's going to be a long two and a half years waiting to see if she runs and when she does run, things from a couple decades ago. >> this all happens before she's actually in. i think there's a couple things going on. i think, one, there are these shots across the bow. perhaps republicans would like to persuade her not to get into the race. while as eugene said, they're
trying to solidify both the qualities in a candidate that they want in finding those candidates. but i also think there's an attempt here to fire up the base in the midterm year. and the clintons are able to do that for them. still, they believe, especially around issues like benghazi or in the case of rove. i think just putting something in that he really wants to spread. and become a question that gets discussed as we're discussing here that starts to raise any kind of doubt. and again, make it very clear to the clintons, plural, that this is what's coming. she may not have a rough ride in the primarying, but republicans are going to start early and start often on making this very personal. >> chuck, karl's got mixed reviews about what he did. of all the efforts trying to slow down hillary clinton, maybe intimidate her or scare her out of the race, which ones do you think republicans see as most
effective now in terms of organizations and lines of attack? >> well, look. they're trying very hard, i think, to troo i to persuade her not to run. to me i think they've tipped their hand. look at nigeria. the nigeria school girls. what did the story become among some on the right. why didn't hillary clinton put boko haram on the terrorist list. it is, you name the story. one, they don't -- look. the side effect if she does run, republicans will say hey they've at least called into question her tenure as secretary of state. what was an asset in the middle of it, she was seen as an asset. her time was seen as an asset. they can possibly neutralize it or turn it into a liability. i think this whole strategy is about hoping against hope that she somehow gets talked out of doing it and she decides i don't
need this. i don't want to go through this. the clintons are ready. all right? it was a very aggressive pushback. forget what clinton did. he had a lighter touch, a little more humor. but the statement they put out. that told you we're not going to have a hope and change election in '08. we're going to have an ugly fight, '88, '92. think that. and the clinton team seems ready. they seem ready to fight that way. it's going to be an ugly race. i'm not looking forward to that tone and tenor in '16. >> president clinton did have a light touch, but i have not heard him revved up like that since he defended himself in '92. >> and he conflated everything. you attack her, look, it's just like white water. it's just like this. >> exactly. >> right. but they also decided, chuck to your point, which is that they
were going to go big in a response. they were not going to laugh it off. they were not going to do the typical response. on roe to send the message. this is how it's going to be if you come at us. and look at the duelling images. what are the excerpts she released about her book? it's about motherhood, the relationship with her own mother. this is still kind of the ongoing effort at who is her persona? how is she defining herself to the world and to the electorate? and you've got these competing visions of that. >> gene, you get the sense that any of this gives hillary clinton pause about running? i mean, she doesn't strike me as the kind of person that's terribly worried about an attack from karl rove. do you think she's thinking twice about whether or not she wants to go up there this process again? >> this is not her first rodeo. i don't think she's going to be intimidated out of the race.
clearly the clintons have been laying the ground work. and she's looking at it very hard. but i think she'll make the decision. and it won't be made for her by these kind of attacks. >> thank you so much. chuck, we'll be watching you on "the daily rundown" at 9:00 a.m. david, thank you as well. do you have coming up on "meet the press" this weekend? >> we'll talk more about this and the future of the republican party against hillary clinton with reince priebus. also claire mccaskill and more on the va as well. >> all right. can't wait for that. thank you so much. greatly appreciated. and still ahead, the world cup is just around the corner. nike is trying to become the biggest sponsor. we'll talk shoe wars and the billions of dollars involved. ♪ so i c
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foreign investments in. now he's pledging to build everything from bullet trains to power plants in an effort to challenge china's dominance in the region. a record 563 million people cast voted in the election. it was the biggest election ever held anywhere. it wasn't just voters who were celebrating the country's economic index hit an all-time record. while the rupee hit a high against the dollar. >> the other story in this election has been just how badly the candidate carrying on the gandhi name did. just did not seem to want to be there. >> who seemed to be, you know, the heir to that political dynasty in the family. and him and his mother have just in the last few minutes accepted responsibility for the defeat of congress. and it'll be interesting to see whether they really can revitalize the indian economy. it's been struggling recently. the economy has been slowing. of course a lot of concerns
about china in that region and india being a counterbalance to china. american does $100 billion of trade with india every year. this is the biggest election held anywhere in the world actually matters to american businesses too. >> yeah. we can hopefully have a reset. >> they've gone really well. >> how about politics at home? what do we have? >> to some politics at home, a handful of states will likely decide which party controls the senate at they have midterm elections. derek kitz is taking a look in the polling place. >> reporter: this week's marist poll gaves democrats a glimmer of hope in maintaining control of the senate come november. the numbers show senate races in arkansas, georgia, and kentucky to be very close. however, the numbers don't always paint a complete picture. in arkansas, a state mitt romney won by 23 points in 2012, incumbent mark pryor is mounting a strong effort to retain his seat in the senate. the recent polling giving pryor
a double digit lead over tom cotton. with 69% of the registered voters in arkansas believing the country to be headed in the wrong direction, incumbent and challenger alike will need to make the case as to how they can make the change. in georgia, michelle nunn finds herself locked in a dead heat with her likely gop opponents. next tuesday the republicans will nominate their candidate. david perdue leading a tight field of contenders. in kentucky, minority leader mitch mcconnell has a comfortable lead over matt bevin in the primary. the general election numbers show a tighter race with mcconnell and alison lundergan grimes. showing the opinions of registers voters. voter enthusiasm is the lowest in 20 years. come this fall, the emphasis turns from registered voters to likely voters. it's motivation that will be the real determining factor. guys, back to you. >> and it is motivation.
you look at these three states. democrats, let's say, have reason to be more motivated an excited to go to the polls. you've got three southern states that could go democratic. arkansas, georgia, and kentucky. as well as north carolina, but of course, couple points the other way breaks the other way. same with louisiana. suddenly you have republicans that can do really well. this is an election that is up for grabs. >> it is. >> in ways that senate elections nationwide are not usually up for grabs. >> that's right. you've got national ties on the republican side that could wash away the best democratic efforts. the reason the democrats have hope is you've got candidates like mark pryor fighting for his job, not being complacent. alison lundergan grimes and michelle nunn are women candidates in a year when democrats are trying to soak the gender gap. they're in there fighting.
>> willie, i'm surprised by that 11-point spread in arkansas. >> you're not surprised by that? >> pryor has been stronger than the national media has cast him. i don't think he's up 11. i don't think democrats would tell you he's up 11. but he's getting close to 50 and he's running a good campaign. but cotton's going to have to sell himself to arkansas voters. arkansas voters tend to stick with their incumbents. he's going to have one more big run taken at him by cotton. but it's not 11. >> all right. still ahead, gm's announcing another round of recalls bringing their total to 11 million vehicles this year. we're going to talk about how the company is trying to fix the issue in our 8:00 hour. and up next, why our next guest says we still need a full health care revolution. more "morning joe" when we return. ♪ i have low testosterone. there, i said it.
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♪ with us now cofounder and ceo of athena health who is also author of "where does it hurt." we've got our favorite chapter. you know what it has to be. >> what would "morning joe" choose. >> my cousin almost killed my company. >> he meant perfectly well. the intent of the law in the book, you know, this is where he's trying to figure out a good way of getting doctors to start adopting electronic medical records. and there's this law that makes it illegal for a hospital to give anything of value to a doctor. so he says there's going to be a break in the law. >> right.
>> you can give doctors those electronic medical records. and everyone starts getting exciting. in the law they left out anything internet based. athena health is a national internet based network. so all of the words, you could have actually -- it almost ended that you could have given the doctor any competitor of athena health but not athena. >> thanks, cousin. so the book's called "where does it hurt." we still have a major problem in health care in this country. how do we fix it? >> what's exciting, i think, is we're finally at a time we can do a lot of different things than we've done before. it's just kind of we're ready to have the baby now. it's time to start. because the government is sort of shot its effort out and it's exhausted.
okay, what are we going to do now? don't do anything. please sit still. but the internet is there. it's possible now to exchange information. and so it's possible for doctors and hospitals and even entrepreneurs from outside health care to come in and start doing what health care lacks. which is product managing. taking the thing and saying i'm going to be responsible for everything that happens. you can go down to florida. you can get some community in florida that's completely empty all summer long because it's built for the snow birds. and say you fly down here, you can stay at the ritz which is empty. you can have the complete procedure in our empty hospital and we'll do it for half price. it's suddenly possible for that kind of deal to be arranged and marketed and sold. that's what's missing in health care most. health care hurts because it's not an expression of our humanity. it's also because it's expensive. but for all that money, you
can't trip out your health care and say look at my coverage. you can anywhere else. >> the manual has not gone there yet. >> speak for yourself. i use my health care to hit on women all the time. pull out my card. they love it. so how do we control prices? i mean, obviously skyrocketing prices are probably the biggest problem with health care. it'sen unusual market place where you accept what they give you. you don't shop around. i don't know how much that hip costs. i don't know if there's one that costs a quarter of that one. >> and there is. and if you found the cheap one, you wouldn't make money on it. so you shop. why would you? even if you could get the information, you can't get any money back. there's a section on lasik eye care versus mammograms. between 1991 and today, vision correction has gone down by over 70%. the price of it has gone down
and the quality and operation is amazing compared to 1991. all the things covered by third party payments have gone up almost the same amount for the exact same thing since 1991, because who cares. nobody can win. >> how do you change that? >> you give doctors, hospitals, the opportunity, entrepreneurs who aren't in health care to come in and say, hey, we will give you more patients. you will get more patients. not we will give you. health care is always so top this. we will do this for them. this is a a chance for them to say come hither with me and i will show you a new way of doing a hip, a lung, a pap smear, a routine screening. that's the thing this book is about. here's a playbook for you to get out there and package and market within the context. it doesn't require changing obamacare again. it's the opportunity to get in there and change. >> all right. jonathan, thank you so much.
>> it's a pleasure. >> we greatly appreciate it. the book is "where does it hurt?" . thanks again. i can't wait to read the book. >> he talks about his cousin, a real problem in his family is his brother billy bush. but that's a segment for a different day. >> that's several segments of a multi-part series. coming up, how syrian rebels pulled off this massive attack against president assad's army. and it looks like a war zone in san diego as a collection of wildfires are tearing through neighborhoods. two investigators have fresh clues about the arsonist. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.
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when it stays on, christian ronaldo. >> yeah? ♪ ♪ >> how's that feel? >> all right. nike is trying to take on adidas to become socker'sing aboutest
sponsor. with us to talk about and, oh, my god, loads of money, brendon greeley who writes this is what adidas has been doing for 66 years, paying athletes to wear its shoes, paying teams to wear its jersey and paying a league to use its ball. it seemed absurd at the time but, man, not absurd now. nike versus adidas, $25 billion in revenue for nike, $20 billion in revenue for adidas as far as sell stats go. >> adidas still has the j in soccer. if you look at last your's soccer revenue, adidas doesn't look to release its revenue in
no no non-world cup years. so adidas still has the edge and it's got a couple of assets that have been traditionally very important in soccer. one of them is they've always sponsored the world cup. so they just renewed the contract for $50 million per cycle until 2030. they still see it as valuable. what has been happening is the national leagues, the bundes league in germany, are much more important than it used to be. you can watch the premier league in the u.s. on plain old tv. >> you say nike is so good at advertising and event promotion,
it seems no other company is even playing the same game. how important is that to their success? >> i called both companies and said what -- this is what i'm doing, and adidas said, yes, come on over, and they showed me around. nike is now trying to convince us they've been in soccer forever. they're so good. they had ronaldo wander out in the flesh with his amazing hair and dribbled the ball for a
little bit and sat still for ament a ment to -- minute to answer questions. christiania ronaldo is a celebrity, he wears an earring and he trash talks. >> i think nike and i think running. >> it would break their heart to hear you say that. adidas has other brands they own. the one sport must indelibly associated with the brand is soccer. adidas still get the lions share of its sale in europe.
adidas needs soccer. nike wants it. >> i've been wearing stanz -- it's an amazing shoe. >> nike made a huge problem with liverpool. >> great cover article. >> and have fun. >> oh, i'll have fun. >> the reason why ronaldo is so good, willie? >> the "new york times" says there's nothing to see here when it comes to jill abramson's firing but the numbers suggest otherwise. now donald sterling said he isn't leaving without a fight and plans to hit back the nba.
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this is a serious scandal because rove's conjecture is based on solid facts. hillary clinton did go to the hospital after a concussion in 2012 and later exhibited strange behavior in her benghazi testimony. she had a mastery of the facts and unshakeable confidence all while wearing those stupid glasses. those things like orthopedic shoes for your face. you'd have to be brain damaged
to wear those. look at these pants from the 70s. girl, that is a traumatic fashion injury. >> good morning. it's 8 a.m. on the east coast, 5 a.m. on the west coast. willie, this is going to be amazing, "gone with the wind" type budget, southern belles walking around -- >> can i star in it? i've always wanted of those dresses. "gone with the confidence." >> we'll work on the title. >> we also have eugene washington and in washington, julie pace. it's a bit stunning. here's a little instagram shot.
>> by her daughter. >> it's just mind boggling how badly the "new york times" has conducted themselves in this. first of all, the firing and then the follow-up to the firing, offering statements that you would think a third-rate politician would offer only to get punctured by organizations like the times. did they not expect that their false and misleading statements wouldn't get blown out of the water by people like ken aletta? >> ken we had yesterday. he updated the post yesterday. part of the argument from the new york city is that it's simply not true that abramson was paid less than himself predecessor. ken found the numbers. it turns out as, it have editor her starting salary in 2011 was
$479,000 and keller's salary, $559,000. >> i'm not good with math but what is that? >> $85,000. >> $85,000 difference in the same job. >> in her previous job as managing editor she made $398,000, which was less than that of a male managing editor. >> in the newspaper hierarchy, the managing editor is running the news gathering operation and supervising reporters would be expected to make more. it's a more crucial job. obviously the other job is important, too. but poorly handled, i would say.
>> and then you go beyond, katty, the actual firing and the cause for the firing, the times puts out a statement from their fearless leader who says, well, her asking for more money had absolutely nothing to do with her being fired. and then ken aletta talks to the spokesperson for the times, spokeswoman for the times who at first argued there was no real compensation gap but then conceded that, quote, this incident was a contributing factor to the firing of abramson because it was part of a pattern, and that incident was jill finally giving up and having to hire a lawyer to go in and try to got equal pay at the "new york times." it's stunning that the times all day yesterday were telling everybody inside and outside of the newsroom that, oh, no, this had nothing to do with her being
fired, the fact that she came and actually asked to be paid the same as a man. and by last night ken aletta and the "new yorker," they finally admitted it was part of a pattern. their quote, not mine. it's a stunning story, stunning mismanagement. >> i think the times is going to feel a backlash. i wouldn't be surprised if women subscribers to the times aren't looking quite closely. there as a real sense that there's still an old boys culture at the "new york times" and they are stunned. and i had one new york city reporter woman saying to me she was very depressed by what had happened yesterday. so what the times has done is undermine their own reporters, undermined women in the organization and handled this
phenomenally badly. the brutality of the firing alone. >> how it was handled, the brutality of the firing, two guys sitting together, one guy not liking how a woman inside was treating him, he goes and complains, the other guy fires a lady who had to get a lawyer to try to get paid the same as the last person who had that position and had been underpaid the entire employment. and the times leadership put out statements that just weren't truthful. the "new york times" lied trying to cover up their own mess. >> saying that's not a factor and it is now acknowledged to be a factor. the times frankly was being very cute in arthur salzburger's statement about the total compensation. apparently one has to surmise
lumping in any bonus she might have gotten, any stock she might have gotten, which of course are all dependent on what kind of year the newspaper is having. i know at the "washington post" there were years where manager's bonuses were cut in half or didn't come at all because of lean years in the newspaper business. keller, her predecessor, was in that office through a lot of lean years. it's possible you could look at the figures and say her stock options eventually might have been worth more than his. but salary to salary -- >> they're being too clever. >> when she has to go hire a lawyer, gene, she has to hire a lawyer to try to get equal pay for the same position that her male counterpart had -- >> and when you talk about the way the firing was handled, you used the word brutality and i'm
afraid that's probably kind of right. the last time arthur salzberger had to fire someone, it was over plagiarism, he was given a sendoff in the newsroom and the staff got to applaud and recitation of his triumphs as executive editor. jill abramson was done none of that. the paper won eight pulitzer prizes under eight years of her -- >> she didn't want to be there either. >> but you could mention the fact that, hey, you know -- >> you could rightly ask how the "new york times" defends, now that we have the salary numbers. the spokesman for the "new york times" says you don't look at salary, you look at total
compensation, which includes bonuses, stock grants and other long-term incentives but you can't deny that the baseline salary was much less because it was. >> you do look at the salary. it's not like keller didn't have the opportunity. the paper wasn't doing as well for the bonuses. when jill got there, the paper started doing better, in large part because keller did some great work and set it on a strong path but it's not like they gave her -- >> there's also the issue the fact that character has been raised in the case of jill abramson. i can't think of a senior male executive that has been feared on grounds where character was part of the issue. they're not fired for being described as pushy or aggressive, which is what you want in the editor of the "new
york times" anyway. >> in an earlier story it said she demanded to know why certain stories competitors had were not in the "new york times." >> shocked. >> i never demanded that when i was an editor, i never asked my staff, i would never do such a thing. i wouldn't pound the wall or the table or anything. >> we would never do that. we sure wouldn't. okay, maybe we would. >> julie pace, i think it's stunning that the "times" says there's no real compensation gap but then again said that when a woman asked to get the same amount of money as her male counterpart for the same job, that a spokeswoman for the "new york times" would say, quote, this incident was a contributing factor because it was part of a pattern.
men kick down doors and demand raises every day. i've just -- i've never heard of any man being fired because he asked to be paid the same as a co-worker. >> the whole conversation is just so tough to even listen to as a younger woman in journalism. i look to people like jill, other women who have risen through the ranks, it's still a really small number. the combination of the numbers that we're seeing now on salary and as katty said, just the adjectives that are being used to describe her, and there are undertones that if they were being used toward a man, they would be a positive. i give credit to the reporters
of the "times" -- >> except for the fact they have a guy from another magazine scooping them. >> sure. they're getting information from people giving contradictory statements. when you look at the original statement, using language that is clearly very precise in order to put a more positive spin on these numbers. >> there's now a potential criminal component to the controversy surrounding the v.a. hospital in phoenix. federal prosecutors are looking into allegations the medical center kept a secret waiting list to cover up for long delays for veterans looking for care. those disclosures came from the inspector general following testimony yesterday by the department secretary, eric shinseki. shinseki, a four-star general was grilled by the senate veterans affair committee.
he told lawmakers he's as angry as anyone. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me as -- makes me mad as hell. koup use stro-- i could use str language here but in deference to the committee, i will not. >> do you believe that you're ultimately responsible for all this? >> i am. >> can you explain to me after knowing all this information why you should not resign? >> well, i tell you, senator, that i came here to make things better for veterans. i intend to continue this mission until i've satisfied either that goal or i'm told by the commander in chief that my time has been served. >> willie, he looked mad as hell
there. >> he didn't show the fire some people want to see. he's a four-star general, he served this country admirably. does he care about veterans? of course he does. but right now it's just not good enough. it's not clear to me that anyone, a new person, could fix the bureaucracy at the v.a. when we saw those pictures were stacks and stacks of paper that looks like an office from 40 years ago, there's not a system in place to process these claims. we have great doctors, great medical personnel who in many cases forewent other careers that could have made more money. they're doing the work, they just can't handle the sheer number of claims coming in and people are dying because of it. >> if you get into the system, there are some positive things said about the system once you're in it but it's the back log and the 19th century filing
problem, stacks and stacks. >> we've heard before of a few little corners of the federal government that still operate this way in this dekenzen system of clerks and paperwork. but the v.a. is a big thing with a vital and important mission and that it hasn't had more of a technological upgrade and that it didn't anticipate that when, forbes, we're going to have two simultaneous foreign wars, we're going to have a lot of veterans coming home, they're going to need a kind of medical treatment that frankly they wouldn't have needed in the past because a lot simply would have died in earlier wars but because of quicker sort of triage and better initial treatment they survived with traumatic brain injuries, with other kinds of problems that the v.a. needs to
handle. >> you're right. the actual system when you get into it is one of the most popular bits of the america health care system. people raise this irony of european socialism when it comes to american health care but this government-run part of the american health care system is one of the bits that people actually like had they manage to start getting into it. >> clippers owner donald sterling now plans to fight his punishment from the nba. and it's been 20 years since the landmark brown versus board of education system. you are not going to believe what state has the most segregated school system in america. it really -- it is stunning. this is not just withone of the times i try to hold you through the commercial. no, this is really stunning. you're not going to believe it. you probably wouldn't believe what's next either, bill karins'
forecast. >> now i'll have to stay tuned, too. today, interesting weather across the country. we're starting off with flash flooding in and around washington d.c., picked up about 2 to 4 inches of rain in a short period of time. the ran is tapering off, things are still -- look how green it looks out there. here's the radar. we had has much as 4 inches of rain in western d.c., 2 1/4 over reagan. it's amazing. d.c. gets nailed with a ton of ran, they have no delays, laguardia airport, there are showers around and it's an hour and a half delay. 15 minutes at logan. as far as the middle of the country goes, it's chilly, it's cold. we had a frost this morning in kansas city. on the radar this morning in
northern illinois and i've seen a couple of pictures on social media, it is snowing in northern illinois this morning, right around dekalb. it's not sticking but seeing snowflakes in the little of may is a little ridiculous. at one point in san diego we had nine fires burning at the same time in southern cal. it was 102 yesterday in downtown l.a. finally the weather is going to break and give the firefighters a break, too. the winds will die down and temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees cooler today. no problems at all today in the middle of the country after warming it up. heavy rain moving through the east. saturday morning heavy rain for you in boston, that will clear up into maine as we go through the day. finally averaging out. the extremes will be over with and we're exactly where we should be across the country. more "morning joe" when we come
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even a queen size sealy gel memory foam mattress for just $497. the memorial day sale is ending soon. ♪ mattress discounters ♪ ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." let's check out some of the morning papers. the wall street journal, growing concerns that syria is hiding stock piles of chemical weapons and using chlorine gas on opposition targets. secretary kerry says he's seen evidence, though not verified, that chemical attacks continue. meanwhile new videos show rebels setting off a massive bomb under
a military base. 60 tons of explosives were detonated inside a tunnel which fighters had been digging for months. >> are we meant to take action if they use chemical weapons again? the red line? remember? >> and employees of ukraine's richest man are supporting the effort, he fears an economic slowdown if the region loses its trading ties with europe. >> "the "detroit free press" general motors is issuing a new recall for 2.7 million vehicles. the company continues to respond to the ignition switch default. >> and from "usa today," hundreds of fast food works are across 30 countries walked off the job yesterday in a call for
higher wages. they're asking for a raise to $15 an hour and the ability to unionize without retaliation. at least 17 chains in the $200 billion fast food industry have been targeted in the protest, including mcdonald's, burger king and wendy's. >> the summer air travel forecast at its highest level in six years. airlines for america anticipates 210 million passengers will fly between june 1st and august 31st, the highest level since before the recession in 2007. more than 30 million passengers are expected to travel internationally. >> and no upgrades in the airports, which means chaos. >> and donald sterling plans to ignore the nba's sanctions and sue the league. his lawyer says he has not violated any part of the constitution writing to the league "no punishment is warranted" and that sterling's
due process rights have been violates and states that sterling has no intention of paying the $2.5 million fine. >> and in "parade", how to prepare from summer outdoor cooking, straight from his new cookbook "guy on fire." john harris, good to see you. >> i skidded out to see you this morning with monsoons down in washington. >> is it really bad there right now? >> it is bad. >> gene, you made the right call coming up here. there is a tight race in arizona for the seat one held by gabby giffords, both candidates trying to make the contest about the former congresswoman's legacy. how does that shake out? >> the incumbent, the democrat, ron barber used to work for gabby giffords and like her was
shot and nearly killed in that incident in 2011. at least for the first time he ran, he established a powerful bond with voters. it's a tough district for democrats. romney won this district. the emotional bond is whack i don't know -- weakening with the passing of time. his opponent is saying she's more in keeping with giffords, tough, independent-minded women. >> martha mcsally, she's an air force fighter pilot and viewed by a lot of people as a rising star in the republican party. >> no question about it. she ran a close rate in 2012 and we wonder with the passage of time, whether she has the upper hand this time in 2014. >> politico's john harris.
thanks. coming up, america's largest cities still have a magician u wh -- major issue when it comes to school segregation. keep it on "morning joe," we'll right back. ♪ ecstasy is all you need, now, you're so vain ♪ at his current pace,
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16 years ago tomorrow the supreme court ruled in brown versus board of education that separate schools for black and white students were inherently unequal. it is a ruling that changed market. with us to talk about it from washington, educationduncan. >> good morning. >> and education commissioner john king. let's start with you, john. we've got the secretary of education and that's big stuff but we have to set this up. >> sadly new york state is the most segregated state not just racially by economically as well. what is equally troubling is that the academic results are incredibly unequal.
86% of our white students graduated from high school, just 58% of our black and latino students graduated from high school. >> if this were a trivial pursuit question or "jeopardy" question, you people would have -- >> the figure when i was growing up was 100% in south carolina. the form are black high school and former high school were combined in south carolina. some white students decamped to an education academy that was all white, but that's not even all white anymore. i think there's a secondary academy that seems to be mostly white, but i would say the schools in my hometown are a lot more integrated right now than
those in new york state, which is amazing. >> arnie duncan, it is amazing, growing up in mississippi, georgia, gene in south carolina, to hear 60 years later that new york state is so segregated and gene is guessing states like illinois are probably still segregated as well. why? what do we do about it? >> school integration and lack of integration reflects housing pa patterns. and when we do live close to each other, the schools reflect that. we believe education is the civil rights issue of our generation, we have to get better rules. things have gotten better, high school graduation rates are at an all-time high but we have so far to go and we have to
continue to work with a tremendous sense of urgency to level the playing field for all of our children. >> what can you do to lower the number of segregated students in new york state? >> well, again, i think housing patterns reflect school education or lack thereof. that's a difficult one. we have to work to equalize educational opportunity. within of the things at the top of the president's agenda and mine is to increase access to high-quality, early learning opportunities. if we do that, we level the playing field for our children. if we don't do that, we have far too many children entering kindergarten a year to year and a half behind and we don't always do a great job of catching them up. >> we hear about early learning opportunities from the secretary. what do you say to the push back you've gotten in new york to common core. there are many teacher unions pushing back to what it means to
their livelihoods and what it man means to the students they're trying to educate. it's essential for our students. if they're not prepared, they're told welcome to college but you need to go down the hall to high school class for a remedial class for which you and your family are going to pay college prices and think get discouraged. it's not just about the test. it's about the standards and
many of the standards can't be measured on the standardized test. tests are just a part of the educational process. they've been around and will always be around. we want teachers focused on the standards. >> arnie, in closing shouldn't we also talk about school choice, giving more parents in new york state something that you've talked about and something you did in illinois the choice the let their children go to whatever schools they want to go to. >> we absolutely need high standards so young people aren't graduating at john said, trying to take remedial classes. we need real accountability. we can never duck accountab accountableability. traditional schools are doing great job, we need to replicate
them. charter schools are doing a great job, we need to learn from them and replicate them. we need to make every school a school parents will want to send their kids to. >> would you agree racially diverse schools are good to prepare students for living in the united states and therefore it's a goal the administration ought to work toward? >> absolutely. i was lucky enough to grow up in a diverse neighborhood, went to a diverse school. there's no way i could be doing what i'm doing had i not had that opportunity. the president grew up in a multi-cultural environment in hawaii. if our children have all the academic skills but lack the comfort of people who are different than them, i think we do them a real disservice. whatever we can do to bring children together, to learn from one another, to make
friendships, that's the world we're going to live in. as we go forward next school year for the first time ever, our nation's public schools are going to be a majority minority. it's a seminal moment. we have to get better together. >> secretary of education arnie duncan and john king, thank you very much. appreciate it. still to come, failure to recall. >> and the car just lost power. it shut off. there was no power to the steering, i couldn't accelerate, no breaks, nothing. >> faulty ignition switches. what did they know and when did they know it and what did it man for those who have the cars? we asked people a question,
how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ [ male announcer ] out here,
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from brakes to the wiring, which follows the major issue with the ignition defect. we have an investigation into that rrl. take a look. >> jake fisher, director of auto testing at the nonprofit consumer reports is showing us why 2.6 million gm cars are being recalled. >> how easy is it going to be for me to accidentally turn off the ignition and put it in accessory. >> depends how much is hanging on the key ring. >> after tugging on the key chain -- the power steering is gone. i did it but it's not that easy. >> how much effort did you have to use in the steering wheel to get around that? >> quite a bit. >> the flaw in the ignition system makes it possible to turn the key off accidentally. on the road it can lead to an
anxious moment, sudden surprise, or worse. >> phil lebeau joins us now. obviously this has been devastating for those gm owners who lost family members behind the wheel. now the issue with gm seems to be compounded more and more with the recalls and ceo mary barre is fending off lawsuits left and right. >> are there other issues or were we not as vigilant with recalls as possible. when you have nhtsa breathing down your throat and back, that's what's going to happen. >> when it comes to mary barra and her leadership, we know she's been at gm a very long time. she can say this is due to prior management but she was there. she was in the culture of gm at that time. how do they may have this away? >> they're very clear.
she has said she did not have direct knowledge of this particular situation with the ignition switch. there's no indication that she did have prior knowledge. you bring up a different question, which is she was part of the culture of general motors, being someone who has been at the company for 30 years, can she change the company, make it more responsive to put customer attention and safety the priority. that's a good question. it's too early to know for sure. she has been extremely vigilant in terms of say hing who may ha had some knowledge about this. we're still waiting for the results of their investigation and we should have that in a couple of weeks. >> you can see the documentary "failure to recall" on sunday evening. >> i wish we could have all asked him question but alex is screaming in all our ears.
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♪ >> it is 8:50 in the morning. the goldman sachs 10,000 women program is a $100 million global
investment that provides women entrepreneurs the skills they need to grow their own businesses. the woman behind this ground breaking initiative is dena powell. mika sat down with her recently to find out the keys to learning your value. >> i am running the investment group that has invested offver billion in underdeveloped areas in the country. >> you're in charge of figuring out how to invest so much money and how to grow people and help people find their worth. what do you find more interesting about this job? >> i think the people themselves and the passion, the commitment. i think particularly the women, though. i think they are role models for me because they don't allow themselves to have the doubt, honestly, that i think many of us have. i don't think they have time. they do not sit around and
second guess themselves because they can't. they have too many people relying on them. it's inspiring to me. >> is there something rewarding about helping a woman understand what she can do with money? >> absolutely. too many to tell you but carmen rodriguez, who owns brooklyn cupcakes, a store she started after the downturn when she lost everything and her mom and sisters cashed in their life savings and 401(k)s and said she can do it. today she is in whole foods and growing. she is opening another store. to see her, she's like a totally different person. she is so confident and so proud of what she has been able to achieve. she's a business woman. >> i have chills. >> aw. >> the stories are good. >> they're real. you know, the stories are real. i think the good and the bad. carmen had lots of challenges along the way and will continue to have challenges. and i think that's part of the debate that you have put out
there, which is knowing your value. i think sometimes knowing your value is also being honest, that it doesn't always look pretty and it isn't always going to be perfect but it's real. >> have you always been ambitious? >> yes, i think i have but honestly i think because of the immigrant story. my parents immigrated when i was 4 years old from cairo, egypt. i didn't speak english. i had to be thrust into a very different environment in dallas, texas. >> you had to make it work. >> that makes you have to get your act together. >> you've done very well in your life. you are now at the top of your game at goldman sachs, don't cringe, don't worry, i'm not going to make you feel like you have to sell yourself. i think, though, what's interesting about your approach to your job, and tell me if i'm wrong, is that you immediately deflect to the amazing people around you or to the amazing people that you've discovered. you find more joy in that than in your own success or -- >> i think that's the definition of success is how have you used your success to make an impact
on others' lives. >> that might be the female definition of success. >> it's my definition, and i mean it genuinely. >> what do you think is the difference between your approach and the men who work here? >> i don't know if there's a difference but i think there's something that men are luckier about. basically women sit around and beat themselves up about something they could have done. so this group of female partners that gathered, we told a horrible story about how we'd done great in a meet organize achieved a big goal we wanted to that was beneficial to the firm and then the one mistake we made is what we thought about for the rest of the day or the rest of the week. >> it's unbelievable how we do that. >> i don't know how to fix that. >> i don't think our daughters will do it that much. i think there's a sea change happening in our generation and that is that we're going to help each other. i didn't see that when i was starting out.
>> when women are part of the economy, gdp around the globe grows, jobs are created and those are real numbers. what has been a tough period of time in our country and the global financial system, that makes a big difference. you notice that secretary clinton and before her secretary rice stopped talking about how empowering women was the right thing to do and started talking about how it was the smart thing to do. >> dina powell speaking to mika earlier. >> that was great. look at this. this is a big day, katty. >> and it's the know your value women's conference in hartford, connecticut. i wish i could be there. >> i'm headed up there right after the show. i'll really excited about it. i'm going to dress up, katty. >> i wouldn't turn up to a conference of mika's dressed like you are.
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♪ welcome back, kids. it's time to talk about what we learned today. katty, what do you learn? >> i learned sometimes on the show people dress very smartly. >> oh, my god. this is all about joe. i'm so embarrassed. i don't want things to be about me. finish your insult, you don't like -- >> i was going to say gene is a very dapper dresser and on friday the purple tie looks very good. >> you've been ragging on my st.
louis cardinal sweat shirt all day. >> and why would she do that? >> why would she? i almost combed my hair today. >> i'm invisible to katty. that's what i learned today. she looks right through me. it's like i'm not here. >> i learned that great communications companies are often really lousy at communicating what's going on inside. >> when it's way too early, "morning joe." stick around, chuck todd straight ahead with "the daily rundown." may mayhem, less than 100 hours now before the biggest primary day coast to coast for the 2014 mid terms. find out why some folks are pulling away in fights we expected to be tighter. meantime, must see today footage from idaho's fight on the right for governor. the rent is too damn high