0 you're hearing? >> well, alex, house democrats face a monumental task in order to make nancy pelosi speaker again. they have to win 17 seats, which is a difficult thing to do. in order to do that, they are trying to figure out what can sort of be the silver bullet, the issue to get them those 17. joe biden made a good point today, he said november is three political lifetimes from now, but the issue they want to focus on are the following three, income inequality, which they believe is a defining issue to get a lot of people to the polls, also a federal minimum wage hike, and imgrmigration reform. you're going to see a big push on minimum wage. immigration reform is going to come more from outside groups that have the money that are waiting to move forward on this issue, but haven't done so because they thought there would be a chance for a bipartisan compromise. however, however you slice it and dice it, if you look at the political map, getting those 17 seats is very, very difficult and they have to have a perfect the republican caucus in terms of the politics in the caucus and john boehner's tenure as speaker of the house, obviously, there were plenty of republicans who were not happy about how that went down. at the same time, you have those establishment republicans who recognize they couldn't afford to go through another shutdown, another drama. that does give, though, democrats the opportunity to sort of take that off the table. i think that's why they are coming out bold with this discharge position concept on the minimum wage. i think it's also why they are going to push very hard on these women's issues, because they need to get women voters, particularly if you look at the virginia race where terry mcauliffe won, women made the difference. i'll say that again, women made the difference. i feel like, you know. so issues that appeal to women, that's why you're hearing about equal pay and some of these family medical leave issues. those are the issues they are hoping will help make the difference, and particularly in some of those key districts where it's going to be really tough to pull it out. >> can i get, though, your sense of the establishment republicans versus the, i guess we'll call them the tea partiers and more right wingers. which one has more power right now, overall more influence? >> i think that's what we're going to see play out in the primaries, because i think what we don't know, necessarily, certainly, i don't think john boehner would have done what he did if he didn't feel that he had the support of, like, the chamber of commerce and sort of that establishment part of the party. at the same time, you've got freedom works and other groups saying, hey, we're raising a lot of money and we're going to spend that money in primaries to take on republicans who we think aren't on our agenda. as we see the primaries play themselves out, we're going to see exactly who's going to be able to spend that money wisely in terms of turnout, in terms of affecting who ends up being the republican nominee. >> the president just finished speaking. let's listen to what he said just a few moments ago. >> the fact that we were able to pass a clean debt limit is just one example of why when you guys are unified, you guys stick together, this country is better off, and i could not be more thankful and more appreciative and prouder of what you're doing. >> in part the reason he's so thankful and appreciative, look at his own popularity rating, down in the low 40s. overall, how does that play out come november? >> it's important he's agreed to do so many fundraisers, because in 2010 he didn't, and one of the criticisms was the white house didn't engage as vigorously as they would have liked, so the fact the president is out there very verbally and traveling and being very vocal about his intention to do a lot is going to be huge. the question will be, as this year plays itself out, are democrats able to make the contrast, will those numbers go up, will his numbers go up, and will he be an asset. remember, he told the senate retreat that it was okay if he didn't want him to come campaign with them. so it's going to be better for candidates if his numbers are strong. into former player jonathan martin's allegations of bullying, ritchie incognito, they engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only jonathan martin, but other young players, as well, also an assistant trainer is involved here. the report is the assistant trainer is the object of racial slurs, the other player was subjected to homophobic name calling, improper physical touching. let's speak to nbc's kyra sanders. >> you do point out one of the key things here, and remember, this all began when jonathan martin, a big offensive lineman in his second year with the dolphins, who actually left training camp and said through his representatives at the time that he was tired of the bullying. that launched this investigation. an independent investigation, not sanctioned by the dolphins, but rather by the nfl themselves. ted wells, the attorney, began this investigation shortly after the departure from dolphins camp in october, and pretty near the top of his report, repeating sort of what you said. he said, "we conclude that three starters on the dolphins' offensive line, richie incognito, jerry -- john jerry, and mike pouncey, engaged in a pattern of harassment directed not only at martin, but also at another young dolphins offensive lineman who they refer to as player a., and a member of the training staff, who is referred to as an assistant trainer." now, as i read further down in the report, i have a quote here that we can put up on the screen and it gives you sort of a little sense of the tenure of what was being said, apparently back and forth, some rather offensive language, which was a pattern here. the portion of the report that i've read says that, it is a given that there is language that in professional sports, this is exchanged back and forth, but as you can see from this quote here, if we're going to be able to pull it up -- okay. apparently we don't have that quote, so here we go. "the evidence supports a finding that incognitincognito, jerry p persistently made graphic, sexually explicit comments about martin's sister, a medical student with whom they had never met." this would really bother martin, it cannot be repeated on television. it is extremely graphic, very aggressive, and it bothered him. now, one of the questions initially asked during this investigation about bullying in a football team, people saw how big that, you know, martin was, and they were like, it doesn't make sense, why didn't he just stand up for himself? a lot of people thought, why didn't he physically engage incognito. that's addressed in the report, as well. the quote here in the report that was put together by ted wells, it says here, as we look at it -- "we will never know whether a stronger reaction by martin would have stopped his teammates' behavior or exacerbated it, but martin told us that he did not view a physical response as a viable option." in fact, he feared that if, indeed, he engaged in a physical response, according to the report, it might have actually made things worse, because they enjoyed the taunting. again, this is 148 pages. i have not finished reading the report, but the portions i have read, those are the portions that we can actually share with you because of the graphic nature of some of the comments in here. a very thorough report that includes, among other things, according to the report, that richie incognito kept a book, and in that book, they apparently kept notes back and forth of each other. when this investigation began, ted wells, the investigator, says that richie incognito texted another member of the team and said, destroy that book. we have to get rid of that evidence. ted wells said, that book was never destroyed, he had it, he read it, and he included it in this report. >> extraordinary, 148 pages. interesting also on the heels of these tweets put out by incognito sort of pleading his case and going after jonathan martin earlier this week. let me also just, kerry, thank you, we do have a statement, and this is from the miami dolphins and it officially reads as this, "as an organization, we are committed to a culture of team-first accountability and respect for one another." we will see how they react to all this. just ahead, everyone, a virginia judge has ruled the state ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. we're going to talk to the president of g. l.a. d. on this latest move. and the crippling snow and new car replacement, standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at... today. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? that talks about protecting, even after eating and drinking. crest pro-health has always done that. and addresses all these other areas as well. take your oral health to a new level. i am not gonna stop using pro-health. 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